Wednesday 28 December 2016

Medievals and Dark Ages

Having returned home from visiting the kids, I have finally been able to finish painting a small Norman style church I constructed pre-Christmas to add to my medieval buildings. As with most of my terrain and buildings it is simply made with balsa wood and with most details painted on.

A small church either being defended or about to be looted
I will be able to use this type of building in a number of periods
I now need to complete a small bridge for my Hundred Years War games, as I cannot always rely upon fords for crossings.

My next project involves building some Saxon and Norman armies. A few months back I purchased one of the Battle or Britain series by artist Peter Dennis, which provides the source illustrations for printing paper soldiers and some rules. Many years ago I picked up Osprey's Campaign Series  "Hastings 1066 - The fall of Saxon England" and while I have no desire to invest in and paint up the forces, the opportunity to use paper soldiers seemed very intriguing.

The Battle of Britain - Wargame 1066 Saxons-Vikings-Normans
I have been to the local printing shop and had all the required source pages copied on the recommended weight paper. I am now trying to make up a few stands as a test to see how they look and handle. From a look point of view they copied well and I do like the style of the illustrations. Cutting out the blocks of figures is tricky, but not too time consuming. Once cut out they are quite flimsy which will present a future storage problem and questions on their longevity with handling and packing up. As I have a few spare sheets I am going to investigate some different options for constructing them to be more robust.

Trialling construction approaches

The figures themselves are 30mm and are designed for a stand of 40mm width and 30mm depth. My initial thoughts are to use two sets of figures per stand to create an 80mm by 30mm stand. I do like stands of 3 to 4 inches so they are easy to handle, but having small stands may be better for how they look laid out on the table. Anyway, I suspect there will be quite a bit of trial and error with this project.


4 comments:

  1. Have you seen the how-to video by Peter Dennis? He gives a few useful tips, including how to strengthen the weaker sections, IIRC.

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  2. Hi,

    I make a lot of paper models to give to kids at conventions (my club makes up "Armies for Kids" packages, which include 2 painted armies, rules, dice, and the terrain I make.) To make therm stronger, a glue copies to poster board--the kind used in schools--which is pretty rugged, all things considered. Doing all that gluing is tedious, but the end result is worth it. This might solve your problem.

    Best regards,

    Chris Johnson

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chris,
      Thanks for the tip. I will give it a go the next time I create the some more. Great idea to provide paper models to kids.
      Cheers, Peter

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