Dark age church Terrain 30

Still on the terrain shtick. This church is the venerable dapol/ex airfix  church model from 1959, same age as my first car , dapol says they're still using the same 65 + year old moulds and the walls are a bit bendy but at £8 from the model shop in Shrewsbury it's a bit of a bargain I think?  I assembled the walls but with the exception of the bell tower left  the roof off as I wanted a thatched roof . I extended the wall height with foamboard, packed out with some card and added some of the rough brick work plasticard I've used on the burnt out buildings as brickwork, not the block work sheet shown, as that didn't work, I followed the piers down with bits of foamboard and covered them with some card and added a roof made of the same underlay I've done my other half timbered medieval and dark age buildings with. I've seen this church converted  before on a half remembered blog which I can no longer find to acknowledge it but I think it's a useful way of providing my dark age village with a focal point and I'll be using it as a chapel in later periods as well. 

Here it is with the card added to the foamboard and some underlay thatch

 

The image above shows it off it's hardboard base as I've made it detachable to help with storage, there are some foamboard lugs to keep it in position when playing. I've kept the small end roof piece to make a roadside shrine at some point, obviously I've kept the rest of the roof, I just don't have a plan to use it at the moment but as Donnie says, keep everything !

Bit of inspiration, Bengeo old church, it's a Norman church, that is often part of my weekend dog walk, you can see the additions of various finishes from varied periods, obviously not thatched but I'm trying to push it back beyond the 11th century!

Current thatched churches in East Anglia, they've not that unusual there but elsewhere churches were often thatched until they got modernised or updated to show status. These are all thatched in reed and are terribly neat, I wanted something more scruffy, I've seen some rather more overgrown thatch, in more varied materials, which I have tried to emulate.

Given a quick coat of Halfords khaki spray, then some raw umber on the thatch, wet mixed with another brown colour and a raw umber wash on the stone work, some stone colours ( all emulsion) and a bit of flock, seems to work well enough I think and gives my Romano British something to defend, probably with some classical ruins in the background? 

All inspired by Dave Stones Summer of scenery, even if it's a bit more autumnal! This also acts as a kind of prototype for when I start on my equally venerable airfix Roman fort which I'm going to increase in height and  possibly width?

Up next? More terrain, more Napoleonics? Both?

All the best 

Iain