Death Castle (Part 3)

This continues the re-presentation of the Death Castle thread I originally posted on http://warhammer-empire.com way back in 2008. See Part 1 for why I am reposting it here. As the perfect affirmation for why I need to do this, I got an official email from Photobocket last week: 

I am unsure how much time I have before the photo links on the original post break, but I will be focused on trying to get this project completed before it happens!

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PART 3
Originally posted on 5/13/2008 on Warhammer-Empire.

I have begun work on the base. No pictures of the base at this stage as it’s too dull to showcase. However I thought an image to give you an idea of the width and height of the tower might be interesting.

The Tower's frame. 

As you can see (below) it will be wide enough to fit most units (US20 empire/US16 Orcs etc.) although ideally I’d think most players would stick an artillery piece on this and I tend to base my artillery on this size movement tray anyway. And it’s going to be fairly tall and should give a commanding impression when done.

Wide enough to accommodate  a full unit. 

I'm thinking I will sort of “jigsaw” the Styrofoam with a foam cutter to avoid strange seam lines and awkward joins.

Prepping the veneer. 

Here's a quote from Dr.TSG the creator of Death Castle: 
"Death Castle was a place of massive death, whereby I slaughtered many opponents over the years. I think the castle should sit on a small bailey--it is only befitting Death Castle! We could even build a full motte & bailey system for the little castle!"

PART 3.1

Originally posted on May 15th 2008 on Warhammer-Empire.

Death Castle gets it's base.

I have finished the basic construction of the base. After some serious contemplation I settled on making the entry way to the castle a step ramp to give the defenders the advantage of height (imagine the difficulty try to push a battle ram up that and doing it with enough force to pierce the gate!) I may level out the field a bit more and add more rocks at the base of the foundation and alongside the ramp.

It's a long drop of of that wall!

The backside I made almost shear. The small ledges will either have added to them rocks, clumps of grass or brush or be removed altogether. My next step is to apply lots of sand to the base and add the first base coat. I’ll then leave the base aside until I’m ready to attach the castle permanently to it. Then I’ll proceed to the actual repair work on the castle and as you can see I’ve got A LOT of work to do there. What the previous pics failed to show were all the smaller holes and cracks which the sunlight unforgivably reveals. That could take some time to deal with…

Can you see the holes?

A quick update:

Posted 5/23/2008 on Warhammer-Empire.

Spray Adhesive and Styrofoam don't play well together. It has the same melting effect as standard spray paint does. So, I've spent what little free time I've had this week where daylight was available gluing sand to the base. I went and got a broad paint brush, an old baby food jar, water, Elmers glue and sand from a near by site where an above ground pool once was, and went to town on it. This evening I just used Design Masters floral spray paint on it and gave the thing a base coat of brown and now the it's sitting in my utility shed drying and venting. I'll decide tomorrow if I need more sand on it or not and go from there. I'd like to have the base mostly finished by the weekend so hopefully I can start truly renovating this castle.

NOT a good combo...

Design Masters is the best spray paint to use with Styrofoam as it does not melt it! But the fumes are just as intense. I will give you guys a proper visual demo soon.