WIP: Dragonfate Dais

This image from Games Workshop's website

Because I have so much free time and so few kits, I decided to buy a new model.

Some of you may know, I really dig Games Workshop's terrain. Some of it is awful (from a model kit perspective) and only makes sense in a wargaming scenario. Some of it just looks fun to paint, and you get more plastic for your money with the terrain than any other kit they sell. So when I saw this small compact box the other day at my local store, I decided to pick it up on a whim.

When I unboxed it, I was surprised at how it was packaged. The pieces were already off the sprue, and some of them where packaged in plastic trays separately. I guess its cheaper to do that than have a larger box? Who knows.

Anyways, like most GW terrain, its a chunkier plastic with large mold lines down the edges. Some quick clean up while watching the Panthers game (8-0!!!!), and I was done. Cleaning mold lines like that gives you an intimate knowledge of the kit...where the fits are, what the problem areas will be, etc. So while tossing them around, and noticing that the bottom of the pieces were hollow (to save money in casting). I didn't want the hollowness to be visible if you got up close to it...it takes you out of the "experience" of a model to see the magic broken. You realize you're looking at painted plastic instead of a small piece of real terrain. So I decided to fill it.

Since the piece is supported to one side off-kilter instead of center, weight and balance were a major consideration. So instead of filling with a clay putty like Aves (which can do some really cool texture things, but would double the weight of the top of the kit), I decided to use sheet styrene to fill it. First I traced the outline of the piece roughly and cut it out of my thinnest sheet:

I also started cutting out smaller strips and gluing them under the steps to hide the hollow parts, and when the glue dried, trimming it with an Xacto and sandpaper:

After test fitting the top part, I realized doing a large disk wasn't ideal for such a complex shape, so I trimmed what I had cut out into smaller pieces:

Now I can cover the bottom pieces in a textured paint and give it a little more realism. That will be next! Thanks for looking!