Age of Sigmar: The Mystery Of The Sigmarite Fortress Solved
Is there a new kit on the way or is the massive Stormcast Fortress a kitbash? Mystery Solved…Probably.
Yesterday, Games Workshop teased us with a brand new picture of a massive fort-wall. This thing was pretty impressive and I got excited at the possibilities of some type of Siege Expansion for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. But that was before I had my coffee. As the day progressed (and I had more caffeine), Larry and I took a much closer look at the wall:
Not only did things start to jump out at me, I realized that I had seen all these bits before – because here at BoLS, we’ve BUILT the Dominion of Sigmar Terrain (which is great for playing AoS on in case you’re wondering). And it turns out, this wall is (most likely) a giant kitbash product. Check this out.
Arch-of-Sigmar
The arch was created using the curved section and part of the Sigmar statue. Now, the team working on this probably used a dremel or hobby knife to cut away the stairs and used the center of another set to complete the star in the middle. Then they attached the top part of the Sigmar statue to the front. The sun-rays were probably hand cut and scored/painted to match.
Ramparts
These ramparts bits were constructed from the “altar” that the demigryphs rest on and another bit that typically attaches to the stairs of the Dominion kits. Gaps and platforms were probably filled in/cut out with extra plasticard.
Wall Slabs
The giant wall slabs are directly taken from one of the other spures from the Dominion of Sigmar. What about the “Wall” part? That’s probably just a giant sheet of plasticard you can pick up from any hobby shop. Just cut it to fit, and glue the slab sections on the front.
Sheets of Plasticard come in all shapes and sizes. Hobbyist have been using them to do custom models for YEARS.
As for the columns…well, that easy. Those are Wedding Cake columns:
We’re pretty sure they either ordered these online or just checked out the cake section in a Hobby Lobby or other craft supply store. They can be really cheap and look perfect once painted to match. They even come it LOTS of different styles – we think the Grecian Cake Columns were the closest match if you’re thinking of attempting the project yourself.
The Door
As for the door(s) – that’s where the real hobby talent comes in. Our theory is that they were cut by hand. Either with a hobby knife of dremel. Our best guess is that the creator probably penciled it in and then used either a hobby knife or dremel to carve the image out. It could be made of plasticard or foam. This was actually the part that caused me to pause and really consider if this was a kit or not.
After checking out the rest of these bits (and physically seeing them in person) I’m convinced this is a massive kit-bash project and the modeling team at GW has done a great job. While they may have used a lot of the bits from these kits, they used them in very creative ways and made something entirely different. The banners were also a really nice touch! It’s that level of attention-to-detail that makes the difference between a bad kitbash and a really impressive one.
I’m hoping that GW puts together a “how-to” video for this wall. It looks like a fun project to work on – although I’d probably want to scale down the vertical size if I wanted to actually use this in non-narrative games of AoS. Another cool idea would be to take this concept and then build a complementary set of terrain that used the rubble and ruins to make broken sections of wall.
Now THAT would be an awesome follow-up project! Maybe that could be the next hobby challenge…
Anyone thinking about attempting to recreate these walls on their own? Let us know in the comments!
