Walls of Troy project

[Vongoosewink]

As I've been working on a Trojan army for the last couple of years, I've started to want some good scenery to go along with them.  I had a look around the usual manufacturers, but I did not find any walls that seemed suitable to me - as I was hoping for historical-inspired but slightly 'Hollywood', in appearance, as they are for WarGods of Olympus, and can be a little more mythic than realistic.  So, looks like I'm going to have to make this myself!

The idea is to make this big enough to go along one side of a 4x6 table, so my plan is to make the masters for some castable parts, and then get them cast somewhere.  I'll worry about casting them later though, the first step is to get them sculpted.  The plan is to make:

1 wall section
1 tower
1 gate section
Some decorative bits

...all in 28mm scale.

Hopefully, the finished result will look something like this:



And so with this as the goal, construction begins!

[Vongoosewink]

The plan is to make the basic structure from wood, and then sculpt the stonework battens at the base with putty.  I'll use a thin skin of 'greenstuff' to cover and texture the upper (mud-brick) part of the structure.

My first attempt for the frame was using balsa wood, and once assembled the basic structure began to warp like crazy.  Into the trash it went!

Second attempt was 1/4" plywood, and I cut it with a table jigsaw from Harbor Freight.  I'm not the best at woodwork, but I managed to get it pretty straight with the help of a belt sander. 

I'm adding a stone foundation hand-sculpted around the perimeter of the base, with Beesputty.  I'll have to oven-cure the stonework, at around 230 for 30 minutes - I tested it and it does not seem to affect the wood, so fingers crossed it will work out.

The basic parts, I drew on the wood, to try to keep it all straight:



Assembled, and seen from above.  The top is going to be removable, to make it easier to cast:



Here's a side view:



Another side view, with a WarGods Trojan on the battlements, for scale:

[Codsticker]

Looks good so far- the stone work especially.*thumbs up*

[Vongoosewink]

And here are the most recent photos.  

The tower is starting to take shape... the stonework was the most time-consuming thing to sculpt, I did it at the end of the work-day over a couple weeks.  A few places had some cracking trouble with the Beesputty - not the fault of the medium, I think I just made that section too thick with putty, so it did not cure/cool evenly.  I patched it with some green putty, this is visible in the photos.

The top section is just skinned with a thin layer of green putty, and then textured with a "pebbley" surface with a toothbrush.  

The wood beams that make the frame of the mud-brick top are just plasticard strips, I'll give them a bit of texture to make them look more natural and uneven, like hewn timbers.

The actual ruin at the historical site only has the bottom stone structure remaining, so anything above this is pure speculation on the part of archaeologists, but I think the depictions we have are pretty neat, so I'm following them closely (until the battlements).  I've made my crenelations just a little more exaggerated and exotic.

Here's a ground-view from the front (from a greek's perspective!)



Here's a 3/4 view, from the rear.  You can see where I intend for the wall piece to slot in, in this picture.



The top section is only about 1/2 done in these photos, I expect to get it done in the next couple days, and then on to the wall.



Bird's eye view of the top.  The floor will be textured with the same mud-brick look as the upper walls, and there will be a trapdoor near the rear.



Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Troy, but I think I'm making decent progress so far!

[H.G. Walls]

I thought to myself "who is this Vongoosewink character". Of course, it took just a couple of seconds to realize that it was you Chris! As you already know, very stunning work and many people are waiting to see how all of your efforts turn out.

Two thumbs up,
Herb

[Erik]

Very impressive work so fare.

You say the plan is to make molds and have then cast. Would you be interested in making more pieces and maybe selling then? From what I have seen so fare, I would be very interested my self.

I have a smaller skirmish Trojan force, and a castle like this would really inspire to expand on my collection.

[Vongoosewink]

I thought to myself "who is this Vongoosewink character". Of course, it took just a couple of seconds to realize that it was you Chris! As you already know, very stunning work and many people are waiting to see how all of your efforts turn out.

Two thumbs up,
Herb

Hey Herb!  Glad you like it, I'm just using the scenery-construction skills I learned from you! 

Chris

[Vongoosewink]

Very impressive work so fare.

You say the plan is to make molds and have then cast. Would you be interested in making more pieces and maybe selling then? From what I have seen so fare, I would be very interested my self.

I have a smaller skirmish Trojan force, and a castle like this would really inspire to expand on my collection.

Thanks Erik, I don't do resin production myself, so it would depend if I could find someone that could cast them for sale (there is a big difference in casting half a dozen for me, and putting them into retail production).  But lets see if I can get this finished first, I still have a lot of work do on it before it is done!

-Chris

[Captain Blood]

That is looking ever so good. Well done 

[Ragnar]

Excellent.

[Slayer]

that looks very impressive

[LeadAsbestos]

Very nice! I'm interested to see how you do the gates. Off to a great start!

[Andym]

That's a great tower! I can't wait to see the rest of the walls and some paint on it!

[tomrommel1]

very good start indeed looking very good! One question though why did you vote for the material used? Wouldn't it be much cheaper and easier to use polystyrene sheets ?

[Vongoosewink]

very good start indeed looking very good! One question though why did you vote for the material used? Wouldn't it be much cheaper and easier to use polystyrene sheets ?

I used wood for the frame because the Beesputty stonework has to be cooked in an oven to harden.  If I had used styrene, it would likely have melted or warped.

Unless you mean styrene for the stonework, but I wanted to match the sort of stone that is at the historical site, and so I needed to sculpt that to get it right.  Here's a photo: