Nippon Castle for Warhammer Fantasy Battle - Part V – Seven Years in the Making

The completed Nippon Castle

Note: Parts I, II, III and IV of the construction of the castle.

Also of note here is the real world castle this was inspired by: Kakegawa castle 

Boom, and just like that…well, not really just like that, as this was a lot of work; the castle of the Army of Nippon is finished. What started back in the winter of 2013 is complete, seven long years later. When I say complete, there is still some more stuff to add here and there (mainly the moats), but it’s ready for warfare.

In terms of the moats, I’m working on getting a darker shade of blue/green to make it look murky rather than the “bright” blue it currently is. An old broom is providing the rushes that I’m gluing down with my hot glue gun in small dabs.

In all, it’s fairly practical as the roofs are removable in the manner of a dollhouse and the interior is painted.

One of my oldest friends and one of the people I gamed the most against in the 3rd Edition days brought up a great idea of running some smaller games where ninja have to fight samurai! This is a great idea as I have plenty of both (although the last two samurai of my quest are surprisingly frustrating to get!)

Now that it’s finished? It’s time to clear it off the gaming table as Willmark Jr. and I are looking to get some 3rd Edition Warhammer games in over the upcoming holiday break!

As I noted previously, next for terrain is a more traditional European-style castle in the vein of the Warhammer Mighty Fortress (good write-up on the Games workshop kit here). It’s going to be a bit smaller in terms of footprint to fit on the table and more utility for siege games.

Like drawing inspiration for an actual Japanese castle for the Nippon one, I’m drawing from England for the next one — in this case, Harlech Castle in Wales.

Also of note, this will be the 2nd traditional-style castle I made for Warhammer. The original one was the one we used for our games of siege way back in the day. It’s long since gone. It survived many moves over the years and various storage closets/rooms when I was living in apartments. Somewhere along the way from my last apartment to my first house it was lost or damaged — or maybe both. Sadly, no photos exist of it either.

So on wards to the next project. Toothpicks, foam core, cardboard, masking tape, glue, hot glue, thin cardboard, milk cartons, scotch cartons, Popsicle sticks, and patience are all that are required. Hopefully this next one doesn’t take me seven years to finish.

So, how did I do on creating a Nippon castle set in the world of Warhammer?

Painting the Nippon Castle for Warhammer – Part III: Progress and Next Step

It’s been quite some time since I posted any progress on my Nippon Castle (or anything in general on the blog). So with that in mind, it’s time to show some progress. I completed the construction on the castle around the first of the year and have been working on painting it off and on. I was looking back through the photos of it and it appears that I started working on it in 2013, as outlined here. It’s well past time to wrap this up.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The painting on this is very much WIP.

The castle started out as just the base keep itself, and the layout was inspired by...

The great thing about a project like this is that for those who want to create something like this for their own armies — whether a Nippon one or not — is that it’s really not that expensive. The castle is really nothing more than the following: cardboard, white glue, super glue, craft sticks, balsa wood, toothpicks, masking tape, and duct tape. The base of the castle proper and the walls are formed from foam-core boards to keep it light. While it might not make the base as strong as say plywood, it does save on weight.

So with all that in mind, in order, the following are complete in terms of painting:

• The outer walls
• The towers
• The moat sections
• Both gatehouses

Now, a note on when I say “complete”: the large area painting is done, as is about 99% of the detail painting. With the moats there is still a bit more that has to happen with the water area, but those are pretty well finished. I anticipate having to do some more detail here and there to truly finish it up.

For the towers there is still a bit of work to do on the removable roofs. I’m also not sure if I want to add a contrasting color like blue to them. The idea of the color also applies to the roof on the main keep.

So what is all this leading to? My goal is to get this complete by the end of the year. I’ve been working off and on a traditional European-style Empire castle in the vein of the old Warhammer Mighty Fortress, which will be smaller and a bit more practical for siege games. The Nippon castle has also been going on for seven years — time to finish it up!

Only snag is, simultaneously to this, I’m also working on clearing the considerable backlog on the painting desk.

