It’s 2 feet wide and 14 inches high. I’ll have a look at it but I doubt that I’ll buy it. People more into 40K than I am might jump on it though.

GW Fortress of Redemption

Fortress of Redemption; Legions of The Eye Launched, New Advance Orders | Friday, 23 October | What’s New Today | Games Workshop.

I usually get in over my head when I have these simple ideas.

The obvious first step is to cut the gate off. It’s a tight fit and I didn’t want to pinch any of the plastic. A razor saw is the perfect answer. The bottom was a little fiddly as a few posts are attached directly to the ground.

The gate won’t swing because it’s too big. I cut half of each end post off with the razor saw.

The big decision at this point is how to attach the gate to the wall. Since I had cut the end posts in half, there wasn’t a lot left to mount metal pins. I have a stock pile of styrene and happened to have a rod and tube that fit together (the rod into the tube). Time to check the fit. I put the rod and the removed gate into the opening. It was too snug so I filed a bit more off the gate posts.

Now I cut four (4) donuts from the rod with the razor saw. Again, I don’t want to use side cutters as they deform the plastic a bit as they cut.

It’s almost impossible to see in the pic but I filed the Donuts into semi “D” shapes. The flat side give the glue more surface area to work with.

I carefully glued the flat side to the wall post. I use the rod to make sure that the hole in the tube section is truly parallel to the post. I then alternated gluing the rod to the gate, the post, and finally the gate again. I wanted the gate to ride on the hinges rather than sitting on the ground to I glued the gate rings above the wall rings. You have to be very careful when gluing this since gluing the Rod to the Tube sections would be “A Very Bad Thing”.

Just to prove it works. It binds a bit because of the shape of the hinges. A bit of filing takes care of that.

Finally, sorta. I use Green Stuff to blend the rod pieces to the gate…

I say “sorta” because, obviously it’s not painted but, more than that, I think I want to make the hinge pin (the rod) into more nail like items. I will cut two (2) pieces to size and then gently heat one end to round it and bulk it up so it won’t slip through the rod sections. It doesn’t change the mechanism of the gate so I’ll end it here. When I add this to my Warhammer Manor build, I’ll talk about basing an painting this.

• Building Cellar Dwellers’ Blacksmith shop – Part 1
• Building Cellar Dwellers’ Blacksmith shop – Part 2

First the excuses as to why this took so long to complete; Last year my father died and while I dealt with that, my mother ended up in hospital for 3 months. I was a little preoccupied and didn’t do much hobby stuff. Getting back on track now.

Lets start where Part 2 ended. Here is the painted building. It looks a little unfinished because the ground cover isn’t complete. I could have taken the quick way out and just painted the ground green but, like I’ve said before, “It just doesn’t look that realistic.”

The first step is to lay down some course ground cover. Now’s a good a time as any to make up a rule. “Uniformity is bad!” Yes, I know… sometimes it is but we’re talking about ground cover, not a putting green. This level of cover is coarsely ground foam. I apply it randomly with the higher density against the building. Because it’s course, I dot the surfaces with glue and press the foam in place with tweezers.

The next step uses flock. In this case it’s the coloured sawdust version. Very fine and Uniform (bad… remember?). I use a mix of white glue and magic wash (Magic wash is a mix of water and Future Acrylic Finish) to attach the flock. Dipping a paint brush in the glue mix (dedicated to gluing) I draw a messy trail and then sprinkle flock on it. Use an old spice shaker. You can see from the picture that I also flocked the roof. I figured that an old roof would pick up moss and other growths as it ages. As you can see, we have a nice uniform covering now.

Time for some colour. I’ve never tried this stuff before but I bought some Flowering Foliage from Woodland Scenics. This is a mat of coloured foam that you pull apart to make random bunches of “flowering” plants. In the picture, I’ve circled a couple of spots where I bulked up the course ground foam. The yellow and purple foliage is pulled apart and applied randomly not just on the ground but pulled up the building too. With this stuff, you put it down first and then spray scenic cement on it. This is a thin white glue that dries clear and has a matt finish. I hate making buildings look like they’ve been stuck down on top of something. I always try and blur the transition between ground and structure.

I could actually be done now and have a good looking piece of terrain but that would be too easy. When you’re done leave the piece and go back the next day. Look at it and decide what you don’t like. I decided that my “grass” was too short. I’ve never really been happy with static grass. Off to the hobby store… Woodland Scenics section… nada. Obviously not a complete selection but nothing that spoke to me. Off to another hobby store. I found some NOCH grass that was longer and had more colour variation. Going over the existing flock, I applied the new ground cover.

