Scratchbuilding A Scottish Bastle House in 28mm,the painting begins

[anton ryzbak]

     A friend of mine has asked me to build him some terrain for a Border Reivers skirmish game that he is into. I have started on a Scottish Bastle House and I'm most excited to get this project into action! First steps can be seen below



       The full story of my progress can be found on my blog https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2023/05/proxxie-goes-to-border-marches.html

[bluewillow]

Nice, there Was a great article in a wargames illustrated once from memory

Cheers
Matt

[scotty]

Looks great, can't wait to see the finished building

[Paul Richardson]

Super. I suspect that the staircase up the outside will be a later addition - originally access to the upper floor will have been by a ladder.

[anton ryzbak]

I had a little free-time so I finished the stone work and shingled the roof, you can follow the fun (or lack thereof!) here: https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2023/05/stones-and-shingles.html

[anton ryzbak]

I had a few minutes of time so I added a barmkin to the my bastle house. I used an imprinted roller to do the random stone in the walls, saves a TON of time. More here:  https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2023/05/daddy-what-is-barmkin.html

[gostgost13]

http://www.matthewpemmott.co.uk/2007/05/beetham-hall-beetham.html    We have them in north Lancs/Cumbria as well

[ichwillauch]

It already looks fantastic in this early state, looking forward to see the finished version.

[anton ryzbak]

@gostgost13,  That is quite an impressive structure. It must have been truly grand in its heyday!

[Paul Richardson]

Tremendous. I'm really enjoying this thread. An alternative situation for a bastle would be among the ruins of Roman forts on or behind Hadrian's Wall. I know that bastles were built among the ruins at both Housesteads and Birdoswald, and they may have been built at other forts for all I know. Because the builders used the stones from the forts, the walls of the bastle would presumably have had quite a regular appearance - Thirlwall castle near Gilsland, where my mother played as a girl, is an example of a more substantial fortification built using Roman materials and I imagine that the stone-work of the bastles might well have been similar.   

[anton ryzbak]

Paul Richardson,
           I would certainly avail myself of ready-cut stone from a Roman ruin if I were building during the 1500s, think of the labor that would be saved! Having a supply of dressed stone to hand would definitely add a very regular appearance to the building. Plus the Romans were known to have a pretty good eye for the lay of the land, if they built a fort there it was probably an excellent bit of real estate.

[anton ryzbak]

With all of the larger structures finished it was time to start on the finer details, first up was windows and gunports.  You can follow the action here: https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2023/05/windows-and-gunports-on-bastle-house.html

[Metternich]

Coming together really well.

[Paul Richardson]

Anton: although a significant cause of the destruction of the Wall was the building of the B6318, I'm sure the locals played their part, taking stones to incorporate into their own buildings. Apparently there were stones in my grandfather's family farm at Kellah which looked Roman, and that is 5 miles south of the Wall.

[juergen c. olk]

Amazing detail ....wow.