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This impressive 40K scale Nurgle Plague Tower was made by Mark James and Tom Jeyes,
two of our regular terrain building team. It was built for a display game at UK Games Day
1999, a report of which will be posted in the Scrapbook. The tower is made using the
same polystyrene (styrofoam) core technique used for the Stompa, and is quite easy to
construct. |
Materials
- 2" Styrofoam (polystyrene) to build the basic body shape
- Thick plastic or cardboard, such as picture-framing card
- Various tubes and pipes, including 1.25 inch plastic drain pipe
- Plastic medicine pots
- Lentils for chinky rivets and bamboo barbeque skewers for the axles
- Some Skaven bits and pieces including four wheels and bits of the generator from the
Doom Wheel, and various nurgling and daemon miniatures.
- A old broken 'Donkey Boiler' (model steam boiler).
- Air-drying clay, modelling putty.
Method
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As with the Stompa the basic shape of the tower was first cut from layers
of styrofoam - in this case, two layers were fixed together with PVA glue and wooden tooth
picks (cocktail sticks). The sides and back of the model were then covered with 'plates'
of cardboard and decorated with lentils to get a rivet effect. The exhaust tube that
you can see on the left is a drinks bottle (a small Sunny Delight bottle) that was later
cut down a bit.
There is a large hole cut through one panel that will have goo and nurglings emerging
from it. |
| Holes were cut through the cardboard here and there and a variety of
tubes, daemons and nurglings were shown bursting out. |
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The daemonic faces were modeled from air-drying clay. In this case we
used a brand called Efa-plas, but any air drying type would probably be OK. To avoid using
too much clay, which would take for ever to dry out and might shrink badly, the basic face
shape was first built up with off-cuts of polystyrene (styrofoam). Large headed nails
were pushed through the clay and into the foam to give the impression of the faces being
stretched and nailed in place!
This type of clay tends to shrink and crack as it dries, and so you have to fill the
cracks in again after a few days. |
Once it was thoroughly dry the clay was coated with PVA glue to harden and toughen it.
The cannons sticking out of the mouths are made form Smartie tubes (tubes of sweets a bit
like M&M's). They have a ring of cardboard and lentil rivets around them. This one
also has a tiny nurgling sat on it. The tubes were glued into the model first and the
faces built up around them. A hole was made into the polystyrene by melting it with a hot
metal tube. The tubes were then glued in place.
| The plague mortar is made from two pieces of plastic drainage pipe. One piece was slit
through so it would fit inside the other to give this two-layered effect. The mouth of the
mortar was thickened with a ring of modelling putty. More putty was added around the base
of the mortar to make it look as if it has been roughly welded in place. |
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The wheels had to have a crude, arcane look to them. Four of the wheels
are from the Skaven Doom Wheel model. Bamboo barbeque skewers were glued into the wheels
with epoxy glue, and these axles were then stabbed into the foam body of the tower. The
big wheels at the rear were made from a thick cardboard tube. Thinner strips of card were
glued around the rim, and the centre was covered with a circle of card. The wooden
planking effect is just carved into the cardboard with a craft knife.
The goo that you can see here and there is hot glue gun glue that has been squirted on
and then encouraged to run. Blow it like mad when it starts to run to cool it into a
dribble! |
| The rear of the tower has a boiler and a huge exhaust pipe. The boiler is
scavenged from a steam engine model. The exhaust pipe is a small plastic drinks bottle
stuck into a cardboard tube. The bottle rim was again thickened with a ring of epoxy
modelling putty. Fixing things like tubes to the model is much easier if you glue the
cardboard plates in place with PVA first, and then fix further details to the cardboard.
The foam surface is a bit fragile to glue to directly. Things like tubes are best if they
are inserted into a hole in the foam made by melting. A hot glue gun can be used to glue
to styrofoam provided it does not get too hot. |
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Painting and finishing
Once constructed the whole model was covered in slightly watered down PVA glue to seal
it and protect the styrofoam from the corrosive action of the aerosol spray. Everything
was then sprayed with a coat of Citadel black undercoat.
The first step in painting the model, once the black undercoat had dried, was to
dry-brush the whole thing with Boltgun Metal using a large stiff brush. Lots of black was
left showing so that it didn't look too clean and finished. The whole thing was then
washed in Chestnut Wash to give a grubby, rusted effect. The black then goes a very dark,
dirty brown colour.
The goo was painted Goblin Green and Scorpion Green. The faces were painted Snakebite
Leather and then highlights and shadows were added with lighter and darker browns.
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