Sunday, February 14, 2016

Building a 12th century Scandinavian Wooden Church

Time to build some war gaming terrain....


I was recruited into a project by my friend Micke(Dalauppror). The project is refered to as "Project F". It is supposed to be secret project. I will not reveal any important details regarding this matter. However Micke gave me an assignment linked to this project. I was supposed to build an early 12th century Scandinavian wooden church.  Finally this assignment has been completed. It took roughly 3 days to build this terrain piece from scratch

The church is supposed to be used together with 28mm miniatures.  The architecture is very much Viking in style.  The Viking era came to close in the mid 11th century, but the transit to mainstream European medieval culture was gradual. The first Christian churches looked more like Viking Halls rather than the Romanesque Churches seen on the continent. The style remained in Norway, but in Denmark and Sweden these wooden churches were replaced by stone churches by the end of the 12th century. 



The base structure was built using foam core. The the foam core was covered by wooden spatulas. I used a scissor to cut them into the right size and shape.







The roof was built using strips of thin card board.




The dragon heads were cut out of balsa wood.



The whole model is painted with a black base coat, followed by moss green. The moss green is applied with a dry brush.




The next layers are different shaped of grey paint.


The final decorations are added....





22 comments:

  1. The painted detailing around the edges really makes this stand out. Well done!

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    1. Glad you liked it Steve! The decorations are quite important. Without them this looks more like an oversized shed.

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  2. Looks good. How large is it? (I plan to build one myself.)

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    1. I had rather strict specifications. The structure is supposed to have a base of 170mm x 80mm. The hight is roughly 120mm( a bit unsure there to be honest). Good luck with your own project! :)

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  3. Fantastic work Jesper! I really like the rugged look of the wood and those amazing decorations.

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    1. Thank you Jonas....you will soon see it at the club.

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  4. Great job!
    I'm looking forward to see it at the club

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  5. Great build and thanks for taking the step by step pictures. I hope it will give me inspiration for future buildnings. Thanks

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    1. Just do it! It's quite fun and not that hard. Just see to it that the meassurements are correct.

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  6. That is a great looking church. It will look great on a large battlefield with more buildings, lots of viking ships and hundreds of figures. Well done.
    Jan

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    1. Thank you Jan! :) I tried to keep things according to instructions

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  7. It could easily double as an Viking-age temple. Add a free-standing bell-tower with a cross on the roof and a few graves nearby = church. Add a few idols, a blood-splattered altar and a yew tree nearby = temple.

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    1. True! In essence this is a Viking temple. When the vikings became christiians they build their new churches in the same style as the old temple.

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  8. Fantastic work! I particularly love the dragon heads and the decoration! It really looks the part - looking forward to seeing it at the show!

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    1. Thank you Sidney! You are more than welcome to come by at Salute! :)

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