So this guy decides to build a church...

After many years of being online I'm finally getting to blogging.  Most of what is posted will be about miniature gaming and modelling (plastic models, not photo model), but there may be a music, movie, or book post every now and then.  Why start now and not two months from now?  The short answer is I finished a terrain piece that I was putting off and others may find something useful in what I did.  I seem to have a lot of stuff on shelves and get the occasional "how'd you do that" question.  I managed to get some projects done and they actually turned out ok and maybe my posts may help someone with a project they've been lingering on.  Now, on to the church!

Where'd you get it?
One of my favorite historical periods is the middle ages.  Why?  There's too much to list (the web loves lists) but it comes down to big bucket helmets and nasty weapons.  Maybe too much Holy Grail as a kid but there it is.  I've collected a good amount of Amorcast resin buildings during my GenCon trips and have added a castle and keep but I was missing a big church to defend.  Since my interest drops off as Gothic architecture starts up I needed something a bit plain.  For this I picked up the 28mm church from  GameCraft Miniatures.  If you're unfamiliar with GCminis, he (Allen) makes buildings and other items in both MDF and foamcore in various scales and periods.  I've found his products to be really well engineered (I believe he's an old CAD master), reasonably priced, and broad in his catalog.  Along with the church I picked up the stained glass sheets for it, a very cool product.  This terrain kit has been sitting on my shelves for too long so I bit down, broke out the wood glue, and started constructing.  I won't go through a step-by-step account but suffice it to say the church went together well and is sturdy.  Allen has a youtube video that gives an overview of construction.  Let's get to some pics so we all know what is being discussed.

The Church at 70% done:

Here are some work-in-progress shots after it was entering the painting stage. The church is assembled, the interior parts are left out except for the end which you can see on the right (the tan colored piece).  The interior is made up of 4 pieces that will fit inside the main structure.  It's mounted on a piece of mdf big enough for the church and a bit on the side. A thrown together statue is also attached to the base.  I primed it all black then drybrushed, heavily, with a light tan housepaint.  I tried some shading with pastel chalk but I think I hit it too heavy in some spots; at least it's not a big, clean, tan building.  The tower is closed up if built as directed but you could put an interior in it, but reaching minis would be hard.  I think it's fine with the top as it is. 

The statue comes from an old mini, a piece of plastic sheet, and a display base from a long ignored gothic armor model kit.  You can also see one of the sconces I cast up along with the plastic strip that replaced the engraved lines, I didn't want to loose the lines with the painting so I went over them with the plastic.

statue

 The front of the church  shows the stained glass, door, and open window.  The door is engraved so it doesn't open; you could change that easy enough.  The tower and church/mdf were primed separately because the inner pieces for the tower need to go in before it was glued to the church front and I didn't want overspray ruining the stained glass.

front

Here's the side of the main part of the church with stained glass windows inserted.  The plastic windows were cut from the sheet (4 to a sheet) and glued lightly to the inner wall pieces, so the windws are sandwiched between the inside and outside walls.  These were left out until the painting was done to avoid ruining them. 

side

 This is an overhead shot of the whole thing, and you can see the interior is sparse.  I've found that if I start putting a lot of furniture and detail inside it just gets in the way of the minis and large gamer hands.  Some other projects can be seen scattered around.

overview

All that's left is to finish the roof and do some landscaping.  So far it's an impressive piece that really makes an impact on the table.  Besides hard cover it takes up room and breaks up lines of sight.  I plan on using it for some dark age games even though it's probably not 100% accurate for the period.  I know it will be in some WWII games!