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Version 1.0 25/05/02
By Adrian Champion
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Following the creation of my first terrain piece, the timber framed Bree building on this site, I decided to continue creating more scenery for the village of Bree. By far the most important location in town (certainly for the story told in FOTR) is the prancing pony inn. I felt that this would be an interesting piece to make, and set about planning the design of the pub. I wanted it to be a combination of both the movie and book version of the inn, allowing me to pick aspects from both, with the overall purpose being to make the most playable and attractive model possible.
I did consider just making a large 2 storied building and placing a sign on the outside to mark it as the inn. Casting my mind back to the Bree board at the Nottingham games day, I remembered that the Perry twins made their version of the pub with a removable roof. Models could then be placed inside the interior of the building. This idea intrigued me, but I felt that it could be taken a step further. Instead of just making it possible for models to go inside the building, why not make going inside the whole point in itself?
With the basic idea set in place, how to make it a reality? Well the building would have to be substantially larger than I first intended. I would need to create staircases that the models could be placed on, making them playable as well as decorative. The upper floor would have to be a separate section, allowing it to be lifted off in its entirety. If the interior was the setting for the scenario, then it would be important to make it as visually appealing as any external terrain setup. I would have to make it look as much like an authentic inn as possible, keeping to the spirit of the book and the film, while making sure that there was enough room for the models to fight around and over the furniture. This would be a challenge.
Here's how I did it.
The basic techniques for building this version of the prancing pony are exactly the same as that of the Bree house guide already available on this site. I will be including step by step photos for this guide, but I will assume that you have already read about the techniques referred to, and so I will not repeat them here.
The basic outline of the ground floor is cut from artist's card. To make all the subsequent measuring and cutting of walls simpler, I made this lower floor 12" square. The book refers to wings extending back on both sides, so I removed a 6" long, and 4" wide section from the rear of the building, to serve as a courtyard. The whole thing should look like a giant U shape, with the bottom of the U being the front of the inn. This was pasted onto a base measuring 14" square. This base was given rounded corners and a shaved edge.
Now cut individual rectangles of card to make up the basic wall structure around the ground floor. I made all my walls a standard 3" high. This gave me enough height that even a troll could be placed inside when the upper floor went on. The lower edges are glued around the U shaped template for extra strength. You could leave out stage 1 and just glue the walls direct to the base, but without the extra layer of card in place, the structure will be significantly weaker. Also, you would have a real problem with the PVA glue warping the base.
In the book, the pony is entered via a side door, so I cut a doorway in the side wall of one of the wings, 4" from the end. The door is the same size as on my house, 1" wide and 1.25" high. I don't personally like doors to be too large on these types of buildings, but you may wish to make yours a bit taller. This is the only entrance on the ground floor, but not the only entrance to the building.
Using strips of balsa wood, put the basic timber supports in place.
The long 12" base of the U is going to be the main common room of the pub. This wall is also the front of the building, and has the main windows. I made these the same as the house, but double the width.
As you can see in the next 2 pictures, I added a few details to the outside of the building. The left of the building has the entrance, and I framed it with 2 lanterns to guide weary travellers. These pieces came from the GW mordheim accessory sprue (£2 from mail order) and glued into holes drilled into the ground. I removed the excess "spikiness" from the lanterns first, as that seemed out of place in the more realistic setting of middle-earth. The sign was placed halfway along the front of the inn, glued into a small hole drilled through the timber frame. This sign was made by cutting a square of card and gluing it to the end of a plastic rod (I used the end of a cannon ramrod). I glued a strip of paper over it to make the sign secure.
The right hand side of the building has a small window to the parlour, but apart from that was pretty plain, so I added a ladder built up from balsa rods, and 2 wheels from the GW warhammer cannon sprue (£5 from mail order. This gave some crucially needed detail to an otherwise plain side.
