Callowyn Castle

[Caenwyr]

Alright people, I'm currently in the process of publishing the maps I did for Runes, the Tabletop RPG™, but why limit yourself to one job at the time if you can do several all at once, and all of them in complete chaos, right?

Okay, so a little background for this one. As some of you probably know already, I have been working on a world of my own for the better part of two decades now. Over the years I've published several maps for cities and countries, but never before have I showcased something on a building scale. I have been tinkering with Sketchup for a while though, but this is the first time I've dared to take a Sketchup model and turn it into a building map. Well, I haven't yet, I've just started.

The building I'm trying to map is the castle dominating the small town of Callowyn (close to the eastern border in this map). It's ridiculously detailed, but also very difficult to actually showcase to people. So I started looking for a way to turn it into a building map instead. At first I thought to do a series of cuts, but since all of the buildings have different ceiling heights etc (just like real castles had in the olden days), this would result in a complete mess. Believe me, I tried. So eventually I decided to go for a sort of "exploded view". I'm not even sure if that is the correct term, but you get what I'm going for.

Alright, so first of all here are four quick Sketchup renders to give you an idea of the shape and dimensions of the place:
Callowyn_1.jpg Callowyn_2.jpg Callowyn_3.jpg Callowyn_4.jpg

So basically there's a keep, a chapel, stables, store rooms, barracks and a wall with 4 turrets to finish it all off.

using a ridiculous amount of section cuts, I managed to create a first layer of features detailing the ground plan for each structure:
ground floor.jpg
You can see I used different heights for the keep, the storage rooms and the chapel. The tower in the back is immediately done all the way to the ramparts (but I kept the three others on a lower level so viewers can still get a detailed view if they want).

Then I went on to detailing the remaining rooms in the chapel in what I came to call a "stack". You can see the second floor of backrooms, and on top of that the roof for the entire building, bell tower and all:
chapel stack.jpg

The second stack details the storage rooms and the barracks above them (I didn't draw in the beds, because I'm lazy ). It also shows a cutaway of two more turrets:
barracks stack.jpg

Finally I created a stack detailing each of the floors in the keep and the adjoining tower (it also has the stables roof and the remaining turret):
keep stack2.jpg

Currently I'm in the process of merging all of these stacks in one image. It's a harder job than i imagined! This is what I have at the moment:
Callowyn_exploded_1.jpg

Any thoughts of suggestions are welcome

[- JO -]

Fantastic work, here ! Congratulations !
I can imagine the amount of work...
It's a great map for playing and explaining !
Did you start from a model ? An existing castle ?
To me, it looks like a "carre Philippien", typical castles of early 13th century... Though towers to protect the gate could be added (it's not a critics, most of the castles are far from the typical one due to many reasons, as lack of resources or time)

I don't know if you want to spend more time on this, but I'm sure, an illustration of the whole castle with some surroundings would be great !
After all, you have most of the work with Sketchup ? You could choose one of the view you like the best and draw from that ?
Anyway, I'm very impressed by your work, here !

[Caenwyr]

gee thanks JO! But no worries, I'm still continuing to work on it. I'm still gonna add a legend, a title and of course an illustration of the whole castle as viewed by a visitor. But one step at a time.

So here's colouring!

Callowyn_exploded_2.jpg

Thoughts, suggestions?

[Tenia]

That's so great ! I love how you did the different levels, hard work I guess but the result is superb, go on !

[- JO -]

I looked very carefully ! I can say that there is a stroke missing in the bell tower of the chapel !

Joke appart, I can't wait for the next step !

[Caenwyr]

I looked very carefully ! I can say that there is a stroke missing in the bell tower of the chapel !

Joke appart, I can't wait for the next step !

Worst thing is, I noticed it too after uploading, and it ate me up! I just had to go back and change it .

Of course, while I was at it, I changed a million more silly little things: I added a furnace to the smithy, a ton of bunk beds to the barracks, continued adding colour all over the image, whitewashed the chapel... And then I went on and added two underground levels: the servants' quarters beneath the keep (with a nice little tunnel to the kitchens), and the dungeons.

And to top it all off (at least for this update), I started adding a bunch of white balls where I'll eventually put the numbers for the legend.

Callowyn_exploded_3.jpg

Next up: a sideview cutaway of the keep to better illustrate the double helix style stairs in the adjoining turret: one grand staircase for the nobles and their visitors, and one that takes servants right from their underground quarters to the solar on the third floor. It also has a sneak window for spying on the Great Hall hee hee!

[ThomasR]

When I see you people coming up with such wonderful plans of buildings I tell myself I really have to dive into Sketchup head on ! Great job !

[- JO -]

Wow ! Full of details ! You’re unstoppable !?! And great ideas too !
Very good job !

[Caenwyr]

Updaaate! Yee-haw!

Ahem. I'm a bit too enthusiastic about this apparently. Anyhoos, here's an update with the side view, as promised! Lots and lots of crazy tiny lines that just had to be right, or I'd redo them a million times until they were. The OCD is strong in this one...

Callowyn_exploded_4.jpg

[- JO -]

It never stops ! Great job !I think all your lines looks right !