One final step and I’m done. No matter how good you are with dry brushing, it doesn’t work for everything. Especially since it works on the top surfaces. I used some brown weathering powder to go along the bottom edges of the building. This helps to blend the transition from building to ground as it brings the “dirt” up the walls. Wood will rot from ground contact so the staining helps show this.

I’m quite happy with result. I know that reading this series will give the impression that it’s far more complicated than it actually is. I certainly made it more complicated with the removable roof. Is the model done? For now I may super detail it later. Add some tools to the walls, maybe stick on a sign. A barrel of weapons? Who knows. Half the fun that I get from terrain building is doing the extra bits that help a model stand out.

The Finished Product

As always, paint it black. I used Krylon Fusion Black Satin. If you sit the can in warm water for 20 minutes and then shake it and use it, the spray will be nice and fine. I also then slop on watered down black paint to get every thing that the spray missed (not much).

Most of the painting is done using the Dry Brushing technique. I did a very heavy dry brush over the whole model. Very heavy and Very Sloppy. The ground was first dry brushed brown and then I did the building in a Blue/Gray that I mixed. It was a random mix of Cyan, Black, Neutral Gray, Unbleached Titanium. I don’t like using expensive Vallejo or even more expensive GW paint on terrain. I do on the detailing but not on the bulk of the model. I buy large craft bottles or big paint jars. You can get 120-200ml for the same price as the 12-17ml ones that you use on miniatures.

Since the coating was so heavy, I ruined the depth. The model looked very flat now, which was to be expected. I gave the whole model a wash of watered down black ink/magic wash. Magic wash is a mix of water and Future Acrylic Finish. Depending on what you’re doing, the mix varies but a 4 to 1 water to Future is a good start. The magic wash breaks the surface tension of the paint/ink and it flows into every nook and cranny. Not only that, the magic wash draws the pigment into the deep cuts and keeps it there.

I now recoat most of the ground with a lighter brown (~Cobra Leather). I do this at different levels of intensity and very unevenly. I know that lots of people paint their ground green, while this does save time, it isn’t that realistic. Go outside and look at your grass. At an angle, it’s a green carpet but looking straight down… various shades of brown/gray between the blades. Now’s as good a time as any to paint the plants growing up the building dark green. Since the creeping plants are the same material as the ground cover, the only real transition is the color.

Again, I’m pretty messy, I run onto the walls themselves. Basically edge the whole perimeter dark green and pull the color randomly over the ground and up the creases of the stump (the stump is based on my article: How to create a Tree Stump from a Pumpkin Stem). Don’t be too careful, You’ll make a mess of it in the next steps anyway.

I now dry brush the main building up through dark gray (but not as dark as the blue/gray) to light gray (about 4 shades). The thing to note here is that I’m keeping the green off the center pathway. This gets treated differently than the rest of the ground. It will be lighter and not get any of the ground cover.

It’s time to get careful. I go over all the vegetation and fix whatever I screwed up when I was dry brushing. The vegetation now gets a treatment of leafy green paint. This is followed by a lighter shade and a lighter touch on the dry brushing. Finally the tips are dusted with yellow.

The ground is given a dusting of gray, almost completely changing the color of the ground. The gray is also dry brushed over the stump. This is followed by a dry brush of Unbleached Titanium (Bleached Bone to you GW’ers). I also paint all the metal bits Tin Bitz (a GW color).

The edges of the model are very VERY faintly dry brushed with white paint. Metal parts are dry brushed boltgun metal (leave the Tin Bitz showing). In this pic, you can see the fine sand that I patched over the anvil. I did that on purpose, you’ll see why in the next step. The fire pit is finished a deeper gray to look more like stone. Any errors are fixed up.

The final step in the basic painting is to finish the anvil, fire pit and cooling trough (which I forgot to take a picture of). Number 1 in the pic shows the coals in the pit painted white, the edges on the anvil edged with chainmail and the sand on the anvil painted light brown. The white coals are given a treatment of yellow ink which I also coat the inside walls with. Using Blood Red, I dry brush the coal, inside walls and metals rods. Remember, fire is inside out to what you are used to. I’ve seen it a lot of times where the base of a flame is painted red up through orange and yellow and tipped with white. The hottest part of the flame is at the center/base and it’s white. Anyhoo, coal develops a black coating with the fire burning deep inside the pile, I dry brush flat black over the coals and inside/top edges of the pit. The yellow ink that’s still visible is glossy and so give the recesses a bit of a glow. I wish the pics had turned out better, it’s hard to see but it looks pretty good in real life.

That’s it for the main building, some extra stuff is done in the detailing but that’s Part 3. That just leaves us with…

The Roof

I’m going to whip through this part and let the pictures do most of the talking. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I hate doing roofs. No matter how good the building is… you’ll screw it up if the roof sucks. It’s a simple enough item and I probably do way more than I need.

