http://misterhook.net/trojanpress/PR302.html
and this:
http://misterhook.net/trojanpress/PR304.html
But my gaming group just finished up The Sunken Ziggurat last weekend, so I finally found the time to work on some of my other back-burner modeling pojects.
First of all, a big SHOUT OUT should go to Rick Maffei for supplying yours truly with a PDF version of DCC #26 - The Scaly God. What follows are my preliminary salvos over the Whitefang Stronghold. I plan to post some POV shots and maybe even some beautified wide-screen shots (and eventually map out the trog caves), but for now, my initial attempts at modeling Castle Whitefang will have to suffice:
As you can see, when built to scale, the Whitefang Stronghold takes on a more portly appearance, but all of the major massing elements from the original diagram are still on display.
So here is the cut-away view of Level 1. The horses had to be shrunk down to "pony" size along with the wagon, even though I widened the gates on both ends of the Gatehouse. Otherwise the "covered wagon" model I downloaded off of 3D Warehouse would have had a tight squeeze through the gates. Also, conforming the base of the spiral stair case to the size of the map made for some tough modeling decisions later on.
From here you should be able to tell which room is the Chapel and which is the Great Hall. Players' Handout B showed circular stained glass windows in the chapel, which I thought were worth including in the model even though they aren't indicated on the map.
Speaking of which, let's talk about stairwells for a minute. When modeling in 3D, you can't just start a stairwell at the base and NOT follow through all the way to the top of the staircase. Modeling the space in 3D forced me to take into consideration all sorts of things that I would never worry my pretty little head about if I were drawing the map out in Game Master mode.
For instance, you'll notice that the spiral staircase now carves out a sizable chunk of the Great Hall (area 2-2). I'm sorry, but it couldn't be helped. Also, the map indicates two stone pillars located beneath the center of the Captain's Office (area 3-3). In real life, there's no way you'd be able to cantilever stone out that far, especially if the pillars are supposed to support weight of areas 3-3, 4-2 and 5-1 on its massive shoulders. Hence there are four pillars instead of two.
Now you can see the edge of the Captain’s Office resting comfortably on the additional pillars. The stairways in the Training Room (area 3-1) gave me a serious headache as it seemed as though the stairs were drawn right in front of the arrow slits on the north wall. I could never wrap my head around how the soldiers were supposed to use the arrow slits for target practice if you placed a flight of stairs right in front of them, so I ended up placing the stairway in the south corner of the room and placed wooden gangplanks over top of the arrow slits.
Since I used wood for the gangplanks, I figured it would be cheaper and more structurally sound to make the entire floor of the Barracks out of wood, though it would be prudent to support said flooring with a few support beams underneath. On the plus side, all you’d need to alert your entire crew would be to thump the butt of your spear on the wooden floor and you’d be sure to reach the ears of all your bunk mates.
I put the book shelves for the Library against the back of the stairs, so all you can see from this angle is a desk and chair. Again, I pushed the stairways to the sides of the room to prevent them from interfering with the windows and arrow slits on opposite sides.
I made the roof of the west tower thirty feet tall. I also cantilevered the base of the roof out three feet. Practically, this is where you would place an “upstairs latrine” on the north side of the tower so that the refuse would fall outside the castle walls.
The floor of the Captain's Quarters starts at the base of the roof line above the Barracks.
I made the roof of the east tower 40 ft. tall since I figured the builders would try their best to make the castle viewable from a distance.
Well, that's it for now. I REALLY need to get started on The Volcano Caves, so I don't know when I'll finish modeling this DCC, but I will eventually. Honest!
). This is how the view from the roof parapet may have looked while the castle was still in pristine contidion. The reference photo in the background is actually from a river in China somwhere where a road/bridge was conveniently placed halfway up the mountain side, used here to depict the winding path along the Dragonspire mountain range of Aereth. 