Concept: “The Dark Tower of Abyss” by Rhapsody of Fire rang in my head the whole time. The kind of tower fit for a necromancer. Lots of challenges here. First, making an actual circular structure was way harder than I thought. Second, all three floors had to be removable to enable the use of the interior. They are actually fastened in place with magnets encased in the floors. A section of tower was cut off and turned into a ruin fragment, and the line the fracture serves as guide to piece the power back together and line up the magnets. The ruleset for this game specified mechanics for height at each 3” intervals… so each floor had to be that height. But then each floor had to be wide enough to enable manipulation of the models inside. So, the tower’s shape ended up way wider than I wanted at first. The pointed ends on the top were especially hard to achieve with the material. For the color, I went with a high contrast, pure black and no ink wash, just pale grey highlights with a drybrush. Side note: there are two in existence, my brother asked me for a cool piece of terrain for his birthday, so I made two, one for each of us.
Vampire model by Reaper Miniatures.
Materials: Mostly polystyrene. That’s when I started to really hate this stuff. Besides the limits on details, texturing the rockface makes tons of statically charged residue which makes cleanup a nightmare, and a potential health hazard. Otherwise, all PVA (since cyanoacrylate melts polystyrene). Cheap dollar store black paint and more PVA (dilluted) to seal the whole thing. Floors and stairs are foamboard.
What I’d do differently: I’m actually quite proud of this one, but it could use some weathering (like mud / moss / lichen / muck) or some decorating features like banners or carpets on the inside. Also, the outside texture has protruding bits that are frail and tend to splinter off, a tougher seal would be needed.
