Wednesday 10 June 2015

Cathedral Grounds - Progress Post

Part of the reason for my silence over the last couple of weeks has been trying to make headway in my Cathedral grounds terrain project, which has been on one of those common hiatus status' for years but is flagged for a venue in the "In Her Majesty's Name" campaign.

Obviously I need a Cathedral for a Cathedral grounds setting. I managed to pick up a Harry Potter Great Hall playset building a (good) while back. The playset itself is for 3.5" figures, but scaled to 28mm a large dominating building appears, so I've loosely put it together to show where I am at the moment.

The whole thing has been base coated black and given the standard 2 or 3 progressively lighter drybrush coats of grey. The roof tiles have then been given a couple of grey\blue drybrush sweeps.



The original toy had doors, but they seem to have become lost either by the seller or the purchaser (ie me) It won't make much difference for game play, as the building interior is very much for indoor action.

The roof and split wall side are removed when the action goes indoors. the floor footprint is roughly 10" x 15" from door to nave. The resin church furniture is all from Frontline Wargaming. The wood flooring & panelling has just been painted burnt umber and given a lighter drybrush (with a wash here and there).

The set is unfinished but in a playable state just now. On the back wall there are a couple of pegs that held a fireplace on the toy. I was going to place the fireplace but it looked wrong, so I need to remove or cover those. Also the section fastenings require a lot of force to remove - not ideal on a busy mid-game table, so they need some work. And there are always a few more tweaks to be done here and there (a stain glass window above the door for example).

Mostly done though, so I can start to cast my eye towards the graveyard...

12 comments:

  1. Wow! That is one big building! I'll have to recruiit a bigger company to fill it ;)

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    1. Yours is big enough already. I'll be looking to make sure a few don't leave the graveyard anyway, so there will be room for all! ;)

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  2. That is a seriously impressive bit of terrain!

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    1. It fairly dominates the table, so needed the furniture to make it playable.

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  3. Outstanding! That really captures the scale in a much more appropriate fashion than a lot of purpose-built buildings.

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    1. Although obviously the ground coverage isn't really Cathedral sized, the height and windows manage to do the job for a gaming table. It's definitely not just a large church.

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  4. Great idea, love the look of the big lancet windows and the light they let into the model, so much height :-)

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    1. I had played with the idea of printing on some acetate to make stained glass windows, but I too love the way the light comes in and don't want to darked the space.

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  5. Looks great. Very eye-catching.
    I'm sure you've thought about it (but dismissed it because it'd be a pain) but with all that height it would be cool to have a second 'half/quarter' level like a balcony or walkway...
    https://www.stpauls.co.uk/SM4/Mutable/Uploads/imported_media/The_Cathedral_Library.jpg

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    1. Correct on both accounts, Jimboba. Although my thougt was from the Chapel\Temple Of Slaanesh from playing the old WHFRP adventure "Death on the Reik". I could maybe make a removable one for the future as I love the feeling of height it currently has.

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  6. Wow, that is a seriously great use for an old toy... looks great with your figures. Could look even more like a cathedral with a few outbuildings. (Or the chapel of a large Abbey)

    Maybe take the hinges/latches off and magnetize?

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    1. Cheers, Lasgunpacker. I've bought a GW "Garden of Morr" to bulk out the graveyard with some tombs, etc, but a proper outbuilding would indeed be a nice addition. I'll have to see whats out there.

      I've now whittled down the fastenings (in some cases maybe a bit too enthusiastically) so they come away easily. If they have a threat to topple off during play I may well jig up some magnetic fastening solution.

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