Ravenloft - Castle of Strahd von Zarovich
Jan 29, 2015 18:28:05 GMT
Admin, DMScotty, and 29 more like this
Post by milojaggerson on Jan 29, 2015 18:28:05 GMT
Greetings! I'm new to the the crafting scene, but I'm having a ton of fun building the castle from TSR's I6 - Ravenloft. Figured if I'm going to do the craft, then I should do it in a big way. The castle itself is on 10 levels, and many of the levels are quite large. I also plan to do the grounds around the castle, and the battlements. Eating this elephant is going to take a while, but it'll get done a bite at a time.
I'm thinking of ways to hide the cardboard's corrugation, and am considering Bondo. Has anyone experience with automotive body putty on these types of projects and can attest to its ability to deliver the desired result?
Main floor - 1/4
Main floor of Strahd's castle. Will paint after constructing all ten levels.
I need to build a pipe organ for the 8"x8" room (the room is divided into 2" squares; marked K10), but ten floors need to be cut out and put into 2.5D first.
K19 (Not labeled on the tile) sits at the head of the Grand Staircase which bends a quarter of a circle. I can only imagine what will race through the players minds when confronted with the choices facing them in the great octagon room as the thunderous reverberations of pipe organ music fills the castle.
Main floor - 2/4
Alternate angle of the main floor.
Many thanks to DM Scotty and the DMG. They both have very instructive videos for this type of project.
I'm thinking of doing a "kinda-gridded" painting, so measuring distances is accommodated, but the grid itself should not be immediately obvious. I may make a stamp to answer that call, rather than hand painting the brick pattern.
Main floor - 3/4
A third vantage point of the main floor of Strahd's castle.
I was still working out the right spacing for stairways at this point. Won't claim to have it all locked down yet, but I'm trying to leave about an inch (2.54 cm) platform for each stair tread. Each of the small circular stairwells on this level were cut with 1" tread on the outside edge, but I'm now cutting the stairs 45 degrees. On the medium tower stair, treads are cut at 22.5 degrees. The large twisty spiral staircase was cut on an 8" OD, 6"ID and assembled with 1" treads on the outside measurement; each tread is on a three inch arc having two inches of space covered by the step above it. So, it took three 8" circles to build the twisty, spiral staircase. I have to build this a few more times to get to the top...
The cylinder in K18's medium tower stair runs through 300 feet of the castle, through all ten levels, from its top turret all the way down to the second basement. Mind your step!
Main floor - 4/4
The twisty spiral staircase ought to make for interesting combat. From the top of this staircase, a fall would be over 200 feet. In scale, the entire castle, from the lowest crypt to the top-most tower, would be over 6 and 1/2 feet tall. Good thing I'm doing this in 2.5D!
1st Basement - 1/4
A co-worker gifted the miniature of Strahd von Zarovich. I see that the internets also spells the name as Zarkovich.
K61 (Looks kind of like a pistol - small circular stairwell with a corridor and small room attached) is to be an ingenious elevator trap. Reading the description from the module makes me wonder how is it supposed to work. It is a mechanical trap, but the walls that enclose the occupants must come from some magical location, because a stone box that encloses 1000 cubic feet of space kinda seems hard to place and make run as it should.
I did like the module's description of the giant screw, gears, and cogs. I think the elevator runs on a worm gear system. Though the room off of the corridor is for that mechanism, I think I will leave it to the players' imaginations. However, a small dowel rod or card stock tube and some paint could provide an approximation for the shaft of the screw.
Organic steam punk?
1st Basement - 2/4
All the tiles will need to be spray painted black first, before being hand painted. I think texture spray paint, to make things look like stone work, may be employed at some point, also.
The room labled K63 will need to have a portcullis made for it. All specialty doors and/or features will have to be fabricated.
1st Basement - 3/4
I did not include the landing and stairwell down to the 2nd Basement level with room K72. It resides behind a secret door, anyway. I've crafted the landing and stairs with the 2nd basement, which is a huge level that includes the Zarovich family crypts.
1st Basement - 4/4
I think the 1st basement may be one of the smaller levels of Castle Zarovich. There are a lot of doors in this place. I'm debating whether to use the doors from HeroQuest, or build custom doors. I have decided to use 1/2 cm walls throughout the rest of construction. 1 cm walls, which are in place in the main and 1st basement floor tiles, are too thick and really narrow the corridors. The narrower walls just look better - I'll post 2nd basement photos later.
