Highland croft

[Tapcho]

The general idea of this diorama is to portray how a Highland croft might might have evolved from the late 18th century to modern times. I surely don't know if this kind of evolution in a farm ever happened anywhere but I don't let historical facts to limit my imagination here.

Crofter is a tenant farmer and you can read more of that particular land leasing arrangement here.

The models I'm using in the work are created by Zippy (Andrew Snowdon) (Andrew zippy here at PM.com). Fine delicate and well designed architectural model I've never seen before until Andrew appeared here. Thanks for this inspiration goes directly to him.

Here's what I have achieved so far:

The old croft building is a very primitive form of living space. Soil floor, open fire on the ground and animals and people sharing the same space. I made few modifications to the mode: I wanted the roof to be thatched and also show also the typical way to protect this kind of roof from the gale winds and elements - that is the stones hanging on ropes or wire on top of the roof holding it in place. They form a very decorative 'chain of pearls' around the house too. So the roof and all it's detailing is by me. Andrews model comes with an interior and I spiced that up too. Few benches, some shelves and other accessories and a fire place in a form of ring of stones. I'll try to take better pictures of the interior later.





The scale cube is a 1'' cube and the scale of these buildings is about 1/100 (I use Andrew's HO model and I printed two of those pages on a single A4).

Next building is the never croft building. People moved to live on their own and animals got the old one for themselves.



This one has interior too, two fireplaces at each end of the house and a wall to separate it into two rooms. I opted the corrugated roof and added chimney pots on top of the chimneys. I also added a remnant of an old stone wall on one corner of the building. I know it looks a bit funny now but it'll blend to the landscape better I hope. Interior photos will be shown later when I finish the work there.

A farm needs a barn and Andrew has that too. Behind the barn I fabricated a place to hold timber, something you need all the time when running an agricultural small enterprise. The other addition is the roof over the upstairs door. Something else might appear to this building later so stay tuned.





Andrew has a model of a village hold (maybe from the middle ages) and that I turned into a pigsty. I've saw somewhere a picture where the outside fence of the sty was formed from big chunks or plates of slate so I tried to create that here too. Maybe not a typical highland feature but I like it. The roof is done by me, thatched roof and an other way to hold it with logs of wood.

The round stone wall is Andrew's stone age hut model without the roof. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with it but we'll see.





And here's the bunch together in a group photo:



These models are relatively easy to build and the only challenges I've had are caused by the down scaling and the a bit too heavy paper I use. I'm going to create a scenic base for the models to show how all this could sit in the farmland and that will be the next task. And to build the main building of the farm too. So more to come.

Warm thanks to Andrew for the fine models and I hope you all enjoy seeing these gems being built.

Tappi

PS You can find Andrew's models that I've used from the download section/architecture:

Highland croft
An other croft building
Stone Barn
Village keep or lock-up
Stone hut
Modern stone farmhouse

[Tim Crowe]

Great work on the models. Looking forward to seeing the diorama

Tim

[hangman]

Taappi,your little buildings look great,i am looking forward to the diorama.last time i was in wales i purchased a paper model of a roman town in the roman museum at carleon? i may have to dig it out

[nighthawk78]

Great looking buildings. Following with interest,
NH78

[Tapcho]

Thank you all! I'm cutting the parts for the main building right now. Ready to post pictures perhaps tomorrow. And hangman: after the Mustang do that roman town. It would be nice to see it.

Tappi

[legion]

The first building reminds me of McClouds home in the first Highlander movie!

[mauther]

Stunning models, Tapcho! Thanks for these nice photos!

Greetings from Brazil!

Mauther

[silveroxide]

Great little buildings and they can be used for tabletop wargaming as well, like EPIC, Necromunda, LOR, Normandy battlefields and more. It will require some upscaling and downscaling as needed but great diorama buildings.

[Don Boose]

This is a fascinating project. I really like seeing how the design of the structure evolved over the years.

Don

[Sakrison]

Many thanks to Andrew Snowdon for these goodlooking kits. I'm building several as gifts for my Scottish friends--and for myself (half Scottish).
--David