Saxon Church, part 2

If you want a stone wall structure, you can coat the whole thing in filler or tile cement and engrave the stone pattern into the wet material, or use suitable textured plastic card. If the structure is intended to be cob or clay lump, there is a choice too. Basically, you can cover the whole thing with a thin layer of filler, perfectly matching the render-like finish of the original, or use a layer of tissue paper, which also provides a good scale match.

In either case, a good coat of PVA glue applied to the foam beforehand helps to key everything. Mine here uses the tissue paper method. I've found the best stuff is the slightly thicker, rougher hand wiping paper sold for use in workshops etc. It has a good wet strength, and its use is less likely to incur the wrath of my wife than pinching her good facial tissues!

I've found the easiest way is to lay the paper onto the wall, then wet it into place by stippling on diluted PVA.

Door and window frames in almost any case would have been ashlar. This is easily modelled in plastic card or simply thin carboard. There are good examples here of different shapes and forms, albeit generally all of later (and larger!) forms. The quoinwork on the corners of the building usually follows a classic "long / short" pattern. The images here describe this far better than I can. There are a surprising number of quoins even on a building this size! Doors are easily added from card, balsa or spruce strip.

Front view with doors, lintels and windows

Back view

Finally, the roof. Teddy bear fur for thatch is the obvious choice, but shingles, either cut from card or spruce strip, are an alternative, albeit a labour-intensive one. I've thatched, using plenty of PVA to allow me to comb the thatch into place. I've glued small fragments of scrap foam around the bottom of the walls to give the impression it's set in the ground, not simply plonked down!

Construction completed

Painted and with a bit of basework, all it needs is a merry monk somewhere to complete it! Whilst I'm working on that (and I am, I promise!), here's a thegn from Renegade to give a sense of scale.

Enjoy!