Buildings,
Terrain & SuchI'd always wanted to do a Pictish broch. For those who haven't heard of them previously, they are circular towers built by the Pictish people of what is now Scotland in ancient times. The conical stone towers were built for defense, and generally featured a doorway high up off the ground, reached by a ladder that could be withdrawn when attacked. I visited a few when I traveled to Scotland back in 1985, and they've always fascinated me.
My friend Dave Zecchini offered to help me build one by casting plaster blocks using the Hirst Arts kits that he is a huge fan of. We studied the various kits and agreed that the Field Stone Tower kits were the ones that would be most appropriate. He cast a huge number of blocks for me -- so many that I didn't use even half of what he made. I was glad Zeke was there to help me figuring out which pieces went where, as otherwise, I'd have been baffled. Picture the pieces for two separate 3D jigsaw puzzles tossed together and you can imagine my bafflement on figuring out where to start. Once I got going, though, it went fairly well. I was able to assemble the broch with a sloping, conical surface, like I'd seen in illustrations and photos of them. My only real mistake was that I should have glued the stone floor together first, then assembled the first ring of tower walls around it. My circle for the base of the tower ended up being a bit ovoid, and the floor didn't fit in perfectly. No biggie...I just glued in some loose stones that were part of the moulds.
It got more technical in the weeks as I worked on it. I had to set it up so that it would come apart and I could use the three inner levels to place figures on. I wanted it to come apart in a sawtooth fashion, so that the upper level would fit and sit securely on the lower one. Despite taking my time and placing slips of cardboard where I did NOT want to glue, I still messed it up a bit. It was relatively easy to correct, though, and it works like I want it to now.
I also created two circular wooden floors/ceilings to separate the inner levels, and it was a challenge to hone these down to exactly the right size. I had glued metal tabs projecting between the second and third storey that the topmost wooden floor/ceiling would sit on. For the first level, I covered the metal with stone blocks to represent reinforcements to hold the weight of the upper floors. Much to my surprise, it all went together well. I made a wooden roof to cover the top, as I'm sure the Picts wouldn't have lived in their country's rainy climate without some roof to keep out the moisture!
The picture above was taken before I flocked the base. The entire structure was created on top of a thick piece of black styrene. This was glued onto a soft, wooden plaque, which I carved and then flocked to look like a hill outcrop. It is definitely a signature terrain piece to put on the table in my games, and is probably the most complex building I've ever assembled.
The Lower section of the broch, showing the spiral staircase along the inner wall. Also note the stone tabs projecting from the walls upon which the floor for the second storey rests.