How to build a mini stone castle in the country. Sand castle - for centuries DIY decorative locks for the garden
I, like some of you, had an idea-fix to do something pleasing to the eye against the backdrop of a country landscape. The choice fell on a mini-castle, since it is the easiest to enter it anywhere in the site, taking into account its geological features. Moreover, you can build creatively, adding or changing its elements on the go.
The main material is sand and cement for the longevity of the composition. After experimenting, I settled on a composition of 2 to 1 (i.e. 2 parts sand and 1 part cement). Sand is best dried in the sun, then it is easier to mix with cement, and also sifted for use in elements with fine detail, as debris can ruin the part.
The castle has a fairly decent volume, so building it all at once is unrealistic. To do this, first I make separate parts of the castle, so that later I can build it from cubes in a couple of days. The last, third castle was assembled in two days. Neighbors thought he fell from the sky when they saw him.
So, consider the elements of a typical design.
Let's start with the towers. A cylinder of the desired radius is rolled up from a sheet of iron (I have about 2-30 cm). The cylinder is fixed with wire or self-tapping screws so that it can be easily disassembled later. Anything is placed inside the cylinder - bottles, cans - to reduce the consumption of the solution, but the thickness to the ballast must be at least 5 cm. Fill with a fairly thick solution. We give him several hours to set to such a state that when the formwork is removed, it does not crumble. You can choose the height of the cylindrical formwork yourself. It can be equal to the height of the tower, or less, but then the formwork will have to be disassembled and assembled above the already seized lower part.
We immediately begin to cut the raw, slightly seized solution. The cutting technology is the same as that of the sandboxes. For cutting, I use a set of tools available to everyone. I have these screwdrivers, chisels, a medical scalpel, a hacksaw blade for metal and various strips of tin to form various architectural elements.
A simple cylinder is boring, and this is where the flight of fancy begins. I make various grooves by wrapping a cylinder with a long strip of tin, using this strip as a guide, with a screwdriver or chisel I choose annular recesses. Then, in the lower part, you can imitate masonry, destruction, chipped plaster, cracks - after all, the castle is ancient.
For me, aging is the most exciting part of the process. At the same time, we do not amuse ourselves with making windows, loopholes, picking out the desired recess with a knife. If there is a desire to make a turret in the upper part of the tower, then we turn off the cylinder with a diameter a couple of centimeters larger and a height of 10-15 cm, insert a plastic bottle inside to save the solution (after complete setting, it will be removed).
We fill the form with a solution and, after partial setting, carefully remove the cylinder formwork and make the required number of windows, teeth - as fantasy tells. I cut the teeth with a hacksaw blade for metal - I make cuts of the required depth and pick off the excess solution between the cuts.
The roof can be made from tin cones, and you can use this tin cone as a mold for pouring mortar (I do this). After complete setting, carefully knock out our roof from the mold. Do not forget that we are still preparing individual elements of the castle. We'll put it all together later. So we figured out the tower. We have all the elements ready and stacked somewhere in the corner.
Let's start building walls. Our walls will be either fortress (1) or an element of the building (2).
There is no difference in their production. We assemble a rectangle of the required size from boards 5 cm wide. We put it on a flat surface (I have an old kitchen table) having previously placed either a film or a piece of roofing material so that the solution that is then poured in is not absorbed. You can place a metal arch in this frame - this will be a door or gate. Pour the solution into the frame. Where no windows or doors are planned, gravel or broken bricks can be poured to the bottom to save mortar. After the mortar is poured to the desired height, you can take pretty pebbles from gravel and poke them at the base of the foundation so that they protrude with flat edges above the general plane of the mortar by about 5 mm.
If there is no gravel, then after partial setting with a sharp knife or scalpel, you can imitate the foundation. You can also mark future windows with pebbles. Thus, your task is to make such flat elements. To speed up, I make 2-3 such rectangles at the same time. Having made such a wall once, you will understand that they are made easily and very quickly. As a rule, we are interested in the outer side of the castle, the inner part does not represent anything, because it is not visible.
So, after a few hours, the solution of our future walls seized very (!) This moment so that it was malleable, but did not collapse, and if it was overexposed, it would be difficult to process. We carefully disassemble the frame and we are left with a flat rectangle on the table. If you are making a wall with teeth, then we make the gaps between the teeth by gradually removing the solution with a flat tool (I use a metal ruler for this). Next, loopholes and windows are made. Draw whatever your fantasy tells you. To remove the remnants of the solution, I use a soft brush (probably seen in the movies how archaeologists work). In the end, you will have something like the following on your table.
Leave the finished walls for about a day on the table. Then they can safely be removed from the table and also put in a corner. When the required number of elements has already been made, we select a sunny day for mounting on suburban area. There is another important point here. The castle looks more beautiful on some kind of elevation, on a pile of stones. So prepare a foundation for it. If you use stones, always place the stones on a small layer of mortar first. If this is not done, then the stones will move over time and destroy your beauty.
