Ravenloft - Castle of Strahd von Zarovich

[milojaggerson]

Still walling out the second basement of the castle, last night I worked on the balcony overlooking the torture chamber. Wanting a railing on the balcony, and desirous that it be substantially differentiated from the standard wall so that the players will infer not only that it is a railing, but also the tragically cruel character of their host, an interesting solution presented itself: Modge Podge produces silicon molds for hot glue. One of the silicon mold sets has a series of linked Fleur-de-lis. Made two pairs of the links, sandwiched 1/2 inch of toothpick tip between them, and... drum roll, please... instant balusters for the balcony.

[jazhi]

Amazing!

If you spray paint the corrugation black, then use a sponge to dab on highlights for some variation, I bet it will just look like roughly textured walls. If you do use masking tape, just make sure you use the old fashioned white kind, and not the low-adhesion blue. Seems obvious now, but I used blue on a test tile and it didn't stay stuck very well.

[milojaggerson]

Although the flash from my phone was a little too bright, here are the photos of the balcony overlooking Strahd's flooded torture chamber.  I am pleased with the way the railing turned out.  And there is a happy little orc for size.

Balcony - Mod Podge fleur di lis linked rail


Balcony - A happy little orc for scale. The orc is an Hero Quest miniature.


Balcony - Left side view



Balcony - Back view. The three doorways in the back lead to different stairwells. Lots of stairs in Castle Zarovich.


Balcony - Right side view. The hidden staircase from K72 is in the background. I had to adjust the height to accomodate miniature play, else there would not hove been enough tread to place the minis. It is a steeply angled stairway otherwise.

[milojaggerson]

I'll correct the "puddling" on the base of the balcony, but overall the effect is pretty cool. Should look pretty sharp when it is all painted up.

[Hamsterglue]

This is magnificent work and very inspiring. I'm eager to see this painted as well.

I'm curious if you have considered how you will be storing this work of art? (Thats the only thing holding me back from going too big- storage space)

[milojaggerson]

I have a blessedly indulgent wife who graciously donated a huge storage bin and a couple of plastic kitty litter pails. Truthfully the spiral stairs and the medium sized tube stairs are the largest pieces (thus far). I'm able to store the first two levels in the huge bin, and have well over 3/4 of the bin left. I'm curious what ten levels is going to be to store.

[milojaggerson]

More construction shots from I6 - Ravenloft.

Thank you to everyone for your support and encouragement during this build.  I really appreciate the suggestions and ideas.  Please keep them coming!


Happless the Orc leads the way to the 2nd Basement.



I'm thinking about using DM Scotty's technique of cake mold brick work to skin the stair wells. Need to order the molds on-line as the local W-Mart does not seem to carry any molds suitable for the task.


Happless the Orc insists, "Hurry up! Move, lazy dog! Master waits your arrival!"



2nd Basement - Just about from the same angle as the module's drawn perspective, from the east corner.


2nd Basement - As viewed from the south corner.


 2nd Basement - North corner view.



2nd Basement - Shot from the west corner.




2nd Basement - Maze of the crypt.

2nd Basement - Strahd's personal crypt, with the count skulking about. Is he awaiting the party's arrival? Anticipated, yes... But not idly waiting. The Baron makes things happen, he never merely waits to become the victim of someone else's actions.

2nd Basement - Strahd's personal crypt, with the Baron skulking about. Is he awaiting the party's arrival? Anticipated, yes... But not idly waiting. The Baron makes things happen, he never merely waits to become the victim of someone else's actions.



2nd Basement - Northeastern angle.



Isometric maps placed into true perspective, in 2.5D format.


2nd Basement - Pieces needing to have hot glue applied to the wall corrugation.



Obviously, this is not the arrangement of the tiles for proper play. I've set things up for the next day's work. I hope to spend time applying hot glue to the wall corrugations this evening (certainly before Thursday is over, at the very least).


2nd Basement - Pieces needing to have hot glue applied to the wall corrugation.



Nearly completed fabrication of the 2nd basement. I anticipate cutting the 4th level (Map 4 from I6) this weekend, but I need to do some special elevations for various tile sections of the 2nd basement first. I think what I have planned is really going to make the 2nd Basement presentation really pop.

As much as I'm itching to start painting, I want to be measured and disciplined.  Fabricate first, paint second.  And perhaps a bunch of steps in between. 