1. Paint it Black, wash it with a Black Ink/Magic Wash mix.
   
   
2. Do a heavy dry brush with Dark Brown (a larger brush stops you from going loopy – I use cheap Dollar Store brushes for this).
   
   
3. Next a dry brush of lighter, richer brown.
   
   
4. Next, all the recesses are brushed with green. At this point the roof looks awful
   
5. Now a brushing of Raw Sienna (Cobra Leather – sorta).
   
6. We have the same problem as the early building… lack of depth. A wash of brown ink/magic wash gets us closer to where we want to be.
   
7. I know you’re thinking… “Is this ever going to end?” Heh, maybe. Well… Part 2 is anyway. Final dry brush of unbleached titanium, no white here. This isn’t suppose to be bright. It doesn’t translate well to the screen, but there is a lot of color variation going on here. The green that was soooooo ugly earlier is now just barely visible and mossy looking.
   

I hope you enjoyed this part, the next part deals mainly with ground cover but a few subtle touches are applied to the building. After the whole thing is online, I’ll review whether I should do more articles of this depth or simplify the steps a bit. I tend to take a few things for granted when I’m working on stuff so gloss over describing them. I don’t think I left anything out here (except the water trough which I forgot to photograph. I’ll touch on it in the next part).

I ordered it by mail even though I live near 3 GW Stores. At the price of $180CDN, it qualified for free shipping anyway. Why would I, a terrain God (*Cough*), buy such a massively expensive set? So I can do an article of course. I also throught it was a good deal. The set contains the Fortified Manor, The Church, The Tower and three sets of walls and fences (not 3 fences… 3 SETS of fences).

Obviously, the Fortified Manor is the Church and Tower connected by hallway with large, gated walls to make a courtyard.

My first impression upon receiving the box was: “Jeez! That’s a big box.” Opening it, I thought: “Jeez! That’s a lot of sprues.” I was afraid when I ordered it that it would be lightweight plastic with thin walls. I was pleased to see that I was wrong. These are nice thick sprues.

Where to start? The Church. It’s the simplest to construct. That would give me a feel for the fit of the pieces. As with most model buildings, making the corners square is tricky. I glued all four walls at once and the wrapped two rubber bands around the building at different heights and used small spring clamps to hold the corners. Working quickly before the glue set, I put a block of bass wood inside the building and trued up the angles. Minor adjustments to the clamps held the building until the glue set.

The clamps worked because the stone block designs of the model give them something to hold on to. The clamps themselves probably saw more usage while building this model than they ever have before. Especially on the roof.

Do yourself a favour though and get a precision plastic glue like the Humbrol one. The long brass tube really makes it easy to reapply extra glue to inside seams, etc.

My least favorite activity in the universe is cleaning off mold lines. Luckily, they aren’t bad but there are a LOT of them. I did notice that several places where the two mold halves meet, the flat surface is slightly convex so watch your fit. You will have to cut it flat. There is a problem with fit though, at least on my set.

I cut, filed and green stuff‘d the joins. Thank god (God?) for carving tools and probes. As you can see from the pic in the bottom right corner, not all the problems are just filling gaps. I had to shape green stuff recreate the ledging. When I got to the Fortified Manor, I was SICK of cutting, scraping, filing, filling, shaping, screaming, etc. I went and bought a Flex Shaft for my Dremel and used it. What a difference! If you don’t have shakey hands, and have the right bits, you’ll save a TON of time. It is dangerous though, one slip and you’ll do major damage to the building.

If you take your time and put in that little extra effort, you’ll have some great looking buildings. Truthfully, I don’t understand why anyone would spend this kind of coin and NOT fix the flaws. As you can see in the picture the join has completely disapeared and the ledge has been repaired.

The extra sprues in the box are the wall sprues. They have a nice mix of types but since there are 3 sets, you get a lot of repitition.

A set comes with two sign posts and two wall sections have trees. A little creativity will let you create enough variety so that you don’t have 3 of the same item on the table. I shaved off the city names on two of the signs, I’ll paint something in when I finish them. Also, since the trees are single part models, they are a little two dimensional. I used a left over sprue of some tree men and added a couple of branches to give the trees some depth.

Now that the buildings are basecoated, I now have to decide whether I leave them as standalone buildings or do I follow my normal habit of basing them. That’s another article though.

Summary:

• Value: Very Good – I’d say great but this set is a limited run so not available forever.
• Quality: Very Good – The above mentioned issues stop it from being excellent.
• Level: Advanced – This isn’t a set for the faint of heart. Green Stuff is an absolute must with this model.