When the foundation is prepared, we proceed to the assembly. First, we install it on a cement mortar previously applied to the foundation, for example, tower No. 1. We attach wall No. 1 to the tower for mortar. Then we install the tower number 2.
The castle is already beginning to take shape. You are filled with excitement. Next, add wall No. 2 and finish with the installation of tower No. 3. My towers were heavy, so men need to tinker. Thus, at this stage, we got this design (top view)
But wall #2 will be part of the building, so I take some bricks and form a rectangle of this building. In order to prevent the solution from getting into windows or doors from the inside, I close them from the inside with something flat (I use pieces flat slate or fragments of flat tiles).
I have the inside of the castle hidden. But if you want her to have beautiful view- you need to make both wall No. 3 and inner part for a monolith, fill it with concrete mortar or fill it with construction debris.
When this structure grabs, form over the building gable roof. It takes me two or three bricks to do this (a mortar is thrown with a spatula and leveled under a cone).
So, from the main basic elements, slightly changing them depending on the fantasy (for example, if you are tired of round towers - make rectangular formwork and the towers will be square, etc.) you can make a complex castle - like this for example.
I, like some of you, had an idea-fix to do something pleasing to the eye against the backdrop of a country landscape. The choice fell on a mini-castle, since it is the easiest to enter it anywhere in the site, taking into account its geological features. Moreover, you can build creatively, adding or changing its elements on the go.
The main material is sand and cement for the longevity of the composition. After experimenting, I settled on a composition of 2 to 1 (i.e. 2 parts sand and 1 part cement). Sand is best dried in the sun, then it is easier to mix with cement, and also sifted for use in elements with fine detail, as debris can ruin the part.
The castle has a fairly decent volume, so building it all at once is unrealistic. To do this, first I make separate parts of the castle, so that later I can build it from cubes in a couple of days. The last, third castle was assembled in two days. Neighbors thought he fell from the sky when they saw him.
So, consider the elements of a typical design.
Let's start with the towers. A cylinder of the desired radius is rolled up from a sheet of iron (I have about 2-30 cm). The cylinder is fixed with wire or self-tapping screws so that it can be easily disassembled later. Anything is placed inside the cylinder - bottles, cans - to reduce the consumption of the solution, but the thickness to the ballast must be at least 5 cm. Fill with a fairly thick solution. We give him several hours to set to such a state that when the formwork is removed, it does not crumble. You can choose the height of the cylindrical formwork yourself. It can be equal to the height of the tower, or less, but then the formwork will have to be disassembled and assembled above the already seized lower part.
We immediately begin to cut the raw, slightly seized solution. The cutting technology is the same as that of the sandboxes. For cutting, I use a set of tools available to everyone. I have these screwdrivers, chisels, a medical scalpel, a hacksaw blade for metal and various strips of tin to form various architectural elements.
A simple cylinder is boring, and this is where the flight of fancy begins. I make various grooves by wrapping a cylinder with a long strip of tin, using this strip as a guide, with a screwdriver or chisel I choose annular recesses. Then, in the lower part, you can imitate masonry, destruction, plaster chips, cracks - after all, the castle is ancient.
For me, aging is the most exciting part of the process. At the same time, we do not amuse ourselves with making windows, loopholes, picking out the desired recess with a knife. If there is a desire to make a turret in the upper part of the tower, then we turn off the cylinder with a diameter a couple of centimeters larger and a height of 10-15 cm, insert a plastic bottle inside to save the solution (after complete setting, it will be removed).
We fill the form with a solution and, after partial setting, carefully remove the cylinder formwork and make the required number of windows, teeth - as fantasy tells. I cut the teeth with a hacksaw blade for metal - I make cuts of the required depth and pick off the excess solution between the cuts.
The roof can be made from tin cones, and you can use this tin cone as a mold for pouring mortar (I do this). After complete setting, carefully knock out our roof from the mold. Do not forget that we are still preparing individual elements of the castle. We'll put it all together later. So we figured out the tower. We have all the elements ready and stacked somewhere in the corner.
Let's start building walls. Our walls will be either fortress (1) or an element of the building (2).
There is no difference in their production. We assemble a rectangle of the right size from boards 5 cm wide. We put it on a flat surface (I have an old kitchen table) after placing either a film or a piece of roofing material so that the solution that is then poured is not absorbed. You can place a metal arch in this frame - this will be a door or gate. Pour the solution into the frame. Where no windows or doors are planned, gravel or broken bricks can be poured to the bottom to save mortar. After the mortar is poured to the desired height, you can take pretty pebbles from gravel and poke them at the base of the foundation so that they protrude with flat edges above the general plane of the mortar by about 5 mm.
