The Doctor is in ...
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Malifaux – Building McMorning's lab has been quite the challenge. Casting and assembling the Hirst Arts Graveyard is a tedious and time intensive process. The results are really great and worth the time it takes to mold and cast them. I feel like I've already got my money's worth out of this mold just on this project. In addition I made my own mold of a wooden door I found in my bits box. Making several of them saved time in creating doors and the style adds to the creepy castle feel I wanted to achieve. (If I build a Guild Holding Facility I'll reuse this mold.)
I built the base walls out of black foamcore. To avoid warping I used some square dowel rods to brace and support the structure. I noticed with the Qi & Gong that the large unsupported walls bowed slightly. My hope is to have the solid wood supports prevent this. Before construction I scored brick lines in all the wall sections. To frame in the doors I cut brickwork out of a heavy cardstock. [ TIP: If you check with retail stores and make friends with the managers you can usually get them to give you their old signage. Sometimes it's made out of styrene and sometime really heavy pressed stock. ] Framing the door covers up any gaps.
I used the same heavy stock to frame in to walls, and will also use it to cover any exposed foam. Eventually I'll add rivets to make the framing look like heavy iron bars. The flooring is also framed with the same heavy card stock. For the ground level I used a textured wallpaper that looks like cobblestone. On the second floor I used needlepoint mesh and framed the edges with plastic card.
Throughout the structure I've applied multiple pipes and exposed ductwork. This adds a level of detail to some other wise rather plain areas. I also plain on building bookshelves to fill in any bare areas. The lab equipment and tables will not be glued down to allow for repositioning. I want to keep the lab cluttered to only really allow small and medium bases to move freely. I'm sure at some point a large model will need to be in the lab and having moveable pieces will prevent models being stacked on top of stuff.
The grave spirit in book one is described as having tentacles, and also described as a Medusa-like woman. I'm going to take liberty and say the Gorgion is a Chthulu like beastie. That way I can use these cool buttons I found as decoration on the interior walls.
In addition to the graveyard the exterior has a roman-inspired facia. I went with this style as it reminds me of university buildings and government offices. I imagine McMorning would like to keep his lab similar to the morgue.