Now in the book, when the hobbits enter the door of the inn, they talk of barliman butterbur bustling past with a tray of mugs. I decided to echo this by making the left wing the kitchen, so that the inn door is between the kitchen and the common room. I cut a rectangle of card to wall off the kitchen, and removed a small piece for the door. This was glued into place, and the corners and joins of the interior walls were covered with a strip of balsa. I glued this interior timber on diagonally across the joins, for no other reason than it looked good. It seemed to give a more substantial feel to the look of the inn, and that was good enough for me. I added a small balsa timber window to the kitchen, making an identical version inside and out. In the picture, you will also notice a row of coat hooks opposite the main entrance. This was one of the first details I made, and was simple some hooks from the GW warhammer cannon sprue mounted on a strip of balsa.
To decorate the kitchen, I build several pieces of furniture. The shelves were simply 5 planks of balsa glued together to form the unit in the picture. Very easy to make. By the door, I glued down a couple of small crates that were pre-made models from a railway model shop. I placed them so that any defender could use them as an obstacle to hide behind, making the kitchen a great place to make a last stand. The old fashioned cooking range was made by gluing rectangles of card to form a box shape against the wall. Another square of card formed the door on the front (where the fuel goes in) and a small plastic shield formed the cover to the fire. Small plastic dolphins (again, from the cannon sprue) formed ornate handles to both of these details. The hood to the cooker was part of the mortar from the cannon sprue. I was certainly getting full use from the spare parts from that set! The cooker may look a little strange if you have never seen one of these, but trust me, once it's painted it does its job. Once you tell someone it's a cooker, they never see it as anything else.
Cutting rectangles of card, I made a U shaped bar in the main common room, as seen in the film. Later, after I bought some larger blocks of balsa, I wish I'd used them to make a more substantial bar, but it just goes to show that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
I then cut a single U shaped piece of balsa to form the surface of the bar. When gluing this, or any other piece of furniture down, make sure there is room to place miniatures around and between them. I used elendil as my test pilot, as he is a tall and beefy figure. If he fits, then any model will. I made sure that the gaps at the rear were large enough for him to stand in. The bar is now a very defensible part of the model. 3 models should be able to hold off an army from behind there!
All that remained was to put up a balsa wood shelf to put some drinks on. The barrels came from the cannon sprue, and the ornate spigots are little dragon decorations from the same sprue. By cutting off their tails and gluing them in place, the bar is now able to boast 2 barrels of "Old dragon", the strongest brew in the shire. The guest register is a book from the mordheim accessory sprue. I later cut the chunky ends off of the cannon ramrods to make some bottles for the bar too. So long as something looks vaguely the same shape, and is painted accordingly, then it will be accepted as such. On the right of the bar is a "horse brass". These are traditional pub decorations in England, consisting of black leather strips with ornate brass circles on them. I used a piece of thin card with 2 wolf medallions from a warhammer knights set. Anything small and round would work for these, and lots of sprues have something that would be suitable on them.
I added a couple of strips of balsa to the front and side of the bar to make it look and feel a bit more substantial. I added a bunch of plastic cannonballs placed on a wooden shield to be a plate of apples. Balls of putty would suffice for this. Behind the bar is a club from some other GW figures. Every barman has a hefty stick under the bar to deal with troublemakers, and barliman is no different. This photo also shows the floor off nicely too. I cut small squares of thin card (I used old train tickets) to represent flagstones. I didn't feel the need to cover the entire floor, I just wanted enough texture to fool the eye into thinking that the whole floor is made up of stone. When painted, the effect is very satisfying.
Right, that's the bar sorted. Now we need to make the rest of the room into a playable and realistic looking pub common room. Along the wall near the entrance I built a fireplace from rectangles of card. I made it so that you can place the fire from the weathertop box set inside. A pile of balsa rods next to the fireplace makes excellent firewood.
The windows were duplicated on the inside of the main wall. If you were to make this from foam core instead of card, then you could cut them out instead. I prefer to make them my way, as then I can wait until the walls are up to decide where I want the windows to be. By making the windows on the inside match the outside, I will be able to have archers fire from inside the building.
