Mark Gregory is a dedicated Warhammer

enthusiast, a former GW employee, scenery

guru, and all around great guy. In addition to
creating fantastic scenery, he is a regular • Foamcore Board
• MDF Board (or Hardboard)
participant in both Rogue Trader and Grand • Hobby Knife
Tournaments in and around the Baltimore • Ruler
area. • Scissors
• Balsa Wood
• White Glue
With the introduction of Skirmish to add a new • Desk Tape
dimension to your Warhammer battles this month, we asked • Plasticard
Mark Gregory, scenic master and crazed Skaven veteran, to • Warhammer Fortress Door
help us and our loyal readers with building a cool watchtower • Ruined Building Sprue (Mordheim boxed set)
• Thin Cardboard
to use in the new scenario, “Silence the Watchtower”. • Modeling Sand
• Large File
• Sandpaper

In creating our cool watchtower for the Warhammer Skirmish scenario “Silence the Watchtower,”
Mark wanted to make sure he had a good strong support for his scenic building. Using four
rectangular walls of foamcore 5 1/2 inches long and 2 3/4 inches wide he constructed the body of
the tower and topped it off with an 4 1/2 inch by 4 1/2 inch square of foamcore to be the floor of the
watchtower’s nest.
From here Mark set about creating the walls of the watchtower’s nest with thin cardboard, making
sure to cut out some windows so the occupants could shoot at the advancing enemies! Where the
card met the foamcore floor Mark glued some balsa wood strips to look like wooden base support
beams.
While the body of the tower was drying, Mark began work on the roof. He made a template of four
triangles that had 5 3/4 inch sides all connected together (see above picture of supplies, lower right
corner). This was folded so that it formed a four sided pyramid, and the two open sides were glued
together, then taped to hold it together while the glue dried. When everything was ready to go,
Mark placed the roof on top of the tower to make sure the awning went just a little over the side of
the walls. Perfect!

Next, Mark wanted to replicate the wooden planks that would have been used to build this type of
construction, so he carefully cut out balsa strips and nicked some of their edges. This gives the
effect that the planks were roughly hewn from local trees. Then Mark glued the strips of balsa
directly to the card walls and carefully made sure they didn’t board up the windows! Mark then
proceeded to cover the inside of the tower’s chamber with balsa strips as well, since the idea was
to be able to lift off the roof and hold a fight inside the watchtower. He even outlined an area in the
middle of the floor to represent the trapdoor entrance!
Continuing the planked wood motif, Mark also cut strips to fit the underside of the watchtower
neatly, to make sure all the wood matched at every angle of the building.
Next, Mark decided it was time to attach his creation to a hardwood base with white glue and add
some supports and a staircase. The base itself was sawed out of hardboard and the edge beveled
with a file and some sandpaper. This created that sloping edge that would make it seem more
connected to the battlefield. Next, Mark built his staircase out of scraps of foamcore board,
stacking them up and gluing them in position. He then cut out and attached a short wall around it,
both to act as a railing of sorts, but also to hide the joining layers and edges of the stairs
themselves.

Next, Mark created some supports for the body of the tower by cutting some more foamcore (three
pieces, in fact) and attaching it to the side of the tower with some white glue. This would give a
little more support to the tower and also is an aesthetic addition.
After the support for the wall was in place, Mark decided it would probably be a good idea to put
some extra supports for the nest of the tower too! He began by lining up two strips of balsa wood
side by side with enough space between them for another strip to be placed. Then Mark put
another balsa strip connecting the wall of the tower to the bottom of the nest, putting the tip of the
strip in the space between the two strips just glued down on the underside. Then two bits of balsa
were glued to either side of the diagonal support to keep the beam in place.
Next, Mark started on some of the really cool detail bits, like creating plasticard flagstones to go
over the edges of the supports and the railing of the steps. He also decided to put a few necessary
extras on the tower, such as a door from a Warhammer Fortress sprue and a couple of windows
from the Ruined Buildings sprue in the Mordheim game.

Mark then lined the edges of the tower with

the plastic corner pieces also from the
Mordheim Ruined Buildings sprue and even
added a little gargoyle to sit on top of the
tower’s doorway!
Next, Mark covered the walls of the tower and
sides of the railing with textured paint for that
‘rough stone’ feel, and he covered the stairs
themselves with some watered down glue to
protect the foamcore’s center from being
eaten by the aerosol primer. Finally at this
stage Mark based the tower with some
modeling sand, gravel and rocks. On to the
construction of the roof!
As scary and intimidating as the roof might seem, it’s really simple. Just mark where each row of
shingles will be on the roof and cut a bunch of thin cardboard rectangles out for your shingles. It
doesn’t really matter if each shingle is identical, as the unevenness of the shingle rows tends to
add a bit of character to the watchtower as a whole. Granted, it’ll take a while to put all these on
one by one, but it’s pretty mindless work, so you can do it while you’re sitting in front of the TV and
rotting your brain out!
Finally, after affixing all the shingles to the roof, Mark cut some strips of thin cardboard for the roof
cap and to line the edges. The whole structure was primed black, and then a basecoat of Shadow
Grey was liberally applied all over the tower’s walls. The nest of the tower was basecoated in
Bestial Brown initially for a nice deep wood effect.
The Shadow Grey was then highlighted with a bit of Ghostly Grey, and the stones on the edges of
the tower, around the doorway, the windows and over the railing and supports were painted the
same color. Finally, the nest of the tower was drybrushed Snakebite Leather, as were the edges of
the roof, roof cap and door. All that was left was to add the flag, paint the base, and add a little
static grass. Then the watchtower was complete and ready for battle!
With all of the different races that inhabit the
Warhammer world, there are bound to be all sorts of
watchtowers dotting the landscape. To the right
you'll see two such examples, one elegant but cruel
and the other ramshackle.

The first is a Dark Elf outpost. This tower is very

difficult to make, but the outcome is stunning when
placed on the tabletop. The second is a quickly
erected Orc watchtower. As greenskins use
whatever materials are easily accessible or easily
taken from others, the appearance of their
structures are often deceivingly flimsy and unstable!