Proxxie Goes to the Border Marches

 

a bastle house 

        Being that I am about 94 years behind in my painting schedule I rarely take commissions, there simply isn't enough time in the day. But, when a friend and skilled painter offers to swap his skill with a brush for my skill with insulation foam, things are different. Recently Zhodani Commando made exactly such an offer; despising painting such as I do and finding miniature architecture a happy way to spend time I agreed instantly. 

       What was requested was a set of buildings that could be used in games reflecting the troubled Border Marches between Scotland and England in the 15th-16th centuries. Fortunately I am familiar with the era and the conflict (actually I have been interested in the subject since I read "The Steel Bonnets" forty years ago) and have resources in hand to conduct some preliminary research. The centerpiece would be the Bastle House of the Laird, a stoutly-built home (some might say fortress) that was the seat of a powerful Border noble, in addition there would be some outbuildings and some rather more humble homes for the common folk. I got right to work.

 

I cheated this time and used 1/2" insulation board instead of my usual 40mm blueboard

no point in spending time slicing the 40mm sheets into two 20mm sheets!

 

bastle houses often had fancy stepped gable-ends 

I think that they look cool so the motif was duly incorporated

 

as Zhodani is playing a skirmish game and action might just continue indoors

 I made all the floors as separate layers to ease access

 

 

many bastle house had exterior stairways,

 some simply had second floor entrances and ladders

 

the great and powerful often built L shaped houses 

so that there would be flanking fire at anyone so unpleasant as to want to force entry

 

the smaller wing would be no less stoutly built

I was in such a hurry to move forward that I risked injury

 and broke out the Satan's Minion (the dreaded Hot Glue Gun) 

to speed things along

 

 

never one for working from a plan I often have to lift dimensions directly from the models

this happened here, I needed to make the characteristic steeply-pitched roof so I had to work out the dimensions by drawing on the model

 

the smaller wing is also intended to act as a stand-alone model

thus it was split horizontally as well, the two stories can be deployed as single-level structures

 

to support the roofs I build a framework of insulation foam 

before covering it with the matte-board which will carry the shingles

 

 

the two-story version

 

and the one-floor style with the extra  roof section added

 

 

once the roofs were sorted and the glue was setting it was time to think of flooring

I traced the footprint of each floor onto a sheet of matte-board, a couple quick passes with some sixty-grit gives a good surface for the Titebond wood glue to hold onto

 

a quick look to see how things are coming along

 

 

the roof-frame having set I added the matte-board cover

 

while that was drying I added flooring to the smaller house

it was getting late so I used the dreaded hot glue gun to speed the process

 

the roof was double-checked  and set aside to dry

 

 

next step was the Tedium ad Nauseum, 

the process of covering the exterior surface of the model with individual foam blocks, 

the boredom is real but the results are wonderful

 

fancy "dressed stone" sections will surround the doors, windows and gun-ports

       I'm likely to spend the next few days gluing blocks on but further exciting episodes will include "Shingling the roof, one bit at a time" and "Paneling the interior" or "A Spiral Stairway to Heaven?"to be followed by"What is a Barmkin?" and "Homes for the Humblies". So, if you like your Renaissance skirmish served up with a Scottish flair stay tuned!