The Crusaders came back.

 I couldn't resist getting some Crusaders out to man the castle.

That really took me back.

The castle project

I wanted the castle to look like it had been made from stones, but I didn't want to make it look totally different to the way my Dad had made it, so I bought some foam to work on some of the walls but decided to leave the tower walls as they were.

I needed to repair the wood in a lot of places, using wood filler (quite a lot of wood filler) but wanted it to look as realistic as possible and so decided not to worry about sanding it down completely smooth. I wanted to leave a bit of texture to the walls.

I then drew, with a biro, the stones into the foam which I had glued to the walls. 

I thought I'd do something with the arrow slits as well, and used foam to give them the effect of standing out from the tower walls a bit.

I did sand the wood filler a bit, but not too much.

And then I painted the whole thing with a grey acrylic pain from the local HobbyCraft store.

A black wash., filling all those cracks and bringing out the texture on the tower walls, worked really well.

I then added white to the base grey paint and dry brushed the stones and tower walls.

and painted the drawbridge a darker richer brown, and gave it a dark brown wash to highlight the planks.

I did some work on the inside too, wood filler in the tower tops to give the feeling of stone floors, and it was done.

I think Dad would have been pleased with it.

It was a pleasure to do it, and took me back to those simpler times.

The castle my Dad made me.

When I was around 7 I was hooked on TIMPO figures.

Cowboys... Knights... Crusaders... Romans. 

Every week I'd go to the local toyshop in Sydenham and spend my pocket money on a figure, or I'd save up for a Jail or a Wagon.

I loved pitting the Romans agains the Cowboys. Anything went really. 

And the one day my Dad turned up with a castle he'd made me out of wood.

I've still no idea how he kept it secret. It's a big thing and we lived in a 2 bedroom flat on the 4th Floor.

My Dad was always great at mechanical things and making stuff out of, well, anything really.

This was perfectly sized for my TIMPO figures and even had a working drawbridge.

I played with it for years, but like all things I guess, eventually I grew out of it and it was passed on to other family members, I think initially a cousin and from there I don't know.

About 15 years ago my Mother managed to get it back. 

It was a bit battered and people had added little bits to it over time, the shield above the drawbridge for example.

There were no figures so I bought some from Ebay and Toy Fairs and, well, wherever I saw them. And I stored the treasure away.

I told myself that one day I'd repair it and see if I could upgrade it a little.

And then time passed.

And earlier this year my Dad died.

He knew how much I treasured the castle as a young boy but I don't think he knew how I still treasured it as an adult.

I decided repairing and upgrading it would be my next Project.