How about a Crusader Castle?

Dad is a busy guy. How about a tour of a Crusader Castle today?

Mom and Dad live down south so I don't get to see them much. We do talk via email and Facebook. You can follow him over there and get your own, more immediate updates rather than just the castles I like.

I've never seen this castle in person, but from the details I guess that it's 25 mm.
It's impressive from an angle.
And the side. I suspect this is fairly small, perhaps a little less than 3 feet by a little over 4 feet.
Dad works in Styrofoam, but then adds details of plastic and wood. He skims the structures in plaster to get that texture.
As you can see, he uses a simple dry brush style.
Note the difference from the stonework on the bottom of the walls vs. the plastered look of the top.
One of the painting tricks I picked up from my Dad was an item will look realistic if it repeats the colors from the surrounding terrain.
You can see the castle shares the same colors as the rock it sits on.
This building is obviously worn, another technique that makes an item look authentic.
This angle shows the details of the stairs and such. Funny, this model is made for figures on bases, so their tiny feet can never reach the stairs.
I'm going to leave the last couple of images comment-less, but check out Classical Hack on the web or over on DriveThruRPG.

A walk down memory lane... thru a Motte and Bailey Castle.

The Shell Keep
Overview of the keep Ah, memories. My dad has been a gamer since he was a child. His collection of books, resources and material is unsurpassed. When I was in high school, I needed to write a report on the Middle Ages. Obviously, he wanted to help. What I didn't expect was, he told me to bring my whole class. A horde of kids came in to our house for a lesson on the Middle Ages. Hand on, armor, swords, models, books, and history. On whim.
Gate and decking work. He was always like that. When I was a toddler, I recall a massive Motte and Bailey castle in our living room. And some times part of the dining room and kitchen. It was a huge undertaking. I have no idea where that castle went, perhaps it was broken in our many moves from the projects in Lockport to the Eastside of Buffalo and finally to Tonawanda. It wasn't the only castle he had, it was one of dozens.
Side view These pictures are of a castle in the classic motte and bailey design that I loved so much. I'm not sure when dad started building this, perhaps Dad doesn't know when he started building this, but here it is. Sometime in 2018 or 2019, perhaps. This one is 4 by 3 feet. It's tiny compared to some of the work he has done.
Inner gate detail.  This is my favorite view of the Keep. Dad always painted details on his gates, in classic blue, yellow and red. I am not sure of the historical details of those colors, but these remind me of Dad.
Inner ward This shell keep has 3 inner buildings, with multiple floors. Since this is used for a wargame, the rooves, floors and ceilings come off.
Opposite side view. This is a work in progress, so the exterior details are missing. There will be trees, stones, grass and perhaps water features in the finished work.
Rooves Again, the windows and doors have those colors.
Rooves and floors removed. The interior is incredible.
Second floor in place.  In this view, you can see the doorways leading to the interior spaces. When he builds these things, he scales them 15 or 25 mm. I suspect this one is 25 mm.
Other buildings, rooves removed.  The scale is important because wargamers use a particular basing for the figures. He needs to be able to fit those bases inside the structures.
Possibly a kitchen area. Not every part of the keep is for military purposes. This is a cooking area.
Main gate, roof removed.  I love the way he plans areas to be removed for the game action. This is the main gate.
Walkway of the parapet removed. Latrine area.  And bathrooms in the walls. Waste would fall into the moat, for an extra deterrent.
The Bailey.  The exterior area has a couple of buildings, with thatched and wooden rooves.
Interior with rooves.  The Keep has stone or tile rooves, not show in this image. The smaller building have blue slate. That is my favorite color.
The Keep I love the circular pattern of the keep's ward.
Bailey gate.  And finally, our journey ends at the outer gate.
If you want to see more like this be sure to check out my dad on Facebook and on the web. Classical Hack on Facebook Classical Hack on the web

Miniature Mayhem

My dad calls his rec room, "The War Room". Ah, dad.

Let's rewind for a funny true story. Before my dad wrote his Classical Hack or Knight Hack rules, he played WRG. One convention took place in Hamilton, Ontario so he packed me, all of his figures up and drove. I think we lived in Lockport, NY at the time. It was a supposed to be a short hop, a nice day trip for the boys. 

You know what makes a short hop really long? Tell the border agents that you are going to "a war game in Hamilton, ON". They couldn't find any guns or ammo, but they kept coming across all these little figures.

That was back in the 1970s. Have a look at his "War Room", circa 2016 on Youtube.

Tabletop models at their finest.

Full discourse, this is my dad's video from Facebook. Imagine growing up in a house with this sort of insanity going on, on a daily basis. Instant gamer baby.

If that is what my dad had in mind, it certainly worked.

(Sorry for the slow load times.)

El Cid at the Siege of Augusta
The Cid fights at Siege of Augusta 2019!
Posted by Classical Hack on Sunday, January 20, 2019

Here is another of my Scottish manor houses. In this case what is called a z house. These were called z houses because they had a z design with towers on each end and each tower was juxtaposed to create a z pattern. Common to Scotland and Ireland from 1500 to 1700. I went a little long on the video.
Posted by Classical Hack on Thursday, January 10, 2019

Oh,yeah. Game on.

If you want more, go check out his Facebook page.

Tabletop Game Models at their Finest.

Full discourse, this is my dad's video from Facebook. Imagine growing up in a house with this sort of insanity going on, on a daily basis. Instant gamer baby.

(Sorry for the slow load times.)

El Cid at the Siege of Augusta
The Cid fights at Siege of Augusta 2019!
Posted by Classical Hack on Sunday, January 20, 2019

Oh,yeah. Game on.

J5T - Classical Hack

The links below are paid ads and will take you to DriveThruRPG, respectively. Funny that my site is missing a reference to Classical Hack.

Classical Hack is a full gaming system created and published by Lynne and Philip Viverito. As a kid, I watched epic battles play out in my living room, dining room, basement, garage, and bedroom. At first I was an outsider, then I was a participant.

My parents engaged me in creativity and gamesmanship from a very young age. Castles and knights lurked in every corner of our home. Every house and every apartment we ever lived had a game room. And if it didn’t, any room and every room could be transformed into one.

One of my earliest memories was of a convention in Lockport, New York. My dad had constructed an amazing castle of incredible detail, complete with a custom table to hold it. The whole construct seemed amazingly tall, I couldn’t reach the top standing on a chair.

I recall sitting on the edge of tables as dice were rolled and Romans met barbarians with swords and spears. People played, laughed, and cursed late into the night.

Which brings me to Classical Hack.

ClassicalHack.com is a website dedicated to historical miniature gaming, created by lifelong gamers.

The game system is very period-specific. The series includes:
Holy Hack Hacking by the Book Biblical Warfare,
Homeric Hack Warfare in the Age of Homer,
Classical Hack Warfare from 600 BC to 250 AD,
Hack In The Dark Warfare in the Dark Ages 250 AD to 1000 AD,
Knight Hack Warfare in Middles Ages 1000 AD to 1450 AD,
Pike Hack The Road to Dunbar Warfare in the Age of Cromwell.

To support these rules there are two scenario books:
Classical Hack Rome
Classical Hack Macedonia.

All books, even prototypes were written on Macintosh Computers typically using Adobe for editing and page layout.

You can check out ClassicalHack.com for updates to this great gaming system, or get it from DriveThruRPG.