I've been looking for years for a suitable castle for my WOTR and GOT projects. So was excited to see the Renedra model appear shortly before Salute, and duly picked up a tower. Before committing to a full fortress, I thought I'd have a play with making a standalone tower, just to see what the potential is... So here goes...
First observations:
1. The style is not traditional British castle - it feels more central / southern European, with a little bit of Tolkienish influence (well, Peter Jackson, really). It has that slightly monumental, slab-like feel of much of the architecture in the LoTR movies.
2. Although it has optional pointy corner pieces and gargoyles to turn it into a more fantasy-looking edifice, these are probably the least convincing pieces in the kit. And, the uppermost portion of the three tier structure, actually has something that looks like Dwarvish runes carved into the stonework. Which is a bit naff. Would have thought those slips of 'engraved' plastic could have been included (like the tower corners) as separate components to be added by those who want to use them... I'll now have to fill them in. Not the end of the world, but slightly irritating.
3. The only instructions are on the back of the box. They are really quite shit. Confusing and not in sequence. If I was an inexperienced modeller relying on these, I'd be worried. You would have thought they could include more logical, detailed instructions on a sheet of paper in the kit. Poor.
4. The topmost tier does not quite align with the two floors below. It's not hugely noticeable, but it's not quite right. Not exactly a precision kit... Again, a bit poor.
5. On the positive side, the casting is pretty clean - not too much in the way of mould lines, and nothing that a sharp knife won't get rid of in a minute's scraping. The sculpting detail is sharp and generally good. Overall, nicely done, and a nice looking piece.
6. There are virtually no spare parts, so if you want to get creative with one of these, cut it about significantly, and create something much more interesting from the kit, you'd need to buy two of them. And at £36 a pop, they're not cheap.
Onto my build/conversion.
Well, I decided it would be boring just to build a bog-standard tower straight from the box, so I decided to be a little bit adventurous. So my tower is going to be rising from the side of a craggy hill.
With this I mind, I decided I could dispense with half the height of the lower section of the rear wall (because the edifice will be buried into the hill at that point) - meaning I could re-use the unwanted section of plastic to do something much more interesting with the front door!
I decided to raise up the main doors from ground level, and have a hefty stone built plinth in front of them (I'll be building a set of timber steps up to this platform in due course. Probably matching stairs, to either side in fact).
And underneath this arrangement, I wanted a fortified culvert / drain (yes, like the one at Helm's Deep!) from which the ordure of the fortification will flow out with the spring water (obviously, there's a spring / well under the tower).
So, as you can see from the pictures, I got busy with my Junior Hacksaw, and have repurposed parts of the lower, rear section, plus I have inverted and trimmed two of the redundant pointy fantasy tower corners, to form the culvert. I won't be using either of the optional portcullises on the main structure, so I have cannibalised one of these to form the grating... The top of the plinth is a section cut from one of the flagstone floor pieces, and remodelled slightly with a sharp knife to bring out the edges of the stone slabs.
When I come to use the interior floor section concerned (now with an oblong missing from one corner), I'll be modelling steps coming up from the floor below, to make sense of that hole in the floor...
I've used Green Stuff to conceal the joins. Also to fill in the lower archery slits to either side of the stone gateway plinth.