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Author Topic: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project  (Read 23058 times)

Offline Marcus Leitdorf

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #50 on: March 20, 2009, 12:59:42 AM »
This is turning out and looking very good Neverness. :eusa_clap:

I really like the overall layout of the piece.

Marcus
Faithfulness to our fathers, faithfulness to our sons. Marius shall be avenged!

Offline neverness

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #51 on: March 20, 2009, 01:19:48 AM »
Thank you Marcus, it's much appreciated! I hope to get the roof, handles and the banner brace done tomorrow, or at least by next week (I'll be in Nascar hell over the weekend). I'm very pleased with how well this 20 year old foam paints up and, for the most part, does look like quite a bit like stone!

The composition is a result of where Death Castle's creater (Doc Trevor) chose to put the door. If I was starting from scratch I never would've put the door off center like that, but as a result, placing the tower in the opposite corner allowed for a bigger tower/keep, and really opens up the courtyard. It'll be really handy for play too!


Offline steveb

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #52 on: March 20, 2009, 03:26:47 AM »
glad to see you didn't drop the project, it is looking good.  I know you are way past it now, but if it should occur again, when using balsa wood, seal it with some kilz, it fills in the porous suface and takes paint quite well just like a primer, if you cant get or find kilz, then seal the balsa with varnish and then prime. With the wood prepared this way you will be more satisfied with the results of your painting effort.  I think that the route you took seems to work very well.  I learned many of my ideas or techniques from a cartoon section in some old wargaming magazines from way back. the author/artist was Stan Catchpoole if I remember correctly, he always had neat ideas for conversion and detailing. I dont know if he is still with us or not but in either case my hat is off to you Stan where ever you are.   steveb

Offline samhain

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #53 on: March 20, 2009, 09:15:58 AM »
Great castle! It looks old and poor and reminds about anemies buried under it walls and prisoners kept there. :icon_twisted:
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Offline neverness

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #54 on: March 20, 2009, 12:03:43 PM »
I like the way you think comrade! Welcome to the forums!  :::cheers:::

Yes, lots of tortured weeping souls are trapped under it's venerable foundations. I was tempted, and still might do this, to show a break in one of the walls of the base that would reveal a massive fissure of skulls, but it also felt like it might be an unnecessary detail. I mean, the armies that have died, and will die, here are what earned this castle it's name!


Offline neverness

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #55 on: March 20, 2009, 10:55:48 PM »
Part 11.5

Did some more work on the castle tower today.



Here is a birds eye view of the top of the tower with the roof stones complete. After some experimenting I opted not to put a handle or hinges of any kind on the roof hatch so as not to unbalance any models that may be positioned on the roof. So this part is essentially done.

Though it may be hard to see in some of these pics, I did randomly highlight a few stone by giving them a mix of a watered down brown / flesh ink wash.



After finishing that, I put the handles on the doors! They came out OK. I painted these metal, and they stand out good I think.



I painted the housing for the banner pole a rusty metal color to convey a bit of age to the tower (as if it didn’t look war-torn and ravaged already!). I also added some rust color to the stone beneath to show the rocks being stained by the slow decay of the banner mount.



And finally here is a profile shot taken outside in natural lighting.

The next step is the balcony. It may be awhile until the next post as not only will that part of the project be time consuming, but work is about to get a bit taxing...
« Last Edit: March 21, 2009, 12:09:09 PM by neverness »

Offline neverness

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #56 on: March 22, 2009, 12:05:19 AM »
glad to see you didn't drop the project, it is looking good.  I know you are way past it now, but if it should occur again, when using balsa wood, seal it with some kilz, it fills in the porous surface and takes paint quite well just like a primer, if you cant get or find kilz, then seal the balsa with varnish and then prime.   steveb

Thanks steveb! The final step for the Castle tower is to add the balcony/deck and I'm not sure how well the technique I used on the doors will hold up to the same scrutiny. So, where do you (or anyone else) recommend I find some 'Kilz' here in the states? I'm surpised I never heard of this stuff before, I used to work at an arts&crafts store!

Offline rufus sparkfire

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #57 on: March 22, 2009, 12:08:23 AM »
That tower looks excellent!
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Offline neverness

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #58 on: August 14, 2017, 12:14:50 AM »
>YAAAAWN!<
Time to wake this thread back up! It's been sleeping for well over 8 years now, somewhat peacefully.

I have received a few messages over time asking me what the status of this project is. Well, since the last update there has been zero progress, thus, nothing to update.

However recently those bastards over on Photobucket have sent me a 3rd party hosting warning (the same that everyone else seems to be getting) thus threatening the archival status of this project. So I have slowly been piecing this old thread back together on my blog. You can find the landing page for Death Castle here: https://nevernesshobby.blogspot.com/p/death-castle.html

Restoring this thread on my blog has had two benefits:

1) I am able to post more pics from that time that, for whatever reason, I simply didn't share back then. (Respect for this page's bandwidth or something?)

And 2) it has rekindled my desire to finally finish constructing Death Castle!  I am very excited to do this actually and shall be posting updates and links here.

Oh, and a third, benefit, yes a third one:
 
3) it's got me and a local gamer talking about playing 8th Edition WFB again and specifically playing on Death Castle!

So exciting times ahead indeed. I hope you all enjoy.
Oh, and for old time's sake:  ::heretic::

-Neverness
« Last Edit: August 14, 2017, 12:21:06 AM by neverness »

Online Warlord

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #59 on: August 14, 2017, 04:59:39 AM »
I look forward to seeing your progress!!
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Offline carturello

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #60 on: August 14, 2017, 12:12:24 PM »
Scenary and cat it's a good pair! Funny and beauty!

Offline neverness

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #61 on: January 21, 2019, 02:41:31 AM »
Tally-ho!

Finally, after being stalled out on this thing, I have an update.
Last winter (2018) I set about painting the stone work on the walls of Death Castle. it was coming along decently. I got most of it finished over the course of about three Sundays. It started out with an Appel Barrel Graphite base coat over the entire thing. Thankfully Walmart sells that stuff in really big bottles so I have more than enough for this task and just about anything else that I use that color for.

I slightly mismatched the highlight color with the tower, but I should be able to correct that decently with some touch-ups at some point. Overall, I like how it turned out. However it makes the upper quarter, the solid styrofoam sections, really stand out in an awkward way. And I was stumped on what to do about it. I brainstormed and discussed it with a few friends, but the answers I came up with didn't appeal to me. After many months of being stalled out on this thing, I came up with two workable solutions.

Solution 1: Sheet styrene brick sections. Cut them to the pattern needed and glue them on. It worked out great on the roof top for this tower and I have made plans in the past to make other things using that stuff. I decided that this would be, due to the crude nature of this thing, expensive, time consuming, frustrating and likely to have crappy results.

Solution 2: Take a soldering iron to it and burn out some grooves. At first, I loved the idea. Then I thought about it and realized just how unforgiving any mistakes could be. One wrong move and I could really mess thing up -badly!

To see the whole thing, especially the pics, check out my blog:https://nevernesshobby.blogspot.com/2019/01/death-castle-part-12.html?m=0

Hopefully we'll have another update this calendar year!

Offline Zak

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #62 on: January 21, 2019, 03:33:12 AM »
nice to see it back in action  :::cheers::: :::cheers::: :::cheers:::
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Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Return to Death Castle: A restoration project
« Reply #63 on: January 21, 2019, 12:11:06 PM »
I recall this, and good to know it is still in action. :icon_biggrin: :::cheers:::
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

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