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Cellar Dwellers makes resin kits for miniature wargaming. The Blacksmith’s Shop is a fairly easy kit to build as the main building is only 7 pieces. Making it true (square) is a little tricky. Best advice here is to make a couple of Lego forms to line up the angles.

I didn’t worry about pinning the walls together as I was planning to base it and use green stuff on the seams. Pinning is the act of drilling small, matched, holes and inserting a small length of wire in the holes to “pin” the sections together.

Using a small piece of scrap wood, I set the main building on it and moved the accessories around until I was happy with the layout. Remember to always have a mini handy to check spacing. The next big decision is the doors… Open? Closed? Ajar? Hang Curtains instead? Since I had always planned to make the roof removable (little did I know what I was getting into with that “simple” notion), I opted to make one slightly open. I super glued everything together and use construction grade wood glue to attach it all to the base.

The next step for me was to Green Stuff the joins. I’m not an expert sculptor by any stretch of the imagination but Green Stuff is fairly easy to work with. Just need the Blue and Yellow bits together until it turns a solid green. Green Stuff is very sticky so keep a bowl of water handy to keep your fingers and tools wet. I rolled a bunch of sausages and force it into the joins. I shaved off the excess and smoothed it with a wet finger. I then took a dental probe (pointy stick) and drew my own wood grain into the putty.

At this point, a little forethought goes a long way. What style of building do you want? Bright and Shiny (just built)? Burned out husk? I wanted a “been around for a long time” look. Off to the Basing Station. I glued down the Anvil, fire pit and cooling trough. I use a special mix of stones, sand, twigs, dead bugs (kidding) for most of my terrain. I used standard sandbox sand for the walking area.

While some people make a paste of sand and glue and spread it, I prefer to coat the surface in watered down white glue and pour sand on it. I do this in sections and knock off the excess sand. After it’s had a chance to dry, I mix a thin mix of white glue/water/dish soap (1 or 2 drops). Using an eye dropper, I drip the mix on the sanded parts. It soaks in and sets up like concrete.

Using a trail of straight white glue I created creeping vines all over the structure with my special mix

For me, the roof is the hardest part. As I mentioned above, I planned to make the roof removable. Why you ask? Ummm… ‘Cuz! Not many games call for mini’s inside a non-ruined structure. I could always store stuff in it I also feel that a poorly done roof ruins the whole structure no matter how good the rest is.

I had to decide HOW to make the roof removable. Since it’s not designed that way, I had to do some kit bashing. The roof comes in two pieces which are quite thick and it gets support from the main structure. First things first. I needed to check fit. Laying the two halves together I saw a gap in the fit so I cut and sanded it to fit. I also checked the fit on the Blacksmith Shop itself.

Warning! Resin dust is toxic so wear a mask.

Now the fun part begins: Making Roof Supports! I took one roof part and laid it on the Shop and used a pencil to mark the inside edges of the walls. I also marked it as “left” since that was the side I used for positioning. Putting the halves together again and taping them I cut channels in the bottom of the roof sections. Why Channels? The saw blade is about the same width as the sheet styrene so the supports slide in and won’t shift. It also gives more surface area to the glue and makes a stronger bond.

Taking some sheet styrene and placing it against the angled walls of the Shop I traced the roof lines and cut out triangular shapes. Each piece was marked as to where it fit (Front, Middle, Back). I slotted and glued the supports in place. This makes a perfect fit and as you can see from the picture, I used different sizes depending on the location. The tiny bit was for the front as there isn’t a wall, just a wood beam frame. The larger bits fit inside the walls so aren’t visible at all.

Time for more Green Stuff! There’s an excellent How-To on using green stuff on the GW Site. I basically ran green stuff sausages along the inside and outside of the roof line. Shaping it was fun. The roof is thatched so highly textured. I used a sculpting tool to cut the major shapes into the putty by stroking down the roof surface. I did this randomly and repeatedly at different angles and depths. Once the major shaping was done, I took a stiff brush and did the same thing (stroked the roof in a downward motion.), this helped duplicate the smaller textures of the thatch.

I don’t want to minimize the work involved in making the roof removable. It was a royal PAIN! Was it worth it? I think it was. It was fluff though, definately not needed to end up with a great looking model, especially if you don’t mount it to a base.

Thus ends Part One. Part Two will cover painting and Part Three will deal with finishing. Stay tuned!

Only detailing is left. Actually, I lie… I need to do the roof still. Since I based the structure, I have to figure out a way to strengthen the two halves of the roof so that I can lift it off. That will give me access to the inside for placing minis.

Once I finish the piece, I’ll upload all the pics to a gallery on Dungeon Crawlers and write up a how-to article on building and painting it.