Castle Grayskull (MOTU) Custom

[ozzy-scaper]

Hey all,

A quick update; this is the final 'dirty' version of the skull facade. The lighting above the castle is a bright flourescent, so you can see it's nicely shaded. It took a lot of grey/black/grey etc 'mists' of spray to deepen the colour whilst still keeping it organic/rock looking. Does it look more natural?



The castle in general has been roughed up with oversprays of an awful 'mission brown' colour followed by a light dusting of flat black. The castle is standing on the wooden 'mountain base' that I made some time back. I haven't made the foam rocky face of the cliff yet, but I'm setting the castle up for a game, and decided to roughly spray the base and try using it to give the castle (more) ludricrous height. On the night I'll drape a dark green sheet over the base to retain a mountainous look. I made the base stand exactly as high as two castle walls stacked. The map will be a massive stone stair rising up from a swamp to the jawbridge. This is only the second 'full scale' game with Grayskull outside of one-on-one playtesting.

Up next is a WIP shot of the small one man elevators.



And another one...



They're literally made of left-overs and will have chains joining them to the bony fingers high atop the elevator shaft. They'll be painted mostly silver and dirty bronze like the rest of the metal fittings.

What's pretty cool is my wife has just bought some red velvet and offered to make "a regal curtain" to decorate the lower level of the front piece interior. We also had a party at home recently and my mancave bathroom was handy for partygoers. I had a lot of people coming and going (a lot of my wife's workmates) - and I was uncertain of the response to the 'den of geek' I've got going on down there. I was blown away by the 80's love that flooded the crowd! Surprisingly most of the women had fond memories of She-Ra and Golden Girl (google her - very cool toys!). One guy is bringing me his BOX OF VINTAGE HE-MAN TOYS(!!) to keep simply because he loved the castle, whilst another guy has now joined our gaming group after being "dragged to the party by his wife". He - fittingly - had passed on a rare night at home of miniature painting to, instead, spend the night at our place talking to guys about 80's toys and...miniature painting. There were a few dudes in the crowd who looked worried about the toys and stuff, but they outnumbered by the 80's tragics - and I was the host, so they focussed on the James Bond car collection I've got to maintain their hysteria of toy nerdvana.

The official list of 'to do' jobs on Grayskull is fast shrinking. It'll never be truly finished simply because you can keep adding detail until insanity and/or OCD takes over. However, the must do jobs are now; finish the elevators (easy enough), a bit of interior decoration, and 'pretty up' the rule book (which I've already typed). I still think about a bit of moss/grass draped in little amounts in corners here and there, but that sounds a bit 'meh'. Speaking of interior decoration...





Finally, here's a behind shot of the castle showing the 'underground cavern'. Basically - and this is a job that'll likely never happen - my idea was that the castle was built over a wellspring (to tie in to HS). The rectangular area under the castle was to have a removable insert that would be a detailed cavern focussed on the hexagonal 'wellspring' coming out of the ground. A lot of the castle features are more for actual play - and as a family is planned, I hope one day to be able to actually play with the castle like I remember playing with the original 80's toy version. Recently a friend visited with his two young sons. They spent all afternoon playing behind it - very carefully! - and it was a blast to watch.



Next project? Volcan Rock from Revell's 'Power Lords'. The Four Horseman guys behind the MOTU classics re-boot are doing a Power Lords re-boot, and as I've long thought about a custom Volcan Rock playset, the timing is perfect...

Oz

[cobravigon]

No Snake Mountain?

[ozzy-scaper]

Snake mountain would be very cool! However, I fear that would lead to the idea of making the entire Eternia playset - which would kill me! No, Volcan Rock appeals to me (and it's a mountain, so that's almost the same)...

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by ozzy-scaper

Snake mountain would be very cool! However, I fear that would lead to the idea of making the entire Eternia playset - which would kill me!

Heh.

[JESUSFREAK]

I got no idea what ya'll are talkin about but...

BRING US MORE AWESOMENESS OZZY!!!!!

[IAmBatman]

What? Slime Pit? Hordak's hide out (don't remember its name because I didn't have it)? Vehicles??

[Tornado]

I am not sure what the Thundercats looking castle is?

[IAmBatman]

The Fright Zone.

[ozzy-scaper]

Tornado - The 'Thundercats looking castle' is the central or lion tower of Eternia. Eternia was the epic three towered playset from the vintage He-Man toyline. Now that would be a great piece to have for your collection - and if that photo is your own stuff and not simply an online image well, colour me impressed!

IAmBatman - I would love to make a more detailed version of everything, yet am regrettably a lazy man! I've gotta conserve my strength, hence I'm really playing around with getting more proficient in using spray paints so I can start considering the final paint job of big projects (like Volcan Rock) achievable. I still can't believe I actually hand painted Grayskull originally! Now it looks exactly as I originally planned. My wife does get nervous whenever I mention 'touching it up' for fear I'll never leave it alone!

[IAmBatman]

Oh, crap, you're right! The Fright Zone looks different. I remember that Eternia tower now from some of the later sets with Buzz Saw Hordack and Scare Glow and all the rest!

Grayskull looks amazing now, so I think we're all just trying to save you from tinkering it to death by getting you on another project.

Or, you know, if you're just desperate for a distraction, you could always make another Grayskull for, say, an interested admin ....

[ozzy-scaper]

Hey,
It's a been a long time between drinks, but here we are. I'm not sure if there are many of you out there still interested in this project - but I thought it worth 'putting out there' to see if there's any life in the old (grey) bones yet.

Heroscape has rarely fallen off the agenda re our gaming nights, however it hasn't seen any Grayskull action since we had a 'castle' game early last year and - well, the game was terrible! I made the invaders armies too powerful, and the size of the castle proved tricky. We house ruled a few things and learned lessons for next time...

So finally, 'next time' has arrived... I give you 'Battlefield Eternia!'



In what I hope will be a three part campaign, our intrepid He-Man wannabes will start spread out around the edges of the swamplands. Red glyphs (six of 'em) are to be searched for one half of the fabled power sword. In the centre of the board is the other half just lying there, waiting to be grabbed. The glyphs, once searched, will be flipped and then become teleport hubs (hey, it's a big map! Every big game someone gripes "I wish we could teleport" - so, that's why). Each half of the power sword gives +1 defence and attack - so a figure with the combined power sword (He-Man essentially) gets +2 attack and defence - which he'll need - to survive the onslaught from combined rivals eager to kill him as he makes his way to the black glyph at the end of the collapsed bridge in front of Grayskull.

The winner? He who holds aloft the power sword and unashamedly shouts "By the power of Grayskull!" In the event of a tie (two opponents with a half sword each) we'll go into extra time and let them battle it out; one-on-one, gladiator style...

The only house rule we play is that you can move and shoot OR shoot then move. It just keeps the game moving better.

The next part of the campaign will see the winner defend a four-walled/closed castle against the hostile hordes outside. The third battle (if, people, there's a third) will see the castle opened up as a solid wall with an all out assault involving the power sword being amongst the attackers (i.e. they have the key to the castle, they just need to survive no mans land)...

The game tomorrow night (part 1) is looking to have four players at the minute. Maybe a fifth...



Finally, you might notice the colour of the terrain in the pics; I picked up a bargain stash of terrain recently and turned my spray gun to it. I love the less 'hexy' look - and have decided that although it de-values the terrain (I've got no plans to sell it) it looks great, and I'm going to do more painted terrain in the near future.

G.

[Sherman Davies]

Can't wait to see what's coming!

Also, Pathfinder has a minis set coming out soon that you might find useful as a He-Man fan.