Ah, the Good Old Days -- 3 Acheson Creations Medieval Buildings

    3 Acheson Creations Medieval/Dark Age huts picked up on sale at Drums at the Rapids 2024

When I first began to make the switch from 15mm to 28mm wargaming, Acheson Creations were the first buildings I bought. I picked up quite a few for both the Medieval and American Frontier periods. They were a great introduction to buying and painting 28mm terrain, mostly buildings. They were easy to prepare, paint, and flock. Their deep grooved detail made it easy to simply base coat, wet brush, then dry brush -- and voila! Your terrain piece was ready for the tabletop. I was very disappointed when they scaled back production as Craig Acheson went into semi-retirement.

    The two bigger huts -- SO easy to prepare and paint up-- and one of my 28mm Dark Ages villagers

At Drums at the Rapids 2024, a regional distributor of their products was also stepping back from attending gaming shows and selling his stock at 50% off. In addition to a number of other items, I picked up three of the thatch-roofed Medieval buildings produced by Acheson Creations. I had all but forgotten about them in the intervening months since last May. Luckily, last year I created a note on my iPhone that documents all terrain and scatter I have that is unpainted or unassembled. I saw these three buildings and immediately added them to my Short List which sits on my desktop to help me remember what I planned to do next.

    The smaller of the three medieval huts -- I like the stonework lining the bottom of the walls

One drawback to Acheson products if you are unaware, though, is that the mold release agent is very powerful and lingering. Long ago, my friend Jason -- He of the Great Suggestions -- told me about his trick of running them through the dishwasher machine. Next, I spray them with Krylon Fusion Acrylic Matte Black paint. This is followed up, as usual, by brushing on a 50/50 mix of black acrylic craft paint and water (which I keep remixed in a plastic bottle on my painting desk) to get into all the recesses. Once dry, the item is ready to be painted.

    Acheson buildings often don't have a way to keep roofs on - my solution is pieces of black foamboard

The buildings come in two pieces, roof and the main body. Another drawback to some Acheson products is there are no "tabs" or ways to keep the roof from sliding off. I have tried various things over the years, such as magnets. However, I find the best method is to take some stiff black foam board and glue to the underside of the roof with epoxy. This keeps the roof from sliding and is hidden from the eye when the roof is placed on top of the building proper. For one of these three, I tried a new experiment, gluing bamboo skewers into the inside corners of the bottom half of the building. I gouged out some material from the underside of the roof where the skewers would line up. In the end, I probably should have done the foam board on all three. Historically, I prefer this method and think it is the least fiddly -- no worries about lining up the skewers and holes.

    Although intended as Medieval/Dark Ages huts, they can be used for a variety of periods

All three buildings were painted identically, and are intended to add to my Anglo-Saxon village for my Viking Raid scenario I will be running this year at conventions. The bottom half received a base coat of "Maple Sugar" craft paint, a first dry brush of tan, and a second highlighting of white. The wooden corners, as well as the window and door wooden pieces were done in dark brown with a Howard Hues Camo Brown wet brush and finally a tan drybrush. I went back and read some early entries to my blog to remember how I did thatch for my Acheson buildings. After the black prime, I did a wet brush of Camo Brown, dry brush of Iron Wind Metals Dun, and very highlight of light gray. Both the bottom half and roof half each also received black vehicle wash.

   The two larger buildings without their roofs - I really like the muddy look my color combination gave

I really like how the walls look -- very muddy -- what you'd expect from a Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon village. Or, at least what I would expect...ha, ha! The thatch looks nice, too, I feel -- not too bright and not too gray. I realize my thatch is likely very new looking compared to what it looks like after its aged a few years. However, I feel it looks more like what we expect thatch to look like. Just like how we make wood more brown on the wargames table than the very grayish color old wood looks. It conforms to our expectations and having more color says, "wood" to us -- or in this case, "thatch."

    A look from above at the thatching -- Acheson buildings have great, deeply grooved detail

I flock the bases in my usual way, as well, and was done with these three pieces much more quickly than the one very small building that you will hopefully see in the next post. Then again, that has always been something I love about buildings from Acheson Creations. They are soooo darned easy to get ready for the tabletop! So, what's next? That mystery small building (or is more like a market stand?) that I alluded to is almost finished, as well. At the same time, I am working on a half dozen Dark Ages warriors to be available for players to choose for their characters in my upcoming semi-historical take on Sellswords & Spellslingers. More on those soon...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 3

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1