Watch Tower Complete

I've completed the last of the card models from the Bloodbath at Orc's Drift set.  You can see the rest of them here, here, here, and here.

The watchtower is used in the Linden Way game and the tents are the camp of the dwarven engineers at Orc's Drift.

The tower was the usual card clad in thinner card for the planking effect.  I really like the way this turns out, though the process of gluing on individual planks is fiddly and time consuming.  Next time I build wooden clad buildings I'll experiment with single pieces of card scribed with the gaps as well as the grain.  I went for a much paler grey wood colour than the original model, this is closer to the colour that cut timber goes when left out in all weathers.

I will at some point add a base.  I have already done this for the other buildings, but I'll wait until they are all done before texturing them.  It adds a bit of height and compensates for the thickness of the mini bases.  I might even give the watchtower a small mound or hill to raise it still further.

The tents are more complicated than they look; a thin card prism shape was glued to a base.  Pieces of cocktail sticks were glued on for the tent poles.  The whole lot was sealed with craft glue to protect it from the water of the next stage.  When everything was dry, tissue paper was draped over (cutting a slit at each end to allow for the poles.  Water was then carefully applied with a brush; at this stage the back of the tent was folded down and the front was folded to one side to represent the opening.  Then watered down PVA glue was added to stiffen the paper up.  When dry the whole lot was undercoated black, followed by overbrushing with khaki and bone white, details of the poles were picked out in a golden brown.  I went back and painted a little black ink into the fronts where the flaps were open.  i might add a couple of squares of a different colour to represent patches.

Apart from giving me buildings for the Orc's Drift series of games (and I do want to do those sometime), I can use these for my League of Rhordia army.  I like to have a few terrain pieces that go with an army and I think these look good for the League.

I think the next buildings will be some of the ones from Terror of the Lichemaster.  If I plan to adapt old WFB series for Dragon Rampant this is the more likely one for my group to start as one of the gamers is 'quite fond' of the Undead.  They will of course come in useful for other games, the mine buildings in the first game in particular will work well with any dwarven force (and I have a few of those ready for Dragon Rampant).  Unlike the Orc's Drift set where I was very much copying the originals to try things out, I intend to be freer with the original designs and adapt them as I see fit.  In particular, I think the dwarven sheds would look better reduced in height and given more dwarven sized and positioned doors and windows.  By changing little details like the type of roofing material I can make buildings look like they come from a different area, though I will still make some more of the timber framed 'Elizabethan' style buildings as well to expand the League terrain collection.

I've also been basing up some trees ready for 15mm gaming.  They are part of a pack of cheap plastic trees off eBay.  they will need some attention before they are ready as the foliage is falling of the armatures and it looks a little garish.  A coat of some sort of tinted adhesive (Mod Podge?) should do the job.

And didn't I do well to resist 'All Along the Watchtower' puns? 

Or given the readership of the blog, this.