Gondorian Fort WIP - UPDATED 26/6/14

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:46 pm

Malky I love it, just what I envisaged.
The layout looks excellent and everything fits in very very nicely.
A couple of things to watch - the depth of the river, purely from the point of how much it will cost to fill with realistic water. A few rocks here and there and plenty of detritus around the banks will help create the look. It will be useful to get hold of some clear sealant, the stuff you use to seal tiles. Use this to seal the area before adding the realistic water. It should prevent any spillages.
I like the waterfall idea. You could also consider something trick;ling down a sloping rock as opposed to a direct drop, or do both ?
I think a little variation in your green flocking will help, some different shades or speckling of flowers. Some thin washes of different greens and browns will help. One dry you can add some dry brushing to create some depth to the grass.
Have a great course and update us soon, this is turning into an epic piece.

malky23 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 14, 2014 12:34 am

Thanks gandalf, I was only one post away from asking how best to seal in the water in the river. I was thinking I might seal the whole [lower] set then use the cheap water stuff I used for the fountain (still a lot left) to fill the lower river then use the proper WS stuff to fill the rest and the effects for the rapids (I also like the idea of the trickling water down the shallow slope!) . Also any advice on painting the river bed?

For you experienced folk, how's best to secure the edges when adding realistic water? I saw on celevues post for the much loved Amon hen, he used masking tape but added water effects to the edges.
@gandalf, do you really recommend the the tile sealant? With the fountain I made, I just used PVA to seal the foam board but I doubt it will look the same for a river.

I am [not so] ashamed to say that I stole the ground cover idea from celevue. I am completely astonished by his Amon hen so after speaking to him I have purchased a lot of the same colours of fine and course turf cover. I am on a slightly limited budget and due to the fact that this will most likely be the last project I have for a while (due to time and space constraints) I decided I have nothing better to spend my money on. So basically I will have a lot of turf colours in surplus (if anyone wants to make an offer?! Haha) however it should look a lot better than the obviously fake turf I have so far. I will try to loosely try to copy celevues guidelines for this project until I can realise how the results will look.

Edit: I wrote this post at about 2am after getting back from the pub after a long break so if any of this makes no sense, I will edit this when I wake up haha

Thanks again guys

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sat Jun 14, 2014 4:39 am

The tile sealant works great, I've used it for my waterfall and will post some pictures so you can check them before you use. It drys clear and you can manipulate it to create waves and splashes. Just tease it about with a cocktail stick.
For painting the river bed, lots of mucky colours getting darker in the middle to resemble depth. Work your banks with lighter colours and add you ground cover. Dried compost is a great cover. Apply the water last of all.

Sithious · **Posted:** Sat Jun 14, 2014 10:53 am

I recently saw plans for forts like this in WD and was considering making one of the Khand versions, but your Gondor Style is awesome. The surrounding scenery you are putting it into is also very cool, frames the piece nicely.

malky23 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2014 4:00 pm

Hey again guys!

Spent a small bit of time working on this today! I decided to start on the turfing of the base! As I have never used any woodland scenics products before, I decided to just test it all out on a small area firs before covering the whole thing! I started with the sloped area of the forest that is at the forward, left edge. You can see from the picture I have added a bit of a path which will continue down the rest and over the bridge up to the fort.

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I'm pretty pleased with the result of it so will be working on more of it either tonight or tomorrow. The colours aren't quite as vibrant as hey look in the second picture, that was just due to the flash of the camera.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 7:49 am

Taking shape nicely. The trick with ground cover is to use lots of different colours to make it look more realistic. Different height vegetation also.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:50 am

The Woodland Scenic Trees look brilliant, really like what you are making here, looking forward to future pics

malky23 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 11:00 am

Thanks guys.

@gandalf, yeah there is actually quite a lot off different colours and thicknesses of turf in there, just doesn't show up well as I have to reduce the photo quality so much so I can upload them.

@harfoot thanks, however it is actually only the turf that is woodland scenics, the trees are just some very cheap ones I bought on eBay from Hong Kong in a large quantity. They are quite poor quality but they still look pretty good, especially from a distance.

