Sanity check required. Am I being over critical?

[AyJay]

Good evening all.

With my last card modelling project, the church at Goring, I set a very high benchmark for myself and achieved a good likeness of the original.  With my current project, I wonder if I have chosen something so difficult that I was just bound to be dissatisfied with the results?

 

So let's look at it.

The original is the gatehouse of Etal Castle in Northumberland. Which being at the other end of the country, I could only view via google earth.  Already, several issues have become glaringly apparent.  I have attached various pictures. 

Firstly, let's look at the tower on the real castle. You will see that the surrounding around the high level window is very distressed and broken.  This was not apparent at first; you will see that the tower on my model is nothing like it. All the surfaces are smooth. All I can think of doing here is to attack this area with a knife and then fill with DAS Clay.  I have just bought a pack and am experimenting with it.

I have however, made an attempt at layering.  If you compare the image of the wall above the entrance as seen from inside the gatehouse, with my model; I have been using different patterns of brickpaper of card that is offset. Is this a good enough representation?  Fortunately, when complete, the inside will not be easily visible.

Then moving onto looking at an intact wall.  Well the surface is not level, but I am not sure how to reproduce this?  I am considering a test piece of roughly smearing a thin layer of DAS over a scrap bit of card, and then gluing the paper onto it when dry.  I am also considering overlaying the paper with small pieces stuck onto card to represent stones jutting out?  

Someone did suggest that I do the whole thing out of DAS and then carve the stones individually.  If I did it this way, I think my boredom threshold would have protested.

The paper has a glossy sheen to it.  Well that's easily solved, I have a tin of Games Workshop matt varnish somewhere that I have never used.

 

Lastly, how do I reproduce the carved stone window frames?

 

Fortunately, this model will not be front centre.  It will be giving a purpose to one corner.  There is another building at this site which I am considering doing in the same way if I am satisfied with the result.

 

Incidentally.  If anyone reading this lives up in the Northumberland area near this castle;  I would really like to know what is inside the distressed doorway on the ground floor to the rear?  The English Heritage website suggests in their artists representation of what the castle used to look like, that behind this opening was a staircase. This is not clear in the available images.  Is anyone able to confirm what it looks like?

 

Thank you 

 

[DaveF]

 

I live at the otrher end of Northumberland but have a few images as below.

 

If you search for Etal Castle using Google and then select images there are some which may prove useful.

 

Anyway, here are mine taken over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

David

[Mark Saunders]

You are and always will be your own worst enemy!

 

Get on with it as learn to live with knowing where the bodies are buried as no one else will notice!

[chris p bacon]

I live about 20-25 mins away and went there last week for a walk and a cuppa. Unfortunately we don't go that way very often so you're likely to have finished before I could offer any further pictures.  If you put 'Etal Castle' in the thread title you might get a few more offer some pictures.

 

 

[AyJay]

I have done an internet search and there is no shortage of pictures. Unfortunately, many of them are repeats and all positioned for artistic effect and not what I want.

Any suggestions on the best way to disguise the flatness?

[AyJay]

I think that there is a staircase behind that opening. What I really need is a good quality aerial shot so I can see what the top of the walls look like.

[BR traction instructor]

Always good to see modellers stretching themselves and developing new techniques in their quest to satisfy ambition. Some projects will benefit from the development of various techniques e.g. the re-creation of the most ruinous sections away from the main model. You could try three or four different ways of modelling such areas and choose the one that most satisfies your ambition before adding it to your existing progress. Alternatively, Google the modelling of ruined buildings and follow someone else’s modelling journey to gain insight. If this was my project I would have to visit the site and take pictures from every conceivable angle to provide valuable reference material and convince myself that I was making a determined attempt to capture it. Paying someone to photograph the upper works with a drone, or buying my own and learning how to get that crucial detail, most visible on any model viewed from above, would probably be the biggest challenge in ensuring that I had sufficient material to tackle such an undertaking.

 

BeRTIe

[Campaman]

Personally I would go the scribing DAS route, its doesn't take as long as you think it might, and its also very satisfying seeing the relief of the stonework develop as you do t.