Project Log: Skaven Warp-Skryre Tower, Part 2

The project had stalled for a bit, but I've finally found a direction for it, and things are shaping up...

Believe it or not, I actually began brainstorming the Warp-Skryre Tower back in 2019. I had a bunch of leftover parts from the Warpscryer Citadel, Gnawholes, and a Screaming Bell, and I wanted to combine them into a scenery project. I hadn't yet ordered a Celestial Hurricanum, but I was playing around with some layouts. I hit the wall, however, when it came to exactly WHAT the tower would be, and how I'd get the best use out of the components.

When I began this project log in January, I ran into the same stumbling block once I had assembled the rocky tower: Now what? Where was I going to stick all the walkways and tech? The parts were on my workbench for months, and every time I walked by, I would fiddle with the pieces and see what I could come up with.

The idea I liked the most was to use the observatory dome with a Gnawhole portal on it, and the optics from the Luminark of Hysh like it was a large collection chamber, ready to unleash a beam of focused warp-energy. During the End Times, the Skaven built an enormous device that fired a beam of energy to shatter the Warp-moon, and I thought this contraption could be a similar kind of machine.

 

 

My initial plan was to have the ring of the Hurricanum's orrery around the portal, but I really wanted the orrery to stand on its own as part of the tower. I decided to have the dome, portal, and optic lenses on the top of the tower, with the orrery set behind it on a lower platform. I might still be able to add another Gnawhole portal on the base and perhaps the focal lenses would serve as a teleportation device, beaming the target across the heavens to another realm. We'll see how things shape up.

 

 

First, I needed to get the dome and optics finished. I cleaned the parts and removed the twin-tails of the comet, leaving just a small circle to which I'll add a Skaven emblem. I also trimmed off the spikes where they flatten out so I could replace them with fully-formed spikes.

 

 

I removed the telescope. The gears will become the mounting point for the dome (now the "collector") and I'll attach the telescope somewhere else. I've got a bunch of telescopes from the Hurricanum, so there will be several observation posts on the tower.

 

 

These gears were taken from a broken paper shredder. They were covered with grease, so I washed them several times first with Simple Green, then a soak in white vinegar, and finally liquid dish soap to get it all off. I'll use these to build the mounting mechanics for the collector.

 

 

I assembled the portal and puttied the gaps where the Gnawhole rocks would normally plug in. I also sculpted a chunk of warpstone with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. (In retrospect, I think one of the stones from the Warp Lightning Vortex endless spell might have been better so it would have the added lightning crackling around it. Actually, I may still do that...) This image shows the base putty for the stone, formed into the swirl of the portal with some texture added by pressing a stone into it, and adding pits with a brush handle. Once this cured, I carved it with a knife to get a more jagged shape.

 

 

The collector and the portal aren't the same size, so I added rings of thick styrene around them.

 

 

The rings hide the edge of the portal nicely, and I glued a strip of square rod around the inside to add thickness and further conceal the edge of the portal.

 

 

Here's the final carved piece of warpstone (possibly to be replaced by the endless spell). The arch from the Screaming Bell is just about the right size to serve as the mount for the optic lenses. I'll get that trimmed and fit in place, and then it's a matter of "Skavening" it all up with icons, cables, and extra bits of Skryre tech.

 

 

'Til next time!