Over the winter I was trying to acquire a new black ink cartridge for my HP3500 laserprinter - and oh the problems I had. The first and most important one regarding this project was that it printed gray instead of black. Experimenting I found the castle walls from CWU came out a rose color not unlike beautiful sandstone. Well, I just couldn't pass up the chance to put this worthless thing to actually good use and - since I got immersed with WWG products over 2 years ago to satisfy a longing to build a castle - I figured Fate had decreed that this was the time.

I envisioned something different: not a plain 'square' castle, but something with angled walls making a roundish Curtain Wall. I'm using Castleworks Ultimate for the main build, with ground texture from Mars Station (to help keep the sandstone motive theme), and accessories from various spots including VillageWorks.

As I am having trouble with posting pics here, I have them up on photobucket.com for viewing. Link to the page here:

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... t=4&page=1

Please make sure you are viewing with the "by Title" function, otherwise everying will be out of narative order.

I've made further progress, with more photos thereof, but haven't got them transferred to my computer, yet. More details to follow. But, after watching all the other builds over the last couple of years, I felt it was time to share some of my out-of-the-box experimentation.

Okaaaay... Checking the link showed my descriptions were cut off so I will duplicate them in full here.

TK1001 Basic Concept view #1

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=0

TK1002 Basic Concept view #2

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=1

TK1003 This shows the redness of the printing. It also demonstrates how I angled the walls - a 1/2 cut-in on both ends on the interior wall side. The photos illustrate the original wall configuration (bottom) and my modifications (top).

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=2

TK1004 Completed Curtain Wall sections sans crenelations. The Gatehouse remained unmodified (I did not want to deal with the work on such a complicated piece), so another standard straight section was placed opposite. Four other standard straight sections were added to increase the overall 'circle' size. From the front, clockwise, it's Gatehouse, Angle, Angle, Straight, A, S, A, A, S (rear wall), A, A, S, A, S, A, A for 16 pieces total. I could thrown in another pair or two of straights, but I didn't want to make the build TOO big. This yields 33" across and almost 36" front to back (outside measurements).

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=3

TK1005 First Floor of Keep - nonstandard sizing - using the original 7 1/4" lengths from the CWU Towers as the Keep walls, except for cutting down one to 6" and two to 5" to conform with the back of the Curtain Wall. The red tabs were meant to hold up the foamcore 2nd floor, but later had to be cut flush with the wall top due to engineering problems. (Those dratted technical difficulties! But then, this was an experimental build...)

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=4

TK1006 Complex Crenellations (3D) in place along the Curtain Wall; Keep 1st Floor in place along with a couple courtyard structures.

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=5

TK1007 Another view of some of the Courtyard structures. I put two of the Curved Curtain Arches back-to-back to form an open-air stable.

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=6

TK1008 Inside view of Gatehouse - not yet complete, still needs windlasses and chains emplaced.

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=7

TK1009 This shows the modularity with the Gatehouse being removable so it can be replaced by some other style of gate or passage (or none at all) in future projects.

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=8

TK1010 Exterior of the 3 story Keep. Yes, I cut out the arrow slit windows!

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... sort=4&o=9

TK1011 Front View of the Gatehouse. Eventually I will replace the solid cardstock portcullis with transparency. I already have chain to connect the windlasses with the portcullis and drawbridge. Per Auld Grump's suggestion from a long time ago, I put ring binder hole supporters on the inside of the chain holes (actually 3 thick).

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... ort=4&o=10

Man I had forgotten how much I love Castleworks Ultimate. I really need to finish cutting out and assemble my build one of these days.

Thanks so much for sharing, it looks great!

Thanks for sharing. The color scheme is unique and I like it. I love my CWU and wish I had twice the pieces or more than what I do (and would if I had cut files for it).

I love the color! CLW was my first set, I think. And it was definitely my first cardstock model.

Nice! Very well put together keep. Like the fact that the keep is not just a square/rectangular shape!

Yeah, great build. I always loved CWU.

The sad part is that when this defective cartridge runs its course - that's it no - more sandstone! I've got more than enough to finish this project and maybe a couple more builds for the same are, but after that - who knows?

Wait till you see what I have in store for the pinnacle of the minaret tower! [No spoilers!]

Thanks for the comments - glad you enjoyed it. It's darn impressive as it is sitting on my glass coffee table.

Okay, well I thought I had more pics in the cam, but don't so maybe will try to get more taken this weekend? My stepson gets in town Friday night for his high school reunion (does that date me? - lol), so that's a firm "maybe". (Not even going to try and invoke "soon"!)

