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Welcome to GermsWorld Celtos
Hell Gate Terrain page
Here I present a step by step guide
to how I made a Hell Gate to go with
my Celtos Undead army.
This is not so much a "How to
make" but more of a "How
I made" guide to making wargame
scenery (complete with mistakes :)
Materials used
Polystyrene Packing
Craft Knife
Glue Stick
Sandpaper
and an old music CD
Also
Paints:
Coat
d' Arms
Flock:
Black
Cat Bases
Celtos is owned by Brigade
Models
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The Hell Gate in the game Celtos is
supposed to be a portal that allows
undead forces to enter the world.
In the game it resembles a stone arch
like that found at Stonehenge here
in England. So it needed to be suitably
ancient and well worn.
So I decided to make the arch out
of polystyrene.
I had recently bought a Fridge and
the block shown came as part of the
packaging.
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Step 1
First thing to do was to cut out some
straight lengths to build the arch with.
To cut the polystyrene I used one of
those craft knives with the extenable
blades. This allowed me to cut right
through the polystyrene in one go rather
than having to make several cuts and
end up with bits everywhere.
As ever when using knives, cut away
from yourself and be careful! |
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Step 2
Once I had cut the three blocks that
where to make up the arch I had a quick
test to check the size was right. So
I grabbed the old music CD which was
going to provide the base of the Hell
Gate and a miniature. Once it looked
right I used the sand paper to rough
up the arch and to round off the edges.
This is where I made my first mistake.
The sandpaper I had was far to corse
for using on polystyrene and removed
more of the surface than I wanted. Next
time I'll use a finer sandpaper! I also
used the knife again to cut off some
of the corners which are the first bits
of stone to fall off as a structure
weathers. |
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Step 3
Now I had to add a bit of landscaping
to the base. Because it's fairly cheap
(and I had quite a big area to cover!)
I used an air drying clay. That is
a clay when exposed to the air will
eventually dry out and become rock
hard.
In this case I used a brand called
DAS.
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Step 4
I covered the whole of the music CD
base in the clay and then decided to
add a bit more so that the gate will
appear as if it was on slightly higher
ground.
I spread the clay out with my fingers
and didn't worry about finger prints
since I planned on covering the base
with flock later. |
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Step 5
Once the clay was on and before it dried
I pressed the two upright pieces of
the arch into the clay. This was to
give the impression of part of the uprights
being buried and I hoped the drying
clay might stick the uprights in place. |
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Step 6
Being the impatient soul that I am I
then added yet more clay (yes before
the previous lot had dried!) which I
intended to sculpt into a path leading
to the gate.
Since the path would not be covered
by flock I needed to remove my finger
prints from that bit of the clay. I
did this by running a wet tissue over
the clay for the path thus removing
any finger prints. |
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Step 7
To make the path I used a clay sculpting
tool but anything with a flat edge would
have done. I pressed into the clay making
a sort of flagstone crazy paving look
to it.
I wanted it to look like an ancient
path that had broken up over the years. |
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Step 8
This is how the crazy paving came
out. I also, for effect added a few
extra flag stones to add more variety
to the base.
At this point I decided to leave the
clay to dry completely. So I left
it over night and came back to it
the next day.
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Step 9
It was at this point I came across my
second mistake. The clay I was using
needed to be exposed to the air in order
to dry and even putting the upright
columns on was enough to stop the clay
drying.
You can see from the picture the difference
in colour where the clay is still wet.
So I took the whole clay base off of
the music CD base as well and left it
to dry out properly. |
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Step 10
With the base was completely dry I
just needed to find a way of sticking
the Hell Gate together and on to the
base. I then realise I had no idea
how to stick polystyrene together.
All I knew was that normal glue tended
to melt polystyrene.
So I took a chance and used a paper
glue stick. It took a good hour but
actually worked sticking the arch
quite firmly together.
So I had my Hell Gate and just needed
to paint it.
Painting the Hell Gate
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