Middle Earth Ranger Forum

So I'm back again from my regularly unscheduled absence, and I remember the last time I said I would make and post some plans for the things I've built. Unfortunately I still haven't done that and the things I made are elsewhere so I can't get the measurements.
However I can make new plans easily enough, and I was wondering what exactly you guys would want to see them for, if anything? Probably won't be able to actually build anything for a while, but it never hurts to figure it out before starting.

Just list them off. Maybe give some details, ideas, etc. Don't worry about cluttering this thread up, I'll be posting them in a different one when finished.

1. War Chest
2. Breakdown Camp Kitchen
3. Covered Shop Stall
4. War Cart
5.

How about a War Chest ! A locking wooden chest with handles and room for weapons, armor, sharpening equipment and other campaign needs.

Shouldn't be too hard. There are a lot of variables though. If you're storing a dane axe, longbow, or a full set of plate armor you're going to have a pretty big chest to lug around. Given how much empty space stuff like that would leave there probably wouldn't be an issue packing the maintenance equipment, extra clothing, food, what have you. You could very well end up with one the size of a small dresser assuming you leave everything packed until it's used. That probably wouldn't be going anywhere. Though simply taking the longbow and dane axe out could knock half the length off.

However if you're using lighter, smaller or less gear naturally you could use a smaller chest. Say you have a hand axe or arming sword, chain mail, maintainence gear and clothing you could probably drop it down to something around a foot wide, a foot tall and maybe three long or a little less, and still have room for the odds and ends. That's pretty easy to manage. And then, say you're carrying your weapons on yourself and only using the chest for armor, maintainence, and whatever else you need to bring. You could shrink the length down a foot more.

Unless there's an objection, for the sake of this I'll be assuming anything over...say...40 inches long is carried separate. At least for the mobile chest.

So, contents,
At least one weapon, preferably more. Dependent on mood at time of design. Or demand.
Sharpening stone
Oil
Mail shirt
Nasal helm w/aventail
Padding/gambeson
Gloves
Shin guards/Greaves
One full set of clothing, excluding shoes. Based upon viking era clothing.
Space for trinkets, money, jewelry, etc.
Other things I'm not thinking of right now.

I'll probably add to the list later. Getting kinda late here.

That sounds very interesting! I am looking forward to what you come up with!
The camp kitchen would also be very nice to see!

Thanks. Feel free to make a suggestion if you think of something.
I'll probably have the war chest plans done Friday unless I go nuts with it. I might include a quick drawing of what it should look like when finished. Ideally I'd have a 3D render, but the only 3D design program I can wrap my head around is Inventor, and that's just a tiny bit expensive.

I'll probably have the kitchen and market stall done on the same day, they'll be based on the same concept. They might even use the same frame, just with a couple different surfaces.

I saw some very cool stall drawings in the first "Hobbit Chronicles" book. They had all the little market stalls for the market by the Green Dragon Inn in Bywater.
Some were very interesting.
The book also had drawings of many of the Hobbit hole fronts and some very nice tools and tool boxes!
If you don't have the book, it is a great investment! However, I can put up a few scans of what I am refering to if there is any interest.

They anything like the ones actually used in the movie? I can remember the ones I saw in the production blogs and can always go check those out.

Yes! The book was created by Weta and details many of the props, sets, costumes and such. The blogs are great, but the artists drawings are inspirational to say the least!

I'll have to see about getting my hands on a copy, I've always liked seeing the concept artwork from pretty much anything. I would have grabbed one now if I didn't get a new drive for my pc.

And while working on the war chest plans I came to remember why I rarely make plans for things. I never remember to compensate for the actual lumber dimensions until after I finish.

I have a smaller version of a war chest that I will post some pics of this weekend if I can get out to the garage.

Well, here are the plans for the war chest. I'll redo this one later on seeing that it's a bit messy. And I'll add a sketch to this post some time over the next few days, or perhaps a render if I can find some good design software.
I know this might not be that clear for someone that's not much of a carpenter, so go ahead and ask any questions if you have them. I'll be throwing another thread up with the improved plan and a step by step guide later on, and I'll add pictures when I get around to building one.


I have not included hardware in these plans, that really depends on what you have available. Seeing it's a war chest you should make it good and sturdy. Throw some iron/steel corner braces on, good strap hinges, a good hasp and lock and you're good to go. Maybe add some nails to help hold it together(though glue alone should be fine, it's stronger than the wood).

Seeing that this is planned with 1" lumber in mind (which is actually 3/4"), it should be possible to adapt this to 3/4" plywood if you so desire.



Note, the side panels in this plan includes legs. You do not need them, but I prefer having them so when I haul my chests to sca events I can use them as benches and so there's some air space underneath. Also, that gap in the middle is not necessary, but it looks nice and helps it to be more stable on solid surfaces.



I should note that on this one, the second thing goes underneath the top/lid. It's there to strengthen it, and is pretty much necessary if you curve the top as the wood can get pretty thin at the edges. If you don't do that you probably don't need it. Though it wouldn't hurt if you have the leftovers, and it can add a good bit of space.

Again, please ask questions if you have them.

Six board chests are very common from medieval period. Mastermyr is a good example. Traveling chests would have no legs so they could be easily stacked, loaded, & un-loaded in wagons. The bench-type with legs provided seating and keeping the boxes out of the muck. I have made two small Viking benches and a box. I'll post pics and other plans, if I can find the hard copies and figure out my new phone.

They were, and the type I favor myself. The Mastermyr was actually what my first chest was based off of, though I changed it quite a bit to make it larger with next to no waste.
Most the ones I've made have rather short legs so they're off the ground just a little but don't have too much wasted space when packing, usually a result of having just a little extra material I couldn't do anything else with. Though I have been meaning to make some designed to stack even with legs.

And as I said, the legs can be removed from this design. Doing so would make the mortise and tenons largely meaningless, but it should be solid without them.

I found a couple of sites I used:
Build A Simple Chest
The Medieval Chest

Here are two pictures of my gear box. It currently has alittle of everything in it.