mikeyc222's BIG @$$ Statue of the Damned and other things...

I have recently been playing Bioshock Infinite and I was really taken with the visual of the GIANT winged woman statue that loomed over everything. That kind of got me thinking about how the impact of that kind of visual could work in a game like Mordheim. With that idea in my head, I headed over to my local hobby superstore and went to the Christmas decoration section(that stuff goes up mid summer these days…). After a bit of looking, I found a statuette that, while not perfect, would work. Here it is…

The statuette is bigger than it looks. For scale I have placed it next to a 5 story piece… The statuette is taller.

Now, the piece I have in mind will mainly be an atmosphere and line of sight breaking piece, but I also wanted it to have at least SOME interactivity with minis. With that in mind, I build a large pedestal base for it as an almost Statue of Liberty style piece. It works because most statues this large in scale, would have that sort of base to them. This is what I came up with…

As you can see, the statue now TOWERS over the 5 story building it is next to by a good four inches. The base is six inches by six inches, and will have plenty of room for barricading and minis to run around. All it needs is some detailing and “roughing up” and it should be a relatively easy to make, yet attention grabbing piece. Can’t wait to show it off when it’s done.

One more pic to reinforce the scale of this piece…


What do you guys think?

That is just awesome! Messing with scale is one of the fun things about Mordheim. The large statue idea is just perfect.
 

Thank you sir! If it works out, I might try a couple more, slightly smaller statues.

The size does fit with Mordheim very well...if it's bizarre it works. For some reason or other I can't stop picturing the Angel in Kiss style makeup. That aside, have FUN with the project; this could be UBERCOOL!   

KISS makeup! haha! only if it's Gene Simmons!

That is a massively great idea! I love the size of it. I've always wanted to do something similar, I have a smaller couple of toys I bought a few years back that I have wanted to make a centerpiece like this. I'm really interested to follow this. Will you be painting it to look like stone or leaving it white like that?

Zab wrote:

Will you be painting it to look like stone or leaving it white like that?

Definitely going to be painting it up to look like an old stone statue. I broke one of the wings off earlier to "rough it up" and found that it was hollow on the inside. Now I'm waiting for the joint compound to dry so there isn't a gaping hole in it. lol

Bronze would look cooler. Just saying.  

Von Kurst wrote:

Bronze would look cooler.  Just saying.  

Nah!  I think a giant stone statue looks much cooler!

I have actually thought about an aged bronze as well. again, if this piece works out, there's a good chance I might try some others, just a bit smaller. those might be great for an ugly green oxidized bronze.

here's another idea I've been toying with... I have always loved makeshift bridges, and walkways between buildings in Mordheim. one of the biggest problems though is they fall every time someone bumps a building. So I started thinking about attaching the bridges to the buildings themselves. But then I would be stuck with the buildings and bridges in one configuration, and that doesn't work for me because I like to change things up too much. So I started toying with the idea of a system that would be modular, but still "lock" in place so that the bridges didn't come tumbling down if someone sneezed.
I thought about the problem for a few months, toying with different ideas in my head. I kept running into a problem though... How to disguise the mounting system when not in use so it doesn't LOOK like a modular mounting system. I tried to think of a way to tie the mount into a balcony or partially destroyed balcony and still make it look natural but couldn't think of a way to do it... until...
It struck me that if my bridges were all going to be modular, why couldn't my balconies be modular as well? I could just make a small handful of balconies in various states of destruction and simply hang them by the same mounting system that the bridges use. problem solved. Below are pictures of my prototype bridge and mounts...

This is a guard tower that I just started working on. You can see the mount on the front of the building about halfway up.

Here is a close up of the mount. Just made of balsa for now, and pinned to the wall of the building for a little extra strength.

Close up of the ends of the bridge. These tabs slide right into the slots on the mount. Also pinned for strength.

