Sunday 23 March 2014

Dark Age Church

And now for that little something extra I pomised last week: if you have a dark age village, you naturally need a big freaking church to raid or to defend (not to mention pray in). So here it is.


The design is more or less copied from the one seen on Lard Island News, but as I had to estimate the measurements from the pictures I think mine came out a little too big. The design posed a couple of interesting challenges – especially the apse with its semi-circle and semi-conical roof took some thinking before I came up with the solutions. Coming up with the solutions to problems like these is half the fun with these projects though!


I experimented a bit with some selected washing on the plaster to get a better "depth" on the model, and I really like the effect. I'm not sure how much it shows on the photos though. I think I will go back and do some washing on the other buildings as well.

The main roof lifts off, to get access to the inside of the building.


A simple dirt floor – this ain't no cathedral.


Unwelcome guests ...


The door is not scratch-built but a resin piece from Antenociti's Workshop. It may be a bit anachronistic, but there you go.

It's a fun coincidence that my good gaming buddy Dalauppror and I both started building our churches at roughly the same time, unaware of each other's projects. His is much more impressive though – go check it out if you haven't already!

Of course, when I'd just about finished this church I came upon another design which I think possibly may be a bit more historically correct – I don't know for sure. Maybe I need to build me another church some day just to be certain ...

Now, all that's left are some peasants to populate the village, and maybe a priest or some monks for the church.

Thanks for reading, have a great week everyone!

28 comments:

  1. It’s a lovely centre piece to your village; you’ve really perfected the weathering on this one! At the same time, this style of church is actually (maybe with a roof upgrade to tiles) very close to how the local countryside church would have looked like in Scania at the time of the Scanian War 1675-79. Trust you are open to bribes, as I hope to borrow this for one or two games - promise the Danes won't burn it down!

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    1. Thank you Șren! That's interesting РI didn't know this early type of church was in use as late as the late 17th century.

      You are of course welcome to use it for a game or two! The only bribe I need is an invitation to the games ... ;)

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  2. May be it is a bit high, but nevertheless is very nice.

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    1. Cheers Emilio! Yeah, it could have been a centimeter or two lower but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out any way.

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  3. A great looking place to pray in, to defend, and to look at...beautiful!

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  4. Superb stuff Jonas! Having built something similar myself last year I'd love to see some WIP shots and hear about your build if you have time.

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    1. Thanks Michael!

      No WIP shots I'm afraid, but if you have any specific questions just let me know and I'll be happy to answer them!

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    2. I was mostly interested in how you achieved the curved end wall. Looks fantastic.

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    3. The curved wall was made by scoring vertical lines in the foam board but not cutting through the bottom card layer. This way you can bend the foam card and shape it into a (semi) circle.

      I drew a semi circle on the base of the model, to act as a guide for the curve, and glued the wall down along the line. At the same time I glued and pinned the side of the walls to the rest of the building.

      Then I just slapped on the filler I used on the other walls, although it took a fair bit of filling before the grooves was smoothed out and made invisible – maybe 3 layers in total. To make this job easier, I would recommend you cut the lines 2-3 mm apart rather than the 5 mm I did.

      Please let me know if you have more questions regarding this! It's easier to do than explain ...

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  5. Beautiful work on a great centrepiece!

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  6. Very impressive Jonas! I have been thinking for the past week or so that I should make some more Dark Age buildings, now I know I should! Thanks.

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    1. Thanks Rodger! As they say, "Just do it!". ;)

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  7. Very impressive work Jonas !!!, I hope you will decorat it on the inside to, and of course some golld to be stolen by the raiders...

    Fells like you almost have a complete willage soon, it will be very nice to see them up for our first game of Raiders Dux Britanniarum later this spring :)

    Best regards Michael

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    1. Thanks Michael! No plans to decorate the inside at the moment but there will of course be some gold and other loot for the raiders to nick.

      Looking forward to our first game of the campaign! I've got an itch to paint up my Romano-Britons now ...

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  8. Great job on the church. I'm trying to think on how I would curve a piece of foam core.

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    1. I'm writing up a quick tutorial that should be up within a week. Stay tuned!

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  9. What a fantastic Church Jonas - looks excellent.
    I made one a few years ago, but I like the scale of yours better.

    http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/saxon-church-finished.html

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    1. Thanks Paul! Your church is very impressive, much more advanced than my plain design. I like it a lot!

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