Argenvostholt - Curse of Strahd

[milojaggerson]

Finished the build a few months ago.  Forgot to post it.  

Let's have a look, shall we?



From Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons 5e adventure Curse of Strahd - Chatper 7 Argenvostholt.

Artwork is by Mike Schley 
Cutting, carving, and composition by me.



Printed on Georgia-Pacific White Cardstock Paper, 8.5" x 11", 110 lb using a Ricoh Color Laser Printer.



All the walls, supports, and rubble were hand cut and glued to foam core board.



Base board is a plastic coated foam core board salvaged from the dumpster at work. The layers are from paper-backed foam core available at the local Walmart for about 88 cents per sheet.



Paper-backed foam board is glued down to the plastic-backed foam board to provide strength and rigidity. Paper-backed foam board bends and bows quite a bit without the plastic-backed board. Each level of the castle, including the first, sits on plastic-backed foam board. Gives the pieces extra weight as well, so the castle is resistant to accidental table bumpage.


















































Spaces in between the levels result from using blocks to raise each level up from the last. In game terms, to scale, the castle would be a little taller than this.



I enjoyed building this, and running it. I've only had one party explore the castle, and at that just the first floor. They had their first encounter with Strahd here (after fighting a bunch of giant spiders and three revenants). It did not end well for the party... They all awoke the next morning at the Blue Water Inn, with the party's only human PC finding bite marks on his neck.

Including card stock (~40 sheets), the build cost around $60 in total material, and a month's worth of evenings and weekends.

[talonzorch]

This looks awesome ... What material did you use for the base of the castle floors? Is it foamcoare?

And the base map where everything stands on - how did you made this?

[milojaggerson]

Thank you, Talonzorch.

The field upon which the castle rests is a plastic-backed (both side) foam board. I cut the castle out from the card stock, and glued the yard down to the plastic-backed foam board, Used a hot knife to cut the plastic-backed board.

Each floor of the castle is comprised of a layer of plastic-backed foam board, then a layer of paper-backed foam board is glued down on top of it. Of course, using the cardstock color laser print out as a template, I traced the pattern on each of those layers, and cut each layer by hand with my trusty X-Acto knife. Essentially, every level was cut three times (once for the cardstock, once for the plastic-backed foam board, and once for the paper-backed foam board).

If I would have glued the X-Acto cut card stock to the uncut foam boards first, I most likely could have used a machine scroll saw to save some time, but I don't think the result would have been quite as defined.

The roof level has a hole exposing the level below.  There hole exposes the plastic-backed foam board, upon which I glued the cardstock for the floor below.  Another piece of paper-backed foam board was placed down on top of the intermediary piece of paper-backed foam board to create the roof (note the 40th picture).  I'm pleased with the overall effect. 

[margaret]

Wow! just WOW! And another Exalt of course =)

[skunkape]

This and the werewolves den are very nice!

[SpielMeisterKev!]

Howdy,

W... T... F??? WOW!

That is some EXALT BUTTON!!! sh!t, right there...

Kev!

[luckyjoe]

This is just phenomenal. I've never seen anyone do a build like this before. So many great elements to emulate and I love the layered build. Still wide open and playable, and though someone else already said it, just wow!

[voodoo]

Holy crappola! this is some next level, top shelf crafting for sure! exalt for you.