The rest of the wall space looked a little bare, so I needed to find some way of decorating it. Lots of traditional English country pubs have old agricultural equipment on their walls. Those I don't have, but my bits box is full of warhammer weapons. They may be too big to use for LOTR figure conversions, but they make excellent scenery. I decided that my version of the prancing pony would have a collection of weapons up on the walls, mementos of travellers from the past. Spears, shields, swords and bows. Once painted, these help the place feel lived in.
The tables are planks of balsa wood, and I used thick plastic macdonald's straws to form the supports. On the second rectangular table I made, I made it easier on myself by using a thick balsa wood block as the base. A circle of balsa on a straw formed a smaller table. The chairs were 2 rectangles of card on 4 small balsa rods. I tucked these under the tables to avoid them getting damaged or getting in the way. The tables are sturdy enough to place models on top, 1 on the small table, and 2 each on the larger ones. They can be used as barriers, or as higher fighting ground as required. The tankard is a piece of plastic pipe with a handle from a plastic model kit. I placed this on a fragile corner to prevent models being placed there.
It was only later on in construction that I decided to add a strip of balsa all along the top edge of the inside of the building. This gave it an extra level of sturdiness, and improved the overall look of the piece. Also, I added a vertical support beam near to the staircase from a thick block of balsa. I would have liked to have had more of these as they look great, but they would only get in the way of gaming. No point in looking good if you can't fit your hands in to move the models.
The right hand wing of the building will contain the staircase to the upper floor. 2 rectangles of card are used to form a support for the landing, halfway up the wall. I made this landing slightly wider than a models base, as I wanted to be able to place my figures there. A strip of card was glued to the wall to support the landing.
2 more rectangles of card are used to join the landing to the upper and lower floors. You will want to make these to form a 45 degree angle, and will need to measure them accordingly. With these in place I started to cover the stairs with wooden planking.
The steps are glued on horizontal to the ground, and a strip of balsa, is attached to the edge of the stairs to give them stability. This strip is cut with triangular ends to fit neatly against the floor. At the landing, it extends over the level of the steps, and another strip of balsa forms the base of the hand rail there.
Lastly, there is just a handrail to add. A row of balsa rods of identical length are glued to the edge of the staircase, and another balsa strip is glued to the top of these to form the hand rail. Not too tall, it should be about halfway up an average models height. Don't worry that the handrail extends over the height of the walls, as the upper floor will have a space in the floor to accommodate this. The handrail will form part of the scenery of the upper section :)
At some point you were probably wondering why the pony only had a single small door into the building. Several reasons why I chose this. Firstly, I wanted to limit the numbers that could get into the building at one time. A big set of double doors would allow screaming hordes to floor into the inn, and would not be very defensible. Also, as the existing Bree scenarios all feature ringwraiths, lots of entrances would not help them much, as if they are separated, then Aragorn will make short work of them. I imagined a long chase through the pub, with the nimble hobbits climbing over and under the tables while the nazgul had to go around the obstacles. Another exit would be needed, but on the upper floor. That way, the hobbits could be chased into the pub, spiralling their way up the building through the common room, up the stairs, through the bedrooms, and out onto an external stairway at the rear of the inn.
I glued 2 squares of card to the side of the courtyard wall, both about 1" square. These were supported by balsa rods at each corner. The top square was glued to the top of the wall, and the other about halfway down. I left enough space in between so that they could be joined at a diagonal angle of 45 degrees.
More balsa planks were cut for the steps, and the staircase was formed in the same way as the interior stairs, but without the card support to glue the steps to. The steps are all glued horizontal to the ground to one of the side pieces, and then the other side panel is glued on to lock them all into place. It goes without saying that they will all have to be of equal length for this to work. I planked over the landings, and added a railing in the same manner as step 11.
In this picture you can see a preview of how the upper floor will sit on top of the building.
This floor of the building is now complete, and is ready for undercoating.
Give the whole building a good heavy coat of black primer.
