The gibbet
The image of the gibbet is quite prominent in the Mousehunter, being the first and last things you read about. It’s a pretty nasty piece of kit, and was used quite frequently in the old days in England as a means of visual deterrent to would-be criminals. More often than not, when pirates were caught, they would be sentenced to death and promptly hung. Once the bodies were taken down from the gallows, they would sometimes be covered in tar and then placed in the cage of the gibbet for all other wannabe criminals to see. The authorities wanted people to know that this is what would happen to them if they were caught doing bad things.
As gruesome as it is, the image of the gibbet does stick in your memory, which is why I wanted it used next to the first page of writing in The Mousehunter. It’s not a very pleasant introduction to Old Town, I admit, but a lot of what goes on there can be pretty grisly, so I thought it was important to show all sides of the city.
While thinking about the gibbet, I came to the conclusion that it would make an interesting model to build, and so set about working out plans. And here is the finished result for everyone to have a go at. Here is a Word Doc of the instructions too. So if you want your own gibbet to put a nasty pirate in, you know what to do!
It’ll look something like this when finished (although it’ll be in colour!!). Let me know how easy you find it, or how difficult!