The Ruin of Arnor supplement has recently drawn my attention, due to its classy terrain pics and interesting scenarios. I decided to have a go at building some moveable pieces of terrain that could also be used for the Flames in Gondor and even Harad scenarios.

If you quickly glance through the book you find detailed images of the 'outer wall' of Fornost which has been used for other scenarios as an abandoned ruin.

I wanted to begin with something not too tricky and this was just the thing. Using blue polystyrene, i lightly drew a brick design similar to the one seen in the supplement. Once i was happy with it, I pressed hard against the design with a biro and used a ruler to keep it straight

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The scale is similar to the Warhammer castle though the bricks i have created are larger.

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Once i had finished I used a hack saw to cut away at levels creating step-like features for which models could stand on. The brick design was a useful guide for this.

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I then cut a base using hardboard. I originally wanted MDF because the GW website suggests it, but i couldnt get my hands on any. The only difference is that this stuff can warp, so i would have to be conservative when applying the glue and other materials.

what do you think so far? I am thinking of adding crenellations but i cannot find any print-outs as a guide. Does anyone know any links for crenallations?

I think that the clips of stone are a bit too clean, mess it up a bit. Other than that it looks rather interesting

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Hey, how's your Moria terrain coming on? I want to see that!

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Painting again...

I agree, the polystyrene is looking too neat, and considering that it is a ruin changes will be made
The top of the ruin which was cut with a hacksaw has a rough edge so i think i will sand the sides a little and then using a biro go over the bricks again

here is the progress i made yesterday, more photos to follow shortly

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I thought someone might bring that up

I got distracted, it was simply too large a project. Sounds a bit of a poor excuse but i cant find time to finish it. I'll paint a layer tonight Nathan, just for you and ill put the pics up soon. Thanks for the encouragement

Looks cool man,

I have roughened up the walls now although the photos dont really show it. I have also added the sand which will help blend the base in with the board once it has been finished.

I think the next stage will be undercoating it in a grey primer. Then a black wash and finally highlighting the ruin using a pale grey tone.

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Sorry about the quality of the pics. The clouds have just drowned out the sun

i like the ruined stones at the base, they really make the runes feel more "runey"

frodo

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Great work so far

I'm just wandering, why are two rows of stones smaller than the other... It looks a bit strange

Good luck anyway

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Lookin good are you planning on makin an entire ruined fortress or just this one piece?

I saw an article somwhere where the guy pushed a sharp rock over the walls to give it texture- thought it might help.

love the look that the rubble at the bottom creates!! and i fully agree that the ruin of arnor book contains some awesome terrain!!

have you thought about adding some moss to your stairs? give them that weathered, abandoned theme that runs through arnor

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Ulkatar the reason there is a narrow band of cut stone is that when making a dry stone wall every so often you cut long flat stones that bridge from one side of the wall accross to the other.
Usually the centre of the wall is filled with rubble and only the outside faces are of cut stone.
Because the bridgig pieces need to be lifted in place , if they where as large as a face cut stone then the crane or derrek would probably not lift them, they would be too big. So smaller depth cut stones are used, with a much largerlength dimension to bridge the rubble core.

However some exceptionally strong walls used cut stone all the way through.


Lorderkenbrand I think your wall is an exceptional idea and well made. It will make great scenary for photography of miniatures with.
I would like to suggest that perhaps you could at this stage twist up a tree trunk of copper wire and take time to twist long roots that can be inserted in and through the stone blocks and rubble. Then you could putty the wires up and give tehwall exceptional age by having a tree splitting hte wall down with its roots. I only suggest this as the clean tall side of the wall still looks perfect.. you need som plant matter in the nooks and crannies of the destroyed section.

Nice job I am looking forward to seeing more..
P.S great photography too.

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Hey, thanks for the explanation, Dior I shall remember this

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couldn't have put it better myself



I will paint the ruin first i think and then stick hairy grass and probably a 'bushy' material also to finish



I will be making 4 broken wall sections of similar sizes, and a ruined tower. I am going to work from the pictures in the ruin of arnor. Completed, it should act as a corner piece and will measure an area of 2 feet square.

If there are no problems I will then begin to do the more intricate buildings which are featured inside the ruined wall.



Thats a neat idea I had not thought of that. I haven't got any copper wire on me so i cant experiment (yet). Do you know where i can find this stuff?

thanks for all the feedback. I will be posting some more pics within a day or two. The crenellation design is complete and I have begun work on the other ruins. I will complete all of the wall sections and tower before painting because i want to create a unified appearance and not end up with the walls being different tones of grey.

For copper wire you could go to a hardware store, grocery store, and probably most craft stores. You will need clay or Greenstuff though to cover it when you are done though.

Goodluck!

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Remember to stretch before you paint.....

Easiest source of copper wire for this use is to go to a dump or rubbish place where they are throwing out old telephones or computer cables. Cut some lengths of this and strip it. It is green and is recycling... you can now feel happy with the enviromantal foot print of your hobby now.

telephone cable from handsets to teh wall plug is the best.. there is normally only three wires and the plastic is easy to strip.. and teh are not twisted too much.

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Ninth Ruling Steward of Gondor. Dior was born in 2328. He was the son of the Steward Barahir

Thanks guys for the idea. My main issue with this idea is that if I add more strain onto the base or piece itself, it may begin to warp. I designed the length and width so as to compensate for this but if I begin to work wire into it it may affect the stability of the model.

I am not going to scrap the idea however. I am going to be making more of these pieces in the not so distant future (fingers crossed) and i will intergrate the tree roots idea into the model.

Progress has been slow up until lately. I tried to figure out what the other 3 wall sections would measure. I also made a plan view of how they would sit once finished. The next stage with this was to create the design of the crenellations. Using the Ruin of Arnor sourcebook for inspiration I quickly decided upon the one seen on page 4 and 5 which features a large image of the asault on Fornost.

The design appears to be one brick deep and two rows high with a thinner row of bricks on top of that. Finally the curved crenellations sit on top of that. I cut the first two rows out with relative ease and stuck them together.

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Next I created the slightly wider and distinctively thinner row of bricks on top.

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Once dry I stuck it to the wall. A miniature stood on top of the wall should have only its lower part of his body obscured from sight behind the structure.

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My camera is charging at the moment but I have developed the crenellations and stuck them into position.

pics to follow shortly

thanks
jack

woops I got slightly side-tracked. Here are some more recent photos to show how I went about creating the crenellations. Feel free to copy - they were based on the GW design of Fornost. If you look in the recent harad book, you will notice a few pages have this same ruin in the background, so I guess it could pretty much represent any major ruined city wall.

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I have cut out about 20 pairs and sanded them down to look like smoothly crafted stone. I wanted to create a symettrical looking set of crenellations so cutting them out all at once gave me a better chance of reaching that goal.

And here are some "top secret" photos of something else that could fit well with this ruined set of scenery.

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This is looking a very good project.

That MT Knight figure is awesome! Great pose on it. It looks great.

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Bump!

Not sure why people use it but it seems like fun so this thread is 'bumped'

Anyway after a few suggestions about adding trees, I've finally begun twisting them. Im using garden wire which is thicker because it has a plastic coating, but works just fine. Im taking a lot of inspiration from Dagorlads superb article. I plan to add more branches thicken the existing ones, then polyfill areas, sculpt 'miliput bark' and then paint.

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Twisted trees in the making!

Big trees! When they're done would you put a the wall and a mini next to them for scale? Oh, and I like the band of small bricks. I wouldn't have thought of that (and would've killed myself for that), so THANK YOU for a realistic wall.

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