The bridge in place between two buildings. It's a reasonably tight fit and just through casual bump testing, it seems to be holding well.
If I had a scroll saw or something, I could cut it out of a harder wood for more strength, but alas, I don't. Refining of the idea will no doubt come after play testing, and the balsa wood mounts may or may not hold up at all, but I liked the idea of it if nothing else.
What do you guys think?

You know that bridge isn't safe. None should use it. You should add some supports at the side

Normally Balsa wood is strong enough to hold some figures You could always pin the supports?

That does look good & suitably rickety. I did something similar for an erstwhile friend/client, although with his board the buildings were fixed...& very high.
If you're worried about breakage, do the longer pieces in bass wood; it isn't difficult to cut with a razor saw.  

I did think about using basswood. I can get it at hobby lobby in appropriate sizes. I can also use my dremel to shape it as needed.
I was also thinking about looking into how small a set of bolt and nut I can find to actually bolt the mount to the wall of the building and still keep it concealable.

Quote :

I was also thinking about looking into how small a set of bolt and nut I can find to actually bolt the mount to the wall of the building and still keep it concealable.

Overkill. Surely falling bridges aren't this annoying. What you have here seems like a good solution and cheap and quick.

the small bolt idea was simply to try and minimize accidental breakage more than anything. I'm hoping people don't bump the buildings and pull the mounts off the walls.

small update tonight on the statue. took MUCH longer to remove the glittery crap from the statue than I expected. ended up having to soak it in pinesol and water for 24 hours and then scrub with a wire brush, but I finally got it off. I also broke off a wing... and the decided that was too much work since the statue was hollow, and glued it back on with a small dab of green stuff in the crack to hide it some. I glued the statue to the pedestal base and started doing a little bit of detailing. here is how it currently looks...

still lots of detailing to go. i'm also gonna hit the base in a few spots with my dremel to make it look a little beat up. just trying to go with the fow and see where the ideas take me.

She's going to be UBERCOOL! If you wind up wit any holes too large to fill, do her in bronze; re, large bronze statue are most times hollow. Have FUN with The Project!  

Very true. Didn't think about bronze statues being hollow... Oh well, too late now... Green stuff is already cured.
Any suggestions or anything you guys want to see in the makeshift cover around the statue? I was going to whip up a couple of doors and crates, but I'm open to ideas.

Another small update...
Added a few more detail pieces and roughed up the base a bit. It now has some cover from every side for minis to hide behind. I need to add a little gravel to the top for general debris and it should be about ready for paint.

NICE PROGRESS! You've got a nice assortment of debris there. You could add some bones, skulls, & miscellaneous body parts to indicate some sacrificial goings on.  

Your placement of the cover looks like someone is intending to burn the statue or blow it up with gunpowder barrels, which they might be.  

I would recommend moving the cover out toward the edges more to improve the fields of fire and discourage enemies from climbing the sides.  I also think you could get more aggressive with your damage to the base (and ding up the statue a bit).  Burn baby, burn!

Edit: Oh, and great work on the doors and crate  

Von Kurst wrote:

I would recommend moving the cover out toward the edges more to improve the fields of fire and discourage enemies from climbing the sides.  I also think you could get more aggressive with your damage to the base (and ding up the statue a bit).  Burn baby, burn!

well, I was actually going for a lurking around the corner sort of cover on this one. I can always use modular cover pieces around the base itself for a real, wide area cover piece if it needs it. thanks for the input though. things like that are half the reason i'm posting this. I like trading ideas.

another quick update though! I busted out the dremel and went to town adding more damage to both the base, and the statue itself. I also added some gravel, and a few plastic bits to embellish the piece some more.









what do you guys think?

p.s. I really do appreciate all the input.

I think you've reached a nicely beaten up appearance....nice looking cracks. The door is my favorite bit of debris. Keep up the FINE WORK!   

DeafNala wrote:

The door is my favorite bit of debris.

and it was super easy too. best kind of debris!