Saxon buildings and a couple of bridges

In preparation for a few Norman vs. Saxon games, which will most likely be using scenarios from One Hour Wargames, I needed to create some buildings and bridges. I use the pictures from paper soldiers "Wargame 1066" by Peter Dennis as a guide to the design of the terrain items.

A band of paper soldier Saxons (42mm) with the new terrain pieces.

As with my previous terrain, I tend to use blocks of wood cut then roughly painted. This allows me to pack away the terrain without having to worry about breakages, and it is cheap. I used to use just the blocks painted, but now I use a Gesso Paste to create the roofs which in most cases have the most texture. This helps speed up the painting process with washes and dry brushing.

The building process once cut moving left to right. The Gesso paste gets  textured with a toothpick.

A Saxon church and buildings suitable to represent a village. All the building features are painted on using various washes and dabbed on blobs of paint for stone buildings or stripes for timber buildings.

Saxons defend their village.

The bridges take a similar approach to the buildings. Normally I would not have applied the Gesso Paste, but decided to give it a try and see if it was effective.

The cut wood has some dowel added to the sides. Then Gesso paste added to give a rough texture. A strip of card cut the width of the bridge is used to give a ripple effect of logs or planks.

A close up photo of the finished bridge. As with the buildings, these are painted with washes and a few lines to emphasise the planks.

These terrain items were completed over two days. One day to cut up the wood, stick and apply the Gesso paste. Then a second day to paint.