Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

It has been a while since I wrote anything about my 300 diorama (The Scene is the Battle of Thermopylae). So here is an update.

 The Diorama is coming along great and is almost finished. I have done 95% of the landscaping, have painted the first series of Spartan Warrior Miniatures and have poured the water. I even built a paper long boat for the water. 

Coming up next is the wiring for sound and lighting. I have also been toying with the idea of using a parallel board coupled with a computer so I could make a show out of it. But I will give this some thought.

Also, I have no clue as to what I am going to do with this thing when I am done so I am thinking about putting it on display somewhere. Let me know if you have any ideas about where I might be able to display it. Can’t stay in my house! It’s two feet by three feet and well, I need the room for more projects.

I am thinking about doing a hobbit home or maybe even a complete shire.

 If you want to learn more about the diorama or are considering making your own fantasy diorama I have a complete tutorial that shows the steps I used to make this diorama here: How to Make a big Diorama

I have also created a tutorial on Painting Miniatures where I show you the steps I took with Painting the Spartan Warriors A Guide to Painting Miniatures

Ditto, My cat, seems to have taken a liking to the diorama. If you have an idea for a place where I can display this diorama sorry but Ditto doesn’t go with it

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I have a couple of medieval castle things I thought you might like to see. First off I have been getting a lot of requests to do some kind of project where you make your own medieval castle out of paper or cardboard. It’s been on my list for a while but I have completed it.

Here is a picture of the project. I posted a full tutorial with lots of pictures on my website. It shows you how to make this castle and it gives you all the required drawings so you can print them out and make the castle. All you need is some glue and cardboard from cereal boxes. It also has a nice fact sheet that points out the main aspects of a castle - you can use it to make this a learning project.

It’s the first of three castles I will be making. The project is located here: Make a Paper Medieval Castle

 My next castle will be larger and based on a real castle. And the third castle will be six to eight feet in size and the kind you make for the kids to play in.

I also have found a little bit about some real castles that I thought you might be interested in. Here is a link to a great essay about the 25 most beautiful castles in the world. Really magnificent castles here and they are spread across much of the world. Of course there will always be some debate about a list like this and there are a few more castles I think should go on this list but it’s a good selection with pictures and background information. Check it out here: The Top 25 Most Beautiful Castles in the World

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I have been into the art of building small catapults for a while now and I have built several different ones. I have even built a few trebuchets. Anyway, on of the best things about a project like this is that once you are done building it you are not done with it. You can play with it and use it. It’s an interactive project that people really enjoy. I have one particular catapult project called “The Table Top Troll” which is extremely popular. I get a lot of visitors to the project and I get a lot of email from people thanking me for it. It’s a totally free project that takes you through all the steps of making a nice little rubber band powered catapult.

To do the project I had to build two of them. The first one was a prototype where I figured out all the details then I built a second one so I could take pictures of the parts and every step of the way. You just need a few basic hand tools and a little wood to make this catapult and it’s a blast.

If you want to do this project then check out my make a catapult projects here:

Make a catapult

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If you want a kit with everything included so you can easily make your own catapult check this out at Amazon.com Easy wooden Catapult Kit

Popularity: 86% [?]