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Not much progress today - after breakfast, I watched the Bears game, which was disappointing, before heading downstairs for a little work.

I had a 1-foot gap in the back wall, and decided I wanted to add a skinny tower to hold an anti-aircraft gun, as well as another means to get up to the battlements.

After getting most of the measurements for all the different parts down with the other pieces, this one went together in about three hours.



It's got just about enough space to put one of the anti-air bases, as an automatic turret.


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Whoa, looks like one of my updates disappeared. (I probably previewed it without saving it).

So, yesterday....

It turns out that I needed about 140 of those butresses pieces, not 40... Headed over to Home Despot, bought them out of 5/8th inch dowels, marked and cut for an hour.



Once I glued them all on, I re-setup the fortress walls to get a feel for where it was at.



Next, I cut out some thin plasticard coverings for the spire tops. Note - For Rent signs are an excellent source of cheap materials. I also added some mini-butresses for the spire bases to tie them into the walls.



I then built up the gate openings, so they looked a bit more finished off. Tried to make these fit stylistically with the butresses. I have an Aquilla pin (I think from the 6th ed release gamer bag), that I'm going to put over the front gate, so I made that twice as thick. The insides were done as simple rectangles.



Finally, I spent time cleaning up all the scrap cuttings and sawdust, so that the workshop was usable again.

After two weeks work, this is the current state of the project:



To-Do list:

Make weapon mountings
Build canon shields for the main gun
Make some hatches for the towers
Do the details on the courtyard buildings
(and...?)
Paint

Amazing. great work very motivating!

Another day, more progress.

Started simply enough, adding a few guns inside the gates.

The two smaller gates each have a pair of hurricane bolters and a pair of heavy flamers defending them.



The main gate gets a pair of hurricane bolters and a pair of flamestorm cannons.



I figure, if you needed to open the gate to let your vehicles out, you'd want some defent anti-infantry weapons covering that.

Next up is arming the walls. This is a lot of heavy bolters, and required cutting a lot of housing for them.



But the results look good. I started adding some decorative elements too.



Added some decorations to the spires.



Next, I made some nice chunky turret bases to mount the battle cannons on. Note the mini-butresses again, it's an easy way to tie things together.



And attached mounts for anti-aircraft guns for the small gates.



I made some hatches - this is just some engraving work with the dremel. Would be nice to have a CNC machine or a laser cutter and get straighter lines, but this is certainly less expensive.



And, finally, the view from the back.



Man, the back of the main gate is a lot of surface area with no details. But I don't have that many bits to work with. Maybe I'll add some exposed piping or something.

This is inspires me to not be so lazy can't wait to see it finish!

Man this build is epic!

i wouldn't wanna be the one to storm that fort.
this one i'm gonna follow to the end!

keep it up!

Woah, this thread is full of win!

*subbed*

 Redbeard wrote:
But the results look good. I started adding some decorative elements too.

Uhmmm.... YES!!!!

Seriously, this just gets better and better.

Incredible work!

is there a way you could stop the butresses doubling up at the joins? it detracts slightly, my just be me though

Radu Lykan wrote:
is there a way you could stop the butresses doubling up at the joins? it detracts slightly, my just be me though

I was thinking the same, but I think it'll look good when painted.

Well, they're glued now, I could knock them off, but I'm not really sure which ones would be best to remove. By keeping them on all the edges, it gives a bit of flexibility to alternate layouts (such as a smaller fort for non-apoc games).

How about knocking them all off and put them all about 1" in from the edge? That way it's even but not doubled up.

1" from the edges doesn't give enough space to put them on the corners, or work as far as space between gates and edges.

 Redbeard wrote:
Well, they're glued now, I could knock them off, but I'm not really sure which ones would be best to remove. By keeping them on all the edges, it gives a bit of flexibility to alternate layouts (such as a smaller fort for non-apoc games).

Basically there are two ways you could redo it, either you keep the two buttresses an even distance from the edge (say, 1" from the edge on each side), or you leave one next to the edge and just have no buttress on the other side... sort of like this.. You'd still have to make sure it's the same distance between each buttress though, so I don't think it's worth the effort knocking them off! As I said I think the contrasting colours on the photo makes it stand out a bit, once primed and painted it probably won't be an issue. The fortress looks great!

Has it really been 20 days? Time flies when you're doing nothing but making a fort.

So, the last two days were focused on the interior buildings and the courtyard area.

Started out by framing all the doors. Just like in your house, having a big open space between two walls just doesn't look right, so you add a frame to make it look finished. More uses for square dowels. Note the use of a square edge to get everything plumb. (Also seen is my mouse sander, which is really good for finish sanding).



