Box Castle III

Time for the drawing. This was, of course, the most time-consuming part of the process.

First pass is the simple linework, made with an isograph and black ink. For bigger pieces, I opted to only do stonework towards the bottom of the structure (where the shadows would be), at the parapet edge, or where I wanted a specific architectural detail (i.e. an arch or a window or something) so that I wouldn't be scratching brickwork patterns until my death

Here's what the completed stonework looks like:

Second pass is with a white gel pen to pick out highlights. This adds a surprising amount of dimensionality to the 2-d surface.

Final pass is back with the isograph to add shading to any recessed area, as well as some random stray marks to represent cracks or edges:

While it was extremely time-intensive, I was really happy with the result. The layering of the many colors and textures of inks underneath the linework gives a lovely sense of dimensionality and an awesome comic-booky kind of vibe.

To give you an idea of the time involved, here is one of the wall sections that I took pictures of at 15-minute intervals as I worked on it.

Here's what I got done in the first 15:

After 30:

45:

60:

So yeah, LOTS of time. That was just one face of one wall section, and it took over an hour. Luckily it was also very meditative.

DOORS

Because I wanted the castle to be modular and highly rearrangeable, I decided to draw doors as small separate pieces that could just be blue-tacked into temporary positions on the structure (the blue-tack can be stored in one of the wall-section compartments.) I made a variety:

Also STAIRCASES:

Here's what one of the finished half-wall sections looks like with all surfaces illustrated:

What texture! What dimensionality!

I realize I may be the only person that thinks this is worthwhile when modelling techniques allow you 1) greater realism in 2) MUCH less time, but I stand by it. For one thing, modelling and painting this with a traditional terrain approach would have made it too fragile to pack into itself--a very frictive process with tight tolerances. For another, I for one am kind of over aiming for realism in my fantasy games. I think instead committing to style and attitude can be as impactful on the mood of a game as realism, just along a different axis.

Likewise, papercraft buildings would not have the same kind of sturdiness, and there are very few that are hand-drawn anymore. Most are some kind of digital texture that, when printed, looks far too regular and distracting and generic. It is kind of the opposite of style. (Though no shade intended to those who go for that kind of thing; there is no denying the practicality of that approach).

By contrast, when I plunk this down on the table, I can be pretty confident no one will have seen anything quite like it before.

 

Not to mention the looks on peoples faces when I start pulling what seem like endless little towers and walls and things out of the keep box is well worth the insane amount of work.

These are some pics of the whole castle set up before it's debut in the finale of the Chicago Skirmish Wargames KOW campaign.

 I hope you like it! I know these posts are pretty light on construction details--it's hard to really get into it when I'm essentially recapping the project long after I was actually working on it. But I'm happy to talk in more detail if there's interest. Just carefully nest your questions within each other and then slot them in to the comments box below.