Port Blacksand

I managed to get a little bit more done on the market stuff today.  Nothing too spectacular just quick base coats down in most parts with dry brushing and contrast paints.    Once dry I will go back in and tidy things up a little and add some highlights.

I still have a bit more to do on these market stalls to ‘busy them up’.

I was hoping to get a lot more ‘scratch building’ elements done for this project by now and finally, the Proxxon hot wire cutter I ordered arrived from Germany.  The plan is to build raised foam blocks and carve brickwork into them to blend them into the bases of the buildings.  I can then add stairways leading up to different levels to add an extra dimension.

I also have more natural elements to add, trees, plants, and the like.  Not only for the garden district but also to incorporate amongst the buildings.  From there it would be a natural progression to add countryside on the side of the bridge that does not have the city entrance.

In the book, the Singing Bridge is so called because of the skulls that hang from it.  The wind blows through the skulls making an eerie sound.

I wanted to pay homage to this with some removable sections I could add to my stone bridge.

Made from string, steel wire twisted to look like rope, hobby wood sticks and citadel skulls this is what I came up with.

The posts have magnets in them so they can be easily removed.

I may go back and make a wooden bridge that these can also go on.

Because the main horizontal ropes are made from steel wire, magnets can also attach to those.  I may do some magnetic planks to go between these so that they can also be used as rope bridges in the deepest darkest Africa or some pirate-infested island.

Every city needs a market square so that adventurers can stock up on provisions.   I figured it would also be a good place for a bell tower too.

The market stalls still have work to go on them.  I need to fashion some tops for them and paint up all the details.  I think for the tops I will use balsa and cloth for the most part.   The various wares will all be loose so I can swap them around for variety.   The ‘free range’ chickens and pigs will have to have bases I guess, especially the chickens because they don’t stand up too well on their own.

The Bell in the tower is resin and needs to be painted and I may add doors to the tower, or maybe not.

I have a Tavern on the go at the moment.  It’s still in pieces at the moment and I am toying with the idea of adding to it or just going with how it is.   I guess I can do more buildings and see how they look with the tavern and if I don’t like them, I can turn them into a separate row of buildings.

I Still have the gardens to do and the topiary that could attack anyone who attempts to take the lotus flower in the middle of the garden.

There is probably loads more to add if I put my mind to it.

Sewer’s progress.  Still lots more to do with this, I guess the sewers could have been a project all in themselves.  There is no way I will finish this by the end of the month so the sewers may have to flow into Dungeon month.

Again, same basic painting with nothing ground-breakingly different.  I guess if this does flow into Dungeon month, I can add some critters to populate it as it expands.

From memory there was a list of ingredients that were needed to take on Zanbar Bone, one of those was Hag’s hair which I think was found in the city sewers.

I am still waiting for a copy of the book to arrive, so I am trying to do this from memory.

Anyway, even if I am wrong and have my books mixed up what city would be complete without a network of sewerage tunnels beneath it to explore?

These are painted up in the same way as the rest of the stonework, are completely modular and just the beginning of the sewer network.  For the filth floating between the walkways, I used Vallejo British Army Uniform and covered it with ultra gloss wood varnish.

I have plenty more sewer segments to do.  However, I don’t intend to do a full layout of them, just enough to create numerous different scenes of about 2′ square.  After all, any gameplay in the sewer system will most likely be at a skirmish level.  I will do a few pieces with pipework’s as well because these would also fit in nicely with my Gaslight project.

Once I have built all I intend to do I will go back over the sewage with some two-part epoxy to help disguise the very layered look a bit.

It doesn’t overly bother me as it is and the layers look less noticeable to the naked eye, but they don’t look great in pictures.  On the plus side, the layers make a nice stable platform for placing figures on.

I also had the box of skulls from Citadel delivered at last.   I intend to use these for my version of ‘The Singing Bridge’.  Well, that’s the plan anyway.

The gatehouse stands like a tombstone guarding the entrance to the port and the city guard will think nothing of throwing an unwary traveller into the dungeons for their mere amusement.

But there is more than one way into the City of Thieves, there, in the port wall, a sewer outlet.  It may be unguarded, but you can almost guarantee it won’t be pleasant.

I have been making pretty good progress with the buildings for this project mainly because of two things.  Firstly, the buildings paint up easily and are pretty rough at the moment and secondly, I have been concentrating more on this project than my Gaslight project.

I want to get the bulk of the ‘building’ done before I knuckle down and start adding finer details and street dressings.  I think the smaller details will take more time ultimately because I can’t just smash it with a rough dry brush.

