The chickens had a window. And heat and air-conditioning as well.
The smallest structure on the farm was this sturdy little building at the end of a row of three similar sheds. While two were quite spartan, with a simple door and no heat or light, this building had been fitted with a small stove (see what remains of the chimney) and wires and a light fixture still hung from the rafters. An extra boxy framework on the inside probably contributed to it’s generally ‘straight up’ condition. Just visible on the side is a hatch that opened to let the cool are in during the hottest days of summer. The opposing hatch is in the midst of falling off on the front.
The chicken coop wasn’t my real focus here though. My goal was to emphasize the land and the sky and the places where they meet. This is a real tough place to model. It’s far tougher than building rock faces and majestic peeks despite all the pages the later gleans from the modelling ‘how to’ press. Truth be told, the authors just never figured out a good way to do it.
My own best effort was to paint a dark, stormy sky that was deep gray and foreboding at the horizon while keeping the overhead light strong and clean in the foreground. This de-emphasized the long sharp edge and actually pushed it away while highlighting the gold and green at you feet. A few small trees and bushes in the distance and in the middle ground can gives sense of scale and add to the feeling of space. Abandoned machinery provides a sense of place and time.
Of course there’s no room for trains in this picture so what’s a modeller to do?