The Osgiliath Project- Phase One

I started on my latest terrain project about a month or so ago, I am calling it the "Osgiliath Project" as the below photo was my inspiration shot. In reality it's going to be a 4 x 4 city-fight table with a gothic/ fantasy theme that can be used for a variety of games. I had originally intended to do the majority of the table in Hirst Art plaster blocks. However after laying out the design it did seem the overall scope was somewhat daunting. After a long weekend of plaster casting and some building attempts I soon realized if I wanted this done this year I was going to have to go with a combination of Hirst structures with plastic and foam models to supplement.

(inspiration shots for the project)


First thing I had to come up with was the table base, thankfully I had one more old table laying around the basement that I only occasionally used as a sawhorse when cutting large objects on my table saw. Building something else for that task was easy..so I immediately snagged the table for the project. after some brief modification I mounted a 4x4 Sheet of 1/2 plywood to the top
then a 4x4 sheet of hardboard (we call it masonite around here) a 4x4 sheet of pink foam insulation, then a 4x 3 sheet of hardboard on top. The pink foam was then cut to resemble the river bank. After a couple hours of work I had this:


(sanding blocks and that fine tooth trim saw are invaluable when cutting and shaping pink foam)


(a bit blurry, but here is a cross section of the assembly)



In the above shot you can see how the arched wall, the beach and the bridge all come together, I laid out paper plans of the other buildings to make sure the city's shape seems logical and playable.



above pics is one of my early Hirst builds..the problem I had with constuction is the time it takes to shape each block when putting stuctures together. As the large amount of casts required for just a single structure( one mold 15-20 times) combined with my lack of experience casting led to many uneven blocks that had to be shaped. I could have built a 1/2 dozen resin or plastic buildings in the time I spent screwing around building with Hirst blocks this weekend.


a long shot of the Riverbank, this portion is coming out fine, the archwall sections are a complete mold I borrowed from Rich at Chicago Terrain Factory. The sections were actually pre cast by rich and I got them for another project that I ended up not needing to do..I just cut the middle block of each arch with a coping saw and glued them together in sections to create the arched wall. I also borrowed the mold so I can cast new pieces as I need.

(detail of the wall section)


I had this Lord of the Rings terrain sitting around and wanted to use it for the project. The walls are too thin to be realistic so I beefed them up with some Hirst Blocks and the results are positive- the full set is twice what you see above so they make some nice moveable ruins for the table.


These pics are just from the first weekend I worked on this project, and I have progressed quite aways since then. I am still struggling with the overall direction and layout of the city and have several Hirst molds on loan to me, and I have also purchased a variety of plastic and resin kits that will supplement things...whatever comes out best in the end will end up on the table. I am making everything modular so I can still use the table for other stuff if need be. This is still away off but expect a "Phase 2" update of my "Osgiliath" before too long.