Custom Castles (1st pic added)

[HyperactiveSloth]

I had the brilliant (remains to be seen) idea today to make some custom terrain. It's going to be a huge project! Specifically I was thinking of making some remade theme castles using the Castle Set. First I thought to make General specific castles and even have some awesome ideas for making a Vydar castle with a lighted doorway, LEDs, metallic sections, surveilance cameras, etc, etc,...

I really want to make it something awesome and do a full set of them. If they're good enough (and not prohibitively expensive) I'd like to make more than one and sell them. I was thinking, though that a castle for each General might not be the best way to go.

My question to all you guys is, "What kind of castle themes would be more appealing?" Ones for different armies is one way to go. I was also thinking of making a castle for each kind of terrain, ice/snow, lava, sand etc. What do you guys think? What types of castles would you love to see made?

[Taelord]

I think all of them would be cool. The general specific ones would be cool, but they couldn't all be built with the basic castle set. Utgar's would be Black with spiked battlements, Ullar's would be kind of like the normal one, but it would have ivy all over the walls and the door could be a treeish looking door, there could also be wall pieces that look like trees. Einar would be very difficult. It would have to be a Japanese style palace to look right. And Vydar I think would almost have to look like a base camp sort of thing. You know, a prison style biulding with cement walls, chiken wire battlements, and a door made of steel that slid into the wall. I like your idea too HyperactiveSloth. And a Jandar castle is just like athe normal one. For terrain specific castles I think a rock castle would be cool. A pyramid style would be cool for desert. A snow one could covered in snow and have glaciers be able to connect to it. I don't know about a Lava one. I can't really think of anything else for castles except for a marro hive castle.

[Jotun]

I think this is a cool idea. I've consider painting my castles to look like they've been made from browner stones, like the Mage Knight castles. I've got some ideas for an Ullar castle. Soon (like when I get off my lazy butt) I'll show some pics of a cool swinging bridge I made recently. It would work well with an Ullar camp. You could also make some large trees out of cardboard and paper mache or whatever. Build it on a 7-hex base and put another 7-hex tile to connect bridges to. I'll look into this and see what I can come up with.

[johnny139]

Marro Hive.

That's all that must be said.

[Jotun]

By the way, did anyone notice the oxymoron in the poll choices?

[johnny139]

By the way, did anyone notice the oxymoron in the poll choices?

Sheep in the Big City!

[HyperactiveSloth]

Well johnny, first you couldn't really make a marro hive out of an existing castle set. I'm going to do a re-make, not a make from scratch. Also, isn't there still a rumor going around that Hasbro is going to possibly make an Official marro hive eventually?



Also, I actually went and picked up my new castle today (and got the last flagbearer left in the area for free with it :) ) I'm still deciding whether or not to do Alliance Castles or Terrain Castles, but while I'm deciding I'm gonna go ahead and make my Vydar castle anyway (might just have to keep this one ;) ). Well, there's not enough room on the outside of the doorway to make scanner style light slits I was going to do, but I've got an alternate idea for the gate. I'm going to drill out the three large "spikes" of metal and replace them with blue LEDs as my first step. I also really liked taelord's idea of barbed wire, but I'm going to try and make a high tech version. Laser Fence! I'm going to put little supports just below the tops of each wall piece with a section of clear colored plastic rod running between them. Still gotta find the material for that, though. OOH, and I had the idea of cutting pieces froma circuit board and placing them over the wooden parts of the Castle Door. Not as difficult as it sounds, I can get most of my materials for this whole project by ripping apart 2-3 99¢ calculators (I was going to get the translucent kind and use strips of the casing to make the light slits).
Man, my brain's racing again... I think I'm gonna have to make a quick trip to Radio Shack and Wal-mart now!

Oh, one more thing! Do you guys think I should keep the castle the original color (much easier) or repaint the whole thing. I was thinking of painting it something like the color of the Blastatrons armor; a bluish steel grey. Thoughts?

[HyperactiveSloth]

By the way, did anyone notice the oxymoron in the poll choices?

General Specific!!! HAHAHAhahahahaha!!!!
Leave it to me. I AM an oxymoron after all!

[Jotun]

I think the castles at least need a black wash no matter what you do with them. As far as painting them to match the figures, I think the people living in a high tech security base would make them practical rather than pretty. Maybe look at some Warhammer 40k buildings to get some ideas.

