"enhancing" the MDF

Now being what might be described as a ‘veteran wargamer’ I still carry the old thinking that one has no other option than to scratch-build most or all of the required terrain for the painted toy soldiers to play within as we had to do decades ago.  But the proliferation of MDF building packs has eliminated the requirement to start making model buildings from the framing onward.  Heck most MDF models are even ‘pre-painted’ allowing the wargamer to quickly build and simply place on the table, yet  some are still very basic indeed.  I found a pack of these during the local hobby store’s sales and while still expensive compared to what you get I still purchased deciding I could enhance these.

the pictures at least do not cover up the fact these are VERY basic indeed.....

Now when I say basic, it is very basic and the purchaser must do much to make it even look the part.  The door is just a laser cut of the wall as are the windows.  The frames of those do have some nice decoration (most incongruent given the simplistic bareness of the model).
That being said, it IS an empty canvas as the saying goes, and so I could pencil on the outlines of the support beams and make it look like the ‘pimped-up’ 4Ground Tutor style building I created recently as can be seen in the first photo.

Here is the before and after shots:

the very basic building, before....

....and after 

I included railroad plastic windows, rearranged the door to be shifted back into the model and gave it a thin card (cereal box) tiled roof.  The woodwork and cracked lines are merely painted on.
So really, it is mostly scratch-build with only the MDF forming a sturdy and squared frame to utilize.

Using the experience from the first of the two identical models in the package, with the second I have drawn a different pattern of support beams and will probably put a thatch roof to vary the look.

I'll probably end up with a whole town of these MDF buildings


An aside:
Heard a conversation at the club.  The one member asked the other "Why don't more members go to the Annual General Meeting?"  "Probably", suggests the other, "they don't want to risk the chance they might be elected to the Board."