Converting Imex 1/72 castles to 25mm (ish) scale

[The_Baron]

Hi all,

Well I grabbed these two sets from a bring and buy the other night with the intention of converting them to 25mm (ish). The giant boxes were chock full of hard plastic towers and walls for a fraction of the price of the admittedly lovely Renedra castle so I thought I would give this a shot.




A little background - these will be for a Game of Thrones project, and the models I am using a comprised mostly of Lord of the Rings & historical ranges. Therefore they are smaller than modern 28mm models, so I think the conversion is not too much of a stretch. No need for 'historical' accuracy here. The idea will be that they will be set up as a long wall section (maybe with one corner), to represent a smaller section of a larger castle.

The Ivanhoe kit (with it's round towers) will be used to represent the 'Mud Gate' (for some Lannister vs Baratheon action),


and the other more generic northerner one, used as the back side of Castle Black or, Winterfell


Ideas so far include an earth berm at the base to raise the height a little bit, as well as cutting the tower entry doors a bit larger. The main gate is a bit small, but comes with a lovely portcullis. This could possibly be used a smaller sally port with a new main gate scratch-built from a wall section.

Has anyone else done this conversion? If so I would appreciate some guidance and/or photos of your work.

Cheers, The Baron

[The_Baron]

Thanks for the reply & tips! I agree, if there are any piece missing it will be a plasticard & milliput job for sure. I may even be tempted to paint these sections in a slightly different colour and size of stones, to make it look like repairs from a previous battle.

I wonder if the height of the crenallations may not also prove to be a problem. I never had that since I kept the tower roofed. But if you want figures on the wall you may find they stand a little too proud, even more so when you take into account the added height of any bases.

That's a good point, but I think I have a couple of things going for me here - firstly, the 25mm figures aren't that tall, and secondly I'm using the Renedra flat green bases which add hardly any height (unlike say standard warhammer or lipped bases). I will grab a comparison photo to illustrate, it honestly seemed just right.

[Agent Brown]

1/72 castle and 28mm figures-


Taken from here http://rebelbarracks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/seize-town.html

[Harry Faversham]

I've got that Zvezda castle... time to find it out, methinks! 

[The_Baron]

1/72 castle and 28mm figures-
Taken from here http://rebelbarracks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/seize-town.html

Brilliant! Thanks for the photos     To me a scale change looks achievable. I think the battlements are passable as-is. If the whole wall can be raised on a rocky berm at the base to add a bit more height I think it will work fine. It is suitably imposing and for a fraction of the price

[The_Baron]

OK here's some scale photos as requested. Boromir/Sean Bean/Eddard Stark for scale.

Battlements - good enough


Particularly in the towers


The walls are just too short though to be imposing


And the gate is very nice but not much more than a Sally port.



Here's my prototype fix for the height issues. Idea will be different quarries for the stone, so will paint slightly different colours. Will meld this together a bit so not a straight line. Height is now much better


Winter is coming...


Time to put this into full scale production. Circular tower extensions will be tricky.

Cheers, The Baron

[The_Baron]

That is a really good idea! I think I will do this on half the walls, to use on the mud gate side. For the uninitiated (me included), a google image search turns this castle up as the Krak des Chevaliers. The ramp at the base is called a Talus or Glacis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talus_(fortification)

Gate section is definitely going to be a full rebuild. I am going to make it essentially the width of one wall segment. Something along these lines I think. Although I may have it flanked by a tower each side

[dinohunterpoa]

Baron, there's an AWESOME conversion of a 1/72 castle into 28mm for a Robin Hood scenery in this big thread here:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=32695.0



 

[Dan]

Thanks for plugging my conversion of a Castle. Unfortunately I did not TAG the Castle posts together as I just put them under the Robin Hood TAG. I did a brief write up here of the conversion.

http://wadesworldofwargaming.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/the-castle-from-beginning.html

[dinohunterpoa]

Thanks for plugging my conversion of a Castle. Unfortunately I did not TAG the Castle posts together as I just put them under the Robin Hood TAG. I did a brief write up here of the conversion.

http://wadesworldofwargaming.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/the-castle-from-beginning.html

Dan, your Robin Hood stuff is just AWESOME!  

Thank you very much for the new link!

What rules did you use?

EDIT: Do you still play Legends of the High Seas? I'm asking that because I have a MegaBloks Stormstalker that needs a proper conversion and a new home!  

[Dan]

Thanks, we modified The Lord of the Rings rules from GW. Its been ages since I looked at that collection but are thinking of using Lion Rampant.

I've not done anything with my MegaBloks ships as I decided that painting Zulus would be a good idea.

[dinohunterpoa]

Thanks, we modified The Lord of the Rings rules from GW. Its been ages since I looked at that collection but are thinking of using Lion Rampant.

Clever choice, LOTR works very well for small scale, character-oriented games!  

I've not done anything with my MegaBloks ships as I decided that painting Zulus would be a good idea.

If you get the pirate fever back again, please let me know!