Modelling castles (very long....)
From: "David McCallum" <[email protected]>
OK, siege is out, everyone wants a castle of their own, and you look at the price tag on the GW fortress and think "If only..."
Well, never fear, the masters of engineering combined with frugality are at your service! Not only that, it will be light, durable yet sturdy, not prone to fractures, chips or snapping (etc. etc.. have I sold you yet?:-)
What you will need:-
A base board of some kind (large side of a cardboard box, artboard, foam card, thin hardboard if you want, but make sure you are getting it for almost free!)
A bit more of the same stuff for "extras".
A large empty box, preferably a large breakfast cereal packet.
Newspaper.
Foam rubber in large quantities (go ask any shop, you'd be amazed how much of this stuff is used for packing and just gets thrown in the bin. Cost=FREE!!!)
some household filler (best off with the mix your own stuff, get a small box, its pretty cheap).
A large, old bowl or bucket for mixing.
A sharp knife with a reasonable length blade.
Scissors (big pair).
Glue and adhesive tape.
Paint. (get the test pots of normal household paint, far cheaper than modeling paint and fine for our needs. Get a nice dark bluey-grey, a brown and a white (not gloss). Most people normally have white paint around the house from when the decorating was done last.)
Bottom cut out from a plastic drink bottle for mixing the paint in!
Old, big brushes(again, you can get away with household paintbrushes).
Some small stones (an inch diameter maximum, ranging down to around � inch), sand and grit.
Flock or sand w/green paint, whatever you normally use for your miniature bases.
Pens/pencils for marking.
A good straight edge (preferably a metal rule).
Extra stuff that might be useful:-
Thin balsa sheet (again, not very expensive, good for gates, doors plus siege towers if there's any left:-)
A metal paper clip (not plastic coated) or short length of wire, a pair of pliers and a candle.
Soldering iron.
Polystyrene in various shaped bits. (again you should be able to scrounge this from shops or bins).
Hair dryer.
Morale booster:-
OK, this will take a little bit of time (probably a few days all told), and while you are making the basic structure, it will look _shocking_. Don't panic, you haven't done anything wrong, it _will_ look bad until you've started putting the cosmetics on. As soon as you do that, its going to look almost finished and you will marvel at your creation (trust me...:-)
Basic structure:-
Decide if your castle is going to be all 4 walls so it can be placed anywhere on the table, or just three sides with the back open so it will be set up on a table edge. (my first attempt was actually a small two wall job to be used on the corner of the table, but I'm strange like that:-)
Lie your box down on the base board so you can cut the base to shape. You probably want to leave a good 6" around each side of your box. Cut the base board, rounding off the corners and sloping the edges if possible for neatness.
Take your box, and trace round on your "extra" baseboard material. Cut this section out, and glue it to the side of your box. This will reinforce that side so it won't buckle under the weight of your army!.
Once it is dry, roll up the newspaper into tight balls and use it to stuff the box with. Again we are doing this to stop the box from sagging if weight is placed on it. Tape up the sides, then glue the box in place (reinforced side up) on the base board. Leave to dry.
(cheats alternative- use a nice big piece of square polystyrene packing if you can get it instead of the box; its already rigid and is still light).
Right, what we have so far is going to be the approximate size of the outer walls of your castle, and the reinforced box side will form your courtyard. Since this is raised already and your walls will sit on this structure, the walls themselves do not have to be much higher before they will be a formidable size for outside attackers.
Next for the towers. You want to cut your foam rubber into some oblong chunks with a square cross section. The length of the chunk should be approx. the height of the structure so far plus another 3-4". The cross section should be able to hold however many figures you want to stuff on top of the tower.
Once you have your tower section, size it up against your box measure to take out a square piece from the base of one corner around � - �" , just so that the tower will now fit snugly over the corner of the box. Do the same for all your towers.
Around now, you should decide where you are putting your gate. Because the courtyard is raised, you will have a ramp leading up to it. If you are planning on sallying forth in grand Brettonian tradition, you will want your ramp to lead directly out away from the castle. More defensively minded creatures like dwarves will probably want the ramp to go off to one side, so that attackers don't have a straight run up with battering rams. Whichever way you decide, grab a chunk of foam rubber and carve yourself a ramp with about a 20-30 degree slope and maybe a flat bit on top at the same height as your courtyard. The width should be enough for whatever formation of models you would envisage putting on there (probably 8-10 cm should be good). Don't worry if it looks rough and ready, this will just add to the feel later on. Don't glue it in place yet, we've got a bit more to do to it later.
Walls come next. Length is going to be dependent on your box size , height should be about twice that of a miniature and width should be 2 base widths (either 4or 5 cm depending) PLUS the fraction that you cut out of the corner of those towers. Now when you are measuring the wall length, do it right along for each section; don't take any other wall sections into account because the ends will get cut at 45 degrees to fit together, OK? I know that siege asks for 12" wall lengths, but lets face it, it's your castle!
