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 Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)

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The Ultra-Mega Bob
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PostSubject: Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)   Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Icon_minitimeTue 29 Oct 2013 - 21:42

Here's a few pictures of a tower, that I've spent most of today tinkering with. It's (hopefully!) the first of many interesting, and slightly wacky designs to make my games in the City of the Damned much more colourful, enjoyable and varied, whilst still being easy to set-up, take down and mix around.

No doubt it won't be as impressive as most of the scenery on these boards, as most of the regulars know how to set the bar pretty high. Excuse the simplistic text, I'm a bit tired and have copy/ pasted it all from my Gnoblog, over on the Ogre Stronghold.

If I remember to, I'll trim this down over the next few days, when I get more work done and post further updates.

Oops, I nearly forgot to mention that since I game on a budget these days, I'm looking for the most cost effective ways to get my hobby fix. The three plastic floors of the building are made from a set of plastic food storage tubs, which I picked up at a local 99p Store.

The strong 'No More Nails' type adhesive was also bought at the same store, whilst the cardboard for the upper floor's roof, the roof itself and (what will eventually be) the roofing tiles came from various boxes around the house- the thin type was a from a boxed set of miniatures and the corrugated stuff from my laptop case and a box of groceries respectively.

All told this project has cost less than £2 to date, which is great news and should hopefully mean I can make further projects easily, as well as share a good way to make cheap terrain (providing it all works out anyway :>P)

I get the feeling that most people who are serious about Mordheim and/ or who visit this forum are looking for something more complicated than this, but when I finish texturing and all the other small details I really do hope I can make it worthy of these hallowed threads. It's my first serious attempt at anything that isn't a simple foamboard ruin, so take it for what you will.

I intend this thread to be a work-in-progress itself, so I'll try and update it once a week at the least. I'm hoping that I can keep my thoughts organised and show step by step how it's going and what I hope to accomplish.


--------------------


Without further ado, I give you:

The Tower of Power!

First up, was a quick test to define the basic shape of the roof. This has been my first attempt at making, what I now know is a 'square hip-joint roof', and it was much more technical/ difficult than I imagined, due to a lack of tools (like a protractor to measure the angles I'd made the roof pieces!)

I've included some of my Witch Hunters warband next to the Tower, for size comparisons. The white stuff you can see on the second floor is a strong adhesive (of the 'No More Nails' variety) which I used to seal the top module to the lid of the second one. This creates a seal that stops it from sliding around, but still means I can leave it loose and take the top floor off when someone moves into the floor below.

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) 001

This is how the floors compare to each other in terms of size when there are models in them; I think that the ground floor will mostly be an entrance hall or storage room- there will be a staircase/ ladder in it and then not much else. If I decide to have the staircase on the outside of the tower - which will be an interesting technical challenge for someone new to building buildings! - it will likely serve as a storage room that can only be accessed from the level above, which would be perfect for scenarios which call for treasure chests and other items to be found in the building.

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) 002

I'm half tempted to have a playable fourth floor, in the attic. I could tinker with creating a second roof, that, rather than being a square-based pyramid, would be the traditional rectangular 'V' shape; if I do go down that route, I can create balconies at each end of the rectangular base, for some epic snipers nests. Here's a shot for comparison- it's a long way to fall if you get knocked down near the edge though!

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) 003

This shot is to demonstrate a couple of things:

Firstly that by un-stacking the buildings, they should hopefully be able to provide more use as single story ruins. I'd need to add some doors of course (but I will later on as I build the stairs and/ or ladders and/ or balconies) but I think it would be great to have that much variety in my terrain for once. By keeping a few spare pieces of carboard around, it would be easy to create flat roofs on each of the individual buildings as well. The lids which I glues onto the bases of each floor function well as actual terrain bases, and add a skirting-board style look to them, which I like.

Secondly, I was trying to figure out the best way to plan for access to each floor; I realised that for realistic staircases (each step being 20mm wide and 5mm tall) would take up a lot of space. That's what the brown marker is for. Having seen just how much space I give up in the building, I'm leaning more towards outside entry- having a staircase and elevated walkway that winds round the building like a Helter-Skelter. That way I can keep as much space as possible on the inside for extra details and room to move.