If there is no gravel, then after partial setting with a sharp knife or scalpel, you can imitate the foundation. You can also mark future windows with pebbles. Thus, your task is to make such flat elements. To speed up, I make 2-3 such rectangles at the same time. Having made such a wall once, you will understand that they are made easily and very quickly. As a rule, we are interested in the outer side of the castle, the inner part does not represent anything, because it is not visible.
So, after a few hours, the solution of our future walls seized very (!) This moment so that it was malleable, but did not collapse, and if it was overexposed, it would be difficult to process. We carefully disassemble the frame and we are left with a flat rectangle on the table. If you are making a wall with teeth, then we make the gaps between the teeth by gradually removing the solution with a flat tool (I use a metal ruler for this). Next, loopholes and windows are made. Draw whatever your fantasy tells you. To remove the remnants of the solution, I use a soft brush (probably seen in the movies how archaeologists work). In the end, you will have something like the following on your table.
Leave the finished walls for about a day on the table. Then they can safely be removed from the table and also put in a corner. When the required number of elements has already been made, we select a sunny day for installation in a summer cottage. There is another important point here. The castle looks more beautiful on some kind of elevation, on a pile of stones. So prepare a foundation for it. If you use stones, always place the stones on a small layer of mortar first. If this is not done, then the stones will move over time and destroy your beauty.
When the foundation is prepared, we proceed to the assembly. First, we install on a cement mortar, previously applied to the foundation, for example, tower No. 1. We attach wall No. 1 to the tower for mortar. Then we install the tower number 2.
The castle is already beginning to take shape. You are filled with excitement. Next, add wall No. 2 and finish with the installation of tower No. 3. My towers were heavy, so men need to tinker. Thus, at this stage, we got this design (top view)
But wall #2 will be part of the building, so I take some bricks and form a rectangle of this building. In order to prevent the mortar from getting into windows or doors from the inside, I close them with something flat from the inside (I use pieces of flat slate or fragments of flat tiles).
I have the inside of the castle hidden. But if you want it to have a beautiful look, you need to make both wall No. 3 and the inside for the monolith, fill it with concrete mortar or fill it with construction waste.
When this structure grabs, form a gable roof over the building. It takes me two or three bricks to do this (a mortar is thrown with a spatula and leveled under a cone).
So from the main basic elements, slightly changing them depending on your imagination (for example, you are tired of round towers - make rectangular formwork and the towers will be square, etc.) you can make a complex castle - like this for example.
A castle made of concrete is not very beautiful. How to decorate it?
About imitation. The boulders at the base of the foundation are made very easily as they are of arbitrary shape. Imitation brick requires more patience. Under the ruler, I scratch a series of horizontal lines and then make vertical notches at characteristic intervals. We brush off the debris with a brush. Where the surface is very rough, it can be smoothed by moistening with water from a spray and ironing with a soft brush. When the assembled castle is completely dry, you can tint it a little. Roof to give the appearance of tiles. I use acrylic paint with the right color, for painting brick imitation I purchased such colors for acrylic - black, red, brown, yellow. Green can be taken to simulate moss. With a soft brush, lightly touching the masonry different colors I color the surface. In this case, only the convex surface is painted, while the recessed part remains gray. The effect is amazing. From half a meter it seems that everything is made of small bricks. In one place of the castle, I even imitated a destroyed brick wall. I did not expect such an effect. For a year the castle survived the winter and the paint is like new.
Can you make parts at home? I work in a garage. But in principle, you can do it at home if you don’t litter too much. In this case, the details can be broken down into even smaller ones. Those. for example, make a wall in two parts - the upper one where the teeth and the lower one where the gate. Similarly, make a tower from two or three cylinders or cubes. Then it's easier to transport. This allows you to prepare the castle even in the winter-spring time, and in the summer to assemble it in a couple of days. This is how I prepare dry mix. I fill half a bucket with dry sand, add cement and it mixes very easily with a small children's spatula. I pour all this into a small tub and do the next batch until I fill it. Thus, the dry solution is always in sufficient quantity.
I wish you all success in your work. And be sure to share your results.
First mini castle
The first castle-flower bed was made about eight years ago. The rest is recent - last year and the year before last. The lighthouse is real - it glows at night.
Sometimes you really want to surprise others with something outlandish. A do-it-yourself castle in the country is an image from a fairy tale that conquers with its elegance and at the same time simplicity. The miniature structure creates a romantic mood even for adults, not to mention children.
Figure 1. A decorative stone castle will be a great addition to a rockery or alpine slide.
A small, hand-built castle is now entering the design vision suburban area. Various projects castles fit perfectly into the European style of landscaping the territory of private ownership. A miniature building can become the center of a playground, or it can simply emphasize the romantic nature of the inhabitants of the dacha.
Features of mini locks
From the remains of concrete, putty, paint and boards, you can make a small castle.
