Benan Watchtower - Design WIP

I thought you might like to see some further development on the 3D design of the Benan Watchtower based around a 500ml Ben & Jerry's ice cream tub with a bit of pringles tube thrown in too! I seem unable to get away from Pringles tubes! It turns out that i needed to extend the height of the watchtower and a Pringles tube is exactly the same diameter as the base of the watchtower so its a perfect fit!

I decided to keep with the open hexagonal canopy shape for the watchtower top and to keep the low tech stockade feel rather than a full stone fortress look. The beam work on the tower matches that on the other kits allowing a consistent look to be created.

It took some fiddling to get the dimensions to work properly, but here you can see that the upper surface of the watchtower can fit six 30mm display bases. (note sections of the canopy are removed for clarity). clearly 25mm bases will have more 'wiggle' room.




The Watchtower is configured to meet with the modular Stockade walls at three locations with 120 degree symmetry.  This gives a high degree of flexibility in how the kit is assembled.

1. Stand alone watchtower

You are able to build a stand alone watchtower with wooden palisade fencing all round and a trapdoor assembly in the roof of the tower. This gives three 'sentry points' around the tower that will accommodate figures.

2. Single Wall Tower
A watchtower attached to a single wall section - perhaps a forward lookout tower on a larger structure. This could be impressive with a Tew-Fah bridge replacing the Stockade Wall, with the bridge spanning a small river but connecting the watchtower to a building or fort on the other side.

3. In-Wall Tower

A tower that connects to a pair of stockade walls forming perhaps a fort wall. When built with this configuration the watchtower has a balustrade to the inside of the corner - it seems health and safety requirements reach into the fantasy realm too!

The final redesign of the Tew-Fah bridge will also be swappable for any of the stockade wall sections, allowing a bridge (or with the optional conversion) a gate to be incorporated into the design.

The tower and wall kits will be available separately and will be held together with magnets allowing a flexible range of stockades and buildings to be put on the tabletop.

Finally an exploded image of all the 107 components in the watchtower. The blue part is the ice cream tub, and the green are Pringles tube, the remaining parts are all styrene.

Of course the canopy and pillars can be omitted to give a simpler structure, and will assemble to other buildings with a little conversion work.

So, what material should I cover the canopy in? Slates/shingles or simple planked wood. (Or is it important to give you an option of both?)

While this kit will not be as complex as the shingled roofs of the tower and stables or the helical stair case, it is going to use a lot of styrene so I may struggle to get it into 2 sheets of A4 styrene and therefore it may become more expensive. If I had to sacrifice some element(s) of the design to keep the cost reasonable - what would you lose?

I really do want your comments on this design - the more the merrier before I start to lay this out for the Cutter. Some of the decisions made on this kit will effect sizes on the walls, bridge and any other associated future kits. So it pays to get them right now!

When I wasn't looking earlier today, another soul decided to follow the lucid and insightful missives on my blog. Welcome  to the genius that is "The Bearded Snot" :)