One of the distressing side effects of the hot glue is the over-run from the walls to the floor. Any suggestions on how to limit the glue so that it doesn't create such a mess? Or any tips for cleaning up the mess once it's cooled? The best I've come up with is heating it and smoothing it down with the metal tip of my small glue gun. That only gets in about 1/2", though. Thinking I need a small flat iron for the job. I wonder if something like that exists?
I'm thinking of ways to hide the cardboard's corrugation, and am considering Bondo. Has anyone experience with automotive body putty on these types of projects and can attest to its ability to deliver the desired result?
Main floor - 1/4
Main floor of Strahd's castle. Will paint after constructing all ten levels.
I need to build a pipe organ for the 8"x8" room (the room is divided into 2" squares; marked K10), but ten floors need to be cut out and put into 2.5D first.
K19 (Not labeled on the tile) sits at the head of the Grand Staircase which bends a quarter of a circle. I can only imagine what will race through the players minds when confronted with the choices facing them in the great octagon room as the thunderous reverberations of pipe organ music fills the castle.
Main floor - 2/4
Alternate angle of the main floor.
Many thanks to DM Scotty and the DMG. They both have very instructive videos for this type of project.
I'm thinking of doing a "kinda-gridded" painting, so measuring distances is accommodated, but the grid itself should not be immediately obvious. I may make a stamp to answer that call, rather than hand painting the brick pattern.
Main floor - 3/4
A third vantage point of the main floor of Strahd's castle.
I was still working out the right spacing for stairways at this point. Won't claim to have it all locked down yet, but I'm trying to leave about an inch (2.54 cm) platform for each stair tread. Each of the small circular stairwells on this level were cut with 1" tread on the outside edge, but I'm now cutting the stairs 45 degrees. On the medium tower stair, treads are cut at 22.5 degrees. The large twisty spiral staircase was cut on an 8" OD, 6"ID and assembled with 1" treads on the outside measurement; each tread is on a three inch arc having two inches of space covered by the step above it. So, it took three 8" circles to build the twisty, spiral staircase. I have to build this a few more times to get to the top...
The cylinder in K18's medium tower stair runs through 300 feet of the castle, through all ten levels, from its top turret all the way down to the second basement. Mind your step!
Main floor - 4/4
The twisty spiral staircase ought to make for interesting combat. From the top of this staircase, a fall would be over 200 feet. In scale, the entire castle, from the lowest crypt to the top-most tower, would be over 6 and 1/2 feet tall. Good thing I'm doing this in 2.5D!
1st Basement - 1/4
A co-worker gifted the miniature of Strahd von Zarovich. I see that the internets also spells the name as Zarkovich.
K61 (Looks kind of like a pistol - small circular stairwell with a corridor and small room attached) is to be an ingenious elevator trap. Reading the description from the module makes me wonder how is it supposed to work. It is a mechanical trap, but the walls that enclose the occupants must come from some magical location, because a stone box that encloses 1000 cubic feet of space kinda seems hard to place and make run as it should.
I did like the module's description of the giant screw, gears, and cogs. I think the elevator runs on a worm gear system. Though the room off of the corridor is for that mechanism, I think I will leave it to the players' imaginations. However, a small dowel rod or card stock tube and some paint could provide an approximation for the shaft of the screw.
Organic steam punk?
1st Basement - 2/4
All the tiles will need to be spray painted black first, before being hand painted. I think texture spray paint, to make things look like stone work, may be employed at some point, also.
The room labled K63 will need to have a portcullis made for it. All specialty doors and/or features will have to be fabricated.
1st Basement - 3/4
I did not include the landing and stairwell down to the 2nd Basement level with room K72. It resides behind a secret door, anyway. I've crafted the landing and stairs with the 2nd basement, which is a huge level that includes the Zarovich family crypts.
1st Basement - 4/4
I think the 1st basement may be one of the smaller levels of Castle Zarovich. There are a lot of doors in this place. I'm debating whether to use the doors from HeroQuest, or build custom doors. I have decided to use 1/2 cm walls throughout the rest of construction. 1 cm walls, which are in place in the main and 1st basement floor tiles, are too thick and really narrow the corridors. The narrower walls just look better - I'll post 2nd basement photos later.
One of the distressing side effects of the hot glue is the over-run from the walls to the floor. Any suggestions on how to limit the glue so that it doesn't create such a mess? Or any tips for cleaning up the mess once it's cooled? The best I've come up with is heating it and smoothing it down with the metal tip of my small glue gun. That only gets in about 1/2", though. Thinking I need a small flat iron for the job. I wonder if something like that exists?
But as a wise little man has said: Do it or do it not! There is no try! 
Cheers!
Cheers!