I got the bright idea to make the garage doors functional. This took more time than it was probably worth, but I got working hinges for these doors.



Added steps to the ramp for the landing pad, and some landing lights around the edge.



And added buttresses and lights to all the buildings.

The barracks:


The comm center / command tower:



And the medicae and magazine: (not sure which will be which yet)



And added lights to all the ground-floor doors for towers and gates.




I'm at a point now where I really need my Miniature Scenery order to come in. I've done all the bulk architectural woodworking, and used up most of my building bits. I've still gone a stack of parts that I will work in, but I need to get the larger components placed first, and they're the ones from that order.

This is really coming along! When are we gonna see some paint on it?

Been watching your progress for some time - good pace! And an interesting project! We don't normally see wooden terrain around this parts =) I really wish to see it painted. Good luck with this!

wow! It's amazing to see you starting from some wooden planks and turn a rough skeleton into something amazing! I wouldn't have the patience to do it ^^ I mean adding those little things such as lamps or finishing the tops of the buildings :p keep it up!

Ozymandias wrote:This is really coming along! When are we gonna see some paint on it?

Well, the must-be-done by date is Nov 16th. Between now and then, I've got the following major time to work on it:

Sat Oct 26th
Sat Nov 2
Sun Nov 3
Sat Nov 9
Maybe a day or two during that last week, if I take it off work.

That's not a lot to get this large of a project painted, but I think a lot of it will go fast, large sections will just be primed & dry brushed.

But, figuring I'll need at least two full days, that pretty much means painting has to start Nov 2 or 3. If I get the parts I'm waiting on sooner, I can get them attached and start earlier. If they don't show up by then, I'll have to paint it and add them after the fact (if at all).

storag wrote:Been watching your progress for some time - good pace! And an interesting project! We don't normally see wooden terrain around this parts =) I really wish to see it painted. Good luck with this!

Thanks. I really prefer working with wood versus foamcore. I find it easier to get good edges and measurements, as well as having several different base materials to work with (like all the square dowels used throughout the project). Plus, it has an added durability that's nice when you spend this sort of time on a project.



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No package today :(

Being on a deadline is great, I've just scheduled an apoc game for myself and some friends, and it really inspired me to work on my own table. I can see it's the same here! Awesome work, keep it up!

Still no package :(

Love this project Redbeard - fantastic vision and great execution.. Makes mine look small in comparison! (Project that is...!)

Still no package, but I got some stuff done today anyway.

Lots of stuff that took a lot of time but didn't seem to warrant a lot of pics.

Started painting - primed the wall sections that won't be getting any more details.



Realized I'd need a lot more primer, took a trip to Home Despot and bought a case of spray cans.

Once I got home, I fabricated a housing for the main gun, with a swivel mount.



After that, I started adding more detail to some of the buildings. I started with the garage. I had a couple of cities of death building parts with mechanicus symbols on them, so I cut the symbols off of those (tedious...), but ended up with two usable pieces from it, one on the garage door, one for over the pedestrian entrance.

Added some tie-downs to the landing pad, and some rooftop structures. The fuel tank is made from a fish food canister with some pegasus hobbies piping and tops. The AC unit is from a storm raven kit, I think.



Then added some detail to the top of the medicae facility. I have a big storage container in the basement that I use to store interestingly shaped containers and cans, because they're always useful for terrain. This was the box to a watch I was given for 15 years at my company - now it's part of a medical center.




I also did some paint tests. I'm thinking about doing the two spire tops in gold, and found a gold spray that looks pretty good. Also got a 'soft iron' prime+paint that looks like it will work great for the gates and metal surfaces, allowing for easy drybrushing over it.

Sweet!

I'd hate to assault that fortress! I don't think I'd hit it with less than a Titan, after lengthy artillery strikes.

This is an awesome project- I'll be keeping an eye on this one

This is some amazing work. It's really motivating me to start work on my own terrain. I don't get many games in while at uni, and building something like this would be so much fun.
Keep up the good work

man I love this.!!! Great work

CNC Miniature Scenery parts arrived yesterday. Today will consist of cutting and mounting these, and possibly priming everything!





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Popped out all the parts and assembled the multi-part stuff.



Then started putting the parts on the buildings. Not much to say here, so I'll just leave the pics.




I'm now priming everything! Got a vent fan running and a respirator, as I'm through two cans already.

Wow. I really wasn't sure how this was going to end up but the CnC stuff really puts it to where i'd expect it.

Got a link for that stuff? Looks to be very well made.

I posted the link earlier in the thread, twice I think, scroll back a bit

I got everything primed! Now I'm letting the basement air out a bit, and tomorrow, I start airbrushing in the shading.