Hobby Thread - April 18, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. It is that time of the year, a spin of the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) came up with castles as a theme for this Hobby Thread.

Castles? Yes, castles. Maybe more of a theme than a hobby per se, but who am I to argue with the Wheel of Hobbies (TM)?

[Top photo: Burg Eltz, Wierschem, Germany. Oil, 24 x 18 by polynikes]

What are you hobbying?

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. I understand that some people pay attention to military hardware, tactics and strategy as a hobby. Discussion of current military events permitted but must be made in the form of hobby commentary. Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.

Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

Castles seem to have a hold on our collective imagination. They feature in medieval stories of combat and siege. Europe is dotted with castles on almost every mountain or vista. King Ludwig built his own fantasy castle in Bavaria and Cinderella lives in castle at Disney.

Tourists wander through castles (and castle ruins) and imagine what life was like. Surely the original masons and builders would be amazed to know their creations were tourist attractions hundreds of years later.

Castles are photogenic and artists have painted castles for centuries. Books and movies find castle settings irresistible. There will be no boiling oil poured from the ramparts in this thread, but how many hobbies have some touch to castles? Have your hobbies involved castles in some way?

Let's talk history, architecture, and art. Let's talk travel, scale builds, and stonework. Let's talk comedy and literature. Do you have favorites?

For purposes of this thread, let's steer towards structures of medieval history and defensive designs. There are a lot of chateaus or large homes that are called "castles" because of their size and and history and "castle" design cues, but let's stick to fortified structures with drawbridges, moats, turrets, high ground, ramparts, etc.

Top painting is Burg Eltz. One of the best known castles in Germany. It has been owned and inhabited by the same family for over 850 years. Three branches of the family still live there.

This is Burg Eltz too. Always interesting to see the same thing through different eyes. This painting is courtesy of tankascribe.

The Hohenzolleren Castle is the ancestral home of the Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzolleren. Naturally, it is built on Mount Hohenzolleren.

Neuschwanstein - more for fantasy than combat:

[Photo Credit: Tom Wayman]

How to Build a Medieval Castle

Sometimes it takes a village to raise a window. Between 2015 and 2017, skilled masons meticulously carved and beveled arches and four-lobed flourishes for a Gothic-style stone window frame in Guédelon Castle’s ornate Chapel Tower. All that remained was to install some glass. But there was a problem, and the carpenters, painters, blacksmiths, basket weavers, historians, and archaeologists who work on-site were all enlisted to figure it out. Eight years later, the matter of what to put in the window of a medieval castle has nearly been resolved...maybe.

9 Myths About Medieval Moats and the Truth Behind Them

Boo!

Long video, but fascinating history. Hosted by the Countess of Sandwich (giggle).

Check out a Scottish castle with Ruth:

Dunluce Castle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

Photo credit unknown. Painting credit to tankascribe.

How medieval castles actually worked. (Alternative title: why blocking trade and supply routes and waiting was often a better strategy than a direct attack).

Lego makes castles:

A visit to Königstein in Germany is recommended. It is called a "fortress" which is arguably a bigger military site than a fortified residence but let's not get into a definitional debate. This video has great history. It is in German, but the English subtitles are good.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an paper folding and origami theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute your own. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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