Along with the coffee stick Ghost Town which I’m working on, I have also got several large pieces of castle ruins scattered around the house.
These have come about as a result of another project, one for the GM of our current campaign – so I’m not going to give the game away by talking about that at the moment – but watch this space.
Part of that build included some ruins, but I’ve taken the build on a lot further, inspired by a couple of trips made last year.
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Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. June 2010 |
Last year I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit Tintagel Castle in Cornwall and The Bishop's Palace in Lincoln. Some parts of the Bishop's Palace have been preserved better as actual structures, other parts are ruins.
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Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. June 2010 |
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Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. June 2010 |
Both are owned and run by English Heritage. Walking around these structures felt quite incredible - these old constructions had been witness to so much history and legend. These are perfect places to go just for the atmosphere and inspiration you can gain from them.
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Bishop’s Palace, Lincoln Sept 2010 |
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Bishop’s Palace, Lincoln Sept 2010 |
These are a few of the photos I took at these places. I decided to build some game table pieces inspired by these photos – not to copy them but to get pieces that reflect the style of these old historic landmarks. I’ve kept them for the moment without bases or any grass or other foliage so that any of these pieces could be used in our current campaign – which is a world with little greenery in it. (For more details on the world in question flick over to Big Lee’s Miniature Adventures.) Very much a world underground.
All of the pieces you’ll see in this project have been made in the same way. They are all pieces of polystyrene packaging cut up, covered in cheap ready mix wall filler and painted with just black and white acrylic paint. Getting the polystyrene from friends and family when they get deliveries makes this a very cheap project to fund, and quite often you’ll find they will be only be too glad for someone else to take their rubbish away for them.
The first two pieces I made were from packaging that came with my brother’s washing machine. One of them had two perfect round circular holes already cut into it. The moment I looked at this piece I was reminded of the wells I saw in the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace. I also had a flash back to the 1980’s TV series ‘Robin of Sherwood’ where often our heroes ended up thrown into a dungeon via a pit. These holes would be very useful in the final piece.
Quite a number of these pieces have a small tale to tell of their own, over the next couple of blogs I'll be talking about these pieces and their unique features.
Nothing gets thrown away in your house does it mate! Everything is a potential model of some kind. Nice work as always.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work and with polysterene aswell, BigLee is lucky to have you as a friend.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a superb job of making them not look like polystyrene packaging. I had to look a second time once you said what they were. Good job.
ReplyDeleteIs this the foam that looks like balls of foam squished together - like styrofoam? Could you use your "wall filler" on styrofoam as well? I have a ton of it at home, been contemplating what I could do with it...
ReplyDeleteHi ChicagoWiz - yes that's very much the sort of thing I've used. My next post will have some before and after photos in, so you'll be able to see. This should be going up within the next couple of days.
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