Well shucks, thanks everyone. Ill need to show off my ladders later. I cut that balsa to size and just dipped it right into the can. Then leaned them up high and the texture held a bead of the stain making it a lot darker across making the illusion of ladder rungs.
I have also added pieces of the paper houses from brumbaer (sp) to try and make the towers look like they were made from the structures around the sieging army. Fairly simple construction as you can cut the wood sheets with a utility knife.