Building some Swedish houses

Here are some pictures of how I built some Houses for my Finnish War project as well as my Medieval settings, at least the gray one that you have seen in a Baltic Crusade AAR.

The red house are bases on the numerous "Soldattorp" in english I think it would be "Soldierscottage". The Soldierscottage was where the Swedish soldiers and their familys lived in peace time.

The allotment system (Swedish: indelningsverket; Finnish: ruotujakolaitos) was a system used in Sweden for keeping a trained army at all times. This system came into use in around 1640, and was replaced in the early 1900s by the Swedish Armed Forces conscription system. The soldiers who were part of these systems were known as "tenement soldiers" (indelta soldater, the Swedish term, does not have the same meaning) due to the small tenements or crofts allotted to them. You can read more about the Swdish allotment system here.

Back to the building of the houses, I used a very nice house kit from Pegasus Hobbies "Russian Log Houses"

The Box contained 2 identical houses, the scale are 1/72 but I think they work fine for 28mm to.

I cut down the side walls on both houses so I would get a  less pointy roof and on the one that  also would be used for my medieval projects I filled one window and used the sides without windows as Swedish medieval houses just had few small, if any, "windows". 

PVA glue and a terry cloth towel to make the grass roof.

Medieval house to the left and the 19th century house to the right, ready for soem painting.

The Medieval house was painted gray as untreated logs turn gray by time. The 19th century house got the typical swedish deep red paint with white bargeboards.

About the Falu Red paint

Falu red or Falun red (pronounced "FAH-loo", in Swedish Falu rödfärg (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈfɑːlɵ ˈrøːfærj])) is the name of a Swedish, deep red paint well known for its use on wooden cottages and barns.

The paint originated from the copper mine at Falun in Dalarna, Sweden. The traditional colour remains popular today due to its effectiveness in preserving wood. In Finland, it is known as punamulta ("red earth") after the pigment, very finely divided hematite. Since the binder is starch, the paint is permeable to water.

The earliest evidence of its use dates from the 16th century. During the 17th century Falu red was commonly used on smaller wooden mansions, where it was intended to imitate buildings with brick facing. Except in bigger cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg, and in the far south of Sweden, wood was the dominating building material.

In the Swedish cities and towns, buildings were often painted with Falu red until the early 19th century, when the authorities began to oppose use of the paint. At that point in time more and more wooden buildings in urban areas were either painted in lighter colours (e.g. yellow, white) or sided with stucco. The number of buildings made of bricks (with stucco) also increased.

However Falu red saw a surge in popularity in the countryside during the 19th century, when also poorer farmers and crofters began to paint their houses. Falu red is still widely used in the Swedish countryside. The common Finnish expression punainen tupa ja perunamaa "a red house and a potato field", referring to idyllic nuclear family life in a separate house, is a direct allusion to a country house painted in Falu red.

Falu red during manufacturing

The actual colour may be different depending on how much the oxide is burnt, ranging from almost black to a bright, light red. Different tones of red have been popular at different times. Recently a mix giving a dark green colour, Falu Grön, has also been produced by mixing black and ochre.

The paint consists of water, rye flour, linseed oil and tailings from the copper mines of Falun which contain silicates iron oxides, copper compounds and zinc. The current recipe was finalized in the 1920s. Aging Falu red will flake off, but restoration is easy since only brushing off of the loose flakes is required before repainting.

A traditional Finnish falu red log house in Äänekoski, Central Finland

Traditional Swedish houses in the countryside, painted with Falu red paint.