Starting a village

[Modhail]

I wasn't sure where to put this, as the village I'm building is part of my greater fantasy project, but also meant to double as a 14th century rural village. But by putting it here, I can also include the weird fantasy stuff as well. 

So what's the plan? Well, I want to build a small rural village, partly as a home base for my knight and retinue (shown here), but also to represent the various villages and hamlets heroes could be called upon to defend. As my (vaguely defined) fantasy setting is feudal in nature and my knight's armour is 14th century, the village will have to follow suit. I intend to represent a functional village, so not just the random farm or two, but also the supporting infrastructure in the form of, for example, a smithy, (wind or water)mill, communal breadovens, a tithe barn, small church and graveyard, etc. Part of the fun is figuring out what such things would look like in the era I chose. 
The buildings will have to wait for a while, as I need to figure out where/how to store them before I build them. So the inhabitants will have to come first.
Luckily I already have plenty of those, thanks to this years Crisis:


The first batch of them has found paint already:

A swineherd and his porcine charges.

[tyrionhalfman]

Sounds like an interesting project. That's a good size starting collection of civilians and livestock. I recognise a few foundry, are they all foundry or a mixture? Thanks for sharing

[Argonor]

That painfully reminds me of my Chivalry project, which kinda got stuck because I was so thoroughly disappointed by the 'Crossed Lance's' rules.

It looks like you're well sorted for the 'civilian' part, all right! 

[Modhail]

Tyrion, the humans are all Foundry (except for the captive in the back, he was this years Crisis give-away figure), the livestock, apart from the oxen for the Foundry plough, is all from War-bases.

Argonor, I remember your project fondly, it has/had great promise. Hopefully you can leave the Crossed Lances letdown behind and continue on it one day, I found your ideas for it quite inspiring.

[Drachenklinge]

actually I think You're starting a wee bit too big. With all these supporting buildings You mentioned it will be quite a village. So, I would scratch the church for a start, unless You really need it for scenarios.

A smith sounds very cool, also a small inn of some sort. But I would start with simple buildings to live in. And then add afterwards.
The smith could be added tothe inn or a stable, so Youhave the option to let that village grow naturaly, sort of. That way You will not have preasure, cause having a big church, not getting ready leads to novillage at all.
You may add a small watchtower (great track from hendrix by the way ) and there You go, a village near the border. Add a wall and You'll have a small castle, etc.

However ... I envy Your lifestock. Need such stuff myself.

[Modhail]

actually I think You're starting a wee bit too big.

Oh, I won't be building it all at once...  I'm planning this as a long burn project, so I'll start with a farm or two (giving me a small homestead), to get the hang of building them, then do a different kind of building and then keep alternating between farms and specialist buildings like that in several cycles, with breaks in between. Like you said, growing the village naturally. I'm not going for a big church anyway, maybe not even a stone one.

I got my livestock from War-bases.co.uk, quite reasonably priced.

[Schrumpfkopf]

I like people that hink big and then pull it off.
I shall follow the progress with much interest.
 

[Mister Rab]

I like the sound of this - I'll be following with interest.

[Modhail]

Thanks!

I've painted the chickens in the weekend, but I won't show them off yet. By the time I finished them the lighting was too naff for photography (And I deemed it was time for a storm-walk, it was great and windy outside!) and I haven't yet finished the villager to go with them. I'm pairing villagers with groups of animals, to make painting more interesting/varied for me, and to get a balanced progress on both sides, human and livestock, of the village population.

On an other note, I've sorted storage, at least for the lower (single story) sections of the farming village. So I can, as/if time becomes available (December is a busy month!) start planning and building my first few buildings.
I'm thinking of buying the Perry medieval farmhouse as a style/size reference. I'll have to build at a somewhat reduced ground scale because, looking at historical sizes of buildings, building strictly to scale would mean that one or two farms plus their yard, vegetable and herb garden, hovels/side-buildings and fields would fill the entire table by themselves. The Perry building seems to have got the balance between looks and size just right.

Speaking of vegetable and herb gardens, does anyone have a source for vegetables and herbs in the right scale?

[Drachenklinge]

There are quite some sellers for model trains, which do have these things in their sortiment. In Germany these are Busch or Noch for example. I am sure, other countries or regions have similar distributors.
So far I found garden flowers, wilderness stuff, fruits, weeds, etc. For some effects and on bases quite usefull, especially when mixed with the usealstuff like gras or ... turf (?), irish moss (?)   

[Modhail]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll go and check out what their ranges.

[Argonor]

JTT O-Scale stuff is very nice, too!

[Modhail]

Ooh, they do look nice. Thanks for the suggestion Argonor!

[Michi]

That is a very good start! I like the idea of making an entire village. I´d rather add living quarters to the enterprises than making buildings for accommodation only. 

[Modhail]

Well, as this will be a rural, agricultural, village of mainly timber-framed hall-houses enterprise and dwelling will mainly be one and the same. Probably the only inhabitants with separate living and work accommodations will be the blacksmith, village priest and reeve. (And, I hope for him, the beekeeper if/when I get around to one!)