New Project: 10mm French Medieval City Walls / Castle

[petercooman]

Nice!!

[Techno]

 
Cheers - Phil.

[nikharwood]

Looking good, Craig 

[TinyTerrain]

Hi,

Having not provided an update on my 14th C Walled Town / Castle Project since the start of May I thought I should provide a little more info on what progress has been made in the last week or 2. Whilst I was busy painting my English and French troops I put the modelling to one side, but having been on holiday for the last fortnight and had the opportunity to visit both Nunney and Goodrich Castles my appetite has been wetted for getting the project completed.

As you may recall the aim of this project is to produce a set of free standing terrain pieces that could be used as either a French bastide (walled town) or castle dependent on what centre pieces are added. My secondary aim was to porduce something that would allow both the town or castle to be used in "open" form, where the walls stretch across the table, or in "closed" form, to create a stand alone fortified structure.

I decided that first priority should be to complete the walls and towers as they are used in both and to that end all have been painted, with just the roofs and the buidlings on the insides of the walls to finish. I am pleased to say the roofs are a quick 30 minute job as I have found some grey wallpaper that once dry brushed has a close enough resemblance to slate tiles to work in 10mm. The internal buildings will be a mix of half-timbered and wooden structures so again completetion should be pretty quick as its mainly a paint job.

I ve opted to complete the castle first, so have produced 2 extra short walls which allows for a barbican be created to the front of the castle, with the intenion of a internal guard house and keep being added to complete the "closed" form. Both the guard house and keep will be square with crenallated tops, which were common even in castles with rounded external towers. As you can see from the photos below it will be quite an imposing castle once on the table:


The half-built guard house (behind the barbican), and brown paper square showing the rough location of the keep.

By luck, a side benefit of making the 2 extra short walls I also now have the option of not having an open barbican but a fortified passage from the main gate to the guard house if the scenario requires it:


This will be a bitch to storm!

To give you a sense of how versatile (and large) this set up can be, heres a new photo showing the castle without the guard house or barbican in "open" format occupying almost half of my 5ft x 3ft dining table. This gives me plenty of room to add the keep, a great hall and a chapel, as free standing terrain pieecs inside the walls:


Plenty of room for any extra medieval buildings I get the urge to make

So in terms of structure, to complete the "standard" castle I just need to get a little more foamcore and finish the guard house and keep before completing the paintjob and wethering the whole thing. At the most it should'nt take more than a couple of weeks. Then on to the central square of the bastide (which will be a fiddly job due to all the wooden struts!) and then a few extras bits & pieces like merchants stalls and a well, to bring the place alive. Then finally, given enough time, on to the above mentioned great hall and chapel for the castle.

Cheers,

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

 

[Steve J]

Looks great and plenty of flexibility on its arrangement which is excellent.

[get2grips]

REALLY love this: keep the photos coming 

[nikharwood]

Superbly done, Craig - this is going to be spectacular once it's complete 

[Hertsblue]

Great work, Craig. Looking forward to seeing it when all the detailing's complete. 

[Techno]

ULTRA  !!
Cheers - Phil

[get2grips]

Is it just me or does reading this thread make anyone else want to play Carcassonne???   

That is one STUNNING castle.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great game

[get2grips]

Aye, the X-box version isn't bad either PLUS you can play it solo.

[Hertsblue]

Is it just me or does reading this thread make anyone else want to play Carcassonne???   

Play it most Thursdays. (Well, what else can you do on a Thursday?)

[get2grips]

Play it most Thursdays. (Well, what else can you do on a Thursday?)

Wife goes to the gym: anything I bloody well want     ...within reason...after I've doe the jobs...and got the dinner on...

yeah...Carcassonne it is 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Play it most Thursdays. (Well, what else can you do on a Thursday?)

Drive to Wales - Deeside Defenders meet on Thursdays.

IanS

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

MKWS meet on Thursday too! 

[seano1815]

The castle and buildings look brilliant, look forward to seeing more, like the blog too
all the best
Sean

[TinyTerrain]

Thanks fir all the positive comments. The castle is getting perilously close to being finished. I have ordered a bespoke 10mm moat to go around it (I am crap at making decent water), so will definitely need to make a drawbridge and smaller outer gate to finish it off.

Just the main keep to make now, but that's a relatively easy oblong of foam card with some crenallations and detailing added from cork tiles.

More updates post colours, as I have few odds and sods to finish for Steve J and my Battle of Deorham Dux Bellorum table 

Cheers,

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Not bringing it to colours!  oh well.