Three grots lounged around the bottom of the crows nest while a fourth, called
Fiddgit, took his turn on watch, on the step by the large brass telescope that
was suspended by ropes from the mast.
He started as he suddenly spotted a distant ship lying in the roads outside
the fogbank, he wondered why he hadn’t seen it approach? He grabbed the
spyglass and turned it to the ship’s direction - he peered through it: it was
the Ogresun… and it was hoisting a string of signal flags. The grot read the
flags slowly and carefully, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth
in concentration. The ship was asking for a pilot to navigate them into
port.
He jumped down from the step and pulled the cord that sent up an
acknowledgement signal flag. He quickly relayed what was happening to the
others and tagged-in one of the grots to take their turn on the telescope.
No-one wanted to take their turn when it came to it, but they all knew only
the one on duty had a chance of claiming the rewards for spotting ships.
Fiddgit slid down one of the ropes that braced the crows nest, into the fog
below. He ran to the nearest tavern. There were no pilots to be found drinking
there so he carried on along the quay. The next building that was likely to be
fruitful was Gurdrog Gaff’s house, a wooden shack made mostly from shipwreck
timbers (like nearly everything in Gallowmire).
The grot knocked on the door and let himself in, he breathlessly passed on the
news of the ship; its name, location, and request to the orruk harbour pilot.
“Beg pardon sir, but Ogresun is waiting in the north-east roads, asking for a
pilot!”
Gurdrog grunted, put on his hat, grabbed the bag from the back of his door and
gave the grot a farthing. He closed his front door and climbed the stairway to
his roof, where his sky-cutter was tied up. The grot squealed to himself and
ran back to his post, but via the tavern to purchase a tot of rum on the way.
The wind was abeam but the ethertide was against him, so it took longer than
normal for Gurdrog to sail out through the fog bank to the outer roads.
As he emerged from the fog he saw the Ogresun - a slab-sided and slow flying
ship, heavily armed with lots of guns - including an Ironblaster cannon in the
focsle.
He called out, “Ahoy Ogresun! Gallowmire pilot, asking permission to come
aboard!”
“Took ya time didn’t you? Come up smartly now.” The call came back from the
ship.
Gurgrog tied his cutter to the side of the ship and climbed up to the deck.
“Kaptain will want a discount cause ya late.” said Fishgutz, the deck-hand
that met him there.
The pilot grunted at him but didn’t comment. His fee was between him and the
ship’s master, not a swabbie.
+++
I've wanted to make rocky outcrops for a long time - I kept putting it off as I wasn't sure how to make them. But, after reading a
few other people's articles about using cork bark to make cliffs, I decided to just give it a try anyway.
Sketchy ideas from the corners of my notebooks:
The first thing I needed was the wooden house to go on top, so I knew how big
to make the flat area of the rocky "island".
I bought a Lake-town House kit (from GW's scenery range for The Hobbit),
assembled it mostly straight-out-of-the-box and then added stairs from the
Warcry bell-tower kit. To make it even more Warcry play-friendly I also added
some of the Lake-town walkways (with old Fortified Manor joists to support
them) and (an even older; Mordheim!) ladder to the roof, so the house isn't
just a line-of-sight blocker.
I added a few other scenery bits-box extras too - a window frame, a lantern,
etc. - to individualise it more. It's a really nice building kit, so I can see
myself getting more at some point.
I've had some pink foam saved for making rocky outcrops for years and years
and years (it has moved house with us three times, much to my wife's dismay). I started roughing out the shapes I would need. I will say that I wasted loads
of (precious!) foam at this stage as I made all the chunks far too big
considering they would be covered in thick pieces of cork bark! I ended up
cutting off a lot more foam that I expected.
I bought a 500g box of cork bark from eBay for £8.50 (from a pet supplies
store - it was intended for lizards or spiders!) and started experimenting
with it.
And cutting off more pink foam...
I used PVA glue to attach he cork bark chunks, and elastic bands to hold them
in place while the glue dried overnight. There is also a bamboo skewer that
you can't see, impaling the pink foam diagonally from top to bottom! I
sandwiched a torn bit of paper between the layers of pink foam, as in the past
I found that foam doesn't stick well to foam but, with PVA on both sides, it
sticks very well to paper.
I took this stage very slowly, over the course of several evenings, as the PVA
glue wouldn't hold the cork in place on it's own and it would have fallen
apart under it's own weight if I'd rushed it.
And I could only find two large
elastic bands.
I kept putting the house in place so I could see how it was working, but it
wasn't attached yet.
Viktor reminded me to add "rough hewn stone stairs" to the corner, just in
time. I pulled off one of the pieces of cork bark while the glue was still wet
and added some foam offcuts, carved into shape. I will add plasticard stone
paving slabs to the steps later.
I started filling the gaps with pre-mixed Polyfilla by squirting it directly
from the tube into the spaces between and behind the cork. I pushed small
chips of cork and some Citadel Woods branches (that I'd saved when making the
Hysh scenery I made a couple of years ago) into the Polyfilla in the gaps as I went along.
I was worried the branches wouldn't be attached strongly enough (they are
really good at catching clothing during games!) so I dripped a little
superglue onto spots where they touched the cork and sprinkled a small amount of baking
powder onto the superglue while it was still wet - the combination sets like
concrete!
More cork bark...
I began using smaller and smaller bits of cork bark, squeezing filler into the
gaps between the larger bark chunks, then jamming in little chips of cork, and
even smaller "crumbs" of cork, to fill and texture the spaces. I also
played with the positions of some walkways (from the Lake-town House kit), to
be added later.
Nearly there with construction.
I added plasticard steps then sealed the
remaining exposed foam with PVA glue and ripped up scrap paper, and more
filler spread as thinly as I could get it. I sanded some bits down when it was
dry.
I glued down the walkways with a generous amount of PVA glue and poured sand
into the glue so the walkways looked like they had sunk into the ground a
little.
I painted PVA glue thinly over the rest of the flat surfaces, and onto the top
of the cork bark where it felt right, and sprinkled sand onto the wet glue. I
did this on a tray so I could tip off the excess sand and pour it back into
the tub.
It's ended up quiet a bit bigger than I imagined, and a hell of a lot heavier. I'm really pleased with in none-the-less.
On to paint next!
