I wanted some buildings for my 25/28mm Great Italian Wars battles but nearly fell over when I saw the price of decent resin buildings in that scale so...

I resorted to scratchbuilding. I should have photographed the stages but I didn't think of sharing the idea until recently - these two, a farmhouse and a romanesque church,  have seen considerable mayhem over the last couple of years and so far have withstood it fairly well. I think they would soon show wear and tear if not carefully handled  however.

They are built out of foam core card to the basic shape then covered in air cure modelling paste - 'Jovi' in this case. First I lightly sanded the foam core to ensure a good 'key' for the paste to adhere to. I smeared and flattened the paste over the walls in manageable stages and then shaped it.

The paste can be sculpted/scored whilst wet and features like stonework, tiles, lintels, doors etc shaped in.

Each stage - usually a wall - is left to harden overnight and then the next stage worked on. When it has all hardened  - I left it a couple of days after the last section was done, it can be painted, in this case using acrylics and then gloss and matt varnished.