Many, many years ago i was deeply impressed by Tankreds magnificent Weathertop.
Then i by complete accident bought the scenery sprue with the statues and the broken, arched column and knew that i just HAD to build one.
The part that gave me the hardest headache of all were the columns. I can't remember how many attempts i made on that damned archway and how many techniques i tried...
In the end, i carved a master from plaster and cast copies of it.
Only a few days ago i brought those archways to a level near completion with modelling clay. The problem was the transition between the columns (not as precise on the master as i hoped for...)
This is an intermediate step (upside down) from the middle of the claywork (it looks less crude now):
Another one of my first steps was casting plaster (actually, stewalin) copies of the statues because i also wanted broken statues and more weathered ones - and that kind of damage is much easier to achieve with plaster than with the plastic originals.
Here's an early positioning test:
Not yet very impressive.
That was about 2 years ago and i did very slow progress since then...
I added walls, rocks, stairs, added modelling clay details...
And this is a more recent positioning test:
The poor fit is because it still consists of a lot of parts that will stay separated until painting - because otherwise i won't be able to paint the entrance section.
The cave is the access to a stairway that leads up to the main platform.
The far side (not visible on the photo) is more open and also features an area outside the tower on the rock.