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) 004

Another shot of the modular buildings when used to create alleyways:

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) 005

To keep the floor of the roof from sliding off (as the roof will most likely be heavier than the floor below), I had to create some buffers out of spare cardboard, which you can see in the corners (the logo in the middle is the last worldly sighting of my laptop case :>P):

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Spacers

This last shot shows the roof, as the adhesive is drying. I'll peel the masking tape off tomorrow and add some roof slates, cut from non-corrugated cardboard; they'll be around 1cm - 1.5cm wide and have various lengths to stop them looking too 'samey'. In pencil you can see the outline for one of the dormer windows, which I'd like to make, but might leave since it's very technical. I also decided that since I have the largest lid going spare (since I made my own roof platform) that it would make a nice base for the entire building. By setting the entrance level further back, it creates the impression of a garden. I liked this idea so much that I'm going to look into finding or making some fences, so that I can create a proper scenic base for the whole thing, and add some less often seen terrain to my table at the same time.

Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Towerwithcardroofgarden



It's all very rough at the moment, but it's really got my imagination fired up- which is a novelty these days!  Laughing

Comments and criticism welcome, though please bear in mind what I said at the start of the thread about being fairly new to terrain building. Be gentle! Razz" />
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DeafNala
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PostSubject: Re: Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)   Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Icon_minitimeWed 30 Oct 2013 - 2:13

While that might seem a bit bizarre, it is actually a style of building an old war games buddy of mine used about 40 years ago...his wife did Tupperware parties. It might not an aesthetically pleasing piece, but, if it works for you, that's all that matters...it does beat the stacks of books I've seen in use as Mordheim ruins. SO...IMAGINATIVE WORK! What a Face 
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The Ultra-Mega Bob
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PostSubject: Re: Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)   Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Icon_minitimeWed 30 Oct 2013 - 11:56

Thanks DeafNala.

The plan is that once I get a few more resources (wooden splints and some kind of plaster/ filler) I intend to try to create the kind of details you see on a lot of other buildings on this forum- it's just going to take me a lot longer, due to my lack of experience.

I would like to create textured walls with wooden beams in them, some wooden window and door frames, and several sets of stairs; I'm still undecided whether the stairs should be internal or external, due to issues of 'space saved vs. skill required to make'. One alternative which I thought had merit, was to create (or buy cheaply, if it's possible) a steep, thin staircase for each inside floor, so that I only need one per floor instead of a corner staircase. Then, as an extra detail, I could create an open window on each floor and attach some kind of creeping ivy effect (likely wire + dark green flock) to the outside wall, so that people could use it as a make-shift ladder for climbing the outside of the building. What do you think?

I would also like to see that large plastic tray on the ground level be filled with some kind of putty/ plaster/ general filler material, so that I can lay a flagstone path to the door with foam board, as well as add some dying vegetation, flock and static grass. When all that's finished I would really love to add a fence to the area, to make it all look like it's the home of an eccentric, but reclusive person, like a wizard. of some description (adding other details to the effect would also give some authenticity to it being used in the Wizard's Tower multi-player scenario).

I know it's all very rough at the moment, but I do have grand plans for this. I think that my unimaginative mind just needs some help starting off :p

Thank you for your post. When researching 28mm staircases yesterday, I did actually come across several resin mushrooms, in various sizes - which made me think of you, and my childhood favourite PC game (Pagan: Ultima Cool - that I might buy at a later date, or for other projects, in homage.
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PostSubject: Re: Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)   Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Icon_minitimeWed 30 Oct 2013 - 12:26

I've seen some wonderful gaming tables evolve from humbler beginnings...so you can never tell where it will all wind up.
Stairs can be tricky; or, if you go with model railroad scenery (O gauge works nicely), expensive. AND, they occupy space within a building. That's one of the reasons so many of us go with ladders in the ruins...you can't escape stairs with an intact structure.
At any rate, have FUN with the project & keep us posted.  What a Face
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PostSubject: Re: Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)   Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Icon_minitimeWed 30 Oct 2013 - 16:39

That's an interesting idea you have there. If you can make it look good you'd really have a great piece of scenery!Very Happy 
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PostSubject: Re: Home -made Modular Tower (WiP)   Home -made Modular Tower (WiP) Icon_minitimeWed 30 Oct 2013 - 17:19

Good way to keep your warbands fresh for battle, too.
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