Undermountain Keep Printer Friendly Version   By YRM - Dec. 31, 1969 BUILDING HISTORY: The underkeep of the Mines of Tethyamar fell to dark creatures centuries ago, but the dwarves were determined to reclaim their home. My adventuring party lead multiple assault teams against over 100 enemy forces in capturing this well defended terrain. ABOUT THE STRUCTURE: The base is 2 Feet Wide by 4 Feet Deep. From the base to the top of the castle is over 29 Inches tall and the castle by itself is over 19 inches tall. Hirst Art castings are used throughout the full structure from the initial wall to the bridge to the outer wall and castle itself. There were many design challenges to building this giant piece. 1 - Building the bridge and integrating it with the terrain and lava. 2 - Building the outer wall, bridge, and castle doors to all line up. 3 - Creating a multi-tiered, defensive, play area. 4 - Working lights into the lava and castle. 5 - Building the castle itself with blended 8", 4", Ruined tower and Turret molds to create multiple blended towers and still having it all line up. 6 - Having several reusable modular parts like the main castle, outer wall, or upper round tower. 7 - Making sure all of these designs work together over a 2x4 foot area. 8 - Making sure everywhere in the main castle is accessable by stairs or ladders. 9 - Crafting the actual lava (besides just integrating Hirst Arts with it) 10 - Making the full castle come apart easily enough to work as a useable interior gaming area. The lava was created by suspending clear plastic folder covers across a carved river of insulation foam. The plastic was secured and sealed, then supported by slabs of foam pushed under the plastic. Then, clear resin, mixed with dies and paints, was added in layers. Brush strokes and rough effects were added to "cool" areas of the lava to a dark crust. Prior to pouring the lava, holes were cut in the plastic and the fully painted bridge was glued into place and sealed. The overall design is meant to be highly defensive. I wanted to be able to create an environment where invading forces were funnelled through heavily dangerous situations. The castle is built for structural stability, inside and out. A battery operated light is hidden and suspended from the ceiling of the largest section of the castle. This lights up most of the middle level, as I take advantage of the rows of pillared openings holding up the outer wall. These openings are ideal for spellcasters, as they are protected by the outer wall but give full sight access to the courtyard area between the outer wall and castle. The castle itself was very tricky to pull off. Anyone who has build the round tower molds knows that integrating them all like they are here takes a bit of planning. The rock in the cavern itself is carved to resemble rock that had been intentionally carved out by dwarves with picks and other machinery. MOLDS USED: 041 - Gothic Dungeon Accessories 043 - Gothic Panel Accessories 044 - Gothic Additional Accessories 045 - Gothic Dungeon Builder 050 - Wizard's Tower 051 - Dragon's Inn 052 - Four Inch Circular Tower Mold 053 - Bridge Mold 054 - Gothic Church Mold 055 - Bell Tower Mold 056 - Tomb Mold 060 - Prison Tower Mold 061 - Turret Mold 064 - Eight Inch Round Tower Mold 065 - Ruined Tower Mold 080 - Dragon's Teeth Accessory Mold 201 - Floor Tile Mold 205 - Gothic Floor Tile Mold Thanks for reading. Most of the photos were taken in my dark garage with a few dim lights and the actual lights of the model. The glow of the lava is genuine... it's not added in photoshop or whatever. I took the shots with my camera's night setting. I didn't add any light or color to the model with Photoshop that wasn't there in the actual photos. The lava really does make everything look red like that. In other words, if you came to my house and we went into my garage at dusk and lit this bad boy up, it would look EXACTLY like it does in the photos. Enjoy.   25 Ratings     12345      Public Comments Please log in to post a comment    Created  Comment  Aug. 19, 2008, 08:14AM  By: BOSSMAN Good to see you in HADD again YRM The lava effect is amazing and as already stated the whole battleield effect is really dramatic. This is a different build from some of your previous and this time takes on the challenge of getting the right balance of space and depth to make the terrain piece not only look great but also to work for gaming. Top job!  Aug. 18, 2008, 02:33PM  By: BOB1804 Holy smokes... what an amazing build. You've done a tremendous job merging the terrain and various tower sizes, walls etc. It is a very interesting piece visually. Sometimes a large piece can become repeditive but not in this case. Everywhere you look there is a different detail. Great job!  Aug. 18, 2008, 02:05PM  By: YRM Thanks. I wrote a bit about the lava effect in the main entry page. If you look at the image that isn't "lit up" where the light is being pushed under the lava, that gives you another visual of how it's done. I stretched/glued/sealed clear plastic across the gap where the lava sits. Once that was dry, I added sort of a "lip" that was glued in place and sealed. I cut little Xs for the bridge pillars to sit down through, and then I sealed those too. I pushed the foam back under the plastic so that it wouldn't sink with the weight of the epoxy. Then I added layer after layer of dye and paint tinted epoxy. I purposely mixed it so more red sat towards the edges and orange towards the middle. I'd test the lighting after each layer dried. Was it too bright? Could you still see the light through it? After the lava was translucent enough where you could see the glow but not see the actual light under it, I started adding whitewater woodland scenic texture where I wanted to rough up the surface to add "cracks". Just like Bruce shows how to drybrush black over a bright red brick to make "lava bricks", I did the same thing, only, there was an actual light under there. I cut some board to seal in the light (removable) and added some finishing touches. The simple thing is to say it's a combination between Bruce's water (tips and tricks) and Bruce's lava floor tiles (tips and tricks), but... for me, I really had to do a lot of trial and error and just sort of using some artistic judgment as each layer of lava went on. The hardest thing to build was the castle... took a few months to plan and get it right, but, the lava itself probably took a month to get right. I think if I re-did it now, I'd be able to do it faster, but, there wasn't really anything out there that I could use to base "how to build the lava" on (besides photos of actual lava), so, it took some time. Hope that helped?  Aug. 18, 2008, 01:22PM  By: ORAGE_KRUSH2000 I second that -----------WOW-----------! very cool. And yes please post how that lava effect was created.  Aug. 17, 2008, 04:07PM  By: DUKEDREAL Excellent....especially the lava itself. What a great feeling of doom and despair through the red haze of the lava. Reminds me of the Lord of the Rings in the heavy impact visually that this model conveys. I am sure many on the Hirst Arts Forum would love to see a tutorial on how the lava was made. Excellent build.  Aug. 17, 2008, 03:24PM  By: THINNSHADE ....................................WOW...............................

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