A Dark Ages house - 2

We have snow on the ground and a nasty wind chill factor here in NW Ohio, so it's time to stay indoors and do some wargaming related stuff. The Dux Britanniarum rules haven't arrived yet, but I made more progress with the Dark Ages house.

I added four pizza box card supports for the roof. The card may or may not absorb moisture depending on the material I'll use for thatching, and the supports will reduce or prevent the warping effect. In the photo above I've begun adding the upright posts around the walls, the distinctive feature of this type of structure. Due to the perishable materials our ancestors used to build their houses and barns, post holes are one of the few signs an archaeologist has that a Dark Age building ever stood on a spot. Placement, size and depth of the post holes give an indication as to the size and importance of the structure they supported.

Next stage - the roof itself. More pizza card, with a shallow cut along the ridge allowing it to be bent to shape. I fixed the roof in place on the end walls using hot glue for speed, but used Aileen's glue on the tops of the interior supports and the side walls for strength. The tops of some of the side posts show from under the eaves, but these will be covered by the thatching.

The means by which smoke was vented from the houses is open to debate, but it's generally accepted that a 'wind eye' in the eaves or the center of the roofline was employed. I've added a small piece of card which will be covered by the thatching to make a raised, covered wind-eye. The posts are nearly done.

The final stage of the main construction. All the upright posts are in place, along with the cross beams on the end walls. These match the height of the side walls, but the center cross beam of the end wall nearest the camera is a bit higher since this space will have the main door to the house. The posts are sections of square cocktail sticks cut to size and length. These sticks are useful because they're longer, wider and stronger than a standard matchstick. I found a box of them in a Dollar Tree years ago but haven't found any like them since, so I use them sparingly.

The next stage will be to slather the walls with a thinned mix of Spackle and acrylic craft paint to get the daub effect. I use Liquid Nails for basing work, and I think I'll try it out for the thatching, since the stuff doesn't break or warp, things which need to be considered for a part of the model which is likely to get a lot of handling. More on this project soon.