[HyperactiveSloth]

I think the castles at least need a black wash no matter what you do with them. As far as painting them to match the figures, I think the people living in a high tech security base would make them practical rather than pretty. Maybe look at some Warhammer 40k buildings to get some ideas.

I was really thinking the opposite. The black wash looks great for an old stone castle look, but the plain grey actually looks more clean and concrete-like which would more suit Vydar. I wonder what a lighter wash would look like... hmmmm maybe somewhere from white to sandstone colored wash would give it a concrete-block-and-mortar kind of feel. Problem is I can't picture how it would look. My artistic ability doesn't extend that far.

Well, I wasn't thinking about that color to "match" anything or be pretty. I was thinking along the lines of making it look more metal-ish but still fit with the look of Heroscape pieces. If I go with a more realistic look I found an awesome paint to use. It's designed to bond with plastic and leaves a "hammered" black finish. It would make the whole castle look like armor plating. Might be a touch too dark, though. If I find it in a medium to dark grey I'll probably use that. It would look incredibly awesome... but it might not look right on top of plastic Heroscape terrain. I have to decide if I want to keep it more original, or go more artistic.

[HyperactiveSloth]

Well, I just started doing some fitting and arranging to see how it's going to look. I think this idea for the door is gonna work out really well. I still have to figure out exactly how I'm gonna attach it, though. Since it's transparent I can't use glue or it'll show through. Hmmm...
http://static.flickr.com/116/285377774_28b79487f8_o.jpg

[Jotun]

That looks cool HS. I don't have any suggestions for attaching it. But it's definitely a start to make that the door to a top secret lab.

[justjohn]

Hey HS. Great idea. 3 things:

If the paint you are planning on using is Rustoleum Hammered Spray, I would suggest against it. I just used this for my daughter's costume, and while it looks great, even with an additional lacquer finish (or spray finish, depending on your preferences) it still tends to peel off pretty easily.

Doing a lighter than the stone walls color with a wash probably won't turn out so well. It will end up being lighter in the crevices than on the surface, so it will look somewhat backwards. However, you could drybrush the walls with the light white tan color and prbably get the result you're looking for.

The door looks very neat, here's an idea how to attach it. I assume it's a design you did on some thin plastic sheet (the circuit design). You could take the door, and cut out the wood portions with an xacto knife (it's hard plastic, could be difficult). Once you have the door cut out, you could use the same xacto and cut .5 inch long grooves (female parts) on the inside of the door. Then on the clear plastic sheet, you could include small tabs (male parts) that could tab into the female parts you cut into the door. Even add glue on the tabs that noone would ever see.

Did that description make 1 lick of sense? I don't know how to put it into better words, sorry.

Hope this helps, can't wait to see a finished product.

[tim_stl]

i would be inclined to remove the wooden look beneath the circuits. a dull white or the blue-gray of the 'trons would look good, i think. white might help you hide the glue (if you use something like elmer's, or if you don't mind losing the wooden texture, you could paint the back of the circuit sheets so you don't have to worry about the transparency. that's the route i'd go, with color choice depending on what you plan to do with the rest of the castle (paint or wash).



tim

[HyperactiveSloth]

Hey HS. Great idea. 3 things:

If the paint you are planning on using is Rustoleum Hammered Spray, I would suggest against it. I just used this for my daughter's costume, and while it looks great, even with an additional lacquer finish (or spray finish, depending on your preferences) it still tends to peel off pretty easily.

Actually, the paint I was refferring to is not the Rustoleum brand, but a kind called "Fusion". It's specially made to bond to plastic. I've used it to do repairs to plastic surfaces before and they're not kidding. It bonded so well with the plastic I was even able to sand it! :shock: I'm still not sure if I'll use it, though. 1) I think it's too dark unless I can find a lighter shade somewhere. 2) I kinda like the concrete idea better.

Still undecided.

Doing a lighter than the stone walls color with a wash probably won't turn out so well. It will end up being lighter in the crevices than on the surface, so it will look somewhat backwards. However, you could drybrush the walls with the light white tan color and prbably get the result you're looking for.

Thanks alot for the suggestion. I think that might look good. I'm actually toying around with the idea of making the main walls "concrete" and paint parts of it with the Hammered spray to make a steel-reinforced look. Hmmm...

