On the Topic of Castles we have our very good friend Greg Liska back with a castle. He built the castle to help him as therapy for being in the Afghanistan invasion.
On the Topic of Castles Greg’s Description
I combined 2 Simba Lion’s Rock and 2 Jean castles on a base I made out of wood and slate chips back in 2003. It was before I tried any conversions or anything like that. The courtyard is hand painted. The side comes off so you can use the dungeon area, which has steps leading down to it. It’s about 4′ X 2.5′. I used a dremel tool to make slots so the walls would fit together and painted some details, like around the windows, in the same color to tie it together. The castles were molded in very similar colors.
Looks good, nice job.
VERY cool.
I forgot to mention; the courtyard lifts off of the mountain base and can be used on flat ground, too. In the pic, the castle has rope under it which is how I moved it there. It made the top slide off of the mountain just a bit and the rope raised it just a bit higher than the gate ramp. The ramp, if you look close, was raised up on wood (painted to match) because it is higher than the Jean Castle that the ramp came from. I DO have a ramp for each gate, although only one was in the pic.
Thanks for the kind words, guys.
Greg you stole my idea.
I was kidding!!
I once though on doing it but after seen what playmobil did and Simba I start buying more others castles and broke my pocket and space. So I end with two JH-BIG and sold one. So now only one plus the SIMBA copy and HK done in 70’s
My large was done with 4 Simba falcon and King castles ,but not elevated. So easy to escalate more than super high of yours!!
Of course will never done what you did .So great awesome work.
Look sooo pretty. Sorry the fragile words!!!
I like the jean Hoefler castles as depict a late medieval castle more inner keep that actual outside wall castle; well in use till today, sample many castles as those were used by German HQ in WW1 and WW2 as well French too.
you HIGH ROCK elevated looks awesome done!!!
That factory is fast and furious!!!
P.S could you explain more in detail the moat wall making!?
I’ll try to explain it. First – this was done back in 2003. Long time ago. I hadn’t done any converting or anything yet.
The base is all wood. A big box with the top angling inward where the wooden courtyard sits. One of the short sides is removable so you can use the dungeon area as play space, too. The whole wooden base was painted primer grey. The court yard got holes drilled in it to accept the castle parts. The cobblestone design was free hand painted. I remember I stayed at it until I fell asleep on the ground. I woke up holding the brush in my hand, while in a fetal position. The sides are actual chips of slate. I remember my 4 year old son helping me pick up the pieces to use. Each one was glued on, one by one. All fit next to each other to look like masonry. That’s really about it.
thanks Greg x time explained, great job!!!
Greg, superb job. Always impressed by your stuff. I remember looking at that Hoeffler castle longingly when I was in Germany – one of those passed by opportunities one lives to regret. Great idea combining it the way you did with Simba.
I have a castle I made of cedar wood some twenty years ago. I’m fond of it – did one for my sons and later my grandson. I keep thinking about dragging mine out again and doing some improvements I’ve had running through my mind lately.
Nice work, Greg. I’ve had and sold several of those Jean castles. You can find them on Ebay for around 70 bucks.
What other realistic castles are there, made in plastic?
The only other one that I have is the plastic Timpo castle. I’m wondering how that would match up with the Simba that I just picked up?
BILL.
I will match-group some brands to give you some idea..
The castle sold by Ideal (originally designed by Kleeware ) of UK and licensed to be build by IDEAL is a nice castle (but with typical non realistic half tower design like TIMPO original. But blend with TIMPO perfect.
It was sold mounted in a vacum form nice rock base by an Italian and German companies and these two high version are the more$$$ and hard to get.
I got one from Italian brand ,sold it after not knowing the value at a show x just $100.00 only to find out later how much worth. Later I found one German version and kept now x ever.
Later the same castle as Ideal was sold plain with out base by TIMPO again .
Timpo early castle was done in three version, the most common are the simple with small jail inside (done in grey x knights) and tan x FFL playset .
Another version with smaller inner wall keep inside was sold but not x long(is more $$ looked).
