Knight's Tomb - A 28mm Terrain Article

Written by Tony Harwood Wednesday, 18 July 2012 06:00

Architecture of Valon

Modelling Materclass: A 28mm Scale Building

"Knight's Tomb"

Following on from the earlier Modelling Masterclass, I was thinking about how I could model some more graveyard structures and came across some coarse, semi-flat 30mm/35mm metal castings that were given to me some years ago.  The souvenir or Toy Figurines figures come from Prague and are of a mounted knight on horseback and to duelling knights on foot.  I decided to build a simple box tomb and place the two fighting soldiers on top.

The main structure is built up from a wooden block and clad in cardboard.  I used uPVA glue to attach the card and cut the decorative panels out with a scalpel.  The technique is quite easy – if time consuming.  I cut out a number of simple rectangular shapes, each overlapping the earlier one and with a slightly larger aperture in the side, the effect when multiplied can give some stunning effects.  In total I used five layers, but you can decide to increase or decrease this.

The top and bottom of each side is further modelled with yet another layer of card.  It is honestly very easy, just take your time.

In the initial plan I was going to use the two foot soldiers and these can be seen placed on top of the cardboard clad tomb.  The recess in the top was planned to hide the figures bases.

For the final model I decided to use the mounted figure and have attached the metal horse to the tomb lid.  The lid is 3mm thick plastic card with a rough rectangle removed from the centre.  When the horse was fitted, I filled the spaces with Milliput and smoothed the join.  Additional detailing to the tomb sides was done with either cardboard or plastic rod, sliced into thin discs.

I have also mounted the tomb onto a base of 3mm plastic card and further attached this to an oval of plastic card.  Keen-eyed readers will see that between the tomb base and the groundwork, I have added a piece of tiled wallpaper and built up the groundwork with DAS modelling clay.

In an attempt to blend the tomb into the groundwork, I have wet a large, stiff brush added some uPVA glue and stippled the base and tomb with it.

I am planning on using the two soldiers in a future modelling project.

The next step was to add the rider.  This was done with superglue and the small gaps filled with ‘Green Stuff’.  I have also textured the base by adding sieved sand and small stones over uPVA glue.

The painting was carried out in my usual manner, a very dark undercoat of Black and Dark Brown which was roughly painted on with a large brush.  I also added some fine sand to the paint and brushed this over the tomb base but not the horse or rider.

At this stage of the build, I thought the tomb sides looked a little bare and have added some small card squares to the upper sides with superglue. Once the glue had set fully, I painted them in the same Dark Brown basecoat.

The first highlight was a scrubbing of Dark Brown, Black and a little Cream coloured acrylic paint.

The second highlight was the same as the previous, but with a little more cream added to the mix.

The third highlight was again as before but with some Skull White added and applied with a drybrushing action, just picking out the upper edges and the fine detail.

Throughout the painting of the tomb and statue I have tried to keep the colour subtle and avoided a stark or pure white highlight.

The groundwork was painted with Snakebite Leather from GW and highlighted with touches of Skull White added to the mix.  Individual stones have been picked out in Grey – blended from Chaos Black and Skull White and highlighted with a little Skull White.

Finally, I have the addition of coloured sawdust/flock which I add to my terrain pieces so they blend in with my gaming table.

This is the third such Modelling Masterclass to feature graveyard terrain pieces, but as all three articles employ slightly different techniques, I hope they are of use and act as inspiration. If nothing else – we all have a couple of figures that can easily be employed as statues.

Coming Soon

"Cyprus Trees" - Tony creates some more flora for his Flintloque table.

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