Dick Turpin´s House

Post number 800 ...apparently
Not the one in Thaxted (where he apparently stayed) but the one across the road from the blue bell Inn in Hempstead.
From there (again, according to some sources..he may have worked as an apprentice butcher in Whitechapel and later had a shop in Buckhurst...it appears record keeping was a bit lax in the early 1800´s) he ran a legal butchers Business and Held cock fights on the grassed area in front of the house.

The whole village finished.
4 houses, 2 Barns, one with a house on the back, a corn silo and a chicken house.
The Haybarrack, beehives along with Fences, a well etc will be  added but as the Basing is done.

Pilgrims - Colonists

All 21 poses from the Imex Pilgrims set, who are destined to become  Bodstonians.

 Hunters/militia. I cut the  Apostles off the bandoliers and added  sachels from the Zvezda French Knights set

 Children. The purply blue tinge on the Turkeys wings has come out in the pic a bit "louder" than in reality

 The bod on the right is described as being a Minister, but after a bit of arm bending he´s now a bookkeeper or Foreman 

Medieval Camp followers (Pt3)

A couple more additions to the camp followers,

Females from the Imex Pilgrims

Priest from Pegasus California Mission Indians set..head swopped and the Boy cut away to produce a sack

Last bod from the Airfix Robinhood set, head swop, sword exchanged for a bag.

 

Mule and baggage from the Nexus  Davy Crockett set..but the head has been bent down to make it look a bit more tired / miserable.

Females from the linear-B´s  Roman Slave Market and Roman Transport sets.

15 so far, 2 children,, 5 males and 8 women...and one mule.

Medieval Camp followers (Pt2)

To add to the previous wagon a couple of stands of camp followers on foot are planned

Conversions.

The  woman and child are from the Linear-B Roman Transport set and have had cloaks added.

The  Bod in the middle from the Linear -B Roman Market set and has had a head swop

The female on the right from the Imex American Pioneers and has a cloak added

 

Bods from various Linear-B and strelets sets. The one hugging his pot is converted from a sitting bod from the Strelets Crusader Transport 2 set.

Second battalion of the 2nd Nassau Usingen - Grenadiers

"Old School" style.
Using bods I converted 35 plus years ago,  bodies from the Waterloo British Infantry and the heads from the Waterloo British Cavalry (Hussars) 
The officer is a combination from, legs = British inf, head = the hussars  and Body from the mounted officer in the Waterloo Highland Infantry set
The uniform accuracy won´t  please the rivet Counters, no swords etc but this is "old School" fun as it was when I first started..no figures to cover the unit wanted so you had to make do. Also,  back then, without the luxury of the web to check up on colours, equipment etc, all one had, if you were lucky enough to have a decent library nearby, was books and they were often not that accurate either.


The uniform colours etc, I took from Alexis excellent site "Les Uniformes pendant la Campagne des Cent jours-Belgique 1815"
The Flag is from Warflag
I wasn´t too sure about a Grenadier Company having a flag but after much (and sometimes confusing) Research I gave up.  I liked   the idea of using a flag and  it is "old School",  ...so the  Grenadiers got one.

The whole allied army so far

Note; I still haven´t got around to sorting the flags out...they are still the wrong way around!!

Goblin Hood

The leader of the Grimm Brothers, Goblin Hood.

The whole gang

Baggage Control (medieval style)

They didn´t have Scanners etc in those days so they relied on physical methods, like in this case poking about with the tip of a halbard.

The set (15 pieces in metal) is called "Vor dem Stadttor" (In front of the town gate) and is available from Fredericus Rex

Close ups
Guards

 Mr wood cutter, wife and son

Dobin and cart

The axle Pins  are bit thin, the hole in the wheels an bit large. I´m no fan of glueing unless there´s no other solution so I came up with this.
Short bit of wire insulation on the axle, the holes in the wheels filed a tiny bit larger and Bingo.

Medieval bedtime/Sleeping Knights

These (the first Batch)  will end up as part of the  Teutonic order 1329 dio
After a bit of research on the sort of Sheets, blankets etc that would be on medieval beds I found contemporay pics showing beds with either very expensive richly coloured or cheap plain bedcovering. but  a lot, rich or poor had either off White or pure white Sheets and pillows.
Seeing as These are "middle class beds, I went for the off White Sheets and pillows and to add a bit of colour variety made the covers (or Cloaks ) a different colour.

There´s also some empty beds…

and together as a dormitory

Gaol and another Farmhouse

The Gaol will be part of the main town, the Farmhouse part of the (nearly completed) Village.

I decided to have to ground floor where the prisoners are held as a stonework construction , the cells being accessed  from the upper floor.

The final Building for the Village is being constructed and then  the basing can commence

A Sad note.
In August this year,  Hobby Enthusiast and, I must say, A really nice Guy, Sven Schmelzer died leaving behind a wife and daughter.
To help Support His family, his Collection of dioramas and Models are being sold and can be seen on the following links;
PART ONE
PART TWO

The Bull - Ambridge

Well..it doesn´t exist....Not the one run by Kenton and Jolene Archer*  but The Old Bull, in Inkberrow,  Worcestershire,  (on which the fictional Bull is based ) does.

No White framed Windows,  the rear and right Hand side walls are made up ( you´d think there would be some side and rear view pictures but I couldn´t find any) and removed the hatch to the beer cellar (in some pics it´s there..others it´s not. )

So..strap some bells around your ankles,  gather around the maypole, hankies Held in the air... ---2..3..4...
"Dumm - de -dumm-de dumm de dumm, dumm -de dum, de da da"

* For those who don´t know, Kenton and Jolene Archer, are characters in a Radio series called the Archers which  is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire (the Dumm - de -dumm...etc) 

There´s detailed maps etc of  how the fictional world of the Archers is laid out, biographies, Family historys, the whole lot..even down to including a fictional ECW Battle, the Skirmish at Ambridge September 1642

Scratchbuilt Windmill

After seeing Tony´s excellent scratchbuilt Windmill (HERE) I realised that "Card town" is  missing one..so...

"In Progress" pics.

Cardboard, toothpicks and a stick from  firework rockets for the base construction.(The Trestle)

The sails had always put me off making a windmill, getting them all the same size being the main concern, but after  a bit of thought a solution is found.

The small block will be the "poll end" (the hub holding the sail arms )  Why are they slightly traingular when virtually all windmill sails are rectangular? I simply liked the look. The Piece at the top is the "Tailpole" used for moving the the mill  to face into the wind ( called winding or luffing )

The Windmill in Situ in Bodstonia HERE

Ancient Roman Harvester (Vallus)

In Roman times a harvester, called the Gallic Vallus,  was developed
Described by the historian Pliny the Elder in 77 AD.   According to Pliny,
"on the vast estates in the provinces of Gaul very large frames fitted with teeth at the edge and carried on two wheels are driven through the corn by a donkey pushing from behind; the ears torn off fall into the frame."
There is another Version with an Ox pushing a similar looking device, and both types appear to have had either teeth or long prongs at the front to rip the corn heads off.

The conductor should be at the back of the frame and acts as a  counterweight and to guide the harvester to the right, to the left, up, down. A conpulsor works at the front,  pressing the ears of corn forward until they get stuck and ripped off  in the teeth of the  "comb".  

The Vallus is built from CD casing, the wheels are from the Airfix Waterloo French Artillery set.



 

The rake is scratchbuilt and the bod is from Linear-b´s Spartacus Uprising Defeat set.

 

A relief from Trier showing a gallic harvester. . How effective was it compared to a scythe? Tests with reconstructions Show that they do actually work and can clear a field faster than with  scythes with as much or as little wastage.