Detailing my wargaming castle

As for all things in wargaming terrain the devil is in the details. So I expect to be spending quite a number of hobby hours on detailing the shape of the castle I have built. First thing was making a gate wall between the two large towers that form the entrance.




I carved the gate from dense styrofoam. The stone patern was drawn with a fineliner and sculpted with a sharp scalpel and a cocktail stick.After I placed the part I covered it with insta-filler sealing it in and filling any gaps between this block and the towers. I waited an hour for the filler to start drying and then used a cocktail stick to reshape the carved rocks. The plastic skulls and demon faces are from the Arcane Ruins kit by Games Workshop. They nicely cover some ugly holes and make for a bit of dramatic effect on the top windows. For the portcullis I googles some sample images and then built it using balsa wood and small bits of cardboard. This was covered in PVA and then in superglue to make sure it was strong enough.



I added a few piles with skulls and bones to the courtyard. These were in my bits box, no clue what model they originally came with. After gluing these in place I added a bit of extra PVA glue around the base and sanded it. This covers the gap between the metal bit and the courtyard itself.



Next up was the front door of the keep. This was also made from balsa wood. I make these shapes by taping a bit of masking tape to my cutting mat. Then I apply straight planks of wood slightly over the size of the door in two halves. I coat these bits in slightly watered down PVA. The glue is partly sucked up by the wood and on drying ties the bits nicely together. Then I make a mask on a piece of paper and use it to cut the top circle shape out. As a last touch I make the bottom straight. The large metal hinges are superglued 1mm cardboard with a small 1mm plastic ball on it. The skulls are from a skeleton shields sprue and the door knobs are two beads.



To add a bit of character I added some sharp little stones to the paths leading up and to the courtyard.

 

On one side of the castle I wanted to make the impression of decay, so I cut of a large chunk of the road. Now I added a rickety repair with balsa wood. The trick to make balsa wood look well worn is to cut all the straight edges off with a scalpel before applying it.



Last but not least was a gallows with a few bits from the zombie kit and a few more of the metal bits with pieces of chain, making it look like the gallows is helpt up by these.



As an extra touch I glued a small bit to a rather deep hole in the side of the cliff that I forgot to cover. As Bob Ross would say: "There are no mistakes, just happy little accidents." This is going to look like a rather scary tunnel and make you wonder what nasty manner of creature inhabits it.



This is a huge project so detailing is not finished yet. Next up I will first make a roof. I'll probably add some greenstuff to the gallows later and I still need to think of some clever ways to cover a few of the larger ugly holes in the toy castle towers.