Going Norse to meet some Vikings and Saxons!

[Papierschnitzel]

Here are a couple of pics of the interior options I made.


I have packed the floor tile with many options. You could also just have a dirt or floor board version too for a more simpler look.

[Papierschnitzel]

I have released the next set in this series. After the A-frame house, this time come the regular house style buildings.

Again they come in the Viking and Saxon style options and with more roof ornament options and a stone foundation to highlight important buildings of the village.

If you are interested check out the post on my site for more details.

Scatter bits are coming too over the next weeks and months. I have already added a runestone and wicker baskets to my Patreon "Basic Bits" series

Next I will start working on the longhouse or great hall!

[gotham]

Missed all of this somehow - wonderful buildings (again). Just right for adventures in Rohan. 😀

[Papierschnitzel]

Originally Posted by gotham

Missed all of this somehow - wonderful buildings (again). Just right for adventures in Rohan. 😀

My Rohan warriors are bugging me to make some horse ornaments too. I put it on the to-do list

[Damraska]

Your models look wonderful. When I build and sculpt, I often listen to and watch documentaries on history and nature. More than once, after viewing such a program, I considered building a medieval village of Britain set in the long period from after the Roman occupation right up until the Norman conquest. When I was gaming, I would have built it for a fantasy campaign. These days, I would build it as a 1/35 scale diorama.

Some suggestions:

If I recall correctly, reeds were used to cover the floor of most simple homes of the Saxon period. Reeds were readily available and acted as excellent insulation without attracting vermin.

During that period, I believe all homes would have a grain ark. This simple box stands a small distance off the floor to protect the contents from vermin. The top flips over, becoming a workstation for the lady of the house to prepare meals.

Every day, the lady of the house would remove some grain from her ark and grind it in a hand quern. This device consists of two round stones with the top stone having a hole in the center. Grain goes into the hole. Turning the top wheel grinds the grain into flour which comes out from between the stones. This extremely laborious process gives us the expression, "the daily grind". I doubt this matters for a gaming product but it was a very common appliance.

Many an adventure begins with a trip down the well, covered or uncovered. Most villages would have at least one.

Any village of consequence would have a blacksmith and forge.

Archery targets might make a fun set decoration.

The first castles begin to appear after the Norman conquest. During this period, Norman and Saxon architecture coexist for quite some time. If you want to represent that period, a small, simple castle might make an interesting addition.

Christian churches and monasteries exist throughout the Saxon period. If I recall correctly, they tend to take very specific forms. A small village may have one.

You could offer some form of stone circle, a la Stonehenge, though such models probably already exist.

The Domesday Book, compliled in 1086, records 5,624 watermills in England.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for a Great/Mead Hall!

[Vermin_King]

I probably shouldn't jump in on a topic to Chris, but you make some great points.


Every month, Chris offers a 'Basic Bits' piece. I half expect a grain ark and a hand quern in the future. I'm not sure what a Saxon/Viking well would look like.


I also like the reeds for the floor. Many of the buildings used reeds for the roof, as opposed to thatch or other roofing, for the same reasons you mentioned. Smoke holes came very late to the picture. The smoke build up inside created a thermal layer for warmth, kept the oxygen level low next to the reed ceiling which helped prevent fires from stray sparks and also kept vermin from destroying the ceiling/roof.


Chris tries to fill voids in what is available. There are several models of standing stones, blacksmithies and archery targets, so they are probably low on his priorities.


Interesting that you mentioned the Christian churches and monasteries, since this month's Basic Bit is a Wayside Cross. One of these days I am going to go back and revamp my Gallarus Oratory

[sporticus]

Excellent work. These are the sort of things I love to stumble across. Things I don't really need but want anyway! Our group has 15mm and 25mm vikings and saxons but doesn;t use them that often, so paper buildings are a great idea as far cheaper than buying resin ones and a lot quicker than scratchbuilding.

I shall await the rest of the building with interest

[Damraska]

After making my previous post I browsed through all 1,111 offerings in the 3D Cut-N-Fold category at DriveThruRPG. :o

Many of the things I suggested already exist but I noticed some interesting trends.

Almost every model was designed for very low skill builders. That makes me sad because simple lamination techniques will turn almost any simple building model into a pretty darn realistic one.

As best I can tell, very few buildings offer interiors. If I was gaming, I would want buildings with removable levels and roofs. Papierschnitzel definitely got that right with his designs.

Every model was designed for 28mm fantasy gaming. While that makes sense on a website aimed at that genre, many of the models would work great at 1/35 scale--the standard for military modeling--or 1/144 scale--a popular scale for military wargaming. If I was designing models, I would make them accessible to a wide variety of customers.

Water mills are not terribly popular. I only found two. :o

Churches are popular. I found at least a dozen of those.

I really liked Papierschnitzel's ship models.

No one offers dedicated 3D foliage packs including bushes, hedges, and trees. A few extremely simplistic 2D examples exist. One person offered a dead tree in 3D but it looked extremely boxy and difficult to build. One person offered a more organic 3D tree design but it looked rather terrible.

The vast majority of fantasy village buildings use the exact same architecture--white walls, wood cross bracing, some rough stone accents, and a brownish red tile roof. I enjoy that look but goodness gracious, where is the architectural variety and paint? Everything is so drab! Black, Green, orange, red, yellow, and white pigments are very easy to come by in pre-modern times. Elves can grind up some of those blue and purple crystals they always sport and make some paint! Sheesh. Again, I think Papierschnitzel is on the right track, offering buildings in some different architectural styles.

Where are the beautiful elven buildings?

I found very few buildings for gaslight era gaming.

I would offer sets of beds, books, bookshelves, chairs, tables, cabinets, and other furniture from every era from Roman times to gaslight. Yes, I know such accessories already exist but that is the point. The person decorating a gaming space always needs more variety of 'dungeon dressing'. Always.

Treasure chests! Our fantasy realms need lots more treasure chests and coin piles and loot!

Umm, tapestry, anyone? How about some throw rugs to liven up the place.

If I had room to store 1/35 scale buildings I would be dangerous. :/

[sporticus]

I've just tried to but the buildings but am struggling. The Gumroad site doesn't work properly in Chrome or explorer. I tried the other two shops and they only have the basic sets. Any advice?

[Vermin_King]

Go to his website and then contacts.


Actually, here you go ... Contact – Papierschnitzel