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!
