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So there is a Warhammer Fantasy Terrain contest at my flgs. The prize in a free realm of battle boards, and the contest is based off best converted and painted terrain piece, however it has to incorperate a GW terrain piece.
So I decided to base mine off the Chaos Temple of Skulls or what ever its called. As of now, the only things I have planned is cutting out the star and reattachting it but with Red LEDs underneath that will outline in. Also plan to put 2 speakers underneath so I can rock out to some of the chaos music from one of the old warhammer games. Its also going to be on a big tile surronded by ruins. Any other ideas? As I need to go all out on this if I want to win, cause I know theres other people planning some crazyness too.

Rebuild the temple. It's currently half-destroyed.

Hmmm how do you suggest going about this?
As it only looks like 3 pieces so it would be hard to change a solid piece of ruins into an unruinified building O.o

Add on some trees - I'd go for pine.

Also, the ToS is pretty damn tough - you might have trouble cutting out the star.

The temple itself is made of 8 parts - 2 columns in 2 pices each, 3 skull fronts, and the base.

Hmmm thanks for the info, I thought it was only the base and 2 coloumns.. that definitely opens up ideas... Its actually going to have a snow type setting to match my armies, so I might stray away from any grass/tree type stuff.

Snow covered trees always look good to me

I've seen a couple quite cool looking dead long grass/reeds covered with snow type bases before, so don't rule grass out just because there is snow

You could also try altering the skull faces to more reflect different races (or just mutate the bone structure to reflect chaos)?

I have some pictures of my ToS in my gallery if you want to have a look at the kit from a few different angles.

Oh yeah those images helped alot actually... So based on the pieces given and the form of the terrain piece. How hard do you imagine it would be to convert it into a full non ruin temple of skulls? Im quite liking that idea actually and would definitely stand out amongst other terrain pieces.

It depends what you mean by "non ruined"

The problem is that there are a couple of fallen columns moulded into the base which would take a lot of work to remove, plus there is no space to add in plinths etc for extra columns, and from what it looks like, the actual temple "was" (when fully built) quite a lot bigger than the actual base.

Your best bet may be to do a partial reconstruction. The 2 colums you are supplied with can be used as a template to rebuild the back right corner (and possibly a bit of the right front when looked at from the bottom of the stairs).

I'd suggest a kind of stone henge/Egyptian temple kind of construction with columns and large stone cross pieces between them.

One thing that I have just thought of and will probably go and do to my ToS when I have the time is to GS the back left (the broken floor section) so that it looks like the floor has been laid over the natural rock, so the natural rock has erroded and left an overhang where the stone slabs are hanging over the cliff. If that makes sense...

To be honest, thinking about this has made me want to go and recreate the temple too. Damn you!

It would look very awsome! Yeah I was thinking that all the attatched columns would be difficult. I could always recast the other columns, but considering this comp is taking place at a GW store... I doubt thats a good idea! I imagine the 2 skulls in the front left are also attatched and would cause a major problem as well?

Also, now looking at it, it would definitely be too hard to cut out that entire star, so maybe just the eye part...

Now that Im thinking about it., if I can bring myself up to purchasing the arcane ruins, I could use those inplace of pillars since there would be enough.

Cause Im thinking the easiest way to go about this is use some clay or plaster to build up the rocky sides and level it out on top, then fix the chaos star, etc with green stuff. Use Arcane ruin pillars in place, and leave off the giant skulls, or replace them with something else.

My friend got some of the wall moulds from that one company (whos name Im forgeting) and they are quite detailed, so Im probabl going to use those for the outer wall or ruined building depending on where this takes me. And as I said in the OP, this is probably going on some hardboard, so I got more to work with then the base of the model.

How do those ideas sound to you? Any other ideas or suggestions?

Hirst Arts? I love their stuff - always mean to look into getting some but never seem to retain cash long enough to do so

You can incorporate the skulls into the wall - cut the wall around them (this would look quite cool using one of the Hirst wall sections with the skull through it).

Unfortunately the skulls on the front and right side are in 2 pieces - the back of the skull is moulded into the base - it is only the "face" which is free so you would have a bit of rebuilding to do if you cut off the back sections (all the other skulls are moulded into the base).

I don't know what is in the arcane ruins set, but your basic plan sounds pretty cool.

Hmmm, I will keep thinking on the subject and see how the store terrain pieces look for a better Idea on the matter. Luckily the contest isnt until the 31st so I still 4 weeks or so to finish it and Im hoping to start next week!

Will you place a link in this thread to the thread you (hopefully) make in order to show us how you are getting on with this piece?

I'm interested in seeing what you decide to do with this

The arcane ruins are a good 1.5" shorter than the ToS pillars. They do, however, fit almost perfectly into the spaces for pillars on the ToS.

Also, the 'face' of the three skulls on the right come separate, but the backs are secured into the main ruin piece. There are two pillars, each in two halves.

Ill definitely start a blog if I do this. But in all honesty, the more I think about it, the more I realize that this would be too dificult for someone of my skill level to pull off. Im still trying to think of other terrain ideas however.

Im currently thinking about grabbing the fantasy watch tower and making it look destroyed (also surrounded by wrecked hirst arts walls). I think with that, I could put in some red/orange LEDs to give it that fire effect along with some dry ice for smoke effect on the inside.

It would be much easier to accomplish and I think I would get a much better end result from this than the first idea... In all honesty, they way the ToS is moddeled as a kit, it would be too hard to work with to recreate.

Thoughts on the new idea?

Sounds OK to me