Very nice work! I just found this WIP Post so I need to take time to read all 7 pages. I am impressed. Good work!

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Wow, just wow! The fire is so effective with the photography!

@Oldman Willow, here are two more shots of the Moria board, as a whole in the first one:



...and a more detailed look at the Durin's Causeway part:



The Causeway is made mostly of blue styrofoam, with extruding foam at the bottom for the more irregular rocks. The board is quite tall, some 130 cm or so. The rough dimensions were taken from several photos of the Weta Moria environment. Stonework was embossed to the foam with a ballpoint pen. Let me know if you want more photos at this point; I will take & post more in any case a bit later, once our campaign reaches these areas of Middle-Earth (and given that there are only two more scenarios before the one with the Watcher, it seems rather likely that the Fellowship does, indeed, enter Khazad-dûm). Unfortunately I did not take any WIP shots of the Moria boards, so I can only show the finished pieces...

Thanks!

I like what you have done. A photo of the back side of the stair from the hall entrance will be helpful. I had not even thought about including it. I followed lotrscenerybuilders plan almost exactly.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

wow.. this is so insane....!
And of course we would love more photos!!!

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Check out my WIP: www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24858

that thing is huge, but also very awesome! Stunning once more.

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goblin: "people associate me with boogers because i am green"

That is iconic! I have but one question - how do you get the minis to balance on those realistic but very tiny stairs?

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

Ok, wasn't really planning on Moria-themed update to the WIP, but since you demand

@ukfreddybear, the stairs are cut so that every fourth step is slightly wider, as seen in the template and the photo of the board below:





This prevents the figures from doing some Legolas-style surfing. And, of course, if needed, blue-tack is another good accessory! That, I fear, will be needed at least for our upcoming Helm's Deep board, as we want to re-create the steep slope for the relief force to ride down on...

But back to Moria - @Oldman Willow, I'm not sure if you mean the actual outside of the top entrance to the Causeway? On the Causeway board bit, it is totally bare, just an opening, really, as can be seen below:





A simple frame from foamcard is seen on the Causeway side:



In the full Moria scenery seen in the earlier post, one of the 80x90cm boards was actually used as the hall just before the Causeway, and large + small columns, as well as bits of rubble were used to dress the otherwise plain board. The board was actually painted grey during that time, and later, the top part was painted with earth shade and grassed over. The bottom part still carries the grey paint and could be used as the upper hall.



Note that the dressing seen above was done purely for show purposes - the Moria environment took part in a local model show about a year ago, and no actual gaming has been done on it (apart from some practice games in the Balin's Tomb). In fact, I doubt we'll even use this upper hall between the tomb and the Causeway in our campaign... but that remains to be seen. In the model show, I had specially constructed supports under the upper hall + Balin's Tomb to have them align with the Causeway top and the Second Hall (these boards were sitting on the floor). In any case, it'll be easier to play with the causeway + Second Hall separated from anything before them.

The bottom of the Causeway has a bridge linking it to the larger of the two Second Hall terrain pieces:





...and the Second Hall pieces are, naturally, linked by the famous Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The stub ends of the bridge can be seen on both pieces in the following shots (the bridge bit itself is detachable, and is not shown):





Sorry for the poor photos of the larger of the Second Hall pieces, it is quite well stored under a table in my garage, and with the Causeway on top the table, I did not want to dig it up (the Causeway bit needs two to safely move it). I'll have some clearer shots once our campaign necessitates me to bring these boards inside the house. But I do hope these pictures give an idea of the terrain - expect to see it lit by blue + orange-yellow LED strips for the campaign battle report. I'll try to fashion a suitable backdrop image or two for the board as well.

crazy stuff man, awesome thinking on those stairs! Seems like a hell of a job to do this;.

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goblin: "people associate me with boogers because i am green"

Thanks!
The photos were very useful! There are lots of details I had not thought to include. You did a very good job with it. Thanks for the stair tip too.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Jaw. Dropped.

I've just come across this thread and been in awe reading through the whole thing, this is quite simply the most incredible war-gaming undertaking I've ever seen. Every board surpasses the last, the scale and patience are just amazing. I wish that I had the time and space to attempt something even half as good as this.

Completely inspirational work, thank-you!

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Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

Free SBG fanzine: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29569

@Oldman Willow, glad the photos are helpful - we are eager to play on the stair board; the way our campaign is going, that should be around August or so (partly because the summer nights are very light over here in Finland - I have trouble getting the Causeway to fit in anywhere else than our living room, and I cannot get that area dark in June/July for the needed artifically lit battle report photos).

@garmenhord, cutting the stairs from foam was actually not too bad; I used the Hot Wire Foam Factory scroll table for that. Embossing the dwarven-style brickwork was much more time-consuming...

