Elfin Prayer Tower Printer Friendly Version   By GAMER - Dec. 31, 1969 While this piece was inspired by a picture, it still took some work to fit an inspiration into a buildable model. I never actually drew out exact plans, just some rough sketches and lots of thought over "what ifs" and such. The turret mold has the best trim, expecially windows, so I decided to use it for the central tower as well as the sub-towers. In order to expand it wide enough for a walkway to access all four sub-towers, I had to expand the 3" tower out to a 5" width. I then closed it back down to the 3" tower so I could use the windows from the turret mold for the top. I had already come up with an idea for the roof pieces, so that was at least one hurdle I didn't have. Attaching the bridges to the towers, however, was the key problem. I'll start with the base of the tower, and work my way up. The base is fairly simple. Using the 1/4" thick wall pieces from the turret, I inserted blocks between each curved one. I began with bricks from the brick mold, then expanded by 1/4" each step down. This made a nice octagon pattern for the base. Inside the base I put support blocks to actually hold the weight of the tower. The tower is made of Denstone, so it is quite heavy! The central tower is made from the turret mold. A spiral staircase made from the floor pieces goes all the way up to the bridge level. Windows were placed in the tower to correspond with the stairs. Then we reach the point where the tower expands. To accomplish this, I went from the 3" tower out to a 4" tower, then expanded that out to the 5" tower. The 5" blocks fit nicely around the 4" ones. The 3" tower took a bit of sanding inside the 4" piece to make it fit, but it was not overly difficult. Around each expansion I put 1/4" support arches. (From Wizards Tower and Dragons Inn) I had to insert a 1/4" x 1/2" x 1/2" block with them to make it look right. The 3" tower continues up to the bridge level, inside the 5" tower. Once it reaches the bridge level, the 3" tower stops. The 5" tower continues up, with a door to each sub-tower. For those who care, yes I used the Circular Tower mold for the 5" blocks. There are 76 5" blocks in there. That made for a LOT of casting, one at a time! Once over the doorways, I reduced the 5" tower back down to 3". This was simply a reverse of the espansion. Once I had done this part I realized that it needed sprucing up. I added dividers and put statues of elfin warriors (15mm figs) in the gaps. The rest of the central tower is standard turret mold. Access from the bridge level to the top of the central tower is gained by a knotted rope. Now for the tricky part - how to get the bridges attached. It was actually fairly simple once I figured out a plan. Each bridge was constructed using four arches from the bridge mold. An extra layer of regular blocks on the edges and 1/4" floor tiles down the center was added to the top to create overlapped pieces and give the bridge strength. The bridge railings were one of the last things added. I used a dremel tool to sand the pieces to fit the curved towers. A four block high section of each tower was then built. A 2" flat spot was sanded onto each 3" tower piece. Four flat spots were sanded onto the central 5" piece. To do the sanding I finally broke down and bought myself a nice disc sander. I have wanted one for years, and now had a great excuse. Sanding the eight flat areas and the 40 roof pieces by hand would have added a week or two the the project. The sander got it done in an hour or so! Once the flat spots were done, I fretted over how to actually attach the pieces. I seriously considered pinning them somehow, but finally I decided to just glue them and hope for the best. I drilled shallow holes (16 or so) on each flat side to help give the glue something to "hold" onto. After gluig the pieces together, I waited two days before moving it. Despite grave concerns, the glue held wonderfully. While painting it I worried constantly that I would break off something. I never heard any cracks or creaks to indicate stress while painting and handling the tower. Once I had the bridges attached to the towers, I built out from there. The window area and the base of each sub-tower are standard turret pieces. I put a round staircase pillar piece from the Circular Tower mold in the center of each sub-tower as a seat for meditating elves. The roofs were made from the wooden shingle mold. Other than using a narrower triangle to get an eight sided piece instead of four sided, construction was pretty standard. The cap piece of each roof was made from materials I got at Wal-Mart. The cap is from the craft section. I didn't keep the wrapper, but I think they were doll making pieces. Basically they are large wooden thimbles. The spire is a #8 Auger Anchor from the hardware section. When it came to painting this monstrosity, I wanted an almost white tower, but with some unique (unusual?, wierd?, pansy elfish?, pick your own word!) depth to it. The base was a very dark gray, followed by a slate gray, then the final coat of very light gray. At first I thought "this is going to be way too wierd looking", but after I got the first section done I really started to like it. The more I painted, the more I liked it. The roof pieces were paited dark brown followed by a dry brushing of Khaki. The spires and statues were painted dark green and then dry brushed with lighter shades of green. Overall, I am very happy with this piece. While far from an exact copy of the picture that inspired it, if fulfills the dream nicely.   1 Ratings     12345      Public Comments Please log in to post a comment    You must be a registered member to post comments. You may sign-in Here.

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