Again IDEAL and TIMPO match as same style walls and half tower designed.
TIBIDADO from Italy did a nice castle and REAMSA another alike version but not same as has different towers.
REAMSA castle mold end in Mexico and produced from 1983 till mid 90’s).
It is often confused with TIBIDADO brand.
Cherlea claim the castle was done by them ,yet has been disputed and proved otherwise. Confuse come from Italian brand using cherilea molds/figures .
Two books abut castles clear this up. One write in UK.
You can find the Tibidabo Italian brand more easy in US . The Reamsa version and made in Mexico too is hard to get .Both TIBIDABO and REAMSA are realistic not half tower and much high walls but not too big.
LUDOREV from France using original JIM French mold release 3 different playset,one was in the mentioned before Robin Hood. But not imported to the US unless by a hobby/specialty store .I manage get three of then from a school supply store over 13 years ago. These are nice big castle, one has a Viking ship of 12 ” long
LUDOREV and TITIBADO/Reamsa match perfect in scale and walls design.
For me IMEX two castles are the best and more realistic in size and historical accuracy. Still on sale at amazon and eBay but not cheap as they are huge.
Only match with IMEX size are the BARZSO not plastic castle parts and walls.
Other more realistic but costly too..playmobil
I had bought few playmobil castles and done some nice pictures works that send not long ago to admin. You see part of the scenes in my web site page (CASTLES BATTLES COLLECTION)http://selltoyco.com/?page_id=637
SUPREME/SUNJADE; bought the small version of SIMBA black rock and sale with it figures but made also 4 more castles and half castle, one of then is good too to blend with SIMBA
SIMBA did 11 total, so far last 5 are more common to find and blend each other fine.
Last SIMBA 3 FALCON version castles and three new brands mention in other link above are more easy to see on eBay, again shipping is the problem.
I can go on listing more but will talk a lot.
So good luck in finding ,I bet you will ….
best…
I have the Imex Castle but because of the cost I bought the “Castle Front” one. It’s still huge and has the rounded towers(they have names like Blackstone but I forget what the name of mine is) they have one with square towers like a Norman Castle also. The thing I want to do is find suitable walls and at least another tower. I have the Conte “Warlord” tower, so I want to include this in a massive Castle but again, it’s the difficulty in finding decent walls.
Tom.Some of the castle parts ,include walls from Barzso blend good with Imex.
Erwin,
Are the Barszo Castle walls still for sale?
Tom.
As far their web site I do not see any separated part/section as before other than small tower now.
Any ways you may contact then and ask.
The large castle was done in three main castle playset and combined in one. So I compere two parts wall of Barzso one medium castle and match in with IMEX complete castle .I do not have front part as you.
But understand the front section is just pretty much same w different towers.
The best bet will be contacting Barzso and ask x spare extra parts they may have still or will probably redone.
Ask the size dimension of it as their castle had many different parts.
Or if able to go on a show were they have it may be you can actually see better.
I do not know is TSSD carry extra parts x barzso castles too as they had sold before.
Nice job Greg, I had the Timpo Castle when i was young and although it looks Great, I just thought that it was a bit on the small side as are most of the plastic castles from the past, So you couldn’t put much more than 30 or 40 men inside without it looking crowded. So i made my own castle out of wood when i was working as a Die-cutter about 14 years ago which im very proud of. So you’ve done a Great job of fixing these castles together and what i really like about it is you could put quite a fair sized army into it. Why didn’t i think of that years ago.
Darren –
If I had it to do all over again, I would have used all wood, like you did. It would have been modular and monstrously large, too. Could you get a pic up of your castle?
Hi Greg Yeah perhaps i can ask the guy who runs this website if he would put up a picture or 2 of my castle. Or if you send me your email address i can send you personally a picture of it. As i said im very proud of it but its quite basic and nothing special and im sure there are guys out there who have done a better job than me but thanks for your interest and i would love to let people have a look at it and see what they think of it.
Darren
Send the photos to pestad@gmail.com
http://assets.amuniversal.com/b3ba0390311201348e14005056a9545d