Coming together nicely, Craig. Looking forward to seeing the finished article. 

Thanks for all the comments so far.....

Cardboard mock-up of the market square arcades



Having completed the bulk of the city walls structure I have turned my attention to the city market square and its covered arcades or "couverts" (to give them their proper name). Stictly speaking a bastide is arranged on a grid, or certainly to a regimented pattern,with a central market square which was used for commercial and political/social gathering.However in order to make a useable modular city that can be used in closed form (all 4 walls together to form a square) or in open format (walls adjoining a table edge) it has been neccesary to create a simpler layout. However I did not want to lose what was the focal point of the bastide, the square.

As it will be quite a tight fit, with couverts on three of the four sides of the square (with an archway on the fourth), I decided to make a mock up from cardboard to check dimensions, and ensure what I had in mind would both fit, and look good. As you can see from the pic below, its difficult to get a true idea of how it will look until all 4 sides are built, but it certainly will have the enclosed, medieval feel I was hoping for.



I have a few technical challenges to overcome in making the wooden support struts, as they are very fine, but need to be cut quite precisely, however the build of the foamcore buildings should be relatively easy as I will use the cardboard mock up to make a template. Once completed, the bottom half of each building will be covered in anaglypta to create stone bases and the top halves will be "rendered" with Vallejo Plastic Putty and will have timbers, shutters and other detailing added made from balsa wood.



All the best,

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models

Looks good and very inspiring, Craig.
Will the pillars be set back a bit to give the upperstory overhang as in the photo?
Cheers, Colin

Yes Albie, if things go to plan 

I had a quiet hour before work this morning, made a dozen struts for the markets couverts............here's how:



Regards,

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models

They work well and easy to glue plus nice and strong .

What type of foam did you use for the walls?

Looking really good Craig.

But you're forgetting to use the old Blue Peter standby of "Here's one I made earlier."
Cheers - Phil.

I bet you all thought I had given up on this mad project of mine? No way, just been busy painting minis for a few weeks!

In readiness for finishing the Bastide I thought I would knock up a little bit if scenery that would give me the opportunity to try out the half timbered finish I am planning for most of my buildings, as well as practicing painting 3d shutters on flat bits of card and mock wooden planks for the stables.

Here's what I got....(apologies crap camera on phone!)



Relatively happy with the look so hoping yo crack on with the Bastide during my upcoming time off work. More pics to follow soon.

Cheers

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models

Like!

Nice!!

 
Cheers - Phil.

Looking good, Craig 

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