Model Cottage for 15 mm

I've been thinking recently that a few simple buildings that could be assembled into a small village for Seven Years War games or any period for that matter would be nice. Up until this point all we have had in this department for our games were some random old Warhammer and Mordheim card buildings which are actually pretty neat, but a tad too big for 15 mm and a little cheesy looking if you really want to get down to brass tacks. After searching the web I realized that anything decent besides some paper terrain was going to cost a fair penny, and I am all about cheap so I decided to see what I could do with what I have.

Unfortunately I didn't think to photograph any of the beginning stages of the construction; but, I started with an empty box of dog treats that I cut along the vertical seam to get a nice sheet of relatively thin cardboard. I drew out my four sided wall design as if it was unrolled onto the cardboard. Pretty standard paper terrain stuff. Next I folded the walls and glued on my seam. I used hot glue and secured the folded and glued walls down to the base (also of cardboard). Ideally here I should have planned out what I wanted to do for the wooden exposed framework on the exterior, measure and cut the pieces, and then glue on all of the vertical posts before the plaster work. Instead I crashed right into the plaster thinking that I would have time to do the woodwork and press it into the plaster as I went. This wasn't the case. I ended up having to remove the dried plaster where my beams would go and on one of the corner posts. It would be a lot easier to put the vertical pieces on first, plaster, and then put on the horizontal beams like along the roof line and door header while the stuff is still wet.

The wall sections turned out good. I've included a pic with an Old Glory Austrian fusilier for a scale comparison. It is actually a pretty damned big house for your run o' the mill peasant hovel I think, but really I have no idea. Dont be put off by the door, it's cow and wheelchair accessible. But seriously I made it a little too wide. I just jumped into this with no real knowledge of particular regional historic building styles, I had hoped for something of a Central-Eastern European look but this looks pretty generic to me. If anybody knows where to find such information I would appreciate the advice. I intend to shingle the roof with some 1/2 cm card shingles that I made, and give the whole thing a good painting. I'll do another update when it's finished. Also Regt. Puebla is nearly finished and next its on to grenadiers. I'll post some pictures of them as soon as they're done.
Thanks, Happy Wargaming.