A mini-castle in a dacha is a small architectural form of landscaping a dacha or other suburban area. The main tasks of the building are to enhance the aesthetic perception and emphasize a certain design style.
Often such an element serves as a children's attraction. Castles can be made in the form of an exact copy of the famous historical buildings of knightly times or built according to a specially designed plan.
In terms of placement, the mini-castle often becomes a separate design element of the cottage, built on a specially designated site, but more often it is used as an element of the composition, being part of a flower garden, fountain, spring, playground.
Buildings can also differ in technical solutions - simple (only the building itself) and complex, including special multi-colored lighting (and even light music) with electronic elements.
Construction material
The construction of castles can be made from a variety of building materials, as well as improvised means. Structures of various sizes made of stones are widely used, and both ennobled (marble, granite) and wild, natural stones (for example, pebbles) can be used. The fixing of such building material is usually done using cement mortar, but sometimes clay, lime or gypsum compounds are used, as well as standard building mixtures.
Lanterns along the sidewalk can be decorated in the form of a tower.
Many decorative castles are built by pouring concrete. For the implementation of such projects, small formwork is mounted. The main advantage of concrete structures is durability, strength, moisture resistance and Fire safety. For small houses, concrete reinforcement is not necessary, and for large figures, a reinforcing mesh can be used.
It is difficult to do without wood when creating small architecture. wooden details easy to process, they can be given any shape. The need for antiseptic treatment makes it difficult to use. Many locking elements have to be made from sheet metal, giving it a cylindrical or conical shape.
As building material finds the use of foam. This material with a dense structure, when cut, becomes small building blocks or blocks that form an entire wall. You can use plastic different type and size. Various improvised means are widely used - bottles, pipe trimmings, parts of old household appliances etc. It is difficult to list all the materials that are used in construction, it all depends on the imagination of the performer.
Structural elements
Real castles were built at different times and therefore had a slightly different style. Most often, the concept of castle architecture is associated with gothic style, characterized by various spiers and pointed roofs. With all the variety of styles, one can distinguish characteristic structural elements locks:
Figure 2. A flower bed can be placed inside the castle walls.
- Hill and moat: castles were built using natural protection - hills (hill, mountain) and surrounded by a moat with or without water.
- Courtyard: A protected area inside a fortress wall, often with outbuildings and dwellings for guards and servants.
- Donjon: the central tower of the castle for the owner to live - a fortress inside the fortress; the shape of the donjon was different - quadrangular (England), round, polygonal, irregular in shape.
- Fortress wall: a high wall with battlements at the top for sheltering warriors and with loopholes.
- Protective towers: similarly to the wall, they had battlements and loopholes, most often they were round, but square shapes were also used, they were always located at the corners of the wall and in the middle part.
- Gates: to strengthen the security, they were equipped with watchtowers, the entrance was usually blocked by an arch, an obligatory element was a drawbridge.
The layout of the castle territory itself depended on the terrain and had a triangular, rectangular or polygonal shape. In a number of countries (for example, in Germany), a circular layout with a central courtyard without a clearly defined donjon was common.
Required Tools
When building a castle with your own hands, you will need the following tool:
Figure 3. Sketch of the castle-bed.
- hacksaw;
- hacksaw for metal;
- metal scissors;
- electric jigsaw;
- file;
- chisel;
- putty knife;
- Master OK;
- a hammer;
- Grinder;
- plane;
- sandpaper;
- ruler;
- roulette;
- shovel;
- vise;
- electric drill.
Manufacturing features
Do-it-yourself castle construction begins with drawing a building plan and its individual details.
The plan can be a reduced copy of a well-known real building or a completely invented author's decision.
Figure 4. Putty and paint can be used to decorate the castle towers.
Then the installation site is cleared, an elevated location (hill) and an imitation of a protective moat are provided.
Stone castle. On fig. 1 shows an example of a simple stone castle of the author's project. For the construction of towers, three pieces of a metal or plastic pipe with a diameter of about 6-7 cm are installed vertically, pebbles are laid around them and connected with cement mortar. Tin cones are installed on top. Inside the towers, after removing the pipes, a brown dark plastic bottle is placed, which decorates the loophole windows.
In the case when the castle architecture fits into the overall design, the characteristic stone elements are combined with others. design solutions. On fig. 2 shows a flower bed castle.
Fortress wall. One of the most simple ways the construction of the fortress wall is the use of sheets of dense foam. On fig. 3 shows a diagram of such a wall with towers. A foam plastic 3-5 cm thick is used, from which the desired shapes with teeth are cut. Towers are formed from additionally fixed pieces of foam. On top of the towers, you can make a roof of flower pots. Similar structures can be made of concrete, having previously installed the formwork.
Towers and donjons. For the construction of towers, you can use foam plastic for pipe insulation, foam pipe insulation with a diameter of 11 cm, plastic pipes, asbestos-cement pipes, etc. Decorating elements are attached with waterproof glue. The teeth and loopholes are carefully cut with a knife.
