Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: Realm of the Dead; Metal railed walls.

This time in the realm of the dead themed terrain set, we are going to tackle some simple metal railed walls, using an easy to find and mostly free material, packaging foam.

Sorry about the delay in the latest installment of Grim’s Dungeons of Doom, I must say that I have been taken up with some side projects, so I do apologise!

This is quite an easy make, nothing too taxing for these, but the end result is quite pleasing.

So, you’ll need some packaging foam, cocktail sticks and a few other things, so lets get started…

Ok, before I start I want to highlight the type of foam packaging that I’m using here, Polyethlene foam, found in some boxes which it has been used as packaging, sometimes the packing peanuts are made out of it too, it’s rubbery and quite dense, best of all, its free if you have had a purchase or fished it out of the garbage! DM Scotty used it to great effect in this video here:

So, armed with the foam, we are going to start cutting this up to make 4 wall sections. To make this kind of wall, we need three uprights and two longer mid sections to form each one. So I measured about 4cm lengths for the uprights before I cut the longer sections. This is due to me making the entire wall section measuring the same length as my longest dungeon wall sections, that way they can be used universally with the rest of the sets. The mid parts were easily worked out by simply lying out the cut base (not pictured, sorry) and cutting them accordingly. you should know me by now, measurements are limited, just make your judgement and go with it!

Right then, as with much of what has come before, get some textured wallpaper and clad each element. the foam is pretty forgiving so you can use some heavy duty glue if you like, stuff like PVA won’t cut the mustard. I tend to use £shop contact/impact adhesive as it gives a quick and sturdy bond. I can’t say it’s suitable for every job, but it won’t react to this foam (which it can do with some styrenes and materials, so test it on some samples before you use it!) A quick note for alternatives instead of the foam. You need a soft material for this make (as you’ll see later) so polystyrene could do, although don’t use impact/contact adhesive with it, it’ll melt, so PVA is the best cause of action probably. Another caution with contact/impact adhesive is that make sure you have ventilation or you’ll be at risk of getting high as a kite! (or worse)

As you can see, the bases are cut quite thin, this is to make the sections fit to other elements of the dungeon set and the edges fit flush to other bits. I prepared the pieces with the glue (covering each side to be bonded with the impact adhesive and left to almost dry, as you need to with the glue) Then put them together.

As you can see the walls are coming together nicely, once they are bonded firmly, lets get into the railings.

Get some toothpicks and trim them all to the same size. 10-12 per side will do, although it’s up to you. Mark out the central line and divide it out with points to insert the picks. Poke the holes before you set them in the soft foam, then apply. Make sure they all come to the same height and glue them into position (superglue works fine for this)

Next, get a length of bamboo skewer and poke it into the foam upright pieces on the wall adjacent and touching the pointy tips like in the picture. also glue these in place. (You can also get a needle and cotton and bind each connection to add some detail, but that’s up to you, I didn’t bother)

Then I cut three small squares out of the thick cardstock to cap each pillar on the wall.

Again, another smaller sized square was added and glued on top to finish the detail. You could add small rounded beads or adornments for added detail, or even a 15mm figure to act as a statue at the ends, which looks pretty cool. I opted for plain, as I had other ideas for the set.

Paint or spray up, then proceed with the painting.

Building up gradually with shades of dark grey to light, to white, adding a wash or two (black and brown) to muddy the thing up.

Add your metallics to the bars, then follow with a black wash to dull it down.

Use a fine brush and add detail to finish (cracks and tiles) Then your done. that’s it your walled railings are done. You could add extra detail, a bit of flocking/static grass/etc if you want it to look more outdoors. make them as personalised as you like for your set.

Next time, not only will I show you the next part of this themed set: Tomb monoliths, but I’ll show you just how these cheap and cheerful elements start coming together to form this themed tabletop environment.

L8R.