WIP 2: A castle full of Crowns, Bags, Letters …

A little bit ago I started work on a 3D “none combat board” for A Song of Ice and Fire, and my last WIP post I had got the base all sorted out (and explained what this is for the none A Song of Ice and Fire players), but still had a lot of way to go on the back wall. I really wanted the back wall to look like an old castle wall, like the wall of the keep but from in the courtyard. So I was after large stones but did not want a really uniformed look, so not lined like bricks, I ended up using the same stones I often put on the bases of my Nights Watch models, but simply some bigger ones, which where easy to find as I had bough a big bag of the stones from a garden center. A quick test place later and it looked like it might work.

I did have the gaps however to think about, but I figured that some grit / gravel / sand type mix might look enough like mortar and if I put enough PVA down I could sink the big stones in first then just dump the gravel on after. So I gave it a go! On the first picture you can see that I worked in parts from right to left, so the left is just started with a see of PVA, the middle is just the big stones and the right is the gravel thrown on as well. The process seemed to go OK, I felt I had to work fast I was worried the PVA would dry before the gravel went on and would not stick, but was not to hard to do. The only problem I had was that I could not really check after doing it, the photo on the right below is after I’ve loaded it up with gravel, I really wanted to tip the excess off straight away but I did not dare as I thought the big rocks might come off too. So that is how I had to leave it to dry, with a sleepless night worry if it would work (ok I was perhaps not really that bothered but you know what I mean).

The next day I poured the excess gravel off and it had worked! There where a few little places where no gravel had stook but these where fixed easy by adding a little more glue and loading a bit more gravel in. Likewise there were a few places where the gravel had stuck to the top of the rocks where I had got some excess PVA glue, but a bit of a scrape and it came off. Giving me a rather nice “castle wall” for the backdrop of the piece.

I did however also have to undertake a rather silly task, that was sorting out the back, which I had just left up until now and it was bare wood with a join between the top and bottom and even some old nail holes in. That all got filled, then sanded and then painted, which would of been much easier if I had thought about it earlier and was not terrified of messing up the front! So here is possibly the most boring picture on my blog the back of a bit of wood I painted grey, enjoy 🙂

I’ve also made start on some of the things I will be sticking to the base in the different areas to give them more of the correct feel. So I have a hand made chair with some blazers that I’ve started to paint up, and a torch that I plan to use as the turn marker, I’m hoping these should come along quick now as I’ve got the bases colours on them now just need to work them up. I’ve also selected and sprayed up all the other things I want to add, I think I’m going to have to part paint these up induvially and then stick them on and finish them off, just not look forward to trying to hold and paint a tiny sword at the same time!

Feels like its starting to get somewhere now, just got to stay focused to finish it off and get brave enough to tackle a horse I hate painting horses!