In the manufacture of towers or donjons of round shape from concrete, you can use plastic bottles different diameters (outer layer), and inside - any rod. The thickness of the concrete wall must be at least 3 cm.
Castle decoration
To ensure aesthetic perception, the constructed structure should be ennobled as much as possible - painted using bright acrylic paints; fix overhead carved elements, install coats of arms, flags, pennants, and other symbols of chivalry. On fig. 4 shows an example of the design of the towers.
If necessary, the walls of the building are covered with finishing facade plaster.
Do you want to surprise your neighbors in the country? Do you dream of plunging into the atmosphere of the Middle Ages? Then build a medieval castle on your site. You can, of course, purchase a prefabricated version in a children's toy store, but at a cost of several thousand rubles, it will look like a large plastic toy. The castle, created by oneself, will look like a real one, and its dimensions and appearance limited only by your imagination.
Materials: stone or wood
For a structure consisting of three walls with towers, you will need the following materials:
- Styrofoam - 5 sheets measuring 100 x 60 cm x 3 cm
- Insulation for pipes "foam", diameter 110 mm - 4 pcs x 1 m
- Decorative plaster based on colored chips - 1-2 large cans
- Small stone or marble chips - 1 kg
- Acrylic paint to match the plaster - 1 can or can
- Dark acrylic paint (black or brown) - 1 can or can
- Plastic flower pots (for roofs) - 2 pcs.
- Glue for polystyrene foam (for example, "Moment Installation") - 2 large tubes
- Long screws (for flagpoles) - 2 pcs
- Mounting foam + gun - 2 cans
Tools
- Thin knife - 1 pc, screwdriver - 1 pc.
- Meter ruler, short ruler, felt-tip pen or marker.
- Narrow paint brushes - 4-5 pcs.
- Spatula - 1 pc.
- Large brushes for painting teeth - 2 pcs.
- Insulating tape - 1 pc.
- Modeling mass (black or brown) - 1 pack
Stage 1. We draw a diagram of the future structure
First you need to determine the constituent parts of the future castle - the number of walls and towers. I offer schemes of three types of walls that can be combined in any quantity. I decided to start with three walls and six towers - three round and three square. You can start work from any wall.
Stage 2. How to make a DIY wall layout
WALL-1. For its manufacture, we need two sheets of foam (preferably white color) and two plastic flower pots.
This is how it looks when finished:
We draw a scheme of walls
On one sheet of foam, draw a diagram of the wall with a felt-tip pen. She will be the carrier. The height of the towers is equal to the height of the sheet. The width of each tower is equal to the width of the cache-pot (roof) minus 1 cm. The distance between the teeth must be at least half the width of the teeth. The height of the walls and the middle part is approximately two thirds of the height of the towers. At the edges of the wall, it is necessary to leave 5 cm of an area free of teeth. You will then hide this part under the tower. Carefully cut out with a knife. In the middle part we cut out the gate. We do not cut out windows on the towers.
We draw blanks of towers
On the second sheet of foam we draw blanks for towers - 6 pieces, 3 for each tower. The size of the blanks is equal to the size of the towers. We cut out windows on four blanks. We do not throw away the cut pieces, they will later be useful to us when painting. We glue the tower blanks on top of each other on the load-bearing wall in the place marked for the towers - glue two blanks on the front side of the wall (glue the blank with windows on top), glue the second blank with windows on the front side bearing wall. As glue, you can use Moment Installation glue. If you intend to use a different adhesive, be sure to first test on scraps of Styrofoam to see if the adhesive is corroding the Styrofoam. The same goes for colors. As a result, we get a wall with two towers, each of which has a thickness of 4 foam sheets. There are blank windows on the front and back walls of the towers. Windows need to be painted inside with dark paint. You also need to paint over the inside of the gate arch and the gate itself. If the side walls of the towers turned out to be protrusions due to the discrepancy in the dimensions of the blanks glued to each other, it is necessary to cut the towers on the sides, aligning the side walls.
We try on the "roof" on the towers. The cache-pot should be freely put on the tower and go on it by 1-2 cm. Please note that after painting the dimensions of the tower will increase by 5-10 mm. Therefore, if the "roof" is difficult to put on, then the tower must also be cut.
After the dark paint dries, a “lattice” can be made on the gate. To do this, using a ruler with a screwdriver or scissors, we make deep grooves in the form of a lattice on the painted gates so that unpainted light foam shines through them.
Painting the castle walls
Let's start with the teeth. Painting the teeth with plaster is the most time-consuming operation, so they must first be painted with paint to match the plaster, and the composition itself can only be placed on the front and back sides. You can generally not cover the teeth with plaster, but paint with paint from a spray can in a contrasting dark color, as we did on the third wall.
