UL Certified and Miami-Dade County approved, Castle GreenGuard will serve as the base of operations for my Mega Construx Masters of the Universe once completed. I decided to start with the tower to the right of the entrance as you face the main castle. I figured if I couldn't get a circular tower started successfully, I didn't have any reason to go any further with the effort. Of course, the tower isn't independent of the rest of the structure. So eventually, I had to start on the outer walls. And there would come a time where 2"x1"x1"bricks weren't enough. I'm a little further than this image now but I guess I haven't taken pictures of the additional progress. Not certain where I will finish with the project but the plan is to have a full Castle Grayskull of some sort. Although I know I will take some liberties with the design. And while the green sheets are conveniently colored, I do plan on painting the whole thing to hide some of the sins of construction.
And while I wait for some additional materials to arrive to continue work on the outer walls, I decided to start on some other areas. But I have run into the situation of having to wait for materials to show up again. Like the rolling pin that will keep me from having to draw in cobble stone by hand.
What sort of wizardry is this? Love the build, looking forward to the updates. What exactly are you building with, some sort of styrofoam?
Yep. GreenGuard home insulation foam and foam core sheets. Currently what you see has cost about sixteen to twenty dollars in materials used. And I still have two-thirds of the two inch sheet, three-quarters of the one inch and nine more of the Dollar Tree foam core boards. Best guess, after paint and a few more items, this will still cost less than original retail for the Mega set. I keep running into walls with the build. I'll need to start painting or risk creating areas inaccessible to a brush with the final build.
If you are looking at Airbrushes, I'd highly recommend a Badger double action. I had one back in the day, and it was awesome. Would recommend acrylic paint, as it shouldn't disolve the foam. Just use the recommended thinner for it. I didn't, and it gummed up my brush in regions I couldn't reach. Total loss. If you go that route, let me know, I think I still have my old compressor and hose. It would save you a chunk of change.
Yeah, I plan on using acrylics. Although I do want to do test runs with Elmer's white glue and spray can primer coats on scrap pieces just to see what results I get. If I manage to talk myself into getting an air brush anytime soon, I'll take the recommendation into consideration. Still, I feel painting is a way off yet. As annoying as it is, I think sectional construction is the way to go. Then, once it's all ready for paint, do the whole lot so that I can keep the mixtures consistent. As it is, I put down a thin, brushed on coat of Elmer's over the white foam core sheets this morning before I left for Christmas. If nothing else, it'll help protect the details I've already put in them and give a light resistance to further indentations. The one benefit of the sheets being green if that they should help hide any smaller areas later on that get missed in the different coats of the main structure. My plastic canvas mesh should be in tomorrow, that'll allow me to so some of the grating and window work I want. I hope the rolling pins I ordered from Greenstuff World show up sooner than later. I want to used them to press out the interior walls rather than hand draw in further cobble work.
You probably know more about this than I do but, will those rolling pins work on foam? Or are you using clay for your floors? Edit: never mind. My last a** looked it up myself. Beautiful work!! Keep it up every picture makez me more envious. And I wish my wife would let do the same. Lol
Don't worry too much about it. I had to go back to youtube before I committed to buying a set of pins. It'll be repetitive every three inches or so but, eh, cobblestone, right? And I definitely stand on the shoulders of those before me in working on this. DM Crafts, Black Magic Crafts, Wyloch's Armory... I have plowing through youtube channels on table top miniatures looking for the best methods.
I like it. Especially the key hole. A perfect subtlety. This will tighten up once it's glued together but I want to paint pieces before then. And I'm not certain yet that I won't stretch out the whole assembly, make things taller.
Thanks. You have inspired me. I’m going to the.dollar tree to get some styrofoam for when the break is over.
Yeah, the foam core is pretty neat stuff. I've been putting thin coats of white glue over it to toughen it up once I put my detail in but otherwise, it's been holding its own. The other thing that has been making the job move faster is the hot wire table I bought. Certainly has helped the brick making process. Edit: Very little progress made. But I did work on the set of doors a little.