Saturday 4 April 2015

Castle for Lion Rampant.

Towards the end of last year there were a number of e-mails doing the rounds of the our wargames group. Most of the discussion was about our first game of Lion Rampant that was planned for mid December. During this flurry of e-mail some plonker happened to mention that he wouldn't mind making a castle , "at some point". I really must learn to keep my big mouth shut!

 Next thing I know my mate Gav is on the phone saying that I can have his Zvezda , 1/72 castle. Still in the box and untouched.

Long story short, since then most of my modelling time has been taken up with this castle. With just a slight diversion over the 54mm WW1 figures.

Being 1/72 scale it is a bit small so I have tried to hide that fact a bit by mounting it on some polystyrene.


 I have made the base in three pieces so that it can be placed either on a corner of the table or along an edge. There were two reasons for this,
1, It meant that I didn't need to make the river/moat match any of our existing river systems.
2, It meant that I could make it three sided and therefore of a larger base area.
 The top of the main gate tower can be removed to allow the gate and the drawbridge to be raised and lowered.
 With the larger internal area we could accommodate some buildings etc at some stage in the future.
 Balsa wood steps were made for each side for entry to the walls and to the ramparts.
 I also made it so that a wall section from each side could be removed. Sections of damaged walling were also made and these can then be fitted into the gaps.


 A permanent bridge was made across the river/moat on one side and on the other, the bridge is removable.


 Now I have to look at rebasing my medieval troops to suit the rules.




 Although able to be used in our games my original intention was to have it as more of a backdrop than anything else.
There were a few tough lessons learned on this project. The moat/ river was meant to be lighter in colour than this. But after several coats of varnish it darkened up quite a bit. I also used acrylic varnish when I should have used enamel. I remembered this when the project was almost finished.
I painted the castle in several stages and as a result some pieces are lighter than others. ( Should have done it in one hit!)

This will be my last post for a while. Although I plan to keep an eye on what you people are up to I probably will not be placing any comments. I am going away until near the end of May.

We are heading to America! Mainly to visit my brother-in-law and his family. They live just north of Seattle. However I do plan a quick trip to the other side of the States to take in some ACW battlefields etc. No way am I going that far and not visiting some places I have read so much about!

32 comments:

  1. Wow Rodger, that is an awesome effort!

    Enjoy the trip!

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  2. Brilliant. Especially considering the scale difference...you really don't notice it! Great stuff!

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  3. That is excellent! And I actually like that dark colour for the moat - it makes it look a bit more sluggish than a river, which is right.

    Happy travels!

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  4. Awesome effort with the castle and basing mate. Have a good trip.

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  5. WoW WoW WoW! That is such an awesome model.
    You can play a while game without anything else!
    Colour me green with envy but happy for you.

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    1. Thanks to you I've been utterly distracted from everything else today and scouring the www for one of these :-)

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  6. That's stonking...reminds me of Harlech!

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  7. Stunning castle and moat, Rodger! It looks well large enough for 28mm figures (which are lovely in the photos too, I might add). The way you added the ground structure at the base of the castle is really impressive and realistic too. Nice work!

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  8. Great modeling! And have a great time in the Seattle area.

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  9. What a beautiful castle, nice details and great looking moat!

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  10. Your castle is amazing! Very impresive work.
    Have a nice holliday Rodger.
    See you after your come back.

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  11. That's an absolutely stunning job...!
    Have a superb trip as well :)

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  12. Very well done ! This certainly will set the right mood for your games.

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  13. That's a very impressive bit of kit, it may well be 1/72, but it looks right to me! Have a great break and lots of pics of the ACW battlefields please!

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  14. Great looking castle! I'd be happy just playing with that, not even an actual game, just playing like a child :-) The scale looks fine too. Have a great trip to the US!

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  15. Wow.... thats a Lovely castle! and the minis looks awsome to :)

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  16. I don't think that it looks too bad next to 28mm miniatures in your pictures. I think I'd love to see some more careful eye level comparison shots that gie a real sense of scale if you get the chance between slots in the ANZAC project which quite rightly takes priority.(Please)?

    Darrell.

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    1. I will do that. Probably not until I get back though!

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    2. That would be very much appreciated Roger as I'm considering buying that particular model and doing extensive conversion work on one. Thanks :>)

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  17. Mate!! thats bloody awesome. The only thing better than seeing this fantastic bit of kit is knowing I will have the pleasure of gaming with it at our next lion rampant game. Beautiful work on the moat and damaged wall section. Gobsmacked. Have a great trip and come back with heaps of photos for your wargaming mates to drool over and feel really envious...lucky bugger but well deserved.

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  18. Wow great work! The terrain work is superb! I think 1/72 works pretty nicely for 28mm minis. The ground scale isn't 1:1 anyways and smaller buildings feel better due to them taking less space

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  19. beautiful work mate, cant wait to get it on the table. Have a fantastic trip

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  20. Great castle Rodger - I have 1:72 MiniArt one to do myself.

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  21. that is great work Rodger. love the idea for the base, may have to copy that

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  22. Wow! Fantastic terrain building Roger and the 1/72 works well with 28mm.
    Have a great holiday.

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  23. Lovely painting and modeling! Very impressive castle.

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  24. Nice job on the castle it look great! Have fun visiting the States. Take lots of pics, I've never really made it out east myself. :/

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  25. A beautiful project. I wouldn't know it's 1/72, with your clever work.

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  26. Awesome work! What a fantastic piece for any table. Really cool and well done!
    Have a great trip. cheers
    cheers

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