Saturday 11 November 2017

The Moathouse of Blighty Bog

Uh oh! Five weeks and no update... I have had a serious distraction from gaming and posting in the form of a Caribbean vacation and an all consuming terrain project. At times, I felt like Richard Dreyfuss in "Close Encounters", with his obsession in building a cool piece of terrain.




First the vacation - A week on the beach and in the pool in Jamaica. I can recommend the Bahai Principe in Runaway Bay as a great place to visit.


While I was there, I read my DnD books for the first time and many years and prepared to Gamemaster a game when I got home. I read an old DnD module from 1st Edition called "The Village of Hommlet". I loved the art in it and always wanted to model the castle but didn't know how 30 years ago when I first read it. I made some sketches of a bunch of terrain ideas, but also sketched out the castle with a plan to build it in 28mm. I wanted to be able to use the castle for wargaming as well, so I built it in pieces. This would allow me to reconfigure the wall sections and add sections at a later date.

Here is the art from the module





I made use of my Grade 8 drafting class skills



I did not take any "in progress" pictures. I was pretty focused on getting to completion. Also, my sweet camera is on the fritz. These pictures are courtesy of my wife's cell.

This is a scrap piece to show the components. The façade is 5mm foamcore with the paper pulled off. The wall is 1" extruded polystyrene. The base is 3mm MDF. I used a pen and scored in the bricks. I credit Black Magic Craft on Youtube for the technique. Check it out.



This is the main keep and the biggest piece in the model.


The Inner Keep 8" tall



Ruined tower + rubble

Smaller round tower and gate


6" Wall Sections

14" wall sections


2 ruined corners and a ruined wall


Inner and Outer Corners


The Moathouse



Courtyard made from cobblestone matt from Michael's


From the side

The next two pics compare the build to the art










7 comments:

  1. Jeff, amazing! GOOD work! So, a new horde of 25mm medievals on the way? Mind you I bet it would work with Prince Valiant....

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  2. I have some Normans I could expand but always wanted a 100 Years War army. It's on my bucket list. I agree it would work well for your 40s. 1" walkways if that works for your basing

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  3. I love projects like this! Awesome job. I'd love to play on this!

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  4. Fantastic work! Love seeing a location I traipsed through in my mind decades ago in the flesh! Really love the detail, the rubble around the ruined sections is especially nice :)

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  5. What a terrific job! It gives the impression of being both usable in a game as well as being esthetically pleasing. Do you have in broken pieces for the wall section and corner tower?

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