[chiefsgtbradley]

Fantastic crafting so far! Keep going and rock on!

[SpielMeisterKev!]

Howdy,

Where is the sign up sheet to play through this mega-build?

Kev!

[Meph]

Really awesome job. I6 is one of my favorites. My group has already been in Ravenloft once for Night of the Walking Dead. After they finish this mini dungeon in a couple weeks we are switching back to the other dms campaign for a while. I might have to take that downtime to tackle Castle Ravenloft. It just looks so damn cool laid out. Thanks for sharing.

[Admin]

Good Lord! What a fantastic build! And that's unpained! Where do you live, I'm coming round for a game.....

[milojaggerson]

Near St. Louis, Mo, on the east side of the mighty Mississippi.

[Admin]

Might take me a while, I'm in the North-East UK.

[michka]

I've loved every bit of this build. The newer section is coming along beautifully. Of course I couldn't help notice there's a TARDIS in the background too. This explains it all. You are a Time Lord, and you've been using advanced DM Scotty techniques that you gathered from the future.

[milojaggerson]

Thanks, Michka! The TARDIS is the family time machine. It allows us to visit any period of history, interact with fascinating folks from faraway places, and even go to parallel universes. It also doubles as our DVD and video game storage closet.

I managed to knock one piece out tonight with the hot glue on the walls. Thor's-day evening should prove more profitable. I'm really excited about this build, which is making me think about some other 2.5D projects centering around classic TSR 1st edition modules (I am old school. I started back when 1st edition wore the blue book diapers). I'm playing a little of 5th edition now (thanks to WoC for making the core rules .PDF available, gratis). My ambition needs some curbing, however: I6 - Ravenloft needs attention first; a few Pepakura projects to come after that; then selecting the next project. My bride tells me I have too many hobbies... But at least she knows where to find me.

[sgtslag]

You know that your players (and every blessed member of this forum!!!) is going to want to see the layers stacked up in a true, 3D representation of the castle, to really see it all as it was intended... I would suggest using 1/8" diameter wooden dowels to support the layers, as well as the stairwells. This model cries out to be assembled in 3D, with mini's climbing/crawling throughout the different levels, and stairs. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen -- and that is saying something, having been a member of this incredible forum for over a year! Can't... Wait... To see it in... Full... 3D!!! Cheers!

[DnDPaladin]

the only problem with the free books that WOTC shows for 5th edition is that they aren't complete at all... theres like 200 pages of stuff missing including classes, spells, items, feats. thats why i ended up buying the book instead. not to metnion the DMG has like only 50 pages with the other 50 being only monsters. something the original book do not have. its a wonder filled all the way up to 300 pages without any monsters.

as for the work done here...
i agree, full 3D would be awesome !
and you're going over the 3 layer of cardboard limit that DMG has set. even Scotty do not go over that limit.

[milojaggerson]

Sgtslag and DnDPaladin - there are some sections of the 2nd basement that I am planning to elevate (viz: the balcony room overlooking the sunken torture chamber, the crypts, and all of the areas in between). Mentally, I'm ready to start cutting the fourth floor, but I need to complete the fabrication of this level before I can move on.



I thought about presenting the entire castle in its 10 levels of fantasy horror glory, stacked one atop the other, but it would range about 6 and 1/2 feet tall to do it. I'm not saying it won't happen, but for it to be playable, the lowermost and uppermost levels need to be accessible. While I may have suitable room in the gaming area (It would be tight), I doubt the players will want to remain standing up to move their minis. Oh, but it would be just too cool.


In full disclosure, I noticed that I placed the tiles of the 2nd basement in a slightly incorrect layout:  The passage from the torture area to the crypts were placed too far south.  I was near the end of my day when I took the photos, and didn't notice the error.  I'll have to fix that.  

[milojaggerson]

By 6 and 1/2 feet tall (1.9812 meters for our metric friends), I'm referring about keeping everything to scale. But I've already made a design concession by not building the stairs to the same vertical scale for play-ability's sake. With that thought in mind, allowing for 6 inches per level... 10 levels... That would be 5 feet (1.524 meters). Not sure that's much better, considering that would present difficulties moving the minis in the center of the board. But it still would look cool!

[ivenbach]

That is a lot of work for a first attempt. Hoping to see this all come together and played. How much hot glue have you gone though so far?