So, first we paint the teeth with paint to match the plaster. We use spray paint to paint over each tooth from all sides. Let's dry. Then we cover the front surface of the wall-1 decorative plaster. At this time, it is better to lay window openings with pieces of polystyrene foam so that the plaster does not get inside. The brush should be fairly hard and clean. After painting, if possible, it should be washed off the plaster and put into water. It is better not to use one brush more than twice because of stuck plaster. We are not painting the side walls of the towers yet. We will paint them last. We leave the wall blank-1 to dry in the sun for two days. After two days, we turn the product on the back side and also cover it with decorative plaster. In the meantime, it dries, you can do other walls.
WALL-2. For its manufacture, we need two sheets of foam.
This is how it looks in finished form (the outermost prong on each side then had to be cut off):
This wall is a variation of the first wall. Only here the tower is in the middle, and the gate is on the side. In addition, the teeth, as well as the tower, are cut from another sheet, and the windows are made through. Windows on right side the walls are lined with tabs painted dark. The windows on the left side are through. The height of the walls and the tower is equal to the height of the sheet.
So, we mark the gates, windows and a place for the tower on the first sheet. We cut out all windows, incl. and on the tower, we paint the cut out pieces of windows in a dark color. Then we paint in dark color the openings of windows and gates, as well as the gates themselves. After applying the plaster, you will need to insert the dark pieces of windows on the right side of the wall back into the openings. Leave the rest of the windows blank.
From the second sheet we cut out two blanks with windows. We make windows on the same level with the windows located on the tower, on the load-bearing wall. Separately, we cut out two or four blanks for the teeth for the right and left parts of the main wall. We glue the tower blanks on the front and back sides of the load-bearing wall, aligning the window openings. Then we also glue the teeth - on both sides of the load-bearing wall. I glued the teeth on only one side, using only two blanks, because. originally planned to make an extension behind the second half of the wall. The tower is made up of three layers. The thickness of the tower can be increased by adding an additional false wall glued to the front side of the tower (as we did when making wall-1).
Do not forget to leave the edges on both sides free of 3-5 cm teeth, which will then be hidden under the towers, and make rectangular cutouts for joints measuring 3 x 1.5 cm along the edges on the back of the wall.
We paint over the teeth with paint to match the plaster. After the paint dries, we cover the front side of the wall with decorative plaster (you can not cover the teeth with plaster). Then we sprinkle a part of the wall around the gate with small stone chips and, patting, melt the crumbs into the plaster. Crumbs can be sprinkled on the second half of the surface. After that, we leave the entire structure to dry for a couple of days, while we ourselves will be engaged in the manufacture of the third wall.
WALL-3. For its manufacture, we need one whole sheet of foam and pieces of the sheet remaining after the manufacture of the second.
This is how it looks in finished form (the extreme teeth then also had to be cut off in order to hide the edge in a round tower):
This type of wall is quite simple to manufacture, but looks quite impressive. Three retaining walls and teeth are glued to the main sheet. The teeth are painted with acrylic paint in a contrasting color. After painting with plaster, the wall is covered with a thin layer of stone chips.
The battlements on this wall have more complex structure- the upper row is formed from wide teeth (3x3 cm), and bottom row- from narrow (4x1.5 cm).
We cut out the teeth from strips 10 cm high. To do this, the strip must be divided into 3 parts - 3 cm high, 3 cm and 4 cm high. On the first strip 3 cm high, we cut out teeth 3 x 3 cm in size, the distance between them is -1.5 cm. On the lower strip with a height of 4 cm, we make a triangular cut at an angle along the length of the entire strip, leaving a strip 1 cm thick at the bottom. After that, on the lower strip, we cut out long teeth measuring 1.5 x 4 cm. The distance between the lower teeth is no more than 1.5 cm Then we paint the teeth with paint using a spray can and a thin brush, carefully painting between them. The teeth can be painted either to match the plaster or in a contrasting color.
Then, from the remnants of the foam, we cut out three retaining walls in the form of triangles or trapezoids, the height of which should be at least a third and not more than half the height of the wall. We glue the supports and teeth on the main wall. Do not forget to leave 3-5 cm free from teeth on both sides, which will then be hidden under the towers, and make rectangular cutouts for joints measuring 3 x 1.5 cm along the edges on the back of the wall.
We put the structure face up and cover everything except the teeth with decorative plaster:
Then we sprinkle the entire surface with small pebbles, gently pressing them into the plaster.
While the third wall dries, you can paint the reverse side of the first two with plaster, if their front sides have already dried by this moment. Lastly, we paint over the sides of the towers, placing the walls on the end. Let each side dry for two days.
Now you can start working on the corner round towers.
Stage 3. Round towers of the knight's fortress
For the manufacture of round towers, you can use any thick pipes. desired diameter that can be processed with a knife, for example, “shells” for pipe insulation made of foam. If they are not there, then you can use a foam pipe insulation with a diameter of 110 mm, which is sold on any construction market.