Yesterday I did sit down with GIMP and generated my double-sided interior walls for the Keep using the CWU Complex Tower Walls (3rd Story - no windows).

However... ran into the problem that the GIMP must be running on the 300dpi level whereas the CWU is 200 (?). The final product prints out at only ~4.5 x 2.5 instead of the original 7.25 x 4. Can anyone guide me as to how to correct the settings? Two possibilities might be stretching the pic in the file to get the correct sizing, or just increasing the printer output scale - but I would rather have the graphicpic correct to start with and be done with it.

The CWU stuff should all be 300dpi, I believe. Which file/page are you working with, specifically?

Ah - my bad, mproteau. Thinking I had to make some adjustment because I
thought CWU was the old dpi style, I tinkered with the settings - and therein lay the problem. So now I can go back and duplicate my first effort. [Not the first time a "do-over" was necessary for anyone, eh?] Thanks for the help.
The upside is now I'm confident in exporting the graphicpics as pdf.

Love the red sandstone. My Dwarven Halls came out that wan and was stunned when I saw how others had turned out.

Still, the "Red Keep" looks good. Think even Geoffrey would approve.

No real construction work done, but I have finalized the kitbashing of the standard 6" complex crenelations to the 3 sizes I need: 3-5/8 (top of minaret tower), 5" (2 of the back Keep walls against the Curtain Wall), and 7-1/4 inch (the large 5 Keep walls). I had to try twice exporting the files from GIMP to PDF - but I finally got it right (yea!). They are now printed and I hope to have them assembled and emplaced by the end of the week... So now I know what I'll be doing on break at work the next couple days.

After that I've got the bent stairs for inside the 3 storeys of the tower - taking the standard exterior stairs and creating a bend in them to fit against 2 adjacent walls.

Off to bed. Ta Ta!

**EDIT**
The minaret tower which rises above the Keep is a simple 3-storey hexagonal structure 3-5/8-inch each side... far more 'regular' than the rest of the Keep.

Just an update note (sorry, no pics to post at this time)...

- Gatehouse now finished with chains installed. (Thanks for the inspiration Auld Grump. Yeah, I do read those old posts! Repeatedly, which is why I get less building done over time than I would like.)

- Working on the minaret tower (now 4 storeys so it's really going to dominate the scene atop the 3-storey Keep itself - though not sure what to put in *all* of them now). Walls constructed. Working on the floors GIMPing them based on 7" squares as the hexagonal floors will be 3.5 inches on a side to easily slide inside the walls which are 3-5/8" long. Dithering as to whether to use a standard floor door on the roof or to construct an angled rooftop covered entryway with standard door.

- The basic double interior walls have been GIMPed, but not printed. Also working on some 1", 2" & 3" varations to work not only here but on future projects (when I'm back to building standard color print castle stuff).

- Angled stairs still have to be designed based on the standard external stairs. Why not use the Interior Stairs? They are shorter (for use in the shorter height house rather than the 4" Tower) and I like the look of them better.

- Also considering a 2" wide Grand Staircase. I'll end up designing it anyway - just not sure whether I'll use it on this incarnation of the Keep.

Headed out tomorrow morning for the Bristol Renaissance Faire this weekend (Wisconsin), so *maybe* might get some shots made and posted Sunday night - but no guarantees.

Back from Bristol and have a bit of time to post a couple shots. Had these in the cam so posted them because I haven't gotten to final construction of the minaret.

The first is a view of the Gatehouse with chains attached. Thanks for advancing the concept, Auld Grump! (Yes, I reinforced the inside of the chain-holes with binder hole reinforcements - about 3 thick stacked atop each other.) From Joann Fabrics I used Blue Moon Beads' BM20648 100" MTL A Copper. I chose it because it looked like a reasonable facsimile of rusted big chain. Somehow it actually looks better in the pics than in person. The scale looks right here.

Notice I mounted the portcullis windlass sideways to facilitate placing a figure to either side, to operate the windlass or look/fire through the arrow slits. Somehow the base got a bit warped. After this shot I put a duplicate atop it to help strengthen/straighten it. May have to place a whole new underbase with weights during gluing.

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... ort=4&o=11

Next is a view of the business end of the Gatehouse showing the chains on the drawbridge:

http://s109.photobucket.com/user/greypi ... 9.jpg.html

You can see a bit of smoosh on the side of the upper part - slight mistep there. I tried to straighten it out, but I'll make another when finished with the rest of build.