The buildings on the bridge don’t have any stonework on them at all and I think this makes a nice change to all the other buildings so far.

When it came to doors it gave me another option to add variety and increase the level of modularity with this build.

All the doors are removable and reversible, so it made sense to paint the fronts and backs of each door differently.

It’s time to show a bit of progress as we move a little further away from the bridge/port area and more into the seedy back alleyways.

All the buildings so far are pretty generic on purpose so that rather than having to build an entire city I can just move them around to represent different areas.  Of course, all the buildings so far are completely modular and can change their heights and configurations, but I have assembled them in the layouts I like the best.

There are still feature buildings to do, but for the most part, all the basic buildings are built.  I need to magnetise some signs and small decorations for them to be removable and some random street clutter to add to give that dark grotty feel.

Off the top of my head, I want to add a Tavern, some buildings with walkways spanning across roads, a marketplace possibly with a central notice board area, a belltower, a gardens area with hedges sculpted to look like animals and of course some sewers.

It seems like there is almost no end to the amount of stuff left to do, but I’ll get there eventually.

You are probably a little sick of ‘Bridge’ stuff by now and this project is about a fantasy town, not just a fantasy bridge after all.

So, I will quietly work on the bridge in the background and share some other progress details with you.  Plenty of plaster, brick and wood buildings are needed if I want to give the feel of a crowded town.  All the buildings are completely modular and by that, I mean I can change the height and layout of the houses as I wish.  Every roof, floor and wall section is removable.  I can swap bits around or completely remove bits if I choose to.  Ideally, I would swap same-coloured buildings with others of the same colour.

I still have more to add before I can call this first batch done.  They need doors, the roofs need to be finished, balconies made, and I have removable shop signs and the like to do, but this will hopefully give an idea of the direction this project is going.

The streets themselves need clutter, stalls and carts, signposts and notice boards.  all that kind of stuff to give some life to the town,

Ultimately, I am aiming towards a 6′ x 4′ table with a separate layout for the sewer system.

Every port needs to have warehouses, and this project will be no different.   For this first warehouse, it has been designed to fit into the river wall.  I can add extra levels to the building to make it taller, but I rather like the look of the town growing behind it,

A few pictures of a few bits just set up to give a feel of how things are starting to look.  With the scale of my plans for this build, it is unlikely that I will get all that I want to get done finished by the end of the month, what with work getting in the way of fun.  Anyway, I aim to at least make some serious progress into this build and have a decent playable amount finished.

This bridge is a pretty large piece of scenery so making it as versatile as possible makes sense.  Rather than having permanent details tying it into one setting I have gone down the route of interchangeable details.

Having hidden loads of magnets inside the main structure before painting now allows me to be creative with how I progress.

The bridge can represent the city’s main entrance, lined with grim reminders to those looking to get on the wrong side of the city watch.

Alternatively, it could be one of the many ways within the city to cross from one side of the river to the other, lined with houses or rickety structures.

Or maybe just a simple smaller bridge in the countryside somewhere.

These are just a few options, and I am sure I will come up with more as this project progresses.

Making progress painting the brickwork, still a way to go.

I have also started on some modular bits and pieces including houses to line the bridge and looking at ideas for gruesome elements to deter unwanted travellers.

I am pretty happy with how well the magnets have been hidden on the bridge and tower and looking forward to getting some of the little removable bits done.

Started to paint up the brickwork on the bridge sections, a tower and some port walls.

Before getting to this stage though I inserted loads of magnets all over the place so that I could magnetise details to swap in and out.  Things like spikes with heads on, gibbets and gallows etc.  Then if I wanted to move the bridge over to my Gaslight terrain, I could add streetlights or statues.

the tower also has magnets hidden in the walls to add extra details and can also come apart so it can be as many layers high as I want.  Or just remove it completely from the bridge.

The port walls again are also modular, not just in the order they can be set up but both fronts and backs can also be swapped around.  The idea with these is that I will add warehouses that overhang the walls or are built into the walls.  The flat section is for a ship to unload its cargo.   So maybe a crane or winch system to go there.   One of the walls has a sewer entrance, which will be one of the possible ways adventures can enter the city if they are brave enough to navigate the twisting sewer network.

I know that the bridges in the book are described as wooden, but I wanted something a little more substantial and something that I could reuse in other settings.

The bridge works out quite large but by keeping it modular, or at least as modular as possible, I can use it in different setups and even in different games.  Made of stone, and if I paint it similar to my other terrain it becomes multi-use.

