Peel Tower Reconstruction on Semple Loch, Scotland

That’s me just getting around to printing off the various ground-floor bits of the tower and starting to assemble it. It looks a bit rubbish at the moment but hopefully, I’ll be able to spruce it up a bit when I get time. I’ve got a horrible feeling that I might have to enter this into next year’s fest as work is crazy at the moment so little time to work on it.

Still, things to do for the ground floor like adding a plaster effect for the inside walls and stonework for the outside walls, which might be a case of spreading filler and sticking on individual stones.

I made a start on the 1st floor with the next set of spiral stairs printed off and got a set of windows done for both the 1st and 2nd floor. I’m also thinking about the 2nd floor and roof and might stick in a wee tower jutting out there but not sure if I’ll build this out of card or try to make something in blender.

Did a bit more on the 1st floor and stuck together the walls and put in the windows with a wee bit extra carving in the foam to inset them a bit to create a kind of alcove.

As I’ve noticed looking at post-medieval and medieval towers for work you also ways notice the odd blocked-off window or door so hopefully I’ll get away with moving the entrance door from the ground to the 1st floor and no one will notice. Definitely bit of a rookie mistake there on my part as peel towers usually always had their entrances on the 1st floor.

Got the 2nd floor put together but still need to tidy the inner and outer faces of the walls. I did a wee test with sticking foam stone blocks to foamcore but they started falling off when it had dried off so think it will need to be pva possibly with a bit of sand put through it. I will use the filler to smooth all the cracks, gaps and uneven bits in the walls the glue the pesky stone blocks on.

I’ll be starting the roofing soon but will need to stick some nice fancy faux crenelations where the roof will meet the wall. I’m also going to stick in a turret but not sure if this will be done in blender or from odds and sods off cuts of foam and cardboard.

Still chipping away at the tower house. I levelled the walls out a bit by spreading filler over them then I started sticking stonework to the ground floor. I added card and coffee stirrers to create some nice floor surfaces for the 1st and 2nd floors. The roof is coming along nicely but I’ve still to put a roof on the turret, add a few faux crenellations, and stick some card down as roof slates.

I think it’ll still take a fair bit of time to get the rest of the exterior stonework on the walls so could be Xmas before I even get on to painting. Might be able to enter it into next year’s spring clean challenge the way things are going 🙂

God this might be taking longer than building an actual Peel Tower but managed to get a bit of spare time and think I’m at the painting stage for this wee tower.

I glued on the rest of the foam pieces to create the stonework and was starting to lose the will to live when it got to the battlements and the rest of the roof. I remembered watching videos on air-drying clay by the Terrain Tutor and Real Terrain Hobbies (love those guys) and thought I’d try it for the battlement and crenellations. I think it sort of worked but I’m new to the whole sculpting thing so not sure how it will tie in with the rest of the stone work but hoping the painting will cover all my sins.

I finished off the roof and turret roof mainly with thick card but also used coffee stirrers and miliput, the latter to fill gaps and give them a bit of bulk.

I went back into the interior and thought the cellar with the gun loops should have exposed stonework on the walls but I’ll definitely cheat a bit and use texture paint to look like plaster for the upper floors. I also cheated a bit and used a texture roller on air-drying clay for the cellar as I don’t think my sanity would have taken gluing more foam blocks down.

I managed to eventually make a start on painting the tower with the base coats and a bit of dry brushing. I put to use all the tips you can get from Real Terrain Hobbies, Mel the Terrain Tutor and Geek Gaming Scenics. Gave the whole tower a gloss varnish and then put tile grout in all the crevasses and went over with a damp sponge. It seemed to work quite well.

Eventually managed to get the Peel Tower finished at last. I did a bit more weathering at the base of the tower and went on a bit of a Jolly with the grass tufts. Lots of things I wished I’d done differently but still kinda happy with how it turned out.

I’ll sneakily make it a guest star in my Spring Clean Challenge entry by using it in the background of any finished miniature photos. If I’ve time I’ll scratch build and 3D print some furniture for the tower as well which would be quite nice. It may also go on a trip to the original ruined tower it’s based on for a photo shot but that will depend on the Scottish weather playing nice and my archaeologically wrecked knee taking me there.