Bolt Action! Building a Ruined Tower from Scratch!
After finishing up a bunch of buildings for our Bolt Action games here in the Bay Area (Santa Cruz, CA), I figured I would go back to tanks and little guys. But somehow I kept thinking about building a bigger building…
… with stairs, and with some height. Since my American army is based on the 92nd African American division in Northern Italy in 1944-45, I went and looked for a design that would fit that. Check it out!
This building is in Florence, a big chapel, with the big doors and the shallow shanted roof, much less steep then steeples in North West Europe. Of course I wansn’t going to build that thing, which besides being impossible for a mediocre builder like me, it also is not very practical. I like my buildings to be playable first and realistic second.
On to the next picture:
You can see two things: lots of destruction in the urban/village environment (this would make a cool diorama) and the difference in height, which makes our games more visually appealing.
So this is what I put together:
The tower/chapel is finished, but bottom part is still getting some weathering and sand. You can see the impact of a shell on the roof, which always looks the part. You can also spot a (grey) Warhammer piece, I removed all the skulls and added the rooftiles, it will look nice.
The building is simple and very accessible, which means we will really use it, for objectives, cover and maneuvring.
The elevated base has two stairs and a little stone area around the tower. There is room for plenty of models and all the walkways are at least 1.5 inches. You can see on the back another Warhammer piece, I removed the skull and will paint a city shield on it, like this one from the city of Como
Above you can see the nice vertical look that some higher buildings create.
I built the whole thing in pieces, that can be taken apart for easy travel, but also for multi-use. Here’s the tower by itself, with a little cobblestone square around it. The square cobblestone base is loose from the tower.
Here’s that base, with the cobblestone bottom put on the ground. Here, after painting, it could be come a command post or a spot for a Heavy AT gun. You can see the support I glued halfways down the side that keep the tower up when the cobbestones lay up top.
Here are the loose pieces.
To find the materials for these buildings, go here
Hope this inspires! Part two coming up next week: how to make cobbestone streets!
AND if you haven’t tried out Bolt Action, go do so in a HURRY! It’s a great game, simple but very pleasant and the ideal game for a relaxed gamenight. The modeling options are vast and there are so many historical things to be inspired about! Follow me at Santa Cruz Warhammer Historical
SC Mike