Now, to form ramparts you are going to cut out part of the wall along its top edge. You need to take away about half the height, and your 4 or 5 cm (from above) in width. This should leave you with a sort of L shaped section, with a fat bit at the bottom for your figures to stand on and a thin wall in front (It should end up the width of the fraction you cut out of the tower, and about the same height as one of your miniatures). Now, for the crennelations, use scissors (cos its easiest) to snip at regular intervals about halfway down the wall. You might want to measure and mark your snips, either making sure you calculate an odd number of sections, or (if you're no good at maths like me) work out an even number and do a half length measurement at each end. This will ensure that the bit at either end is either both "up" or both "down"; having one of each will look strange.
Now cut out every other section to for the battlements properly. Again, this should be pretty easy using scissors because of the way you can pull and stretch foam rubber. Finally take a diagonal snip away from the face of each raised section, so that your outer face is now at an angle of about 45 degrees.
Optional:- some people may find it easier to work with polystyrene for the walls and battlements because it is more rigid when you work it and it is easy to cut with a knife. However it will tend to snap easily if mistreated, especially the thin crennelated section, so don't say I didn't warn you!
At this time you will also need to make crennelations for the tops of your towers. Get some of your extra baseboard material and cut out a section for each that is about 2 inches greater in length and width than the top dimensions of the tower. Do some thin walls in exactly the same way as above to go right round each of these pieces (remember you are only making the thin bit of the walls since the figures will already have something to stand on.
Now for all of your wall and battlement sections, size them up to your box and board sections and cut each section accordingly at 45 degrees on each end so they fit snugly.
The messy part is the gatehouse. So far we have walls that go all around and have no means of entrance to your castle. I did that for a reason (getting the measurement and looks of the wall correct), and now at the point you decided for your ramp. we are going to cut away a section of the wall for the gatehouse. I would recomend for a first time modeller that you make a simple gatehouse (as below). Those of you who know what you are doing can get far more adventurous.
Make two more sqaure towers, only slightly (by a couple of mil) thicker than the thickness of your walls, and about an inch taller. Do the brickwork on them the same way as before. Now put the wall section in place on the side where the ramp will be, and see how much of a section you have to cut out of the middle of it to allow for both towers and the width of the ramp. Cut that section out. Now fit the walls parts and towers in place properlly, and make another "tower top" that will span both towers and the gap between, including the crennelated walls.
The part directly above the gap may look a bit thin, but you can always add a chunk of foam as a crosspiece directly between the two towers and under the ramparts (this is the easiest way to get it to form an archway if thats the way you want it).
Whew, still with me?
Right, we have the bare essentials for the completed castle, now we move onto the cosmetics. But before we do, In accordance with the stuff in siege and the need to possibly remove parts of the structure to represent damage, we are going to assemble the various pieces as if you could remove the towers and walls as separate items. I'll note an option for fixing in place if you want a complete all in one model where appropriate.
For all your walls and towers, you want to mark it out as "brickwork" . Look at your battlements. One of the angled sticky up bits will be the size of a brick. So if you followed all the measurements above, your main outer face of the wall will measure neatly out into 3 rows of bricks, plus the extra row on top with every other brick missing. Use a felt pen to mark them.
Now along each line you want to cut a shallow V shaped channel. You will need a very sharp knife for this, and remember to be careful.
Optional:-Only do this in good ventilation! Foam rubber (or polystyrene) will melt, so if you have a soldering iron, you can use it as an etching tool by simply redrawing over the lines with the tip of the iron. But remember to be quick and light with your strokes so you don't end up burning a hole in your castle wall? Clean that tip thoroughly after you have used it like this!!!!! The same effect can be done using a paper clip straightened out then folded back in half held in a pair of pliers (you will use the bend as your "tip"). Heat it for a few seconds in a candle flame and use in the same way as above. Unfortunately it is far more time consuming because you have to keep re-heating it every few seconds. In both cases, have a bit of practice on some scrap first, but any mistakes on your proper pieces can be done over with filler later.
Next we are going to put some rocks around the base of our towers and walls. Get some square chunks of foam and tear them into a sort of 45 degrees angle. Tearing is best rather than cutting because it gives a good irregular surface which is much better looking for a natural rock face. Make sure they come up as least as high as your box so that it will be hidden. It is OK to go above this level as it will hide the join between the walls and the box while also making it look as if the castle was almost hewn out of the cliffs. Around the towers you want to do the rocks so they come up slightly lower than those for the walls. It just makes the finished model look more even all round. Make sure you get enough rock sections to go all the way around your castle, so there is a continual slope all the way around the base. DO NOT glue them in place, they have to be treated first.