@Dr Grant, thanks for the kind words! I'm eagerly following your Helm's Deep project, too - I have mine at planning stage, and should commence construction during May (but will post plans before that, probably already within the next few days). I do admit that the whole campaign seems, at times, like we've bitten more than we can chew, but with patience, we hope to be able to complete it as planned, even though it might take a couple of years. Perhaps with perseverance, we will create something worthy of a song!

Are you kidding? You've already created something worthy of an opera!

I'm even more staggered by your comments above, you're planning your campaign/games around the seasons so that the lighting is right for the pictures?!?! Your commitment to this project is simply staggering.

Ha, and you're following my Helm's Deep? Please don't finish yours around the same time, when the teacher comes round to mark them mine's going to get a 'must try harder' sticker on it!

Keep up the great work, I look forward to more updates!

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Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

Free SBG fanzine: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29569

On any other board, I could probably set the games in a room which can be completely darkened, but the Causeway is a bit too big to fit comfortably through some of the doors. I can move it through the front door and the garage door. Although I could block the garage windows, it's not a comfortable place for gaming (and I wouldn't have room to set up the Causeway + Second hall anyway). Hence, we'll play in the living room, and since I've started the trend of having night scenario pics shot with blue/green LED lighting, I will do the same for cave scenes. And for that, I need it to be dark outside, and for that, I need to wait for August. Then again, a slow pace is good for our campaign - we will probably have a long break anyways if I'm not super fast in painting Rohan / Isengard armies and building Helm's Deep. Spreading the SBG scenarios over a longer period eases this a bit.

All right, time to start showing what's been happening with our Helm's Deep board plans. We wanted a depiction of Helm's Deep faithful to the Two Towers movie, and had two specific items high on our wish list: the vertical scale of the fortress, in particular, should match that seen in the movie, and the board should feature a long shale slope for the relief force to gallop on, recreating that very iconic moment from the film. As an aside, our campaign may end up having Radagast leading the relief force, and somehow we cannot imagine the bunny sled here... the Uruk-hai would probably laugh themselves to death. Both wishes present their challenges - the vertical accuracy means that the outer walls of the Hornburg fortress extend over 40 cm above the Deeping-stream surface level, and the main gate is also very high up - leading to a very long ramp. The tower will also be over a meter tall, and for storage, needs to be detachable. The slope might be a problem for mounted metal figures - they are likely to keel over forward on such a steep surface. Plastic riders should be fine, however, and, if needed, blue-tack will be used. To save storage space, the surface of the slope needs to have detachable supports underneath it - a large, solid triangular terrain piece would be a nightmare to store and move.

After a careful study of Weta Helm's Deep Environment as well as movie (and DVD extras) screenshots, I've drawn the following plan:



To give you a sense of scale, the outer diameter of the Hornburg is about 75 cm, and the length of the Deeping Wall is about 120 cm. The full terrain ended up a bit larger than we originally envisioned (four 80x90 cm tiles) - the Deeping wall needed to be a bit longer (meaning an extra 60 cm x 110 cm bit), and the stairs to the back gate of Hornburg necessitated another 30 cm behind the Hornburg & Deeping Wall tiles. And the slope is extra, of course. The total size is a rectangle with a piece missing from one corner – the total width of the terrain is 120cm (slope) + 90cm (grass tile E in the initial plans) + 90cm (grass tile G) + 30 cm (additional narrow piece), making a total of 330 cm. At its deepest, the terrain depth is 190 cm (but only 80 cm at the slope).

As per initial plans, two plain 80x90 cm tiles are used in front of the Deeping Wall and Hornburg (tiles E and G); the ramp is a separate piece just placed on the plain yellow grass tile G in front of Hornburg. With some Photoshop work, printing, cutting and taping, we have full scale drawings divided according to the individual tiles (slope is still missing in the pic):



The ramp will be a bit wider than in the full scale drawing to accommodate the width of a WotR infantry moving tray. I did, for a moment, consider altering the dimensions of the Hornburg and its main gate to allow cavalry movement trays to fit in for Théoden's final ride, but decided against that in the end. The curved corridors wouldn't allow a legal formation anyway, so if needed, we'll treat cavalry riding double file as a WotR formation. And an oversize main gate just didn't look right. Here is a profile plan of the terrain:



Here are some detail bits, like the Keep facade (also a side schematics with two rows of columns), and the main gate, which were planned at this stage.







