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For the Battle of Jotunheim I'm running at Fall In, I realized that I've made good progress towards having an active volcano camp for the Fire Giants, but that the Frost Giants weren't so well equipped. Well, we can't have that. So some quick work on graph paper, put together the new Proxxon foam cutter a friend gave me (to supplement the freehand foam cutters I already had), and here we go.

The camp (when finished) will be a glacier between two mountain ranges. The Frost Giants live in the glacier, which they have hollowed out to make a really nice home for them. The camp will be about 20" wide and like 6" deep.

Here's the main piece glued up: Note that the image shows the back view (the interior of the Glacier Keep), not the front view. The pink insulation is 2" thick; the rooms will end up being 4" tall (because the Frost Giants are like 3" or more each, and it's their home) but I am waiting to cut the final shape of the interior rooms until the glue is dry. The glue used is special and can be cut by hot wire cutters like the Proxxon.

And the upper levels of the mountain peaks, also glued up: After the glue dries (two days, I suspect, given that pink foam is not good at permitting glue to dry) I'm going to finish the cutting on the interior rooms with the Proxxon, then do the mountains (mostly with knives). I've got some clear wax to make the glacier with, and my special ice technology to make the floors of the keep and the interior door. I'm not going to cut a base for the whole thing out of MDF until after I've got the mountains in final shape, but the base won't take long. I've still got to carve a good fortress exterior door out of lexan, but that shouldn't be too bad; might be able to do that today after I finish experimenting with the volcano flames.

That looks great so far! I am interested to see how the glacier part is constructed. I would not have thought to use wax.

Here's a picture of the outer face of the main gate, partially cut out. Still need to cut the outer edge and do a bit of work on the seams. Then glue the ice sheet for the door, and it'll be ready for business.

Roughing up the lexan sheet is mostly by dremel tool, until the stupid thing decided to break; hand files for the remaining work. Sawn to shape by a sharp pull-saw for the straight edges, and a large jeweler's saw for the curves. Taped pattern is just a 3x5 card; final size of the gate allows the passage of a 4" tall giant.

The glacier will be largely this weekend; I need to rough and complete the mountain peaks on both sides first, since I'm not sure how much mountain will be hidden by the (clear) glacier ice.

The wax (glacier ice) is a very clear transparent candle-making gel wax. It's not as rigid as I'd hoped, but on the other hand it will be largely framed in its position by ice sheets (the same sort of thing that appears in my Ice army basing, see here):

Outer arch of the main gate finished.

Outside of the keep cut to shape and basecoated. Interior also roughed out. Showing the main gate in position.

Exterior view of the main gate. Basecoat is wet. For the rock faces, still have to create the alcohol washes, dribble them, let dry, drybrush the rock faces.


Interior shot, showing the ice floor and rough walls. For the interior I still have to cut the ice ceiling, decide on a roof and wall structure for the passage stairs, place those, and touch up interior paint. Oh, and make a couple of pillars.

Last step after the interior and exterior are done is to create and place the glacier (clear wax), and put down snowdrifts all over the exterior rock and glacier semi-horizontal areas (white caulk, painted gloss white)

One more image: ice flooring (what it looks like underneath the mountains).

Painted up (without snow yet; that goes on last). Also without the glacier ice -- gonna try and do that tonight.

Front view: Rear view, showing the interior. Probably gonna want to add a bunch of nice ice props in the long run, but don't have time for it now.

Love the design David.