Hoping to get the rest of the parts of the board covered today so that all that is left is the river area

Wan Shi Tong · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 5:00 pm

This is really quite a nice fort can't wait to see the finished board. And perhaps a battle report of its first field test too.

malky23 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:56 pm

Thanks!

Spent today returfing the fort section of the board to match the rest. Looks much better now. I have also now sealed the river section with silicon, in preparation for pouring the water.

For anyone who has experience with WS realistic water, do I need to do anything else to seal the styrofoam before pouring or is painting it enough? I was considering using a small scrape of polyfilla or just a wash of PVA glue over the area to be filled.

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As you can see, I started making a bridge today too. I'm not sure whether I would prefer a stone bridge or a wooden bridge so I will make both and see what I prefer. I like the look of my stone bridge and I think it would look good when the water is poured around it, rather than a wood bridge which would just hang above it. The one above is just a rough version and will be made a lot better with sides etc if I decide to go with it.

Let me know what you all think?

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 7:01 pm

Bridge looks great and I am really looking forward to seeing this done.
The sealing sounds ok to me, just make sure you seal the ends of the display. You apply the water in no thicker than 1/8' layers. allowing each layer to completely cure before adding the next. If you want to resemble river depth then paint the bottom a dark colour before adding water. You can also add a touch of dark colour to your first layer. If you do this you only need a tiny amount of paint to mix with the realistic water. Make it up in a separate tub before pouring on.

malky23 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:09 pm

Ok guys, big update this time, made a lot of progress on this today and am now near to completion!

Spent the day painting and turfing the rest of the board, as well as finishing the bridge and watchtower/beacon tower. I've still to try and create a beacon pile but not quite sure how I'm gonna do that.

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As you can see, I went with a green/brown sort of colour for the river. You may be unsure about it but I have an idea of how I want it too look. I will be giving the water a slight green-brown tint too.

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The river colour actually is not showing up very well in the photos but the colour fade between the centre and the edges looks quite good I think.
Will add another couple of photos in another post as I can only upload 3 to a post.

malky23 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:16 pm

Here's another couple...

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I will be adding more small details over time such as moss etc. to the bridge and watchtower.

I will also obviously be painting all the edges around the board at some point too, maybe tomoro.

Next step is to pour the realistic water. After that I'll be adding some water effects for detail and to show the rapids just under the bridge.

Hope yous like it, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Hopefully will be able to get another photo of it with the fort tomoro.

Cheers

Oldman Willow · **Posted:** Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:59 pm

Make sure everything is dry before you use the Realistic Water.

The project looks very good.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 11:49 am

Excellent Malky, it looks brilliant.
For the wood pile get some wooden skewers and cut to size, stacking them as desired.
You can put flame to them. Get some clear sealant and use a toothpick to tease out individual flames. When dry paint up and usual to have your own custom made fire.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:08 pm

Superb, particularly like the brick work, very realistic

malky23 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:40 pm

Thanks guys! Here is a few better shots of it all together. I'm basically done now except adding a few small details and the water (first layer has been poured about 10mins ago). I've also started making a small fire pit thing for the beacon but not sure how it will look.
Anyway, here it is... :-D

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Not sure what to do with the open space on the far side of the river, just in front of the fort. I was just gonna add more trees but I feel like I could put that space to better use and add something else small! Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Xintao · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:31 pm

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Not sure what to do with the open space on the far side of the river, just in front of the fort. I was just gonna add more trees but I feel like I could put that space to better use and add something else small! Anyone have any suggestions?

Depends on what's the board for? You may have mentioned but I didn't see it. Are you making a big diorama or a board to play on? If to play on, you might want to keep that area open.

Either way it looks spectacular. You have inspired me to build my own Gondor Fort. Hope I can do it as nice as yours.

malky23 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:41 pm

Thanks for the kind words xintao, nice to hear my hard work has inspired you!

As for the reason, I don't play the game ever so it was really just meant as a nice way to display my miniatures and for something to do with my spare time. I don't want to add too much as I don't want to overcrowd it but I think it could benefit from something else on the left side. I just can't think what! :roll:

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:57 am

Wow, what a great board to play on. Some excellent work being done on this, looking forward to see the continued progress

Gondorian Fort WIP - UPDATED 26/6/14

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