It seems a necessary piece of table top dressing for any ECW campaign is a little old English church. For some time now I had the intention of building or buying one; in the end I settled for a MDF kit from Warbases, although I have added quite a bit to it.
I essentially used the MDF kit as a starting point, a frame onto which I added 3 main extras:
- Slaters Plastikard 7mm dressed Stone for the walls
- custom made and cast slate roof
- quoins and window trim sculpted from grey stuff
Here we have it before the customisation:
And after:
I didn't use the windows that came with the kit but instead I glued drywall mesh to the inside of the building and painted it black.
For the front of the entrance I glued sheet styrene, textured with a craft knife to represent wood, to the MDF. The walkway is foam pavers.
The tree is a plastic Woodland Scenics armature with my standard foliage recipe. The most time consuming part of the build was making the roof. I wanted something that was a bit more 3D than the paper offering and although the slates did come out a smidge fantasy I am quite happy with them. I made two moulds so I will be able to make them up quickly should I decide to make a similar roof later.
What's a church yard with out grave stones? These ones are simply made from XPS foam.
One of the reasons I chose the Warbases kit is that it has a small footprint on the table. I think if I was building it specifically for skirmish gaming I would have gone with a bigger kit, like Sarissa Precision's church.
Hopefully there won't be such a long break between posts through the next few months. Works slows down during winter and I have some ECW figures lined for the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge which starts in about two and a half hours.
Absolutely amazing works Cod!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous church and graveyard, well done!
ReplyDeleteVery nice upgrade on the original mdf kit
ReplyDeleteThat’s a really good improvement on the original kit. Great idea with the drywall mesh.
ReplyDeleteLook great, very inspirational. I have a Sarissa mdf church for this years’ challenge. The quoins look right and stand out nicely to give a good bit of texture.
ReplyDeleteThat is some fantastic work. Love the weathered tone on the stonework.
ReplyDeleteA really lovely job and the idea of the overall scenic on a small footprint is perfect.
ReplyDeleteSuperb work Sir!
ReplyDeleteFantastic work. The stonework and weathering really adds a whole new dimension to this model.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for the kind remarks.
ReplyDeleteFaboulus work on that, a great table piece and as you say essential for ECW gaming.
ReplyDeleteAll the best for 2022, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Cheers
Matt
French Wargame Holidays
This looks awesome. It has a really rustic feel to it. The colouring of the stonework looks authentic too.
ReplyDeleteSuperb makeover and useful for so many periods - well done!
ReplyDeleteI just found this - its superb and I would like to think about copying the church - how much plasticard sheet did you need?
ReplyDeleteMy apologies, I just noticed your comment. Thank you for the kind remark. I think I used one package of the dressed stone (7mm) from Slaters. Two sheets to a package, each sheet is approximately 30cm by 17cm.
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