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By DMGTEMPLAR - Dec. 31, 1969 --Imperial Colonnade--By Jim Street. The inspiration for this project struck me whilst watching Gladiator one night. When Commodus rode through Rome on the chariot, the imagery of statues and columns finally sparked that idea in me. I wanted to build something that was big and had lots of stairs flanked by columns. A few rough CAD drawings later, I had the basic plan in mind and I started casting hundreds of plaster bricks. --Materials-- Moulds: Basic Block Mould #40 Gothic Additional Accessories Mould #44 Bridge Mould #53 Prison Tower Mould #60 Roman Temple Mould #62 Wall Builder Mould #200 Cracked Floor Tiles Mould #203 Station Builder Mould #300 Plaster: Ultracal 30 Miscellaneous Materials: 3mm and 6mm MDF Doweling 5mm Foamcore 1mm Plasticard 2 Space Marines Plastic Skeleton Spears MDF Drink Coasters 4mm Rare Earth Magnets Glue: Selley’s Aquadhere Revell Plastic Cement Paint: Jo Sonja’s Background Colour (Black) Jo Sonja’s Artist Colours (Nimbus Grey) Jo Sonja’s Artist Colours (Titanium White) Games Workshop (Terracotta) Games Workshop (Dwarf Bronze) Games Workshop Spray (Chaos Black) --Design-- The main design had to include 2 things, height and width. The building needed to be wide enough to look the part at the end of the gaming table. The stairs and vertical columns give it the feeling of height. Being a draftsman, I drew up some rough plans in AutoCAD. The building had to draw your attention up the stairs and to the large doorway, without taking too much focus away from the wings on the building. Using the columns in the design was also a good excuse to buy the Roman Temple mould! Another critical factor in the design was the ability to be able to disassemble the building for storage. So the building is broken up into several large components: stairs, entry, left / right lower and left / right upper wings. --Dimensions— Overall width: 35.5” (900mm) Overall height: 18.5” (470mm) Overall depth: 13” (330mm) --Construction-- Stairs: Moulds Used: Stairs: Prison Tower Mould Side Walls: Wall Builder, Bridge and Basic Block Moulds Trim: Bridge Mould Columns: Station Builder and Roman Temple Moulds The stairs blocks were glued together flat, to make one large, single stairway. The two side walls were built using the Wall Builder pieces where possible. Around these pieces, I used basic blocks where appropriate. The back edge of the side walls were built so the lower wings could slot into position. The trim blocks along the top of the stairs were glued together separately before cutting the ends at an angle and finally gluing them into place on top of the stairs. For the statue columns, I glued some smooth blocks from the Station Builder mould and some base pieces from the Roman Temple mould into place. The statues themselves are two old Space Marines I had laying around. They haven’t been glued into place yet as one day, I will convert them into turn counters. Lower Wings: Moulds Used: Walls: Wall Builder and Basic Block Moulds Arches: Prison Tower Mould Columns and Decorative Trim: Roman Temple Mould Column Bases and Trim: Station Builder Mould Most of the bottom wings were made up as I went along. Despite the final appearance, I changed my mind quite a few times on how to build them. In the end, most of it was assembled in sections (the upper wall, the arches, the trim and the side wall) before being glued together for the final piece. The columns and the decorative trim were added last. The trim also hides the lip on top of the wall where the upper level sits. Upper Wings: Moulds Used: Walls: Wall Builder and Basic Block Moulds Columns and Decorative Trim: Roman Temple Mould Floor Tiles: Cracked Floor Tile Mould The upper wings turned out to be some of the hardest parts to build. I cut a piece of 6mm MDF to sit on top of the lower wings. The tiles from the Cracked Floor Tile mould were cut at 45 degrees and glued to the MDF base. Next up was the back wall. This is mainly cast from the Wall Builder mould with a few Basic Blocks along the ends. The pieces were glued together face down to help keep the wall flat. It was then glued to the MDF using some Lego pieces to keep it perpendicular to the base while the glue dried. The trim around the top was glued together separately using a square to keep it straight and at a neat 90° angle. Once dry, I glued the columns to the floor tiles and, while the glue was wet, glued the trim along the top of the columns. The columns could then be aligned before the glue set. It took a lot of fiddly work and I broke more than one column in the process. The roof itself is 2 layers of foamcore laminated together and glued into position. Main Entry: Moulds Used: Arch: Gothic Additional Accessories and Basic Block Moulds Columns and Decorative Trim: Roman Temple Mould Floor and Stairs: Cracked Floor Tile and Roman Temple Moulds The arch and back wall was built as one piece. After one rather large accident, the whole wall was glued to a piece of MDF for extra strength. The wall is held into position on the Upper Wings using some 4mm Rare Earth Magnets. It sits in place by itself, but the magnets give it that extra bit of support. The central floor piece is made from 6mm MDF, cracked floor tiles and a few pieces from the Roman Temple mould. Stairs were then constructed to enable access to the wings. The door is a piece of plasticard cut to shape and glued onto the MDF backing board. The “bolt heads” were pieces cut from the shaft of a spare plastic skeleton spear and glued into position using plastic glue. The columns that sit at the top of the stairs are held in place using the Rare Earth Magnets. This way, they can be removed for storage. Support: Because of the sheer weight of so much plaster and the modular style of the building, the upper level needed some support to keep from collapsing. Pieces of dowel were cut to the required height. I drilled holes into the underside of the top pieces to stop the dowel from kicking out. The dowel was then nailed and glued onto some MDF coasters to provide a more solid base. --Painting-- The entire building was base coated with watered down Jo Sonja’s black background paint. I then drybrushed the stonework with Nimbus Grey, followed by Titanium White from the Jo Sonja’s Acrylic Medium range of paints. The floor tiles were drybrushed with an old pot of Games Workshop Terracotta paint. The door was simply undercoated black and stippled with Games Workshop Dwarf Bronze paint. The space marine statues were sprayed black with Games Workshop undercoat, then drybrushed with Dwarf Bronze. --Conclusion— There are still a few things I would like to do for this project. First of all, I need to make the turn counters for under the space marine statues. I would also like to write Imperial (Latin) quotes around the trims on top of the columns. That will be a big task and with my shaky hand, I’m not looking forward to doing it. I have constructed some of the Roman Columns and also the Roman Arch as per the instructions on the Hirst Arts website. In time, I will build up a long colonnade celebrating the fallen heroes of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium. Thanks for reading and good luck to the other Contestants. Cheers, Jim Street.
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