The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Final Part

Finally done, even down to the carving on the picket fence. As previously mentioned, the window frames have been intentionally left a darker colour, as per the early images I have posted. Like most things, it took longer than I anticipated, but I am pleased with the results.



Lessons learnt?:

• I will be buying moulded plasticard for tiles, bricks, boarding etc. Life is too short.

• Complete roof separately and affix at end, allowing access to the interior so any mishaps with windows etc can be sorted out easily.
• Research is vital. There's not much point in taking time making something that's not historically accurate. The Gardner images were a perfect starting point, and the Library of Congress architectural drawings were a Godsend. These, together with my own photos, images from various websites & books such as Early Photography at Gettysburg by William Frassanito gave me more than enough material to work with. It's fair to say at some point conjecture and informed guesses will be required, but the more research; less guesswork.
  
• Use cheap paints for terrain. I used large pots of cheap acylic (Inscribe pots picked up for 50p, and old Citadel paints that were near the end of their useful lives) to cover big areas. I was surprised how much paint got used. Conversely, use a quality wood glue!
  
• Put it together using masking tape to make sure it all fits before you glue it. Bulldog clips make excellent clamps for gluing wood joints.

The next building will be the Bryan House. Again, I have all the wetplate images, drawings & photos. The Bryan House is pretty similar to the Leister House, so much so that Brady mistakenly took photographs of the Bryan residence whilst trying to capture Meade's HQ in 1863. Strangely enough, I saw an ebay auction for 'Meade's HQ' last week; guess what? It was a model of the Bryan House!