Vagabonds Viking Village - Beehives Done

[marianas_gamer]

Fire that architect John! Been there 
Lon

[Dr. Zombie]

Great to see you back at it.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Looking rather excellent so far, have you sorted the door yet?

[Byblos]

Very impressive work !

[gamer Mac]

Fire that architect John! Been there 
Lon

Literally Burn him at the stake to the god of builders
For the  door just build a small porch with the door attached inside
You will only have to cut out some timber framing to get it to fit

[Captain Blood]

Looks promising and it’s good to see you carry on with the project 

Seconded 

[Vagabond]

Jim - thanks for your encouragement, I was on your Blog a few months ago looking for the cliffs you did for Dorset, they came in very handy as a reference for some smaller ones I did for Sails of Glory, Thanks for that as well.

Lon Usually there is usually no architect, just a rough idea, some apx dimensions and the builder just gets on with it. This is what happens when I try and get technical. Mind you the builder never served an apprenticeship and so I think that's why so many of my buildings are slightly off square. Mind you I can't tell him that because as well as not being very good, he's also cheap.

Dr Zombie, you were my biggest ideas man when I started this and so it's good to see you picked up on the re-start because I have some more ideas but in line with my small brain I'm going to need some help fleshing them out.

Mad Lord - yes the Vikings can now get into the building, so burning it will be easier for them.

Byblos and Cptn Blood - Cheers

Gamer Mac - I've looked all over for the beehives I was going to copy from your models, I know I made the core hive shape from Das, but I think at some time in the past I forgot what I made them for and they are now campfires.
The idea of a porch is very sound and was in my mind at the early design stage and I did think of doing it to cover up my mistake, well the 2nd so far but decided to go for simplicity.
Thanks for the idea though.

[Mason]

Sure I have seen this somewhere before.....
 


Good to see you back at it, Sir.
Nothing like a good scenery project to whet the appetite.
 

[Vagabond]

OK moving on


I just love deconstructing my constructions. 

The lower framing is now removed and of course made a mess of the foam board.


So I decided to go for a lower level of timber planking to cover it up.

I carefully measured the space and there was room to get 16 of my planking spills, so I could have 4 planks, 1 door post, two double doors of 3 planks each, followed by the same on the other side, 16 uprights. Well only 15 fit and so I had to cut one of the planks in situ and ended up with a double door 3 planks wide on one side and 4 on the other, life can be so unfair.
I need to add door handles, I shall probably just cut down a couple of the dressmakers pins (That Mrs V hasn't missed yet) and stick them in place although I would like to do ring handles but they are quite small and I'm not sure if I can do that with my fat fingers and failing eyesight.

Anyway it decided the issue of planked lower wall or not, at least on the front of the building. 


This is how I decided to frame the pointy widows, and of course you can see from the previous photo that I had to remove the central bit of framing to do this.


An obligatory side view, and I am quite pleased with the way the windows have come out, for ease I was just going to leave them but what the hell, it only took about 2 hours to frame 9 windows, fortunately there is no glass and so no leaded lights.

I'm on with thatching now but this is where progress seems to stop because of drying times.

The only current decision is whether I should continue the planking around the building on the lower level or not, I've sorted decided not - because it takes forever and this church is to game with, not to look at, but I do like the idea of the different texture it will bring.

I'm going to fill in between the framing with filler but will leave the framing standing proud, I know this is not accurate but it does seem to look right.

I have 2 questions and would appreciate some guidance if anyone knows the answers.

Inside the church I'm going to do one of 2 things, keep it simple with little furniture, or use a drop in floor with all the furniture on it so I can remove it for gaming with figures inside.
1st question, does anyone know when they started putting pews into churches, I have a notion that originally the congregation would have stood, maybe only the Chief man having a seat. I expect there will be an alter and maybe a font but nothing else. I  shall paint it white inside and have some religious murals painted on the walls (well photos pasted on, but no one will know the difference).

2nd question, white wash, when did they start to use a lime wash on daube and wattle. I did all my other buildings with a mud colour rather than white wash but I think the Church would have had more attention paid to it than the rest of the village houses. Note that while I call this a Viking village this is definitely a Saxon church, even though it will stand in for a Viking one when I play the game Argonor's Revenge, a game that has been 3 years coming.

[marianas_gamer]

Nice recovery and progress!

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Unfortunately I haven't the slightest clue about answering your two questions! The door and framing is a very nice recovery and I particularly like the way you framed the windows.

Scotia Grendel have some ring door knockers, they might work for door ring handles?

https://www.shop.scotiagrendel.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=43&products_id=2513

[Vagabond]

Sure I have seen this somewhere before.....
 


Good to see you back at it, Sir.
Nothing like a good scenery project to whet the appetite.
 

And this is nothing like a good scenery project but I'm having fun playing with bits of wood and glue.

Good to hear from you, hope all is well in the big city.

[Vagabond]

Lon and Martin Thanks for the encouragement. I undercoated it all last night and it looks a bit of a mess because as usual sticking planks over a white background makes it very difficult to get the black undercoat in all the little cracks.
Why I don't remember these things from one building to another I don't know.

Thanks for the link to the ring knockers, I ended up twisting a bit of fuse wire into a rough shape to resemble a handle, not very professional but hey it's the Dark Ages.
Cheers

[Doug ex-em4]

I like your idea of a drop-in interior; are you going to do that?

As regards whitewash. Weren’t churches painted really colourfully (is that a word) until the Reformation when they got covered up in whitewash? Probably that would have been a medieval thing rather than "Dark Ages" which is a shame because I’d love to see your church decked out in harmonious pastel shades

Doug

[Vagabond]

I like your idea of a drop-in interior; are you going to do that?

As regards whitewash. Weren’t churches painted really colourfully (is that a word) until the Reformation when they got covered up in whitewash? Probably that would have been a medieval thing rather than "Dark Ages" which is a shame because I’d love to see your church decked out in harmonious pastel shades

Doug

Hi Doug, Having done a bit more research I'm sure I don't need pews, they all stood for the service, so the only furniture will be Alter and Font no need for the drop in interior, hopefully I can remember that idea for the future.

I do like your idea of pastels shades rather than whitewash, a rose coloured exterior plaster has been found on a royal hall at Cheddar and on a Monastery in the NE, I've forgotten it's name already and so I'm going to go with that, at least until I see how it looks.
Thanks for the idea.