For the manufacture of three towers, we need four meter pieces of foam. From each of the four pieces we cut off cylinders 8-10 cm long and cut out teeth half the height of the workpiece. We cut the ring of teeth along the height and glue them on top of each of the three towers, wrapping them around the main part of the tower. We cut off the missing pieces with teeth from the fourth workpiece. While the glue dries, for a better fit, we fix the seams with electrical tape.
Next, on each tower we make longitudinal cuts along the length, equal in height to the height of the walls (60 cm) and in width - a little more than twice the thickness of the walls. The width of the cuts can be increased after painting, when you insert walls into them.
For variety, one or more towers can be decorated with an additional cylinder with tall narrow windows. The overlay is made from the remaining fourth piece of foam.
While the glue dries, we paint over the windows on the tower with black paint, and only after that in three or four steps we cover the elements with plaster, turning them by 90-120 degrees. Carefully paint over the teeth.
While the towers are drying, you can start making small parts for them and walls, such as roofs, flags, coats of arms, cornices, small windows. The number of details depends only on your imagination and patience. You just need to keep the proportions.
Metal buttons and stripes can be used as a coat of arms. Flags can be made from colored self-adhesive paper, but it is better to use self-adhesive film. We stick the flag on a long screw. Screws are screwed into plastic flower pots. We paint the cache-pot in red, drawing some details with black paint. The coat of arms is attached above the gate with the same plaster or glue.
Masonry elements can be added to rectangular towers and walls. To do this, you can use the black modeling mass, which is sold in children's stores and in the stationery departments. You can also use plasticine, but the advantage of the mass for modeling is that in air, unlike plasticine, it freezes.
We made the roof for the middle tower from half paving slabs black color.
By the way, after the plaster on the round turrets dried up and the towers stood in the rain for several days, the plaster began to move away from the foam near the edges of the cut, like an orange peel, and we had to additionally glue this “crust” with Moment Montazh glue. Helped.
After drying, you can proceed to the most important stage - the assembly of the castle.
Stage 4. Assembling a medieval castle
Despite the fact that the design of the castle allows it to be moved to any place, it is still better to assemble the building on the site where it will stand.
The site for the castle must be prepared in advance. It should be flat and preferably without a slope. We made a castle to decorate the pond, so our platform had a slight slope towards the pond, which added additional difficulties for us when installing it. In order for the castle to stand evenly, it was necessary to cut the walls at an angle from below, since the foam plastic, even covered with massive plaster, is easily cut.
Having installed and connected the walls to each other, it is necessary to tighten the entire structure around the perimeter with a rope or cable, and then “glue” the walls at the joints with mounting foam. After the foam dries at the joints, remove the rope and begin to install round towers. To do this, we put the towers on top of the corners of the castle, inserting the walls into the longitudinal cuts made in the towers. If the cut is small, we increase it to the desired size so that the turrets fit snugly against the walls from the outside. The missing part of the towers on the inside of the castle can then be formed using polyurethane foam. We tightly press the edges of the cuts to the walls of the castle, if necessary, supporting each tower with stops, and fill the towers from the inside with mounting foam, making small protruding slides on top. In addition, it is possible to form the missing parts of the turrets from the inside of the building using mounting foam. To do this, we form a protrusion of the desired shape from foam at the junction of the walls, and after the foam hardens, cut off the excess with a knife and plaster. We limited ourselves to covering the internal joints of the walls with plaster.
After the foam dries, we carefully cut off the slides protruding above the towers with a knife so that a flat area is formed on top, which we also cover with plaster.
Then we remove all the remnants of the foam in the places where the towers adjoin the walls and paint over them with plaster. After that, the castle must be covered and allowed to dry for two or three days until the plaster is completely dry.
Now you can go to last stage- backlight.
The final stage. Building lighting
Undoubtedly, a castle built with your own hands will decorate your site at any time of the day. But it will look most impressive in the evening if you make a special highlight.
As a backlight, you can use diffused light fixtures on solar panels to be placed inside the castle. Then, through the through windows and open gates of the castle, located on the second wall, a faint light will stream at night, enlivening the castle and giving it mystery. And solar directional light fixtures built into the “stones” and installed outside will illuminate the walls from all sides.
But to illuminate the front wall, it is better to use a stationary directional light, into which a color-changing light bulb is screwed. And then the effect will be extraordinary.
And finally, a few more practical tips.
On the Internet you can find many photos of sand castles from different beaches of the world. There are real masterpieces, and it's a pity that this beauty has only a few hours to live.
Member of our portal Eleksys has a long-standing weakness for sand castles, this is firstly. Second lucky circumstance: garden plot it has long been used as a testing ground for creative ideas, where “under the influence of FORUMHOUSE” a lot of truly amazing things have been done.
