posted 03-04-2001 03:47 AM            

If you want round towers, depending on the size of your castle, the centres of toilet rolls are handy, or if you want something bigger, the canisters used for a well-known brand of crisps are good and strong. Likewise, on a similar scale to these larger canisters, the boxes used to package whisky bottles are excellent for rectangular towers (being a Scot - I would know that!).

I'd start by drawing the plan of your castle onto a large sheet of cardboard - there are lots of plans on the following site that you could use as a starting point: http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/Plans/intro.html

**Sorry - the site mentioned above is no longer available - shame, as it was very useful.

The following site has a nice mix of plans and 3D views: http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castle16.htm

Don't worry about being too accurate - it's simpler to build an impression of a castle that fits the materials you have available.

Once you've got your plan drawn, lay out the boxes and canisters that you intend to use as towers (cut them first so that they are more-or-less the right kind of height).

Next lay out strips of card to form the walls between the towers. Once the rough shape is laid out, join the various components together with just a little adhesive tape, just enough to hold them in place.

By the time that's done, you should have a pretty good idea if your castle's the right kind of shape. The next thing to do is to strengthen the whole structure. The cheapest way to do this is to tear up lots of thin strips of newspaper and immerse them in wallpaper paste. When the strips are wetted in paste you then drape them across your castle's main structure. Cover the whole thing with one or two layers making sure you've overlapped the joins. Let the first couple of layers dry thoroughly, and then repeat the whole exercise (I'd repeat it two or three times). When it's all dry your model should be quite strong, and the newspaper can actually look quite stone like, especially if you experiment with layering the paper in such a way that it's not too smooth. Another alternative to using newspaper and paste is to try brown gummed tape - it'll be quicker, but the tape tends to be too thick to mould around corners very easily. Finally, if your budget stretches this far, the plaster-bandage sold for railway modelling is very strong and quick and easy to use (although I'm not convinced it's any more effective in the long run, especially as it requires more effort to paint).

Once your main structure is complete you could add details such as windows, doors, drawbridges - whatever takes your fancy. You could also paint your model (this might be easier before you start adding details).

Something else to consider, is if you want to model your castle as it might have been in the middle ages, or, you could model the castle as it looks today in a ruinous condition (this later suggestion would save you having to go to the trouble of putting on roofs and such like).

Hope your model goes well - if you make a good job of it, why not take a photograph so that it could be added to our photo gallery - it might help and inspire other castle modellers.

Levan

[This message has been edited by Levan (edited 03-04-2001).]

posted 03-14-2001 08:17 AM            

Hm, I'm impressed Levan!