Author Topic: Imperial Castle - WIP with pics (Read 19179 times)

imperialforge · « **on:** September 04, 2006, 08:04:59 AM »

I was so inspired by Marcus Leitdorf's projects that I finally got around to starting my own - which I had been planning for over two years. I wanted to make a small Imperial Castle - not a huge towering monstrosity, but more like one of many personal castles of some Imperial Noble, with a more "chamber" feel to it. My idea was to take something commercially available and cheap - like a toy castle and transform it into a respectable piece of Imperial real estate.

Well, here is how it started... The whole thing cost me $12.00 on e-bay. I figured, $12.00 CANNOT be bad, no matter what comes out in the end. It is small, but I wanted more of a "fortified-residence-close-to-the-border" feel. Besides, this is my first such project...

The figures will give an idea of overall size.

Some details:

The crowned skull was too much of a fit to pass by...

The pewter charm I got on e-bay will serve as a nice statue of Verena or Shallya greeting a tired traveler... The drawbridge is working - what else does a noble need returning home early in the morning, after a night of whoring in the local town...

I think that after some painting, the addition of banners, grass, decals and such, it will look quite presentable! Suggestions and feedback welcome

Warlord · « **Reply #1 on:** September 04, 2006, 08:33:08 AM »

Wow, those photos actually make it look surprisingly good. I hope it does get painted soon though...

What are you going to do about the bottom left grate area? It looks a bit out of place and very kiddy with movable parts... Otherwise, 12 bucks is a fantastic bargain for something that is pre-constructed and almost ready to go.

imperialforge · « **Reply #2 on:** September 04, 2006, 08:57:41 AM »

OK,

the work continues:

The castle is in the priming stage...

For housekeeping reasons, the roof on the right tower will be primed and painted later and separately.

@Warlord: I wasn't paying attention to that box, but now that you mention it, it does look a bit kiddy. Well, nothing I can do now - I will paint it up and pretend there is a locking mechanism behind the wall.

General Helstrom · « **Reply #3 on:** September 04, 2006, 09:44:53 AM »

Nice to see you again IF

How did you figure out the scale for this kit? I've looked at toy castles on ebay but I could never quite work out if the size was right for use with Warhammer minis.

You might be able to hide the grate by stacking some loose stuff against it - barrels, timbers, and so forth.

imperialforge · « **Reply #4 on:** September 04, 2006, 10:19:33 AM »

Quote from: General Helstrom on September 04, 2006, 09:44:53 AM

Nice to see you again IF

How did you figure out the scale for this kit? I've looked at toy castles on ebay but I could never quite work out if the size was right for use with Warhammer minis.

Well, I took a risk. The castle turned out to be a bit smaller than I expected, hence the fortified residence theme.

But it is a good idea to see pics to get a sense of the scale, obviously. Sometimes there are measurements in descriptions.

Quote from: General Helstrom on September 04, 2006, 09:44:53 AM

You might be able to hide the grate by stacking some loose stuff against it - barrels, timbers, and so forth.

I might plant a shrub or a small tree in front of it...

cripple · « **Reply #5 on:** September 04, 2006, 02:03:27 PM »

A little work to make it look older and less friendly and it should be quite sharp.

Marcus Leitdorf · « **Reply #6 on:** September 04, 2006, 02:12:47 PM »

Hey Imperialforge,

This is an excellent idea. I think that one of my boys actually has that castle stashed away someplace with their old toys. I'll have to look. My wife gave me a pretty large plastic castle set some time back that would actually work pretty well for WFB. There were two problems with it that caused me to set it aside: One, was that the inside of the walls were just ugly blank mold lines. The second had to do with scale. It didn't feel like the scale was consistent within the castle itself, though most of it would seem to work.

I have found that scale is a tricky thing when it comes to terrain. In doing a little research on castles I have found that to truly make some of them to scale would make the walls 24" and higher. That is not too practical for a WFB tabletop game. I think the trick is to find a balance so that the terrain piece looks reasonable.

Anyway, if I can find the castle my wife gave me I will take a few pictures to let you see what it looks like. I might even still have the box it came in with the name of the company that made it.

Marcus

richard_de_clare · « **Reply #7 on:** September 04, 2006, 02:23:26 PM »

What a great idea. And so cheap as well, means you can put a lot more time and effort and money into the details which is the best part of terrain building. good use fo the crowned skull shield piece.

one observation. The lever for the gate is on the outside of the residence/castle? I can imagine the gate keeper shouting up "open the gates" only for the sentries inside to shout out "Open it yourself, you lazy bigger"

For fluff. You could add some murder holes above the gateway or maybe place a cauldron on the walkway for showering attackers. Im sure you can pick up small plastic toy ones on the net somewhere.

