Bugbaits table top war gaming Fortress Version 1 2008

This is a BIG project and you will require a lot of time and patience to finish this, it is nearly 1.8 metres long and 40 cm high. These plans where designed to be used with white expanded polystyrene foam and then plastered over but there is no reason why you could not use blue/orange foam and carve in detail or even double layered corrugated card. 5mm thick Foamboard, 6mm hardboard, 2mm thick card and thin cereal box card is also used.

Construction tips A common old hacksaw was used for all of the polystyrene cutting, mark all lines to be cut, then cut every line to the depth of the saw blade, use these shallow cuts as your guide to ensure that you follow the lines as you cut out the shapes. 80 Grit sandpaper is good for sanding polystyrene foam, only sand in one direction and NOT back and forth. PVA wood glue is good for this project, for large areas you need to leave it 24 hours to set. Use a sharp hobby knife when cutting foamboard to ensure a clean cut, you will go through quite a few blades in this project! Original Project log is here http://warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109769

Print out all of these templates without resizing.

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Construction
I made my Fortress as three assemblies each approximately 600mm wide, left and right sections have a straight wall + Tower + bent wall, centre section has 2 towers + small walls + gates.

Main towers
Print out Template 1 - Tower you will need to add the missing front bit yourself once printed, just extend the missing lines. The template should be 225mm high and the base should be 215mm front to back You will need 4 of these towers 120mm wide, two for the main gate and one each for the outer walls.

Walls
Template 2 Walls should be 140mm high and the base should be 123mm front to back. You will need 4 walls 250mm wide (2 straight and 2 bent ones) and 2 smaller ones 52mm wide for the main gate. Template 3 Walls is the cutting plan for two of the 250mm wide walls that will go on the outside of the main gate. Sit the walls on this and mark out the wedges that will be removed, the front of the template goes to the sloping part of the wall. The dashed line will be used later for the walkways. You should now have enough pieces to assemble the left and right sections like this. Take care that you make a left and a right! Set the small walls 55mm back from the Main Towers front edge. 6mm hardboard was used as the base.

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Walkways
Make two straight walkways that go on top of the straight walls, 250mm wide 100mm deep from 18mm thick polystyrene, cover with thin card, glue and press overnight to stop warping. Make another two straight walkways, use Template 3 Walls to make two bent walkways, line up the front of the walkway with the dotted line, mark and cut like this, walkway overhangs the front of the wall by 10mm. To make life easier do not glue the walkways to the walls until the walls are plastered.

Use Template 4 to make 20 upright supports out of 5mm foamboard, 5 for each walkway. Cut strips of 5mm foamboard 27mm high for the walls between the supports, chamfer 1.5mm from the top front and bottom rear so that it looks like the grey bit in the picture Walls are approximately 55mm wide for straight walkways and 43mm wide for the bent walkways. Cut strips of foamboard 22mm high that go on the top of the upright supports, should now look like the picture on the next page. You will need to make a small ledge that goes between the two walkways on the front of the tower, see next picture.

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Tower Weapon Mounts

Each tower has a 55mm disk made from foamboard with a support of 40mm wide polystyrene with rounded edges that tapers to the base. Now would be a good time to plaster the walls, place 2.5mm thick balsa strips on the walls and plaster over, immediately remove the balsa, wait for plaster to dry and them fill the gaps, sand with 100 grit sandpaper when dry. The brick pattern is 60mm wide and 28mm high on the vertical back walls and 31mm high on the front sloping walls, use a small rats tail file to carve.

Wall arches
Cut strips of 2mm thick card 30mm wide, use the Wall arches Template Cut strips of thin card 30mm wide, use the same template, once cut out mark in 4mm from each edge and cut out and glue on top of the thick card. Use contact glue to glue them to the walls.

Tower arches
Use the Tower Top arches Template make the same way as the wall arches.

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Guard stations
Use Template 5 to make 4 of these guard station bases out of foamboard, one each for the Main Towers, take care when cutting out the centre bit as this is used as the roof.

Cut strips of foamboard 18mm high, these will be the walls for the Guard stations, cut to length and glue inside the Guard base, not on top - see pic

Use Template 6 you will need 8 of these supports per Guard station, 32 total

Cut strips 10mm wide for the top of the guard station walls.

Cut 4 of these strips 30mm wide per guard station, glue these down and then glue the Template 6 supports to them, one to each end.

When the glue is dry cut and glue the 10mm strip to the corner sections

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Use the centre bit from Template 5, to make the roof. Make a second one the same size. Mark 14mm from the outer edge and cut out, glue this cut out to the second roof bit.

You should have something that looks like this pic

You now need to make the base, 10mm thick polystyrene and 10mm wider from each edge of Template 5 and glue the Guard station to it.

Small details can be added if desired, I think they are worth the effort IMHO.

The widest edge is the front.

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Doors
Now that you have plastered the walls you will need 12 doors, 6 for the centre section and 3 each for the left and right sections. Use 2mm thick card and Template 7 to make the door frames, mark 5mm in from the outer edge and cut out the centre carefully with a box cutter knife. Use 4mm strips of foamboard to go between the door frame and door. Use Template 8 to make the doors from thin card.

Set the doors in the tower just above each walkway and one in the base of the tower.

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Centre Section
Dont glue anything down until you have made all of the bits. Gates Use Template 9 and 10 to make the front gates out of 3mm mdf wood, you will need two of each if you want to have interlacing teeth. Make sure that you sand the teeth so that when they are painted they will close without jamming. Use Template 11 and 12 to make the reinforcing out of thin card

NOTE they are smaller than the gates and you will have a gap around the top and outer edges.

Make an icon of your choice. Dont forget the rivets, lots of rivets.

The doors are attached to a 59cm long sliding curtain rail and some old wood so that they are just off the ground.

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Centre section - Towers Cut out 2 slots in the tower sections for the main gate doors to slide into, 30mm from the back of the wall, the slot is 70mm wide by 45mm deep, make sure that you make a left and a right!! Inner walls are 52mm wide at the back, cut them so that they taper to 20mm wide at the front and then cut out a slot for the doors. Add a ledge and weapon mount to the front of the tower just like you did to the outer towers. Make two large ledges 135mm x 135mm 22mm thick to sit on top of each tower. Make another two blocks 115mm x 115mm by 55mm thick to sit on top of each large ledge. Make a walkway 360mm wide 95mm deep and 18mm thick to go between the gate towers. Use Template 13 to make the vertical supports, 7 required, placed approx 53mm apart. Vertical side goes to the front of the walkway, wall is 24mm high. From 5mm foamboard cut two sections, front and back to go under the walkway 360mm wide 68mm high, cut out a piece 25mm high and 250mm wide from the centre of the bottom edge so that most of the main gate is visible.

Once plastered it should start looking like this! Add 6 doors, 1 for each walkway and the base of the tower. Use the Arches template to finish it off.

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