Eleksys made various compositions, but it was mini-castles that took root best of all, because they could be entered in any place on a site of any relief and with any features. And at some point, he decided to give his favorite sand compositions longevity by mixing them with cement.
The best proportions for the construction of castles were identified empirically: sand - 2 parts, cement - 1 part. Also, empirically, there was an understanding that sand should not be mixed with cement immediately, but be sure to dry it in the sun. In addition, the sand must be sifted - a small amount of debris can ruin the building, especially for small parts.
The garden castle is only called “mini”, in fact it is a three-dimensional building, and it is unrealistic to build it in one go. That's why Eleksys developed his own scheme: he first prepares individual modules, and then, in a few days, assembles his masterpieces of small architecture, like a designer. So, the last, most complex castle, he assembled in just two days.
Eleksys Member of FORUMHOUSE
Neighbors thought he fell from the sky.
Eleksys I am sure that everyone can build such castles, . But in many ways, the users of our portal owe this detailed instructions, wherein Eleksys told how to make the main modules (components) of a typical design.
towers
To make a turret, you need to roll a cylinder of a suitable radius from a sheet of iron, for example, 25 - 35 cm, and fix it with screws or wire. Further trick: to reduce the consumption of the solution, unnecessary cans or bottles are placed inside the cylinder, you just need to make sure that the thickness to the ballast is at least 5 centimeters. Further it is clear: we pour a thick solution into the iron cylinder and wait for several hours for it to seize. That's it, he grabbed it - just enough so as not to crumble after removing the formwork.
This one, as it is called Eleksys, a slightly seized solution, we begin to immediately cut. The technology of work is the same as when cutting out the details of a sand castle. For cutting, any tools that are at hand are used: screwdrivers, carpentry chisels, various strips of tin to form various architectural elements, etc.
A tower in the form of a simple cylinder looks too ordinary and even somehow dull, so it makes sense to make a variety of grooves.
Eleksys
I wrap the cylinder with a long strip of tin, use this strip as a guide, and use a screwdriver or chisel to select the annular recesses.
We take a knife and make a deepening of windows and loopholes in the cylinder. The teeth are most conveniently cut with a hacksaw blade for metal. It's easy, you just need to make cuts of the desired depth and choose a solution between them.
In the lower part of the tower, you can make an imitation of masonry, and if we make an “old” castle, then there are traces of destruction and decay: cracks, chips, crumbling plaster, etc.
The inventor of sand-cement technology says that aging is the most interesting job for him.
The tower is almost ready, we are making the roof. It may be a cone rolled from tin. The same cone can also be a form for pouring the solution. When the mortar sets, we knock out the finished roof from it. Thus, we make the required number of towers, roofs, put them somewhere for storage and proceed to the construction of walls.
Walls
We make walls in two versions: fortifications and building elements.
Now Eleksys regrets that he did not photograph the stages of construction, so we have to be content with the description. So, to make the wall - part of the building, we put together a frame right size(the width of the boards is from 5 cm), we put it on a flat surface, covered, for example, with plastic wrap. In the lower part, you can place a small arch bent from a tin strip -. We fill the frame with mortar (to save money, you can pour broken bricks or pebbles under it, but only where you do not plan to dig through windows or doors). At the bottom of the wall, you can mark the foundation by sticking small flat gravel there, so that it protrudes by five millimeters. You can, again, imitate the foundation by “drawing” it with a scalpel or a sharp knife. Until the mortar has set, flat stones of a suitable size can be used to mark future windows.
If we are making a fortress wall, then at this stage we simply fill in the frame and that's it.
Now we are waiting for several hours, remaining vigilant: the mortar should seize, but it cannot be overexposed, because the walls will be difficult and inconvenient to handle. In general, we wait for the right moment and disassemble the frame.
To make a fortress wall, we mark the teeth and remove the gaps between them with any flat tool. Eleksys performs this work with an ordinary metal ruler. We draw loopholes and windows, take out the solution from them, removing its remnants with a soft brush.
Eleksys
Probably everyone has seen in the movies how archaeologists work.
Ready walls, without moving, we leave to lie in place for about a day, then you can safely take them away for temporary storage.
Lock installation
Having made the necessary number of details of the castle, we are waiting for a clear, sunny day and proceed to the construction of the foundation, which, in essence, will be an ordinary pile of stones laid on a thin layer of mortar.
Eleksys
The castle looks more beautiful on some elevation, on a pile of stones.
Having prepared the foundation, we again apply a layer of cement mortar on it, and then proceed to the assembly. We install a tower, attach a fortress wall to it, a tower again to it, then a wall - an element of a building, again a tower.
We attach several bricks to the wall - an element of the building, this will be the rectangle of the castle itself. But this is if the inside of the castle is hidden from view. If not, then you will have to make another wall, and fill the inside with mortar.