If you aren't familiar with the modules, skip down to the building tips

I've been running my monthly 4e group through H1 KOTS and H2 Thunderspire Lab. I think H3 (Pyramid of Shadows) is an awful module, so I need to bridge the gap between H2 and P1 (Trollhaunt).

They finished off 90% of the Horned Hold last week (Murklemore escaped however, and will haunt them later...) They didn't descend into the crypt below the west tower, however, due to running out of time, so I'm going to expand the crypts for next session using the three big rooms in Undercrypt as locations. I may or may not do the hallways, we'll see.

Building Notes

Anyway, here's the build. Let me take a moment to praise the way this set was built. The floor templates, printed out on self-stick fullpage label stock, make positioning everything really solid.

The secret to mounting walls on foamcore is, IMO, pushpins. They let me position one corner of a wall section perfectly, and build from that. It works much better than the recommended "glue the extremities, wait, then glue middle". Once I have everything pinned in place, I hang the foamcore over the edge of the table and push the pins all the way down so that the pointy bit protrudes from the bottom of the foamcore (you'll quickly learn where not to have your fingers as you push them through ).

This lets the flat plastic bottom of the pin act like a clamp, forcing the tab down onto the foamcore for a good glue bond. You can see them in the pic in the two non-circular rooms.

I'm also a fan of rare earth magnets as clamps. The pics should be self-explanatory.

Oh yeah, it was faster to cut almost all of this out manually instead of taking the time to ROBO the whole thing. So far, I've ROBO'ed the props (especially the six pillars), and that's it. The walls cut out really fast by hand.

First off, thank you for starting a build log on your progress. We don't see nearly enough of these and I think they both inspire and motivate people to push through their own builds. Besides, they're great fun to read!

I like the idea of using push pins to lock things down while placing walls for gluing. Those little clamps aren't a bad idea either for setting corner tabs. You'll have a pretty rock solid build doing that all the way through.

On the Robo thing; Yeah, once we start including the GSD automated cut files within products it will be totally worth. Creating them yourself is only really worth it if you plan to do a ton of replications and or you need little fiddly props cut.

More walls attached, and I've finished fitting the floor to the circular room.

And, to finish off the morning, another couple of walls and all of those %!@#%!!$ pillars.

Excellent work, and thanks for the build blog, I'm learning a lot.

Thanks!

Just about finished with the walls on the rooms.

Finally, some more work on risers and props. Overexposed pic, sry.

What are the bobby pins doing on the pillars?

I tried doing something similar to hold glued surfaces but it never held it tight enough to make a real bond. The glue just dried in the air gap and models would just pull apart under their own stress.

They're clamping the two big 'triangle' pieces together to seal the pillar. I like mechanical clamping on all glue joints when possible. There's a thread somewhere about bobby pins that shows a bunch of uses.

Almost there...

I love football season, it's perfect for cardstock. Look up for 6 seconds every minute and work the rest of the time

I've got one section of floor left to install. I have nothing kind to say about how fiddly fitting the floor is in room #2 (the one with the three million little square niches). It looks great when it's done though, and I can already picture the undead spilling out of them... bwahahaha.

The rooms are almost done. All of the pillars are glued up -- I'm filling the bases with pennies so that they're stable, and I'm going to just tack them in place with putty. That way, I can re-use the room more easily by dropping a new non-pillared floor in.

Final pillar glue up.

Glad you like it!

I'm just about done here. I've glued down the dias, and the last couple of wall sections that hadn't been secured. I'm using the corridors as 2D elements -- a combination of laziness and the fact that it's nearly impossible for players at the end of my gaming table to see/move figs in a battle in a walled-off 10-foot hall (but mostly laziness).

I'll post action shots after the game on the 12th.

I'd say there's about 8-9 hours in this over 8 days. If I didn't spread my glue-up out across multiple days, it would probably be less, but I prefer to clamp everything possible and let it dry overnight.

This was one of the best-organized sets WW has done, and the directions are pretty good. I appreciate it even more as I tear my (non-existent) hair out figuring out Swampwoods print lists.

Great build. I love those little clamps, where did you buy them from ?

Frank

Lol. This is stickied. I spent 5 minutes searching the forum for wtf happened to my blog

So here they are in use. As I had hoped, three rooms proved to be perfect for our session length. TLX is cool and all, but I hope WWG never gets away from doing the occasional product with specialized rooms like this.

The players pretty much universally agreed that putting the walls up on the corridor sections would have been a pain in the ass in play.

mmmmm.... action shots

Thanks for posting the in-game shots; love seeing stuff being used and how other people use it.