Qiang watchtower

Now, this is the fourth one I've made of these and each time it's been a bit different. Same idea though, a large tower with a small construction next to it with some walls surrounding a small compound. These things in real life are quite something and it was difficult to make it so it would sit on a table and still look the part, hopefully it works...

This is a picture from the net of a real one, or a collection of real ones. As you can see, unless a large hill is built then it's quite difficult to get them right. There are even more extreme versions as well.

Anyway, onto the build. The main carcass was built from 5mm foamex (this material has many different names but is a type of dense styrofoam and can be cut a shaped with a scalpel) and once this was done it was covered in resin casts of Wills sheeting. I have had a large, A4 size, sheet of this stuff made from four sheets of the Wills styrene as it's much easier and cheaper to cover larger areas with it. There was some balsa wood used for the roofs and it was distressed quite a lot.

On to the painting. Various sprays were used lightly all over the build to break up the colour as much as possible (the photos don't really show this) and once they had dried then it was onto the weathering and washing. Many shades of brown and green were used, both pastels and inks, again to help break up the monotony. Also, several different greys and tans were used to drybrush some difference into it.

The ground was heavily drybrushed with varying shades of warm, earthy colours and a few inks were put on in places. Once all these had dried then the growies were added. Two different types for this build but more than I normally put. The area in which these tower inhabit do have some very lush locations.

Some balsa walkways were added to the courtyard and were painted the same as the roofs, namely sprayed brown and then lots of washes and drybrushes of different hues. Stains were added with pastels and the whole thing was given a coat of spray matt varnish.

ttfn