I’ve been slowly working on a new 2×2′ table over the past few months. The concept is that this will be an old battlefield littered with skeletons and other war materiel. The focus point will be a temple building on top of a raised platform. I enjoy placing individual bricks rather than a solid XPS sheet with the bricks drawn on. It’s more time consuming but I think it looks better.
I had made the gray base late last year and it’s based off of the brick design of one of the sky islands in Breath of the Wild. At this point in the process, I wasnt sure of the stone color which is why that platform has the undertones already there. The temple has a main arch way in the front and two small side doors. The back (not shown) has a small circular window at the top. My idea being that maybe on certain days the light shines just right through that window and onto some kind of relic inside.
other view, plus some primer
I really wanted to get away from gray stone for this build. I saw a video by Ben Has that had an inspiring color scheme of red and black. I really liked the idea of a blood red temple which inspired a lot more with this build. Here’s the removable roof piece with some underpainting in place – red, orange, and purple. The black notch is where a wooden trap door will go later.
After doing the undertones, I airbrushed the whole thing with a crimson red, did a black wash, and then some dry brushing of red again. I had to make some kind of structure at the top for the roof because when placed on top of the building, it looked too unfinished. I used some bass wood square dowels and weathered them with inks. Also visible in the first shot below is some Battle DamageTM of the platform, the partially finished steps, the wooden trap door in the roof, and some crashed chariots that I scratch built.
Once I had everything red, I started getting inspired. I have all of these resin wheels from the mold that I made, and I thought this would be the time to use them. I had taken one and put a slain soldier, now a skeleton, slumped over the wheel (not shown) and this got me thinking – what if this whole temple was dedicated to the Order of the Wheel? I haven’t really figured out what that means, but it just sounds cool!
In my mind this temple has some kind of sacrifice going on the roof for the worshippers to witness. Hanging from the beams are the Holy Wheel with past sacrifices hanging from them. It’s been centuries since the last sacrifice so all that remains are skeletons.
In the photo I have the wheel hanging from some rope, but in the end I swapped it out for some metal chain and then put a magnet in the wood where I have the red arrow. There’s another one on the opposite side of the archway as well.
