Hi.......how about those round cardboard forms for concrete. I'm not sure how much they cost. Then you could add other stuff with foam board or cardboard. You could paint them to look like rock or stone. You could cut the tops with an x-acto knife or something to resemble the castle tops and put little flags on them. I don't know what to recycle, I'd have to think about it,lol!! I'd paint it gray and use a large rectangle sponge to sponge paint on some "stones" in a lighter gray.It would make a beautiful backdrop for photographs. Maybe recycle a cardboard box from a refrigerator?? Ask Lowes or Home Depot or some store like that if they have any that large. Hope this helps.

The first thing that I thought of was seeing if there are "spools" that hold carpet. Might check at a carpet store to see if they have something like that.

If you have live performance group locally, you might check with them to see if they have any props decorated like a castle--maybe they would loan them to you.

Good luck with your project.

Luvs

I was thinking of those barrels made of cardboard. and have metal top and bottom rims. The could be stacked (glued) and painted. I see them painted gray stone look and at the top you could use styrofoam brick shapes to stand up with spaces around it. Maybe some ivy growing around the stone pillars.

patti

I would do layers for dimension. For the very back, make a big paper background to put on the wall. Then I'd make a huge arch out of flat cardboard or plywood. The arched area needs to be in front of the background by a foot or so to give more depth. Then for columns, you could take pieces of flexible posterboard and staple or nail the edges to the back of the edges of the arch so they would make the rounded shape. You might have to use several pieces to go up far enough. You could cover the columns with paper from the huge rolls and paint it to look like bricks or rocks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Castles

I was going to suggest using the flat painted background, then as the eye leads to the 'middle ground-the centers from carpet rolls would be the perfect size. For the towers in the foreground,how about stovepipe? I think it's at least an 8" diameter..you can use tin shears & cut them in half lengthways for the middle ground and leave whole for the pillars! Bet you could spray them w/Krylon paint in grey and then simply use black paint to draw the stone blocks.