Monday 6 June 2016

Yagura - The Watchtower

Hi all

a little while ago now I started building a watchtower to feature in my Bushido games, you can find the WIP post here.  In between then and now, I have been constantly distracted by little side projects and of course the building of my Temple board which diverted my attention (consumed me....) away from completing it.  But here we have the finished article.


ground floor - the Gaol

interior of the gaol

first floor - the living quarters



second floor the fighting platform, note the trapdoor and ladder combo, practice mat and crennelated walls



Not really a lot to add to the construction side of it for you, I used the obligatory coffee stirrers to come up with the last floor which was a fighting platform for the guards.   I wanted the top of the tower to be accessed by trapdoor and ladder rather than stairs for better defence.  For detail I added a practice mat for the guards to hone their skills while on duty.  I also crenellated the walls for archery purposes.  In typical Japanese style the roof isn't attached necessarily to the walls and instead rely on different supports known as "Tokyo" brackets which take the weight of the roof.  the roof was constructed with coffee stirrers (a technique I will not be using again as it is a total pain!) and painted with the same colour I used for my dojo building.  I also added some information posters for the general populace to the front of the building in keeping with the theme of it being part defence/part civic building.  I'm also probably going to change the stairs at some point as i'm not happy with the way they look,  Joe from Zabadak's Zombie World blog has converted me from the practical, chunky stairs to a more aesthetic platformed staircase.

Incidentally if you love beautifully crafted terrain and cinematic boards and batreps, check out Yeti's blog - Sarcophagi, for his latest posting regarding what looks to be a very cool game - Strange Aeons, it is simply amazing.  He also produces amazing pieces and boards for Bushido which have inspired me without a doubt and although I lack this guy's skills, it won't stop me trying to get better.  Check it out, I guarantee you won't regret it!!

http://sarcophagi.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/strange-aeons-intro-battle-report.html

hope you enjoy
dGG




27 comments:

  1. Very highly attractively desirable.... We WANTS it my
    precious.

    Excellent stuff, and very informative WIP(s) too. Thank you for taking such amazingly painstaking time to share this with us.

    I`m dead impressed, and yet again (ever since Tarot told us all "hey, guys, you REALLY need to go take a look at this Bushido stuff all made by this cool bloke") I`ve found myself slowly more and more hooked on what you do.

    Its excellent mate, and very inspiring... making me think more and more deeply about the possibilities of this game. They say terrain makes a game as much (if not more) than the miniatures and the rules themselves, and never a truer word spoken, than in this case.

    Top notch.

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    1. Thanks Stephen, I appreciate your kind words they're very encouraging. I totally agree with the sentiment regarding terrain and the look of the game being so important, more so as I get older ;-)

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  2. Andy, I can only agree with Steve's comments. It's great to see the finished watchtower. The little details you add to your models help bring them to life and are exactly what I'd do as well.

    It is clear to anyone reading these posts that "Bushido" has fully captured your imagination and inspired you to raise your game as far as painting and modelling goes. Please don't stop. Just carry on showing us such wonderful eye candy as this fabulous building. You may yet convert me to being a "Bushido" gamer!

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    1. Thanks Bryan mate, it's nice to get this finished, I've got a couple of terrain pieces to come yet which might be of interest. This game has definitely grabbed my full attention :-)

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  3. raised the bar Bryan, I think he`s set the new standard by which we must all try and follow, and the bar is now wayyyyy up there, I feel I almost need binoculars to see the top.

    Stunning Andy.

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  4. What a superb build and great to see it completed. The attention to detail has been inspirational - brilliant job Sir.

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    1. Thank you sir, I'm inspired in turn by the depth of detail in your own work :-)

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  5. Fantastic work, looks great. Off to steal coffee stirrers now

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    1. They're a godsend for the terrain building modeller :-)

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    2. I've also recently discovered tongue depressors too, I'm sure they will feature in the next build somewhere....

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  6. Terrific build Andy, you really are the Baron of "Bushido" in my books, my friend. I especially like the abode's cellar - somewhere private and away from the eyes of disbelievers which Bryan can presumably retreat to when enjoying all things Chibi ;-)

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    1. Well, it is nice and quiet and far away from prying eyes. Plus it has some awesome guards to protect me. It's funny you should mention Chibis, Simon, as I was just discussing with Andy the possibility of me playing "Bushido" with my Ninja All Star minis. More on this later, my friend!

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    2. I have been so close to picking "Ninja All Stars" up Bryan. The only thing stopping me is that I want to see what "Rail Raiders" is like first - paint them up and then go for the Ninjas :-)

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    3. The cellar is my favourite bit too Simon, I can just see Bryan down there painting chibi ninjas and releasing them out into the Bushido world to cause mischief

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  7. Lovely work, Andy. Whilst you may not (yet) have tempted me into Bushido, you have given me next months project. Distressingly, I seem to have accumulated rather a lot of miniatures awaiting painting, including samurai, ashigaru, ninja, ronin, onmyoji, kunoichi, and a Heroclix to Sumo conversion. P!us there's going to be a batrep too using my own little set of rules, which have gained their own genre-specfic name for this variant. Hmm, might need more a bit more than just a month...

    And remember, it's "inspired by", rather than "copying", although I will be blaming you in my posts! ;-)

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    1. I look forward to reading the batrep and getting to grips with your rule set Jez :-)

      Must remember " inspired" - got it!

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  8. Replies
    1. Thanks HW, it does look good on the tabletop :-)

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  9. What a simple but highly effective model! I do like the minimalist internal details, it has a greater overall effect than it really should and leaves more than enough room for figures too!

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    1. That's the idea zab, the whole thing needs to be playable but still hold enough detail to be aesthetically pleasing :-)

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  10. I`m thinking of the classic Lord of the Rings, Boromir to Frodo speech: "give it to me, it should be mine, you can say I was too strong and took it by force."

    WOW I want one of those so bad.

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    1. haha.... not a chance! the roof was too fiddly for me to do another...
      ;-)

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  11. LOLOL you cant blame a girl for trying ^^

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