Romano-British Watchtower - 2

On to the next stages, the walkway and the roof...

Frankly, I bless the inventor of the hot-glue gun, one of the most useful tools in the model-maker's kit. With it I can 'spot weld' pieces in place with the hot glue whilst the conventional glues with more durability and strength dry. A case in point is the walkway around the upper story of the tower. This would've been a pig to work without hot glue.

The walkway with the upper level door.

Before attaching the railings around the walkway I used a craft knife to cut away any blobs of excess hot glue then smeared some liquid nails on the walls for a plaster render effect. The railings were then attached using craft adhesive on most of the posts with some hot glue to hold everything in place. Not visible in the photo are the short wooden corbels on which the walkway rests. The walkway itself is three inches square, the upright posts in the corners are one inch tall, and the railings half an inch tall. Once the roof is on the overall height of the tower will be four inches.

After a bit of thought I decided to make a removable roof so figures can be positioned on the walkway. This is more for the look of the thing than for any gaming purpose.

I cut a three inch square of cereal box card then glued some off-cuts of wood left over from the walkway construction in the centre of the card on what will be the underside. The four triangles will hold the roof in position.

Next, for the rafters two triangles of card set at right-angles and glued to the top of the square.

The next stage will be to cut four triangles to form the roof itself. I'm going to make a shallow pyramid-shaped roof for this as it seems to have been the commonest type used on watchtowers.