Medieval Bridge

Wanting to get away from stone bridges, especially in those parts of Europe that the Romans either did not build them in or that had fallen away to local builders, I did a proof of concept project and built one.

Primary supplies were bamboo skewers for the small timbers, woodland scenic grass for the "fill" and then Light Weight Patch and Paint Spackle to texture the ground. The LWP&P is great as when it is completely dry its pure white, very very porous and takes diluted paint as a stain extremely easily. Do not over wet it as it will melt, wait with it under a drying lamp if you want to get it painted faster.

I went ahead and built up the banks of the river a bit, which then defeated the edges of my trees I set in for the shot, though I suppose if I had scrounged around and found a single base tree it might have sat better for the picture. Wheel ruts were done with a fender washer on a bolt rolled through the Spackle before it had fully set up but not right after I had put it on, I gave it about 10 minutes to surface dry a bit so it would not stick to the washer as I rolled it along. I considered and discarded the idea of some sort of wooden side railing as overbuilding the proof project, perhaps it will make it on to the final project bridge.

A final closer shot of the Pilings lashings. The figure is a 25mm Minifigs Scots Irish footman from sooo long ago I think I purchased it in 1969 and affixed a round shield from the Aroura (sp) Plastic Long ship, it came with something like 40 shields per model and for the price at the time was an excellent source.

The whole piece is mounted on a 12" x 12" x 1/8" thick piece of aluminum that I use for proofing pieces.