Good 'outside the box' idea!!

Marcus Leitdorf · « **Reply #8 on:** September 04, 2006, 03:13:36 PM »

Hey IF,

I found it buried in the garage. Here are some shots of the castle my wife gave me some time ago.

Here is a shot of the whole thing from the front. I placed a few spearmen around so you could see the scale.

An aerial view.

A close up of the manor. I had actually thought about using this piece separately.

Here is a close up of the gatehouse.

This is the interior of the walls. The unfinished aspect is what put me off a little. I still haven't figured out how to go about making them look a bit more realistic.

This castle was made by Simba. The link they show on the box is: www.simba-dickie.com

The beautiful thing about a project like this is that the texturing is already done for you. The stonework is much more to scale. The stonework in the MDF tower I am building is really too large, but making it smaller is a whole boat load of work! Primer and a little paint on a project like this will yield fantastic results I think. The details you add will greatly enhance the piece. I am going to be following your progress closely.

Keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing.

Marcus

Marcus Leitdorf · « **Reply #9 on:** September 04, 2006, 03:36:39 PM »

Hey all,

Here is a link to a variety of toy castles, one of which is the one above. There is also a village set, but I didn't check the scale.

http://www.pixymusic.com/Toy_Castles/toy_castles.html

Marcus

Siamtiger · « **Reply #10 on:** September 04, 2006, 07:06:14 PM »

Hi guys,

thank you for the info, and as thankful as i am, here is a german ebay auction offering 8 pieces of this wonderful castle for just 19,90 eur.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Mega-RITTERBURG-120-Teile-NEU-OVP-von-Simba_W0QQitemZ260026324208QQihZ016QQcategoryZ374QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

best regards

ST

General Helstrom · « **Reply #11 on:** September 04, 2006, 07:15:27 PM »

Hmm - if you take two of those kits, you might be able to chop one of them up, and use the panels to cover the insides of the other's walls?

Phydox · « **Reply #12 on:** September 04, 2006, 08:12:49 PM »

Quote from: imperialforge on September 04, 2006, 10:19:33 AM

Quote from: General Helstrom on September 04, 2006, 09:44:53 AM
You might be able to hide the grate by stacking some loose stuff against it - barrels, timbers, and so forth.

I might plant a shrub or a small tree in front of it...

For that grate, you could make it look like its some kind of drainage grate. Like the scene from LoTR. Paint it rust color/tin blitz, and maybe add some stones to make a creek bed. It doesn't look too bad if you can hide the gaps around the grate.

@Marcus Leifdorf: Have you, or anyone tried using that spackle you can buy at a home improvement center by the bucket full? You make be able to trough that in the back and when its semi hard, drag a pencil or something along it to create stonework.

I have no idea if this would work but it was an idea I had watching a guy do plastering at my house. I almost asked,..."Umm hey guy do you do really small walls too?" "I mean really small...like 24"?"

cripple · « **Reply #13 on:** September 04, 2006, 08:33:05 PM »

Now I gotta buy a plastic castle...

imperialforge · « **Reply #14 on:** September 05, 2006, 02:04:22 AM »

Here is an example of what could be done with a toy castle. This one is from Simba and is now discontinued. The Lion's Rock Castle currently available from simba has some parts of it, but not all.

Drool...

Rufas the Eccentric · « **Reply #15 on:** September 05, 2006, 02:14:29 AM »

Perhaps I should haul out my son's Playmobile castle to check out the scale. I am curious: The skull and crown motif above impierialforge's windows looks like they are taken directly from the shield options on Empirel Infantry shields. Is that right?

Marcus Leitdorf · « **Reply #16 on:** September 05, 2006, 03:10:43 AM »

Wow!

That Lion's Rock castle looks great. This really gives me hope for the plastic castle I have. Isn't it amazing what a little paint and ingenuity can do!

Phydox,

Your idea with the spackle certainly has merit. I will just have to think about how to fit it to the walls. Here is a test using some spackle over some balsa sheet that I did some time ago. The texturing was done by wading up some aluminum foil into a ball/pad and lightly pressing it onto the spackle while it was still slightly soft. The lines were indeed just scratched in using a nail.