The door looks very neat, here's an idea how to attach it. I assume it's a design you did on some thin plastic sheet (the circuit design). You could take the door, and cut out the wood portions with an xacto knife (it's hard plastic, could be difficult). Once you have the door cut out, you could use the same xacto and cut .5 inch long grooves (female parts) on the inside of the door. Then on the clear plastic sheet, you could include small tabs (male parts) that could tab into the female parts you cut into the door. Even add glue on the tabs that noone would ever see.

Did that description make 1 lick of sense? I don't know how to put it into better words, sorry.

Hope this helps, can't wait to see a finished product.

Yeah, it makes sense, but I made the overlays from actual circuitry (from the keypad of a calculator) and they're already cut to fit in the triangles. Really, I don't have that much faith in my exacto cutting abilities to not hack up the door. After all, if I screw it up, I'd have to buy a whole 'nother castle just to replace the door. :x Thanks for the idea, though. I might just have to use your "slots" idea for some other parts of the castle.


i would be inclined to remove the wooden look beneath the circuits. a dull white or the blue-gray of the 'trons would look good, i think. white might help you hide the glue (if you use something like elmer's, or if you don't mind losing the wooden texture, you could paint the back of the circuit sheets so you don't have to worry about the transparency. that's the route i'd go, with color choice depending on what you plan to do with the rest of the castle (paint or wash).

Actually, I was thinking of doing that. I just couldn't figure out what color to do it in. Plus I thought it might look funny having the "woodgrain" of a different color. If I paint the backs of the overlays to match, though, I won't have to worry about it. Thanks!
Now, to figure out the color... I'm really bad at picturing colors without trying it out. :(

[tim_stl]

Actually, I was thinking of doing that. I just couldn't figure out what color to do it in. Plus I thought it might look funny having the "woodgrain" of a different color. If I paint the backs of the overlays to match, though, I won't have to worry about it. Thanks!
Now, to figure out the color... I'm really bad at picturing colors without trying it out. :(

i'd save it until the walls were done, to see what looks best with them. slip some different colored paper under the circuit overlays to see what you like.

and be sure to post pictures. :)



tim

[kenjib]

I think blastatron blue-grey and the standard circuit board silvery-green would both look good.

[K/H_Addict]

you could possible attach it with rivets. If you can find any small enough, you could put one in each corner. Maybe you could simply use brad nails and file them down even with the door.

[yagyuninja]

That's going to look very cool, HS. Can't wait to see more pictures.

[HyperactiveSloth]

On my last trip to the store to scout materials I think I found what I'm going to use for the Laser Fencing. I'm going to save it until I can show you how it turns out, though. :P hehehe Now I'm trying to decide if I should have yellow, red, or blue laserbeams...
Man, I'm much better with structures, shapes, and textures than I am with colors. I'm gonna drive myself bonkers if I keep this up! :D

[Mr.Zolt]

I make my own houses for street fighting, they're enterable and have windows and stuff in em.

[Adam]

I make my own houses for street fighting, they're enterable and have windows and stuff in em.
the only reason i haven't done that (besides money, laziness, and missing tv episodes) is because it might take up half a space and waste said space. still cool idea. mind pming me some pics or showing me a thread (if existent) that you made showing em off?

I think the general specific (at first i was like, how can it be general (i thought you ment NOT specific) and be specific at the same time. then i went :frustrated: D'OH!!! just thought that was funny in a wierd and humourous way) would be cool as well as terrain specific. i had to choose between two perfect choices TOO MUCH PRESSURE!!! :explode:

for utgar you should add cracks and bashes to the castle or like crumbled parts and half smashed stuff

for ullar you should make it coverd in vines and leaves and add a ever so tiny wash of light green

for einar you should maybe add uh humany things?

for jandar you should add like a wash of light light blue and add more things and stuff (i dunno! i like utgar the most how should i know what jandar thinks purtyful)

for vydar keep on chugging along with your idea TOOT TOOOT chuga chuga chuga chuga

ok that last part that right there was embarrasing :D :) :( :oops:

[GeneralRolando]

I have been working on my castle and am getting another for christmas.
I am painting it all black (not solid black) so it will look like it is utgars.
After that I am going to leave the other one normal so we can play capture the flag and stuff like that. I am having trouble with the flag though.

[HyperactiveSloth]

Rolando, check these 2 threads. Lots of good tips for making an Utgar Flag.

Flag customizing:http://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=3669

Flag swapping:http://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=3164

[johnny139]

Though the brown color kinda ruins the effect, I think it was executed very well. I can't wait to see what else you're going to do with it! It's a Vydar themed castle, I assume? Or is it Soulborg in general?