"Charcoal piles" Topic

Has anyone tried modeling a charcoal pile as scenery for their Dark Age/Medieval games? I realize these were usually deep in the woods, away from civilization--just thought it would be something interesting to add.

I suppose that rather than haul wood a long ways, people would just clear cut an area and put the charcoal pile there.

Grelber

I made a charcoal pile for my Roman Suovetaurilia sacrifice. It's in 15mm. I put a drop of pva glue on some wax paper, then I mixed in some sand to create this mount shape that was about the size of a pin head. I let that dry. I then base coated it. After that I painted it orange, then dry brushed over it a dark grey/black color. It worked out real well because there's a pretty substantial black outer appearance with hints of orange under neath to give it that flowing effect.

I have no clue how to paint 28mm well so I can't help you there (but we all know 15mm is the real scale of medieval and ancients war gaming any way!) :D

Do you mean charcoal clamps where the wood is burned to make the charcoal? If so, once the wood was stacked, they were covered with a quite thick layer of earth, so you could get away with just making a mound and painting it in earth tones. Don't forget a hole at the top for the chimney.

For one that has been broken open on completion of the burn you could do the same, but gouge out part of it and paint that dark grey for the charcoal.

To obtain wood for making charcoal they didn't usually clear-cut areas of woodland, they copiced trees to ensure a continuous supply.