Building a castle from scratch

[Burnanation]

So I have a pretty good hand on how to create everything I want for my castle, except the battlements that would go on the outside of the walls and around the towers. I am primarily using wood for construction and my green stuff skill is somewhere between filling gaps and making long skinny snakes.

I am looking for ideas more along the lines of practical/cost efficient than super detailed, but any and all ideas are welcome. I will post some photos tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[Blutsauger]

www.hirstarts.com

 

[untitled_musketeer]

www.hirstarts.com

Seconded.

 

[Burnanation]

They have awesome stuff. Any other ideas, more home made-ish?

 

[Adam_Barrow]

This guy might give you some ideas. He makes bold choices sometimes.

http://www.roundtable-bretonnia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=759&Itemid=31

 

[horrid]

Foamcore with one of the paper faces watered down then removed would give you a reasonably sturdy form and excellent texture if you take the time to scribe the cobbles into exposed faced with a pencil that isn't too sharp. For a more "formal" or uniform brick look use a steel edged ruler to cut rows up the face your wall then define individual bricks with a pencil by scribing at 90s to the lines you marked with your ruler.

To do a good job of this is quite time intensive but the results can be really amazing. If price is your only concern this is an excellent choice. Little details like pressing in the odd brick or two and scribing cracks make for a very striking and completely personalized project. Whatever you do seal the exposed foam with something (I use black crummy tole paints because they are cheap and covering white foam I know at a glance I have full coverage) BEFORE priming otherwise all of your careful attentions will evaporate in a cloud of aerosol.

I first learned about this technique reading a WW2 modelling blog about war-torn cityscapes. These remain some of the best looking terrain models I have ever seen.

If you have your heart set on some kind of wood stay way from the hardware store if you can. Pick up some balsa wood. Spars of balsa will not only strengthen you construction but will look the business if you make them visible in elements of your construction. Do some research before you start building and have a plan. It will make the difference between Bunratty and the castle where Burger King lives.

 

[deathwolf669]

Rather than using foam board and removing once side you can buy 3-5mm foam and stick that to the outside, I have done that for WW2 buildings.

Mount the foam on anything you want after, it also makes it a lot easier to design holes put into the wall or a removable section to simulate blowing one up.

 

[untitled_musketeer]

This is quite good. Unfortunately the forum has a weird set up meaning you can't copy links. Actions seem to be performed with the same webpage meaning URL doesn't change. The threat title is 'Something different. A castle!' if you want the full thread but it's a pretty good step by step this guy is doing!

Something different. A castle! Post #1

Cheers,

u_m

 

[Lord Coenraad Vonn Forongkry]

Not sure if this will also help, but here's a link to one of Blue Table Painting's Titan Terrain Studio staff showing how to create Cobblestone for his Church in his Graveyard.

I'm very interested in this tread as I've been looking into building a Fort/Manor for my Vampire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRGJUiymfqs

 

[darragh]

Slave to painting sell miniature bricks if you want to go down that road .very time consuming though for a full castle but would be a good effect as they can be cut to create the random size brick style you see on medieval walls etc was planning On using them for ruins for mordheim could easily use filler over them for plaster leaving cracks and such where plaster has fallen Off from weathering.