This is a set of mediaeval city walls I made for my friend and customer Simon Chick, some time during the 2000's. I've called it French, but it would work for a swathe of Germany, the Burgundian lands or Switzerland during the 15th century, as well as northern France. Simon took the photographs himself, and put them on his own blog years ago.
Simon had supplied some good drawings and period artwork for inspiration as well as a set of the Hudson and Allen fortifications as a "raw material"; they were to be very heavily reworked and added to. I think altogether there was the gatehouse section and three towers, each with a wall section, plus a breached wall section (not in these photos, sadly), a breached tower, a "guard house" by the gate and an extra palisaded outwork. The round tower roofs were added by Simon, so I'm not responsible for the "relaxed" way they fit the towers! He more than compensated though by posing the model with his lovely Burgundian figures in really convincing scenes.
There's not a great deal to say about the building techniques or materials. As ever I used foamcard, Wills sheets and lots of parts cast in resin from my own masters. The hoardings were made from balsa. The "gothic" ornamental thing on top of the gatehouse was a doll's house part. The finials were made with ornamental beads from the craft shop threaded onto brass rod.
The final photograph is from the demo game of the Battle of Verneuil which Simon and friends put on at the Salute 2011 show. It wan the prize for best Demonstration game that year.
Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteStunning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, as ever. I do appreciate people's comments.
ReplyDeleteI remember this at Salute , terrific model
ReplyDeleteI was so inspired by this piece when I saw it in photos of Salute. I had previously purchased the Hudson and Allen components but stopped in mytracks when I saw what you had done to customise them. Thanks Richard
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to do is encourage people to have a go, not put them off! The H&A pieces are very good as they come, and painted up in your detailed way will look great. Simon Chick painted up a couple of as-they-come sections himself to match what I'd made and they are lovely.
DeleteIf it's any encouragement, you could improve the stonework texture (and make them a lot easier to paint), by using a bit of household filler. The H&A pieces have detailed stonework all over, which is nice, but hard work to paint. If you look at the images above you'll see there are a few bare patches where the rendering has cracked off. Mark out a few such areas with a pencil- they are more likely to occur at the bottom of a wall or where one section joins another. Now get some household DIY plaster-ey filler in a bowl, thin it massively and brush it over the rest of the wall. You are looking to soften the stonework texture, not lose it entirely. Finally, "plaster" on some patches of thicker render over this: use unthinned but well-mixed filler now, apply with something like a small palette knife, and when dry rub down with a bit of sandpaper. The result will be an interesting surface that's easy to paint with washes and drybrushes.
Thats exactly what I did with the extra walls I have and I'm happy with the result of rendered walls (as they all were at the time of course)
DeleteThe castle was the real star of that Salute game and I'm sure it won the prize!!
ReplyDeleteI spent most of the day explaining 'who' had made it and where it could be purchased from.
That's a becoming modesty, Simon, as usual, but I know you are exaggerating! You made some very nice additions to the interior of the walls yourself, plus other scenic elements. And I can't help thinking the hundreds and hundreds of beautifully painted and converted figures had something to do with it!
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