Castle Building!

Those of you who know me will know that although I can paint a not-bad-looking tank or little soldier, my talents where terrain is concerned are severely lacking.

Not for me the expertise of Mr Clarke: I read the TFL blog with amazement not just at the results but at the effort and work that goes into getting those results. At least when you’re painting a tank or a figure, the construction is mostly done for you.

This weekend just gone, however, saw me putting all the above aside as I assisted in the making of a huge terrain piece. Not for the wargaming table, I hasten to add, but for my daughter’s castle project.

Last term it was Stamford Bridge and Hastings; this term, castles. It sounds as if those who decide what she has to learn in history are finally getting it right!

So which castle did the little flower choose to build? A nice little motte and bailey perhaps? An even simpler hill fort? No, she chose Castle Gaillard: a huge Norman monstrosity from, appropriately, Normandy built between 1196 and 1198 for Richard the Lionheart.

Here’s what the historians reckon it looked like:

Errrr…that’s quite a big castle to build out of cardboard boxes, cereal packets and toilet roll centres.

Well, this is what she came up with. I helped a bit, but the design and construction concepts were all hers:

That’s a 4’ by 3’ bit of foamboard BTW

Now that is definitely recognizable as Gaillard, and I have immediately promoted her to chief terrain maker for me!

This is what the castle looks like now:

PS Now I find out that she could have built the thing in Minecraft. Might have been a tad easier and less of a strain on my wargaming supplies!