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Nippon Castle for Warhammer- Part IV

Wow, the Nippon castle has been garnering a lot of attention on the web, keep up the comments guys and many thanks; especially the shout out here, thanks Scot!

I've stepped back and taken stock of where I am with the project at this point which is to say a lot further along then when I really picked it back up in October. Overall I'm pleased with the pace I've been on and have been enjoying the whole project. I've even found time to work on other projects like the siege equipment, paint a few units and other things that strike my fancy.

But, the title of this post says Part III so what am I working on right now in relation to the Nippon castle you ask: As I mentioned in Part II I've been re-reading my stack of White Dwarf magazines from the range of #220-235. In particular, in #225, Nick Davis' "Jungle Fever - Part 2" where he covers the creation of his Lizardman Castle has been of particular interest. #224 is where the rules appeared for 5th Edition Siege rules for moats which I'm drawing on as well, so here is the point of this post, moats.

As you can see, I've started on the beginnings of a moat for the castle. The moat will obviously surround the entire castle to simulate a Nippon fortress situated on the lowlands of Nippon (or Nihon?) near rice patties perhaps? I deliberately started at the most difficult part of the moats, the corner towers knowing the wall sections would be far easier. I also took inspiration from the corner board sections of 3rd Edition Talisman.

From there, once finished I also have been formulating ideas to create a way to raise up the entire thing so it will sit on a series of cliff walls to simulate a mountain top type of castle. That is further off and I will be using fair amount of paper-mache to make the mountainside.  In this, the 6th Edition High Elf Army Book has some interesting photos of minis and mountains so we'll see.

Note- my overall progress of my Nippon Army is tracked over here at Dogs of War Online.

Speaking of paper-mache, I took a brief side track to work a tomb/barrow, first seen in the 6th Edition General's Compendium on page 52. I started out when I looked at a barrow I created about 15 years ago. I was going to pull that apart but just decided to create something from scratch. Then remembered the barrow in the a fore mentioned General's Compendium. You'll have to excuse this photo as I remembered to take it as I was applying the paper-mache. But I digress, here is the barrow:

As you can see, the top will be removable because I'm insane apparently and need to add all kinds of stuff to the interior..

And if the barrow/tomb were not enough of a bonus, I've also been working on redoing the river pieces of the terrain that Jeff and Dave created 25+ years ago! I widened them a few years back but now I've added gravel to the river edges and will be painting them shortly. Need to add a few more bends and another river crossing part. You'll have to excuse the quick photo on this one too, I only remembered to take a picture after I had already started on it and undercoated one.

I think that's all for now. Good gaming in the new year everyone.

WM

Building My Nippon Castle for Warhammer Part I – A Long-Term Terrain Project

Hello all — Been a bit busy of late, but I’ve been working hard on Warhammer terrain. Case in point: over at Dogs of War Online, work on my Nippon Army continues. Or more accurately, work on my Nippon Castle continues.

At this point I’m so far into it that I can’t really stop (nor do I want to!). But I’ve also come to realize that it probably would have been cheaper to just buy some already-made terrain from various outlets online.

But therein lies my main argument against that: I work on the castle when I want to, at my own pace, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it. It’s relaxing and something completely away from technology — which I get plenty of Monday through Friday working in IT.

I originally started on the castle back in Spring 2013 and I’ve worked on it in fits and spurts ever since. About a month ago I picked it back up and have been diligently chipping away at it.

Here is where it stood around that time frame: 

What really kicked things into gear was taking a step back and starting on the outer walls, which are admittedly inspired by the walls from Siege & Conquest in the Warhammer Historical range. Strange as it sounds, that’s what spurred me on. I then went back and fixed some flaws in the main structure, and it keeps getting better and better.

Of course, here are some photos (this morning I started working on more of the roofs for the outer walls).

Here is where it stands as of about a week ago:

 

Here is where it stands as of a last night after about one week week of work between the photos. It may not look like much but I spent a lot of time fixing the roofs of the castle and strengthening the whole roof structure as well.