Britain of My Mind

I have mulled over this project for some time. Leaping from my Dark Age obsession is the concept of a mythological Britain or rather a mysterious Britain. I image a place with deep forests and isolated tors. A Britain of barrows and standing stones. Bleak and misty ... perhaps an Albion rather than a Britain but still one firmly grounded in the Dark Ages of the 6th-10th centuries.

With this in mind I have modeled a barrow that I am yet to paint. I carved this from hard foam (which I'm experimenting with after years of just sculpting from any old foam that I gained from packaging.) The foam was purchased as I wanted to make some hills for my dark age games, hoping these could also appear in jungle settings.

I carved the foam with a steak knife, sanded the top to make it nicely rounded and smooth, glued it into place with PVA (onto a MDF board) then painted the foam with a watered mixture of a multi purpose filler. Don't know whether to add some additional rubble in the form of sand and pebbles at the base of the stones but I will add a small path of stones leading into the darkened depths.

The barrow is one of the more evocative features of my new setting. I see it filled with latent threat and mystery and evidence of a distant and ancient past. Since these images my daughter and I painted it black and it now awaits dry brushing before I'll flock the top.

It is a perhaps a little large but I had in mind a longship burial. Despite my concerns there is definitely enough room for two or more warriors and champions to fight viciously atop its gentle curve ... perhaps an attempted murder of a king on his way to be crowned or settling a blood feud for a similar act.