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.

That is a great start, very skilful modelling.

Great work! Not familiar with stewalin, is it easy to work with?

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Stewalin is used for casting - for example in rubber/latex molds.
Almost the same as plaster during processing, but more liquid.

You can achieve more detailled, finer results than with plaster with it.
When it is dry, it gets by far harder than plaster. Similar to ceramic.

The results when i cast the statues and the columns almost drove me nuts when i used plaster.
Stwalin also takes much less time to dry. Maybe (very likely, that is...) i just mixed the plaster wrong, but it refused to dry even after 2 weeks in the moulds. Not that surprising, since the water just could not evaporate from the almost completely closed moulds.
I stopped counting how many attempts literally crumbled out of the moulds - with stewaling i produced 2-3 pieces per mould per day.
For that specific kind of casting, stewalin really shines and completely declassifies plaster.
Keramin seems to be pretty much the same - but i have no idea what name you need to look out for outside of germany.

But don't try to do anything else than casting with it. It is definitely unusable for shaping and filling.
If it comes to that, i use modelling clay now.

Sounds interesting, I just use plaster of paris but most of my molds are shallow, no enclosed ones. Plaster of paris isn't very durable but I don't mind when it breaks or doesn't come out right, it's very cheap.

Might have to look into stawlin if I want to make something more lasting.

Thanks for the info.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I‘m still working on it.
Again on the archways, carving interstices and modeling details like capitals.

However, some imperfections in some places may actually be beneficial.
Missing interstices can be covered with moss, missing material in the masonry are fitting places for where the tooth of time gnawed on the structure.

Alas, work with file, nail and dremel produce so far underwhelming impressions of progress. So no additional photos for the moment.

But i finally found out how to Upload photos here - embedding from the source i used so far turned out rather unreliable

I've come to embrace imperfections in the casting process, air bubbles become random wear, just a little scraping to get rid of the obvious shape. Looking forward to your pictures.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Real life work buried me for a couple of months - but now that i have been quarantined for two weeks, i finally made again some progress.
Here are two photos from the same section from two stages of painting:




Now i am adding earth, dirt & plants. Almost done.

Soooo... not completely done, but almost.
I think i will eventually add the broken statue and some more debris and maybe i will play some more with the color of the walls to make it a little more heterogenous, but that will not change the general impression any more.

Something else i am not that happy with is the too dark and too much earth (which is, in fact, coffee and tea) within the ruin.
And the green flocking turned out to bee much more... intense than i hoped.
But i don't complain - i hoped for a slightly better result, but i am definitely happy with it.

Now... where do i place it?

That looks great, you have captured the place really well.
I like the green and brown scatter, they serve to break up the monotone greys nicely, just need some crawling vines.

Coming along very nicely!

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Crawling vines actually sound like they could become a great improvement.
I am already in the middle of gathering materials and preparing experiments on how to make them.
I found a few tutorials and now let's see what works best for me - or maybe i combine different approaches. Again.

Great, thanks.

Look forward to seeing how you tackle it.
When we did the original display tables we used sisal ("hairy") string dunked in boiling water and then hung weighted so it straightened as it dried. Delaminate to get the thickness required and soak in pva coloured with craft paint when fixing in the model.

Yes, that is at least part of my at the moment favoured approach.
Besides something quite similar to Sisal, i have also found some surplus cotton knitting wool. The boiling water is new - i will try that! And afterwards PVA + Color, then drybrushing

For the leaves, i fear that my leaf-punch produces too large leafs (and besides, i have run out of dried leafs to use it on) and birch-seeds are even larger, but i already have a plan B and C.
B would be coloring sawdust (in a darker green than i used for the bushes), C is freeze-dried parsley

Also Oregano and Marjoram. Your terrain bench will smell like a pizzeria until the plant oils evaporate.

Tell me… with having used coffee powder and tea leafs (high and low quality teas have both quite different uses in scenery building), it already has a somewhat irritating smell.
But it is already dissolving.

Yes, oregano , Majoran, basil… whatever the kitchen has in stock

Great job! I really like the colors you've used and the attention you've paid to the ground covering. Looks like it's ready for some hobbits, a few ringwraiths, and an angry ranger.....

Damn, "quick progress" is definitely something different.
But that's due to limited time for hobby.

The approach with undrilled sisal turns out quite nice, here is a shot after painting and after applying parsley. By now, i have four of those and hope they are enough.
I will apply some more diluted glue to make them some more durable prior to cutting and gluing them to the walls and columns.

promising...

Very nice, I like the use of natural materials.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

The first two ivy plants are where i want them.
Needs some more work - and i definitely need more plants.
But the direction is right!