The extra 30 cm at the back allows quite a lot of the Keep interiors to be added, including the throne room, and whatever room there is behind those Keep façade windows on the second level. Incidentally, I am a bit perplexed by the blocked-up arches in the inner wall seen in this screenshot at the main gate level:



Perhaps Hornburg stables were once here? That does raise an issue of horses – where did Théoden and his remaining warriors (including Aragorn) get the horses while being besieged inside the throne room within the Keep? In the book, horses were taken “far up the Deep” – i.e. up the valley behind the Deeping Wall. But this would be too far for the movie events. Perhaps the door marked A in the pic below led to stables – after all, Théoden rode up to the inner courtyard in the movie as he entered Helm’s Deep.



I interpreted the arch B in the photo above to lead to the Glittering Caves. Given the large size of the gaming terrain, there should be ample room to show at least a bit of the caves, too. As to the blocked-up arches, I’m thinking of adding a storage area beneath the inner courtyard, connected to the stables, which I would build underneath the throne room. The stables would then be accessed via the door A. Stairs between levels inside the Keep would have been a way for Théoden et al to move horses to the throne room for the final charge.

The next step in building our version of Helm’s Deep will be to start cutting foamcard and Styrofoam to give basic shapes to the structures (especially the various levels of Hornburg – this should clarify also the plans for the interiors). My plan is to use Depron foam as a skin on all larger surfaces requiring tile / stone block structure (which will be embossed before gluing the “skin” in place). Blocks of Styrofoam might serve as crenellations along the Deeping Wall and Hornburg walls, but if making dozens of those curved and angled bits seems tedious, I might be tempted to make a silicone mold and cast the repetitive parts with plaster. The terrain pieces will have plenty of rock faces, and the initial plan is to use a mix of commercial rocks as well as Hydrocal cast rocks (and carvings). Stay tuned…

crazy plans ahead! looking forward to c this one develop

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goblin: "people associate me with boogers because i am green"

Good work so far! I have to finish a Hirst Art project before I can start working on mine again.
I have debated over and over using Hirst Art blocks for mine. I just can not work out a way to transport it if I do. I am going to follow your project with great interest.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Thanks! For Helm's Deep, I will use plaster castings very little, and don't know if I can utilize Hirst Arts molds much. I was thinking of making a custom mold for the pillars within and under the Keep facade. For Helm's Deep, I prefer fairly smooth stone surface (apart from random cracks) to the coarse texture of regular Hirst blocks.

However, for my Minas Tirith project, I haven't still decided upon the wall material. My options include embossed plastic card, Depron foam and Hirst Arts - but not full blocks, mind... I was thinking of casting very shallow Egyptian basic blocks (about 2-3 mm thick) and gluing them on cardboard subsurface. That way I would get a varying surface (of smooth stones) but with a fraction of the weight compared to full-depth blocks. Of course, for a project like Minas Tirith, that would require quite a number of thin plaster tiles! I was planning on doing a test wall section with a bit done with each of the three methods fairly soon, even though my Minas Tirith project will not start this year. This is merely in case the Egyptian block method yields the best result - I will then cast a handful of tiles just about every evening for a year to get a necessary amount!

Hirst molds will get to see more action this summer, as I will tackle Amon Hen and Parth Galen. There, Hirst blocks will be my main material. I believe you had a similar project in your WIP, Oldman Willow?

I can actually tell you what is section A and B on that photo :P

I´ve seen the original plans of helms deep once they were made for movie, and a good game that represents them nicely its the third age game, the section A is the armoury and the section B is the stables which got a secret door conection to the main hall on the top floor :P

once you get up the last stairs to go inside the main hall there is a door to the left(check the A red curcle there is a man, behind it) just almsot next to the tower there is a door gate and a cavern system that leads to the backside of the stairs (exit point area of the deeping wall when aragorn and the elves fall back to the main keep in the movie)



I really really recommend you again watch the third age game helm´s deep model, its an 100% exact copy of the original movie version where you can play with your toons inside....~


this is what I mean... pass 1 the 1st 1min and you will see mroe of so the directions (if you got time see the entire battle and you will see it all :P)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2yzWaqTS18

hope this helped

Thanks a million, Galanur - that was a great video! It also clarified the structure of the main hall windows which open on the back courtyard. Ok, so door A leads to the armory, and door B to the stables. Where, then, is the entrance to the Glittering Caves? Perhaps through the stables? At least that was the direction Eowyn was heading when she was commanded to go lead the civilians into safety. Interestingly, the blocked-up arches near the main gate were not to be seen in the game version of Helm's Deep. I knew from the film that there were, actually, three rows of columns before the door to the main hall within the Keep, but at the moment, I plan to settle for two rows (although this might change).

On a related note - the movie version of Isengard seems to lack any kind of gate, there is only an open arch through which Gandalf rides and Uruks march. Surely, some kind of gate must exist... maybe the game has also an answer to this?