Marcus

General Helstrom · « **Reply #17 on:** September 05, 2006, 07:18:59 AM »

My concern with spackle would be survivability - the stuff works great when applied thinly across a nice, solid wall, but wouldn't it be prone to fracturing or crumbling when used in a gaming piece?

richard_de_clare · « **Reply #18 on:** September 05, 2006, 08:13:27 AM »

Quote from: Rufas the Eccentric on September 05, 2006, 02:14:29 AM

Perhaps I should haul out my son's Playmobile castle to check out the scale. I am curious: The skull and crown motif above impierialforge's windows looks like they are taken directly from the shield options on Empirel Infantry shields. Is that right?

Playmobile might be too big a scale but sure see for yourself. and yes that is the skull and crown motif from the infantry shield sprue

Phydox · « **Reply #19 on:** September 05, 2006, 12:15:26 PM »

Quote from: Marcus Leitdorf on September 05, 2006, 03:10:43 AM

Phydox,

Your idea with the spackle certainly has merit. I will just have to think about how to fit it to the walls. Here is a test using some spackle over some balsa sheet that I did some time ago. The texturing was done by wading up some aluminum foil into a ball/pad and lightly pressing it onto the spackle while it was still slightly soft. The lines were indeed just scratched in using a nail.

Marcus

I like the look of that! Besides durability (as General Helstrom mentioned), weight with the spackle added may be an issue. Another idea I just thought of is, theres a compound called, i believe, pipe dope that plumbers use around pipe fittings. This may dry with some more flexibility, is slightly more expensive then spackle, but its waterproof!

I have no idea what it would be like to try painting on it.

To apply the spackle, could you simply lay a section of the wall flat, and let it dry that way? Then as it solidifies, start making your impressions?

jlutin · « **Reply #20 on:** September 05, 2006, 04:11:14 PM »

I prefer "joint compound" over spackle. It is the stuff you use when drywalling and it gets very hard.

You can also buy large buckets, ready to use for farily cheap and it lasts for a while before going bad.

Rufas the Eccentric · « **Reply #21 on:** September 05, 2006, 05:00:15 PM »

Has anyone ever tried building a castle or other structure using individual blocks cast from Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture. One can either order the molds directly from Hirst, or there are several sites that sell packages of pre-cast blocks. The Hirst web site has great technical information on the casting process:

http://www.hirstarts.com/

I have been tempted to try it, but am not sure about the time and commitment required. If anyone has tried it it would be interesting to hear how it went.

A website for completed blocks cast by the Hirst molds:

http://stores.castlekits.com/StoreFront.bok

Marcus Leitdorf · « **Reply #22 on:** September 05, 2006, 05:06:59 PM »

Actually, I think joint compound is what I used. I certainly cannot scratch the surface with my fingernail. I don't think I would try to fill the entire backside of the walls with joint compound. I could possibly cut out a mating piece of cardboard, glue that in place and then coat and texture.

As for the weight: The heavier the better. Some mass keeps it in place on the table, and lends the piece a bit more durability.

I don't think that the plumbers putty gets hard enough without becoming kind of crumbly.

Marcus

PygmyHippo · « **Reply #23 on:** September 05, 2006, 05:48:42 PM »

If you're just looking to fill in one side of the walls to bulk them out and to give you a work surface to add Plastruct sheets (with cut stone relief, etc.), you could use Great Stuff spray styrofoam sealent. It'll be firm, lightweight and easy to shape once it's dry and cured. It'll shore up the walls nicely. Adding rock texture by scoring cuts and such (like what one would do to R-Max or the various blue or pink styrofoams) to simulate joints and mortar is doable as well. Not necessarly as good as one might achieve with blue or pink styrofoam, but possible.

I've found the biggest problem being that one must carefully spray in the foam to avoid air pockets forming (which make believeable rock surfaces hard to achieve once you start cutting into it). Even if you're very diligent when spraying it in, the chemical reactions involved are still going to yield some bubles regardless. Also, the foam is pretty dense, and so requires different handling techniques. However, since it's the interior of the castle, it'll be slightly less visible. Along the interior walls you could abutt buildings and lean-tos (which are pretty common in many castles I've seen) which would further mask the walls. The interior stonework might never match the exterior, though. The best way to achieve that would be to use Plastruct stonework sheets, or thin foamcore board overtop the styrofoam spray you used to create a working surface. Just some ideas.

Marcus

Siamtiger · « **Reply #24 on:** September 05, 2006, 08:03:10 PM »

The Lion Rock Castle looks great but has a disadvantage, its almost as expensive as the original warhammer fortress, iirc its about 69 eur.

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Author Topic: Imperial Castle - WIP with pics (Read 19179 times)