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Author Topic: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (8 July - Finished. Many pics P10.)  (Read 42542 times)

Offline Mason

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project
« Reply #15 on: May 24, 2016, 02:10:43 PM »
You could build from the box the beers come in. If you get the canned pints you can even use those as base for towers :D

Careful, you will give Richard a funny turn.
 ;)


Offline Dr. The Viking

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2016, 04:57:26 PM »
THIS is the future!  :-*
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Offline Miantanomo

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2016, 09:35:19 PM »
Already looking great! I can't wait to see the next step!  :-*
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Offline dinohunterpoa

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2016, 11:49:55 PM »
Captain Blood, thank you for the great review!  :)
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Offline Hupp n at em

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project
« Reply #19 on: May 27, 2016, 02:50:40 AM »
Hmmm I'm not the scratchbuilder you are but I think you've convinced me to try my hand at just building my holdfast instead of buying it.  :)

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project
« Reply #20 on: May 27, 2016, 05:26:42 PM »
Well, what I am discovering, perhaps unsurprisingly, is that this tower is a lot of work if you want to make it look good...

First of all, I wasn't struck with the idea of a stone floor to the third storey (which you can reveal by lifting the roof and battlements off). So I knocked up a timber floor with hatchway, from coffee stirrers on a plasticard base...





Next, I discovered there's a LOT of filling in to do...
Arrow slits midway up the first storey - effectively at ground level, which would mean attackers could shoot in! Hmmm...
Also rather childish looking crucifixes which I think are meant to represent carvings, but just look pretty shonky. So I decided to fill those in too, and make look like more stone blocks.
Then there are all the joins between the different levels. Be in no doubt, a precision Tamiya kit this ain't. You end up with inevitable gaps, and therefore a lot of Green Stuff and Liquid Green Stuff has been applied to try to conceal the worse joins... Also to cover up the Dwarvish runes engraved in the linterl, front and back, right at the top of the keep  ::)

I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end...





Rear view, showing where the lower bottom storey has been cannibalised... This will be built into the hill behind...




Offline Dr. Zombie

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #21 on: May 27, 2016, 05:33:53 PM »
Hmm.

The more I see of this tower the more I think that it is not for me. The arrowslits on the top flor also look very out of place, who is going to shoot out of them and how!?

I am sure however that yours will end up looking great. I just don't think I can be bothered..

Online Silent Invader

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #22 on: May 27, 2016, 06:18:11 PM »
Well, Richard, you continue to work wonders on it  8)

The wooden floor is much, much better.
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Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #23 on: May 28, 2016, 07:37:29 AM »
'Coffee stirrers'

*shudder*

 lol
cheers

James

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Offline tomrommel1

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #24 on: May 28, 2016, 08:23:20 AM »
What? Coffee stirrers is the way to go for floors and basically everything made from wood ;) ;) I have a good friend who is a baker by profession so for me an endless supply for coffee stirrers!!!

The tower will be very good looking when finished but it nearly as much work as building one from scratch. At least that is what it looks like!
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Offline puster

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #25 on: May 28, 2016, 08:50:30 AM »
One problem that I have with mine is that the top level windows are pretty open, and both look wrong on a fortified tower AND offer a view on the backside of the sidewalls, which then needs filling to not look like a plastic kit - it basically shows that there is no wall but just a plastic layer. I wish they would have avoided that open style, and contemplate filling the windows - or hope for an alternative level-kit, either for outstuffing the inside or for a non-open top-level.

Building higher towers you also definitely need to fill in the floors, or the upper loopholes will enable folks to see through to the lower, making it pretty clear that the tower is hollow.

Walls and tower need a lot of work, especially knifework to make the backside of plates looking like stone, and not plastic.

i will shamelessly steal the idea of making wooden floors (thought of buying the additional plastic plates). That looks like some work is still ahead, but the tower promises to look very impressive. I am thinking of painting mine in creme limestone, mediterran fashion more then light granite. Any plans to colour yours?


Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #26 on: May 28, 2016, 09:44:27 AM »
Yes, superficially it's a nice looking model, and for gamers that don't mind too much about detail but just want to splash a lot of money and assemble an impressive-looking fortification for the tabletop, I can see this selling very well. But as soon as you look at the design in detail, you realise there are many things wrong with it. It really does feel more like a fantasy piece than a historical one... But as I say: superficially, a nice model. It's only when you start to work on it in detail that it becomes apparent that it's just a nice model and not an accurate, well thought-out precision kit... I must say, the thought of making an entire 8 or 12 tower castle out of these, with curtain walls, is now off my shopping list. The amount of work would be colossal. Still, I shall perservere with my tower, and I sense it will look very nice when it's finished...  :)


The arrow slits on the top floor also look very out of place, who is going to shoot out of them and how!?

This is indeed one of the more apparent flaws, Fred  :?


I am thinking of painting mine in creme limestone, mediterran fashion more then light granite. Any plans to colour yours?

Mainly, I am going to copy Jimbibbly's colour scheme, here: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=50049.315  :D


'Coffee stirrers'
*shudder*

I am thinking of starting a new futile topic that runs for weeks and weeks and then gets locked called 'Are you a terrain-building snob?'  ;)  lol


Offline Ogrob

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #27 on: May 28, 2016, 10:43:39 AM »
Very happy with mine for just those reasons Captain. I'm sure yours will look spectacular when done.

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #28 on: May 30, 2016, 12:02:30 PM »
Okay, so I've now completed the main part of the model, and undercoated it.

The top floor in situ... (No, don't ask me how they get from floor to floor through all these hatchways... Ladders I guess...  ;))



A piece of MDF and an offcut of pink-orange foam for the base...



Mdf base cut and sanded to shape, and foam hill sub-structure roughly shaped...





Next job will be to paint the tower - it will be easier to paint before mounting it permanently onto its base.

Then the fun part - terraforming the base with filler and basing mix, and adding all the rock detailing, debris, set dressing, timber stairway and vegetation...  :) (That's the bit I like best!)

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Captain Blood's Renedra Tower project (Update 27 May)
« Reply #29 on: May 30, 2016, 12:04:33 PM »
Then the fun part - terraforming the base with filler and basing mix, and adding all the rock detailing, debris, set dressing, timber stairway and vegetation...  :) (That's the bit I like best!)

Me too  :D

cheers

James

 

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