In this post I will go through the basics of scratch-building miniatures for war gaming and go through a step-by-step guide of how I built two Bale-fire Catapults for the Undead army I am currently working on.
Scratch-building is a nice way of adding a bit of uniqueness to an army and of, dare I say it, cutting costs if those are an issue. However, as is the case with every non-standard unit choice in Kings of War, Rule of Cool should be adhered to. You really want the unit to fit in with the rest of the army, and thus you should make sure you only scratch-build things that won't look out of place or unintentionally comical next to the manufacturer-made models in your army.
That means that there are certain armies that are easy to scratch-build units for and others that require a lot of skill and patience (and some that I really would not even attempt. I think the armies fall into categories something along these lines:
Easy:
Greenskins
Undead
Medium:
Human armies
Demons & otherworldly creatures
Difficult:
Elves
Dwarves
Easy armies are those that naturally have a worn, rough-shod look to them. Goblin war engines are easy enough to craft and Orcish chariots are also relatively easy. Nothing looks out of place and asymmetries are a naturally occurring phenomenon. Chariots can look ramshackle, and catapults can have strange contraptions for producing the energy for propelling their shots.
Medium armies require a more refined look to the models that you create, and should be approached with more planning and forethought, as lack of eye-catching detail is often a dead giveaway with scratch-built models, as is softness in detail on greenstuffed parts. That's why demons and other unnatural creatures are sometimes a bit tricky to craft, even though they don't have easily recognizable gear such as boots or belts that might be tricky to craft in a manner that looks convincing.
Bottom line is, scratch-building is a method of substituting money with time. Sometimes you might save some time due to delivery times, but usually you'll be spending oodles of time on a unit, instead of spending oodles of money on it. Sometimes you end up getting the best of both worlds, and spend both oodles of money and oodles of time on it.
Creating my own Balefire Catapults
My project grew out of desperation: the model's available for Balefire Catapults were not up to my standards in epicness or scale. The GeeDubs version from their TK army is long out of production, not to mention how costly it would be, and the Mantic one is... slightly small. I want my engines to be menacing machines of destruction and so I decided to build some myself.
I spent a few hours doodling and gathering ideas of what might work and what I might be able to pull off, and before long I had a working concept. I decided to build the typical throwing arm-and-twined-roped-for-torsion version of a catapult, as I felt that a counterweight using trebuchety thing would look too heavy for what the Balefire Catapult does.
Scavenging was quickly done, as all I needed was some matchstick wood for craft projects, some 1mm thread, plasticard, greenstuff, cork for the base, glue, and time. Lots of time.
I started by gluing the sticks together into clumps of four in order to get sturdier beams for the machines. At this point one shouldn't be too concerned with anything else than making the pieces lined up properly, which is mainly achieved by making sure your cuts are even and straight. That means I had to wait until the PVA was properly set and the pieces could withstand the hobby saw without breaking apart.
I started constructing the bases at the same time to make sure my machines fit the base properly. Sometimes, as was the case with these machines, one can build the unit directly onto the base, which makes assembly easier and also makes the unit look more natural on the base. this is very difficult with units like chariots that tend to have a lot of area that needs to be done under them on the base.
I managed to put the base structure of my machines together relative fast, in just a few hours, as I had a good idea of what I was doing from thorough planning. Planning stages saves one the trouble of going back to make more beams or cutting and crafting more of the basic parts needed for moving on with the construction.
My Catapults would be relatively sturdy and unlike the rest of my Undead force, they would be real, physical objects in stead of being ghosts or memories of ancient weapons. I broke the cork apart some and angled it in order to get a little more dynamic look for the base, as putting everything in right angles will look boring and a little bit off once it's done.
When working with matchsticks, a trick you can use is to first place the pieces together with PVA and then drop some super glue on them (I use the Army Painter glue) to get the pieces to hold a little faster so you can get stuff constructed quicker. I'd advice against using just super glue for gluing matchsticks as the wood is relatively porous and the liquid glue tends to get sucked into the wood, leaving very little glue between the parts and making the connections brittle.
