Dodgy History

Today we have a couple more additions to the Small Scale Scenery range of forts and castles, including one of the models we previewed at the start of the year.

Schloss Wewelsburg is a renaissance castle built between 1603 and 1609 near Paderborn, Westphalia. It was fought over and changed hands several times in the Thirty Years War, and was razed by Swedish troops, being rebuilt after 1650. It also acted as a military prison in the Seven Years War, and even had witch trials held in the cellar in 1631.

Its C.20th history is somewhat darker, as it was leased by Heinrich Himmler in 1934 and became an important centre of the Nazi cult. Rather than repeat all of that rather sinister background here, you can read about it on Wikipedia. In 1945, as the war came to an end, the fleeing SS garrison attempted to destroy the castle but ran out of explosives, and it was siezed by US forces.

Nowadays, after restoration the castle houses several museums and war memorials, covering both the WW2 era and earlier.

Our second release is Hull Castle, an artillery fort built in 1542 as part of Henry VIII’s Device Fort program (keen followers will know that there are plenty of other Device Forts in the range already). The castle was rectangular with a curved bastion at either end and a central keep. There were also two large satellite blockhouses, each with three bastions, all linked by a crenellated curtain wall – the whole structure was over half a mile from end to end.

The castle, like so many Device Forts, never saw any action against the French and Spanish who it was intended to deter (so arguably it did its job). From 1577, it was used to imprison Catholics who refused accept the Church of England. It did see extensive action in the English Civil War when Hull declared for parliament, including two sieges and the accidental demolition of part of the North blockhouse by the defenders ! Eventually the defences of Hull were remodelled and the castle and South blockhouse became part of the Hull Citadel. In the Napoleonic wars it was used as an armoury, but eventually the whole site was demolished as the docks were expanded. Nowadays there is nothing left apart from some excavated foundations.

We’ve modelled the three main structures of the castle, and suggest that if you wish to model the wall that you use the resin wall pieces from our Modular Castle set.

SSS-8206 – Schloss Wewelsburg – £6.00
SSS-8207 – Hull Castle – £5.00