Friday, August 31, 2012

Kraag for a King - part two


This is part two of a multi-part series on the building of a mountain fortress or Kraag for the (soon to be) Great Martian King Antevaxx. Part one is here.

With the main structure laid out, Antevaxx decided to add a few access points for his soon to be burgeoning army.


For the openings near the edges of the columns, a scroll saw was used to cut in through the edges.  However, Antevaxx was not happy. He wanted more doors!


So what is a poor contractor to do? Enter the Forstner bit:


These bits cut a smooth sided hole with a generally flat bottom. In addition they can be used to drill overlapping holes. Using a drill press makes for neater holes but that doesn't count for much on this job.


The centre section was punched out and some clean up was done using a knife. For heavier material a jigsaw would be handy.


With all the access doors cut, it was time to test fit the floors again.  It looked good


As you can see, I added some screws to better attach the support blocks. It would have been too hard to add them once the outside is covered. I pre-drilled the holes to prevent the blocks from splitting. This reinforcement complete and starting from the bottom up, I spread a liberal amount of glue on the blocks then slid the floors into place. Just visible through the upper opening is on of the screws I put through the floor into the blocks to act as a clamp. I haven't decided if these will stay in place or be removed. I also added three blocks at ground level. They were glued as usual and screws run up through the baseplate to hold that on. I decided to set the tower off centre back on the baseplate to give more room at the front for scenery and gaming room.   

But something was missing - a place to land. Using some scrap MDF and the outside of the tube as a template, I made a series of landing platforms. 


These were cut to shape using the scroll saw but some work with a knife was needed to make them fit tightly to the columns. The circle is the outline of a flying  base washer. It ensures there will be enough space to put the model during a game. Lots of glue was applied to the curved inner edges and finishing nails were run through pre-drilled holes to add strength and pin everything together.


Antevaxx's growing army takes a test flight to ensure everything is working well.


Antevaxx buzzes the tower!

Next up we start on the external scenic work.

Part 2.5 is here. 



4 comments:

Michael Awdry said...

A great looking build, can't wait to see the next stage.

PatG said...

Thank you Michael. The next bit should be fun.

Herne said...

Cannot wait to see it in person! =)

PatG said...

Herne - who do you think will be play testing it? ;)