Design Workbench Preview 15mm Wargames Wooden Norman Castle

Workbench Preview – 15mm Norman Plank Bailey Series

Jul 9th, 2010 | By Garry | Category: Workbench

Apologies for being a little late this week with another preview from the buried treasures unearthed when I recaptured my design bench a month or so back. I’d completely forgotten about this set, which was started something like 5 years ago and had been boxed up amongst models to return to, for about half that time.

Introducing the roughs for what was originally intended as a 15mm Feudal Norman temporary plank / log Motte and Bailey castle set, targeted at the 11th and 12th Century Conquest period. Looking afresh at the models, it occurs to me that they could also double-up as Roman frontier walls for the turf and palisade era and segments – as discussed in the Hadrian’s Wall previews over the last three to four weeks.

The only “design flaws” being the arched gates and the redoubt type wall section. However, although the gate could be passed off without too much worry, the redoubted wall section could have appeared in Roman siege encirclements, although there’s no evidence of it appearing on frontiers.

I still have to make wall corner sections (both angular and curved), some interstitial towers, and both concave and convex wall curves. While I’m working on those, I might as well make a more Romanised gate-tower as shown a few weeks ago in the Hadrian’s Wall articles. Question would be, whether the vertical planking would pass as Roman, when the reconstructions at Vindolanda are showing horizontal boarding to create the walls and towers – what do you think? Post a comment below. Would you buy this style for use with Romans, or prefer designed specifically for them?

Here’s the eye candy (apologies for some of the blurred images – camera is on it’s last legs) …

Gatehouse front and rear