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 participant in both Rogue Trader and Grand Tournaments in and around the Baltimore area. With the introduction of Skirmish to add a new dimension to your Warhammer battles this month, we asked Mark Gregory, scenic master and crazed Skaven veteran, to help us and our loyal readers with building a cool watchtower to use in the new scenario, Silence the Watchtower.

Foamcore Board MDF Board (or Hardboard) Hobby Knife Ruler Scissors Balsa Wood White Glue Desk Tape Plasticard Warhammer Fortress Door Ruined Building Sprue (Mordheim boxed set) Thin Cardboard 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 watchtowers nest. From here Mark set about creating the walls of the watchtowers 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 didnt board up the windows! Mark then proceeded to cover the inside of the towers 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 towers 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 foamcores 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, its 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 doesnt 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, itll take a while to put all these on one by one, but its pretty mindless work, so you can do it while youre 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 towers 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!