There really are only 4 real stages to painting the building. The wood, the floor, the walls, and the details.
For starters, get yourself a half inch brush, and a pot of scorched brown and paint the entire model except for the floor. It took me an entire pot to finish just this level of the building, so be warned.
The floor is painted codex grey. Once the paint is dry, give it a wash of watered down black ink, and then drybrush on the codex grey again.
With the floor now finished, drybrush snakebite leather over all the wood surfaces. The windows are drybrushed with a little boltgun metal.
The outer walls are painted bleached bone and the inner walls are left as the scorched brown. These can be dirtied down a little, to add an extra sense of realism, but look fine as just plain colour if you wish.
The basic building is now fully painted, and all that remains is to pick out the details, and paint up the decorations. I'll point out some of these as I give you the guided tour.
Welcome to the prancing pony.
Awaking in the night, pippin starts to feel peckish after the trials of the day. He decides to head on down to the kitchen to liberate some snacks. An unwanted guest appears out of the shadows………
The range was painted black, and then drybrushed with tin bitz and then chainmail. The boxes were given a snakebite leather undercoat, and then drybrushed with bleached bone to give a light wood effect. The metal bands were picked out in chainmail.
Running out into the common room, pippin calls out to strider, who rushes in carrying a brand from the fire, just as the rest of the wraiths start to surround the poor hobbit…..
The tankard was drybrushed with chainmail, and the guest register was painted snakebite leather, with bleached bone pages. A scab red bookmark is over the lines of black writing. The bottles are painted regal blue and dark angels green, both with codex grey highlights. The barrels are painted in the same manner as the boxes in the kitchen, with a bleached bone drybrush over a snakebite leather basecoat. The spigots are drybrushed with first tin bitz, and then chainmail.
Aragorn swings the brand wildly, and manages to drive the nazgul back long enough for pippin to make a break for the stairs, but the wraiths will not be denied……
The horse brass is painted chainmail, with a shining gold drybrush. The apples are scab red and dark angels green. A little yellow is added to the base coats to add highlights. The rams skull mounted on the wall was drybrushed snakebite leather with a bleached bone highlight. These colours seemed to work on everything, with the added bonus of unifying the pieces. The metal parts of the weapons were picked out in chainmail.
Running for the stairs, pippin and strider hoped to reach the upper floor. Once there, they could barricade themselves in and wait for morning. But the witch-king was not about to let his foes escape…..
In closing
Well, that's part one of my prancing pony building guide. There is still a lot of work to be done to finish the building, but it is taking shape nicely. Apart from knowing that I wanted 2 floors, with a removable roof, this has been made on the fly, with no plan and no planning. Had I known some of the things I was going to do, I would have gone about things in a slightly different manner, but the end results are more than I could have ever hoped for.
The upper floor - Larger than below, with overhanging eaves, and removable roof. Now I just need to work out how to make bedroom furniture, and plan the layout of the upper floor. I may have some kind of external balcony structure to allow more routes through the pub, but that remains to be seen. I'm still playing it by ear at this point. Expect this sometime in june. I need to take a break from the building to get some minis painted up. You wouldn't want to see the same 7 figures in the finished model now would you?
Scenario competition - Once the final layout is decided, I will be running a design a scenario competition. All the best scenarios will be posted on this site, and the winner will receive a blister pack of minis, up to the value of £6. Could be a good way to win yourself a mounted arwen figure. The most unusual or innovative design is most likely to win. Any scenarios featuring a straightforward battle are going to the bottom of the pile. Get creative people, and win yourself a prize. And yes, I am trying to bribe you into writing me some scenarios :)
Battle report - I will try and make the winning scenario into a battle report (painted miniature collection willing) so you can see the benefit of having a large internal terrain piece like this.
Wow, writing this took nearly as long as building the bugger. If you're still reading at this point, thanks for your time. And remember, this was only the second piece of scratch built terrain I have ever built. It's not as hard as it looks, so get building, and good luck.
Adrian Champion
Champion2k@ntlworld.com
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