As with just about all my other brickwork I undercoated the model with Army Painter Leather Brown spray.

In games bridges often become choke points and I want to avoid that as much as possible by making this bridge more of a feature in itself.  More details on that as we progress along with the project.

Any additional components I add to the bridge will be removable so they can be swapped in or out as the mood arises.

Quick test print for the house under the bridge.  The cork tile is currently just there to raise the building up a little and will be replaced by a proper floor.

I am pretty happy with how it came out for a first attempt.

So, this is my first test run at modifying a building to fit under the bridge.  (Hence, it’s a weird shape and has no roof.)  The idea is that there will be some steps leading down from the bridge onto a small walkway with a platform for the house to sit on.  I will add more scatter and assorted items around the building.  I imagine this Wizard to be a bit of a hoarder.

It’s been a long time since I read The City of Thieves, but I do recall that there was a wizard, Nicodemus, who lived under a bridge.  I love the idea of that, so it seems like a good place to start.

It looks like I have some bridge pieces that I can mess about with.  They all look a bit too pristine so I will have to dirty them up and make them look a lot more lived in.   I want the whole City to have that ramshackle feel with buildings on top of buildings, and twisting alleyways where you could get robbed at any time.

Looks like I will have to dust off old scratch-building techniques, failing that, lots of glue, dirt and grime to hide any lack of modelling ability.

Taking a look in the garage for stuff that I could use uncovered a load of partial, failed, and unloved 3D prints along with a large storage tub of balsa wood, plasticard and other bits and pieces that I had refused to throw away figuring they could come in useful sometime.  This could be that time…maybe…hopefully.

Well, it’s officially the 1st of October here in Perth so that means I can start kicking off with some terrain.   I have a lot of ideas buzzing around in my mind and a lot I would like to get done so with that in mind it’s time to get busy.

With this little project, the aim is to incorporate a mixed set of mediums, 3D prints both purchased STLs and ones of my own making, traditional scratch building and possibly even converting of existing kits.

Port Blacksand.

Port Blacksand sits at the point where the Catfish River meets the Western Ocean. It is the home of many pirates, thieves, and brigands, and is divided into several Districts.

Execution Hill.

This district is named after the bleak windswept square at the top of Gallows Hill.  On the hill’s south side, the buildings are tightly packed together, and roads turn into steep flights of steps.

Harbour District.

This is the oldest district in Port Blacksand with winding, narrow streets and ancient, weather-beaten houses. The narrowness of the streets and the overhanging nature of the upper stories of buildings make the streets dark even during the day.  Lobster Wharf and Harbour Street are the main thoroughfares.

Garden District.

This district is named after the public gardens which dominate this area of the city. It is a wealthy district with many private houses, some of which are the offices of professional people, including court officials, musicians, and artists.

Fish Market District.

In this district, the smell of raw fish permeates the air, worsened in foggy weather. The buildings near the wharf are warehouses with many exotic goods stockpiled in them.

Merchant District.

This is the heart of Port Blacksand’s business district. It runs between the southern side of Market Square and the City walls. Here, you can buy anything. Approaching the Royal Palace, the small gloomy shops are replaced by large houses in which dwell the city’s richest and most devious merchants.

The Noose.

This is the most notorious district in the city named after its most notorious street. It is most famous as the home of the powerful Guild of Thieves. An atmosphere of crime and decay pervades the area. The area has many beggars. The Noose is also the site of the Market Square and during the day this is bustling with traders and customers.

Temple District.

Here are most obviously many of Port Blacksand’s temples situated on or near the Street of Temples, a wide, pleasant street. Most of the City’s armourers and weapon makers are to be found in this same district, in the block of buildings formed by the Street of Knives, Cutlass Alley and Dagger Lane. The rest of the area is made up of twisting back streets and alleys.

Population

Most of the Port Blacksand’s population are Humans, Orcs and Goblins.  Trolls and Ogres are also common, and many work for the Blacksand Watch. Small groups of Dwarves and Elves dwell here. Some of the more unusual humanoid species also dwell in the city.

Architecture

The architecture favours overhanging upper storeys and many strange decorative follies like towers, bridges, and interconnecting passages above the ground. The buildings of Blacksand are painted many colours and most shops have signs indicating their trade hanging outside. The streets are unclean, covered in mud and droppings. Back streets in the older parts of the town tend to be cobbled and some of them are stepped. Each district, except for the Garden District, has its own City Guard detachment and blockhouse.