For the engines "machiney" parts I decided to use the 1mm twine that I glued over some round sprue bits to create a winch for arming the Catapults. Twine is a little tricky to work with, but it can be used to create some very realistic looking ropes which is handy because, in my view, greenstuffed ropes tend to be way out of proportion and very difficult to work with to create the kind of contraptions that I want.
Twine reacts well to super glue and the easiest way to work with is to glue one end to wherever you want it to be first, then getting the twine into its intended position and then run some super glue all over the twine to harden it. It will retain some flexibility so it won't be brittle, but be careful with bending it, as it won't be really elastic like plastics so you can break it and fixing that is a bitch.
Then I added the throwing arms to my Catapults, and for the "baskets" I used thin strips of plasticard that I glued into a grate and then I glued sharpened pieces of plasticard upwards to create a mixture between a huge brazier some kind of a brazen claw. I wanted the machine look practical but also evil, intended not only to do it's job in battering down castle walls, but also to sow fear and despair as it did so.
I first used a thin metal pin as an axle to pin down the throwing arm (I use metal sticks with one looped end that are intended for crafting jewels). Then I threaded a lot of twine back and forth over the throwing arm and the axle to create a twisting look, like the twined ropes used in real ballistas and catapults and once again used super glue to make the twine set.
I didn't want two identical machines so I made one that was just being armed and the other so that it had just been fired, with its throwing arm in the middle of its motion. At this point I also inspected the machines and my plans for how I intended to finish each machine in order to avoid making mistakes or overlooking something that would make the project a lot more difficult later on.
At this point I also asked for some outside feedback from my better half, as getting another person's opinion is really valuable in getting things right. When I have a project I really like, I tend to overlook its shortcomings in terms of how it is actually turning out and getting that negative feedback is really important for successful scratch building.
An important point here is the willingness to listen to feedback: if you are not prepared to hear that your idea sucks and then having the reasons why spelled out to you, you probably will end up crafting some silly looking stuff. Of course, there are people who always see the negative in everything, but for the most part, people point out misgivings for a reason. Accept and analyse what feedback you get, and improve the end result.
Then it was time for greenstuff and some more twine. I used twine for ropes securing the machines to the stakes driven into the ground and for the rope connecting the throwing arm to the arming machinery. I used quite a bit of greenstuff in the baskets, along with some skulls, in order to make a flaming mass of skulls. I also added a few shields to the tops of the engines so that I could later paint the army heraldry on them, to tie them into the host.
The two materials that require time, and thus planning the construction stages are PVA and greenstuff. They take roughly a day to harden enough to withstand further construction and one should plan stages so that one can do most of the greenstuff work in a single go. That way the time-consuming wait for the materials to settle wont become a repetitive thing that further delays the already lenghty process of scratch-building something.
Painting the machines was relatively easy, as they are mostly just wood, twine and relatively few details. That's a double edged blade, however, as even though the machines were quicker to paint, I had to make sure there was enough going on on the bases to make the units looks finished. Luckily, the snowy winter bases of my Undead helped a long way, as adding snow drifts and icicles added some nice detail quick and easy.
At first I ran into the problem that I couldn't quite get the machine to look natural on the base. It sat there nice enough, and everything seemed to be in order, but somehow it just looked off. It took me a while to realize that the problem was that the machines needed to look weathered, like they'd been out there in the cold for some time. If you leave stuff out in subzero temperatures, it will accumulate a thin layer of frost on every surface that hasn't been touched in a while, so I went for an overall, intentionally uneven white drybrush. That way I could make the machine look like it had those tiny ice crystals that make everything look silvery grey in the cold on it.
Overall I ended up being pretty satisfied with my Balefires. They have a unique look to them that still doesn't mean people won't know what they are supposed to be. I'm also relatively happy with the level of detail I managed to put on the machines without making them either too cluttered or leaving them too bare.
Cheers for reading and, as always, feel free to comment!
AoW
Next up: Revenant Cavalry and my experience using Vallejo water products.
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