On to the minaret!

Nice. The chain looks good.

This makes me want a CWU - TLX set so badly. I just can't justify taking the space of these bulkier sets any more. I have three bookshelves full of WWG terrain now. It is much easier to justify a shoebox sized container of new terrain.

That being said, you make me want to take out all my CWU and build a permanent structure to keep my terrain in. If I put a moat in, I might even be able to protect it from the wife and kids...

... need some fins in those waters, just cruising...

LOL, that makes me think of this that I saw at Walmart today:

Yes, just need it smaller - unless the miniatures are going to be fighting a super-sized megalodon!

Quick update: Glued the prototype for the 60-degree stairs for the interior of the minaret and found a couple of adjustments I need to make. First, the corner at the third step up ended up being truncated instead of coming to a point - so that will be adjusted. Second, the bottom step does fit right into the corner (as planned), but the interior angle wall with the railing is too close so that will have to be adjusted back.

While I am at it, I will also make a standard 90-degree version (both directions). I'll post those as well and see if any of you like them.

End transmission.

Life has kept me away from my Build Board for quite a while now, but I can finally report on some progress. I've finished bashing some double-sided interior walls. I get some printed out tonight if my printer doesn't act up.

Because I wanted total "changeability" for the interiors, I decided on using the "Clip-it" approach for the walls, and using flat 'counters' to represent the downward stairs rather than actually cutting a permanent hole in the floors.

The four levels of the minaret tower are almost ready to have their walls and floors mated, but first I still have some tweaking to do for the tower interior stairs - which bend 60-degrees in the middle to conform with the tower walls (which are only about 3 1/2-inch long compared to the 6-inch long stairs).

I hope to have something ready to show next weekend.

UPDATE -
My Pathfinder group where I play an Elf Oracle just cleared an old keep high up in the mountains of a nasty ice elemental. For helping save the local townsfolk, the higher authorities granted us the deed to it. It seemed exceedingly similar to Thann-Kor so the next session I drug the thing to our FLGS where we play. Everyone oohed and aahed and it was immediately accepted as the phys rep for our keep. The planned modularity for the build was very handy as our GM had planned the keep with two 4-story towers flanking the main keep building instead of a single tower atop it. So now I need to build a second 4-story tower. Fortunately I have plenty of spare parts from the design process on hand.

I hadn't gotten back to making a first version of the interior walls for myself, but now I have to make a set for our group's keep per the GM's vision.

Yes, photos are overdue - but I will catch up, hopefully by next weekend (or so).

Some long overdue pics...

Proof of total heighth of original build = 35 inches:


The 4-storey tower with sacrificial ritual platform:


Two aerial views of Keep (sans courtyard goodies):




The long awaited INTERIOR of one of the Tower floors with bent staircase:
...and...



I made the bottom step cutback and angled so it would both fit into the corner and a figure could still stand on it. Candelabra from Cathedrea Noctis. Bookcases are not permanently glued down. (Modularity) I'm going to have to resize the illusionary 2-D stairs going down to a full 1.5 inch width to match the staircases. This was the larger of the two provided. Don't know why a 1.5 wasn't included in the set in the first place. I did not cut the floor for downward stairs, again for modularity.

Interior Keep Walls - experimental. I tried going with a Clip-it type system, but with all the small 1-inch, 2-inch and 3-inch walls the paper clip situation was getting out of hand. And, unless I put clips on the bottom of some of the "joints", they tended to slip out of position. Also, the walls wouldn't stay on the floor lines where I wanted them - they tended to wander a bit due to wall corner forces and just nudging them with my fat figures. So, my alternative will be to make insert sections with the walls permanently glued to a floor tile (likely 4 for the Keep). A single floor insert would not work because it would hang up on the red floor supports near the top of the walls. Four sections should be able to be slid in past each other.

...and ...



I know - you'll think 'edging' - but this was only for experimental mockup. I still have to adjust the interior wall heighth so it comes even with the floor supports near the top of the wall, otherwise it will push up the foamcore floor of the upper story.

EDIT: OMG the IMG function actually worked! Chagrined, I have to report that the cold temperatures and jostling in my trunk took their toll on the Keep with lots of walls and ground tiles coming loose that should not have. So I have a big re-gluing task for repairs. But it is perfectly salvageable - not to worry, nothing lost. Just have to spend more TLC time to "do over" stuff.