Section 2 Wrap Up: Medieval (ish) Castle

[SphinxFudge]

Hi Everyone,

Finally after weeks of very slow progress and little time for blender I finally finished my castle for the section 2 wrap up. At first I tried to build Castle Black from Game of Thrones, like its shown in the Intro. But when I startet with the main gate it became way too fancy for a ***thole like Castle Black So instead the whole scene became more of a medieval inspired castle. I wanted to add way more details but that became a bottomless pit and I really want to start with section 3
Hope you like it!

[NP5]

Great castle. Nice details market stalls tents etc. More a wall enclosed town.

[sdoriginal18]

getting some attack on titan vibes form this, great work!

[Miss_B]

@NP5

Nice details market stalls tents etc. More a wall enclosed town.

I remember seeing images of some really huge towns/communities totally enclosed behind castle walls from that era, and always assumed that’s how they all were.

[NP5]

Not really many towns had walls and a castle. But a main castle did not want townspeople to feed in event of a siege.

The ‘perfect’ castle. Harlech built for Edward I.

Buildings inside but not a ‘town’. Living and practical use structures.

Of course there are lots of castles and variety depending on the available ground situation and the era. So you can get away with anything really, and films do!

[Miss_B]

OK, maybe I got carried away with a “town” being inside a castle, but I remember rows of areas with different huts(?), where they took care of different things necessary to keep the folks, and animals, healthy and able to protect the castle, and those who lived inside the walls.

[SphinxFudge]

Woah did not expect a disusion on realistic castle architecture here Of course @NP5 ist totally right! You dont want common folks living in your castle Thats why this scene is maybe less “medieval inspired” than “fantasy”. Though there definitley were walled cities that also contained some sort of main keep. But those would not count as “castle” in that sense I guess.
Also you have to keep in mind that castles came a long way from Motte-and-bailey types before the 9th century, the castle “as we know it” from the 10th to 15th century, up to the fortificated castles and against cannons from the 15th century onwards.

[NP5]

I blame Miss_B for poking my inner historical pedant.

Nothing is wrong in any fantasy world.

[SphinxFudge]

Beeing an Archaeologist and having also studying medieval history myself, I feel the same way and should have seen this discussion coming Actually I am trying to force myself to be less historical acurate in Blender because outherwise at my low level of experience I could never finish any project

[NP5]

lol Oh do not worry most go with anything. I am the odd one that spends more hours searching the web for information and reference than it takes modelling something.

So I can now ask an expert one thing that bugs me. Part of the course makes a dungeon, so presuming medieval ish. But adds crates as an accessory, room furniture. To me they look far too modern. I suspect, they are more suited to a fork lift than human movement. They are very common across the game like 3D things. Now having searched old paintings, etc I see no crates! Now I know they had chests of all sorts of sizes and shapes. even copied one a while back. But the question is would there have been these standard 3D world style crates ever used?

I have found out barrels were mostly not metal hooped, and that can be seen in old paintings.

I guestimated what were later additions!

[Miss_B]

@NP5

I blame Miss_B for poking my inner historical pedant.

Oh, thanks for pushing the blame on me.

[SphinxFudge]

Well my area of research is actual the roman period, so my knowlege on medieval chest carpentry is rather scarce But I will try to share my thoughts based on this image and a quick research I made. The chest from your picture from the Laneham Church dates to the 13th century, it appears in some research papers. There ar definitley some later additions that are more ore less obvious, the key plate beeing the most obvious. Also the four round fittings next to it, which are exactly the parts that you identified correctly as later additions. The other iron bindings might be original. Iron applications are a matter of construction, safety, decoration and of course wealth. In this particulary case they dont seem neccessarry for the construction but are rather just decoration, for they dont seem to have a security purpose.

This chest from the 16th century for example is litterd with iron bindings, which are mostly just useless.

That brings me to the chest legs that you mentioned. A chest beeing elivated from the ground is more protected against pests, humidity, mould etc. Only a Chest for treveling might be better of without legs, because they tend to break. In several papers I found on that topic al lot of chests from that period had legs and ornaments like this one.
One thing that you left out but might be original are the leather straps on top. They might have been part of the original clowing mechanism ore something like that.

That beeing said I can assure you that chests like this one are deffinitly authentic for the medieval period. Bur also they where expensive in production so you would find them in churches or private chambers of wealthy persons. Deffinitly not in in a castle dungeon or a village hut. Mabe a simple version of a chest, but still furniture, especially with iron fittings, were really expensive.

Another thing that came to my mind when I lokked at all the great blender scenes from the dungeon lesson where the existance of crates like these:

I have played a lot of fantasy games myself and it never came to my mind, that crates like we know them are a farly young “invention” when international trade became populare in the modern industrial era (18th century onwards). Normal means of transportation in the medieval time where baskets, leather bags, ceramic and barrels (like you said without iron bindings but with rope, wich also wasnt cheap by the way).

Hope this helps in some way

tl;dr Chests are ok, crates are not

[NP5]

Thanks for that.
The ‘leather’ is in fact more ironwork. I suspect differing times had different means of securing the chest. I guess it started out in a reasonably well off establishment with decorative carving and metal straps. But not as a secure chest. From my looking about the often later chests that have survived with lots of metalwork on them like the one you added, were secure chests, a simple axe would not break them open in moments. Used for valuables and important documents.

Smaller personal chests seem commonplace but not to have survived, any more than an average suitcase would now. Things like sea chests we still think of.

I also thought baskets and sacks, barrels, bales for cloth and wool. Had not considered pots. Though the Roman use of amphora shows it was possible.
Barrels and coopered items used other wood strips as the binding, interestingly. Rope being expensive would explain why. In a few evenings down a google rabbit hole, I found videos of some people still making items of coopering, barrels and buckets, maintaining these wood binding methods.

Likewise, I made my chest ‘as new’. It amuses me how games and such like represent medieval, or similar eras as falling apart, old, etc. When it was actually new or recently built or made, by craftsmen very skilled in wood and stone etc. at the time such games are set in. It is just the few bits left to our time that have lasted centuries of wear that look ‘old’.

[jessbernstein]

Wow! nice work, well done you xxx jess