Now comes the messy fun part! Get your bowl and mix up a really runny solution of filler. You probably don't want it much thicker than paint. Take every foam section you have, dip it in the solution, get it good and wet, squeeze it while in there to soak up the filler, then squeeze it out and leave it to dry. This will do 2 things. First it gives it a better surface for painting later on. Second, it makes it stronger and more durable, so it will take the weight of miniatures but also it retains its "bounce" to withstand the knocks it will receive during transportation and play.
Once dry, you can glue your ramp and the rocks around your box into place.
Now, thicken your filler up. You still want it reasonably thin, but not quite runny. A little bit thicker than PVA glue should do the trick. Now there are 2 ways to use the filler. First is to get an old brush and "dab" it onto the face of the bricks on your walls and towers. This should leave a stippled effect (like the kind you get on ceilings). The second way is to spread a very thin layer onto a sheet of old cardboard, then press the wall onto it (as if your were stamping an image). Lift it off and Hey Presto, the whole wall face has been stippled! Leave these all to dry (or if you are impatient like me, grab a hairdryer and force the drying process!)
Optional:- you may at this stage glue either the towers or walls into place in the model. Doing so will make the whole lot neater and gap free, but it will prevent you from removing sections that have been destroyed according to the siege rules.
One final bit with the filler. Glue the rocks around your tower bases (remembering to have the tower upright so the rock base is flat). Glue the flat base material to the top of your tower, then glue the crennelation walls in place. Using the same consistency of filler, use your old brush to fill in the gaps between:
1. the tower wall corners.
2. all of your rock sections
3. the base material that is showing on the top of the tower (and also to stipple it)
4. stippling the top of the box (the courtyard floor).
5. (optional) any gaps between walls, towers, base and rocks etc. that are fixed in place.
Leave the whole lot to dry!
The next part concerns only the base board, so you won't need the wall sections at all, but you may need the towers. Put the towers in place so you can see the area that their base/rocks cover. Take some of your stones and glue them in interesting places all around the free ground on the castle. You don't need many to make it look interesting (and the more you have, the harder it is to place figures), and you don't need them in huge mounds either. Just enough to break up the flat landscape, maybe 1 stone every couple of inches? You might find they stick better if you hack out a little depression for them first. Now mix your sand and grit in any handy container (you'll probably only need about quarter of a jar full all told, but that depends on how ambitious you are in the size of your castle). About 1/3 grit to 2/3 sand. Put your baseboard onto a decent amount of old newspaper, because we don't want to get a mess all over when we start pouring the mix onto the model. Keep your towers in place. Now a few areas at a time, paint some neat PVA glue around the foam rocks, out to between 1 and 3 inches. Repaint with plenty of straight water, so it is all nice and runny. If you are doing round a tower section, lift it straight off once the water is in place, otherwise you might end up accidentally gluing the tower to the board. Make sure you surround your stones (if any in that area) with the mix. Sprinkle on plenty of your sand and grit mix.
Leave this to dry for at least half an hour, turn the board upside down and tap the bottom until all excess has come off onto your paper. Pour the collected stuff back into your container, then repeat the process in sections till you have a covering all the way round your castle.
Were there any areas of your rock face where the mix collected when you poured it on? When you glue the next section, put a bit of PVA in that recess so it catches some of the mix, the finished model will look more natural that way.
Give the whole lot a chance to dry.
We're almost there folks!
Painting time. Mix about half and half water and gray paint in your container. Two reasons, first, it makes it go further and second, it is more of an ink consistency suitable for painting uneven textures. Give each piece a good liberal coat of paint, leaving nothing untouched. The "ink" will soak readily into the filler surface and around the sand/gravel areas. It should also be surface dry reasonably quickly on suck a porous surface. Use a large brush so you can cover the area quickly. Once it is dry enough, mix some gray with white, and drybrush all the pieces to bring out the surface better. As an option, if you really want to you can do a very light drybrush on any edges, like around bricks, on corners or along the tops of battlements. It will certainly give the castle more definition from a distance, but you may loose some of the dark, broody feel about it. Again you can use a hairdryer to force the paint drying at any stage.
The only final thing is to give the area around the edges that haven't been graveled a coat of brown, then PVA and flock to finish it off. Plus of course any ather bits you want to add to personalise it even more (flagpoles, mounds of skulls, goblins hanging from the battlements, you know the sort of thing...).
Oh, and don't forget to make some kind of gate:-)
Put the pieces together and you are ready to play!
The end result should be a pretty imposing structure that looks as if it's been almost hewn out of the living rock (at least that's the way my test piece came out:-). Those larger block sizes tend to lend a more formidable field. Just watch your opponents face at their thought of having to assault it.
I'm sorry I can't give you any photos or diagrams as examples (and ASCII art never seems to stand up too well on other peoples readers). If you've got any questions, feel free to e-mail me back privately, or if you do it to the list, remember to SNIP!!!
Happy castle building,
General Angolin