http://wwgallery.pcinfoman.com/thumbnails.php?album=365

After chopping through another pile of walled-up frozen slush and ice at the end of my driveway yet one more time, you would think the business end of my cast iron coal shovel would be the last place I’d find inspiration.

But needing to escape the cold February weather and a mounting case of cabin fever and no vacation on the horizon, I was pretty much stuck with my imagination.

Gee, what’s a guy with only a bottle of Elmer’s and some matboard to do?

I stared at my shovel and pondered. Maybe it was the sub-zero temperature. Maybe my ear-muffs were too tight. Maybe it was both, but soon my shovel had turned into a machete and I was no longer in Indiana shoveling frozen slush off my driveway freezing my ‘nads off. Suddenly, I was slashing my way through the thick lush tropical foliage and underbrush of Skull Cove Island.

I've returned once again to push my way further into the interior; driven to discover even more treasure in this dark mysterious place. As I moved forward my arms ache, only not from lifting two hundred pounds of frozen crud for two hours but rather from hacking away at the thick overgrown vines and ferns that strangle my every step and slowed my pace through the darkened forest to a tortuous crawl. And that isn’t freezing snot I wiped from my nose and moustache but sweat, dripping from my pours in the sweltering heat and humidity. My breathing is labored and not sure how much further I can go. I’m glad I left my beautiful assistant wife at the base camp. I know she couldn’t hack this. I only hope if they find my body she gets my diaries published.

Finally, almost miraculously, I slash through one more wall of unforgiving foliage and there it is… in a clearing, rising out of the mist…it just appears. I stumble out of the overgrowth and nearly fall to my knees.

It’s been weeks now, and no sign of any natives, but there’s an old large jungle cat on his last leg that’s been prowling around the site. He's too old to hunt. I’ve been sharing my rations with him and we’ve become friends of sorts. I’m sending pictures back.. I’m hoping to excavate more but progress is slow… more pictures will come as long as my will and the Elmer’s holds out.

p.s… the “old jungle cat” mentioned in my ramblings above is actually the newest addition to our household…a ten-year old starving stray cat who wondered into our garage and lives a month ago. As you can see, he’s trying to make himself useful..he loves to sit under my art lamp. We suspect he’s either working on a tan or in one of his former lives he was a basket of fries.

http://wwgallery.pcinfoman.com/albums/u ... ones-5.gif

looks like something went awry with the image tag, looking forward to seeing the pics.

It worked for me. BRILLIANT work as always, Mr. Voiles. Very cool...I mean HOT! So very HOT!

Try this instead: http://wwgallery.pcinfoman.com/thumbnai ... pby&uid=60

Brilliant work as always, Curt!

Very nice work. Something good coming from the cold weather

Arabin

For the record, when I posted that, there was no link, just an 'end image tag', like [\img].

Brilliant pics, very nice, I'd love to see a break-down on how you pulled it together.

Simply amazing, clean, fun build (and ditto all the rest). Your gaming group is about as fortunate as they get!

Thanks for all the comments; of course my wife wrote the jungle story (in her how a man thinks view, the snot part of the story was all her. Yes she's all mine, Married 27 years). I will be adding more pictures next week. I'm trying to get one of my friends to shoot some quality photos on the details of my build. (In focus pictures)

I started by kit bashing temple walls to create a Mayan pyramid. The symbols on the walls caught my attention and gave me the idea to use five of the designs to create five separate sections for a Mayan lost city. The five powers being: air, water, fire, war, and the fifth is the controlling power over the others. This could change as I go forward with the build. I have kit bashed floor tiles and the Stonehenge structures with these symbols on them to use in the individual temple sections. I guess I just enjoy working on mega structures. I'm just not right in the head.

I plan to have six foam core sections that will be placed together in two rows of three boards. I just completed the entrance/alter board, which will be the center section in the first row. Right and left of that will be fire and water's smaller temples. The second row center will be the large pyramid structure for the controlling power. Right and left of it will be air and war temples. It's a plan. Hopefully these will be able to be used together or individually for gaming.

I started on the next section last night. I must say I already have a problem, the square ground tiles don't exactly line up with the entrance section. I knew that would happen because this first build was to be a stand alone piece. I challenged myself by gluing a sixteen inch, five inch high square mountain section on the board to give me my starting point (using printouts from the mountain fortress build/which could be used with this build.) I guess I'm just ready for a bigger challenge; my Himmelveil structures were too easy of a build. Give me a mega structre challenge to keep my brain cells busy. Again am I nuts.

Back to the builds, updates to come.

PS. I had planed on using my fancy title photo as a cover photo at the start of my blog, but couldn't get it to work. That's OK, didn't need to do it anyway. Aubrey I tried using your notes from Muncey's blog. Failed. I'm lucky if I get my photos in the gallery.

Yes, very nice looking build there. Also the story was great! Your wife has quite the imagination!

Looking forward to more of your frozen, err jungle temple!

Skunk

You wanna be alright you gotta walk tall
Long Beach Dub Allstars & Black Eyed Peas





Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

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Really beautiful work, Curt!
W W!

That temple is amazing! Makes me think I've been slacking in my kitbashing...

I was looking for temples and found a tomb. You never know what you may find when exploring uncharted lands.

These next set of photos in my gallery are of the completed center section. It was to be in two parts, but the pyramid/tomb became so massive that if you walked through the entrance you would have ran right into the tomb structure. Not so cool. I created a new middle piece to make more space between them. I also needed this new piece to be a crossroad to the other two sections on either side of this center section.
The temple/tomb was a challenge when it became clear I was going to have very little flat walking space on the different levels of the structure. My answer for creating more space was building four tall columns to match the second level of the structure and place a platform/block like a bridge giving me the added space.
This build isn’t very large based figure friendly. I am going for a maze feel, not a fortress. Hope you enjoy.

Just checked out your stuff and it is great.

I am from Indiana but now reside in Florida.

Wow....

Ok, I am now offically in awe of you. Not only is the story a good read, but the latest pictures of your temple have pushed that build into my favorate build of all time.

I only hope that someday years down the line, I can create builds half as impressive as this one is.

ScrubKai,
I don't think it will be years before you'll be able to create something like this. I'm sure with your talent and the help of the WWG forum you'll be creating inspiring work of your own sooner than you think. The latest section was create with very few pieces. Everything repeated four times. Figuring out the sunken floor was my toughest problem on this build.
Five sections too go.

I looked back through all your images. Incredible, very very cool work.

Ditto what Sly said and I love the story!!!! Keep going ... I am looking forward to the next set of pictures and more of the story too.