"Vlad to See You!"
- Dracula's Impalement Hill -
Introduction:
Many an Ottoman warrior met their fate on the stakes of Prince Vlad "The Impaler" Dracula. Not even Dracula's own Wallachian countrymen were exempt from this extreme form of punishment. Turks, boyars, peasants - anyone opposed to the Prince - were hoisted up and "placed" onto the ends of large wooden stakes planted in the ground. Using existing "entry points" or creating new ones made no difference to "The Impaler" - either way a horribly slow and painful death awaited the condemned.
Legend has it that the Sultan himself turned his invading armies away from Wallachia when confronted with a valley of impaled Ottoman soldiers in his path! Pictures of this terrain piece grouped with a Vlad Dracula miniature can be found in the "Eastern European Personalities" gallery.
Materials List:
DAS Pronto air-hardening modeling material
Thin balsa wood for base
Non-coloured round toothpicks (the stakes)
Clothespins
White glue
Rubbing alcohol
Eyedropper
Plastic knife
Sharp modeling knife
Scissors
Dremel rotary tool with small engraving bit
A-West "Weather-It" wood aging solution
Broken chunks of plaster
Tiny stones
Citadel Colour "Blood Red" acrylic paint
ModelMaster 1788 "Euro I Gray" enamel paint
Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White opaque watercolor
Woodland Scenics Products:
T44 "Burnt Grass" flocking
T41 "Soil Turf" flocking
T60 "Earth Coarse Turf" flocking
T50 "Earth Blend Blended Turf" flocking
C1228 Green Undercoat Liquid Pigment
Method of Construction:
A. Slice a thin rectangular piece of DAS using the plastic knife to create the hill base (roughly 11cm x 7cm x 0.5 cm). Cut another rectangular piece about half the length but 3x the thickness of the first. Fit the small piece on top of the larger one to create the hill cliff.
B. Wet your fingers with water and smooth the pieces together so any joints are blended away and the base edges flow smoothly downwards. Place the hill onto a piece of thin balsa wood that is larger than the hill. Due to the wetness of the task the balsa base will probably warp so, by using a balsa base larger than the hill, heavy weights can be placed on the balsa edges rather than the hill to keep the piece flat. I have not decided if balsa is the best base for such a task - I still had a little warping so the piece doesn't quite sit flat on the tabletop. If you know of a better base material please email me!
C. Push toothpicks into the bottom of the cliff in desired angles to create the stake holes. Leave the toothpicks there until the DAS hardens.
D. Push small broken pieces of plaster into the bottom of the cliff around the stakes to create a rough landscape. Do not overdo it.
E. Leave the DAS hill to harden completely. Now, onto the stakes...
F. I wanted the wooden stakes to be weathered to give them that "gloomy evil" look. A-West markets a product called "Weather-It" that instantly ages untreated wood. I found a bottle of this neat solution in, of all places, a dollhouse store in Vermont!. Break the tips off of one end of the toothpicks and grip the broken ends with clothespins. Dip the stakes into the "Weather-It" aging solution. Turn the pointed ends of the toothpicks upwards so that the solution drips down the shafts. Let the stakes dry. I had to repeat this process 5 or 6 times for each stake in order to darken the wood enough to create the desired look. Very neat!
G. Cut the stakes to size. Pull the other toothpicks out of the hill piece. Put a small amount of white glue in the holes and insert the aged stakes. Now, onto the flocking...
H. Mix together white glue and rubbing alcohol to a consistency a little thicker than milk. You want to be able to draw a line with the liquid and have it bleed slightly but still soak in. You also want the liquid controllable when applied with the eyedropper so that it stays roughly where you aim the dropper and not spread out all over the model.
I. The ground at the bottom of the cliff (in the rubble around the stakes) and any low lying areas should be the darkest. Higher ground areas such as at the top of the hill should be lighter. Start by conservatively spreading the glue/alcohol mixture with the eyedropper in the rubble and around the stakes. Don't overdo it - you want the jagged rubble pieces to still poke through the flocking after application. Again, if the consistency of the liquid is correct, it should flow only where you point the dropper and soak into the hill base between the plaster rubble.
J. Pinch some "Soil Turf" flocking with your fingers and drop the material like falling snow over the areas soaked by the eyedropper.
K. Once completed soak the flocking with another application of the glue/alcohol mixture.
L. Repeat steps I thru K along the edges and the top of the hill but this time liberally apply a lighter coloured flocking such as "Earth Blend". Use "Burnt Grass" at the very top of the hill but leave the cliff facing exposed. Also sprinkle a small amount of the lighter coloured flocking over the soil turf around the stakes and rubble. Remember, though, to keep the low lying areas dark and the higher elevated areas light.
M. I made wagon wheel tracks up to the top of the cliff by "drawing" in wheel paths with the eyedropper filled with the diluted glue solution and then sprinkling "Soil Turf" over the glue.
N. Use "Earth Coarse Turf" to create small bushes and shrubs around the edges of the piece.
O. At the base of the cliff and around the stakes I sprinkled some small gray stones to increase the rubble texture.
P. Once you are happy with the flocking application, thoroughly soak the piece with the diluted glue solution using the eyedropper. Place weights along the base edges to minimize warping and let dry. You may notice some separation between the DAS material and the balsa base. No problem - just inject more of the diluted glue solution into the crack and sprinkle more flocking to hide the crack. The injected solution also acts to grip the DAS hill to the balsa wood base.
Q. Use the the Dremel tool with the engraving bit to score the cliff face and create rock face texture. Don't blow away the dust - it adds to the effect of a jagged cliff face. Paint the face with Euro I Gray enamel. When dry, bring out the rock texture by drybrushing Dr. Ph. Martin's BleedProof White across the face.
R. Paint the edge of the balsa base with the "Green Undercoat" pigment to insure the base blends in with the rest of the terrain.
S. To simulate dried blood on the stakes I used Citadel Colour "Blood Red" which is just bright enough to bring some spectacular color out of a rather gloomy terrain piece. Start at the top of the stake and drag the paint downwards. The brush strokes are random and the application uneven - the majority of the paint is near the top with a gradual fading away toward the base of the stake. I also applied the paint around the base of the stakes and created a tiny "stream" of blood towards one of the edges.
T. Views of the completed terrain piece are shown below. Click on the thumbnails to bring up larger images. Let me know how it goes for you if you attempt to build your own "Vlad to See You" impalement hill.
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