josecamaro

So that's where I started. I drew the castle skull face first. I tried different versions but this one I liked the most. It was very geometric, not organic at all. The castle is tied to the power sword, so the technology that was used to make the power sword should also be found in the castle. I wanted the castle to look as if it were made of sheet metal rather than stone. I put a lot of emphasis on the jaw bridge. I thought that this would help tie the castle into the new design the best. I gave it sharp lines with metal and plenty of rivets. I had the most fun designing the door. I always thought that the door should have more of an emphasis, rather than just a wooden door. The inside of the castle will contain more elements of the power sword and the new He-Man technology.

The next big hurdle was the size. I wasn't sure what size the figures were going to be. I asked my buddies at ToyFare, they had Skeletor already, and they told me they were going to be about 6 inches tall. So just to be safe I made the door 9 inches tall. I thought that should be enough room. The door worked as the starting point for the rest of the castle. In the end the castle ended up being 3 feet by 3 feet. Now that I have the new figures the size really works well.

Around this time I got the Comic Con exclusive He-Man statue. This helped a great deal with the design. I used the same pattern, on his base, to make the floor and ground of my castle.

Step 2: Plans

Now that I had an idea, how would I make it? The first thing I did was experiment with different types of clays, paper machine, plaster, anything that I could think of. One of clays I found was the Crayola Model Magic. I played with it and I liked it. It worked well for large projects like environments, but not for making figures.

Next I went out and bought a 3 x 3 foot piece of particleboard. This would be the base for my castle. I put aside because I wasn't sure where to start.

Step 4: Painting

I first air brushed the entire castle black. Then I added a light layer of Green. I kept on adding different shades of Green, Blue and Gray until I was satisfied with the color. Then I added a wash of dark Green and Black. I waited for the castle to dry. Once it was dry I added some spot coloring to different sections. This was so the castle would not look one uniform color. Next I went back and did some dry brushing over the bricks using again different shades of Green, Blue, Gray and White.

The ground was painted dark brown with green highlights. The door was painted silver and then a black wash was added.

Below is a basic overview of how I built my castle.

Step 1: Design and Concept.

My first step was to design the castle. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make it look like the original castle or in the new 2002 style.

Since the new line of figures was coming out I thought it would be better to design it in that style. At this point Mattel had not revealed their version of the castle nor had I seen any pictures of how the new castle might look. So I studied the new figures from different picture I could find. I noticed that the new figures had a very geometric design. They had sharp lines and angels. They also incorporated the look of metal a lot more. I wanted the castle to incorporate these elements as well.

Step 3: Building and Sculpting

I decided to start with the jaw bridge because this would determine the size of the skull face and that would determine everything else. I drew the door in PhotoShop first. This helped me get the angles correct. This drawing would serve as a plan. I printed the door in sections and used the print outs like templates.

Once the front of the door was finished I worked on the back of the door. I made the back look like a jaw, with teeth and a kind-of-a tongue. The door was now finished.

Now that I had the door finished, I had a starting point to determine the scale the castle. I bought some Plexi glass that was 1/4 inch thick and about 20 inches tall. This would be the front wall support of the castle. I traced the door and cut that section out from the Plexi. Next I glued a piece of Plexi one inch above the top of the door in order to make a second floor. Then onto the second floor I added support beams. The final piece looked like a chair. Using some strong epoxy glue I secured the Plexi front wall/base to the particleboard. This would now serve as the foundation for the rest of castle.

The towers were next. I used foam core for these. I started by making two Octagons. Each side of the Octagon was a little less than 2 inches wide. These would be the top and bottom of the tower. Next I cut a sheet of Foam Core that was 16 inches long about 25 inches tall. Every two inches starting from the right I made a made cut, top to bottom. The cut was not deep enough to go to the other side, it was only meant to score the foam core so I could bend it along those cuts. The bends would allow the sheet of foam core to wrap around the Octagons. I glued everything together. I repeated this process three more times, so that in the end I would have four towers. In the last two towers I varied the height and circumference of the towers, just to add some variety.

Using some carpenters glue, the epoxy would melt the foam core; I glued the towers in place. First the front two were glued to the Plexi front wall/base then to the particleboard. Then the back two towers were glued in place. I used a lot of glue so I had to let the glue dry for several days.

With the towers in place I began on the sidewalls. I simple cut some foam core long enough and tall enough to enclose the castle on its two sides. These were glued in place using carpenters glue. Once again I had to let them dry for several days. Once the glue had dried I added widows and any other elements that would make up the sidewalls.

Other elements for example were window frames or buttresses.

Now the really tedious work began. It was time to add the "skin" to the castle. I began with the skull face. I added different layers of clay at a time in order to build up the face. When I was satisfied with the thickness of the clay I started to sculpt the clay to look like a skull face. Once I was happy with the face I added the detail. I waited a couple of days for the Skull face to dry. This clay shrinks and cracks so I had to go back and fill in the gaps.

Using the Crayola clay I made a skin to cover the towers and the walls. I first put some glue on the surface I was going to cover then I rolled out the clay into thin sheets.

I pressed the clay in place and quickly began to define all the bricks. I had to hurry because this clay dries fast. I only worked on a small section at a time. Once all the bricks were defined I went back and added texture to the bricks with a texture tool I made. This went on for months. I had a lot of walls to cover. After the walls were covered I started adding detail to the towers. I added different elements to each one. Like I said before this is what takes the most time, but I persevered and continued until finished.

Once all of the castle was covered I worked on the ground. Same method only this time I made rocks, not bricks. With the floor finished I added some bigger rock formations.