The Battle of Osgiliath boxed set contains a selection of terrain modelled after the city’s ruins, but it turns out that was only the beginning for the former capital of Gondor. Even more terrain is on the way – check this out:
Aren’t they awesome? We caught up with Ray Dranfield, the mastermind behind these stunning new terrain kits, to find out what went into creating the ruined city of Osgiliath.
Warhammer Community: Osgiliath is an iconic place in The Lord of the Rings™. How did you go about recreating such a recognisable setting?
Ray Dranfield: I spent a long time watching through all the scenes from the films, going through the appendices and ‘making of’ videos, and poured over any artbooks and reference material I could get my hands on to get a feel for Osgiliath. I chose a number of features to focus my designs around that would all be clearly recognisable from the films.
The likes of the pillars with carved capitals*, stone banding between the floors, intricate balustrades, and the iconic gable ends with stepped stonework are all hallmarks of Gondorian architecture that I could use to make sure these terrain kits felt like Osgiliath. Interestingly, the balustrades themselves were taken directly from the scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King™ where Gandalf and Pippin are talking on a balcony in Minas Tirith, showing the consistent architectural designs throughout various Gondorian cities.
Whilst I wanted to capture the essence of Osgiliath, I also wanted to ensure the terrain was practical for gaming too. The likes of the archways, doors, stairs and balconies are all sized appropriately to ensure that models can fit through or move across them without issue.
WC: Many of the other Middle-earth terrain kits you’ve worked on are very modular. How does Osgiliath compare?
Ray: The Osgiliath terrain is just as modular as the previous Middle-earth terrain kits, if not more so! Hobbyists who have built the Ruins of Dol Guldur terrain kit will see many of the same traits again in the Osgiliath sets. The likes of individual wall pieces, floor tiles and connecting pillars can be assembled as required, allowing hobbyists to let their imaginations run wild as they put together their own buildings and ruins.
There are also some very cool things you can do with these kits. You can turn ruined floor tiles into whole ones simply by putting two together using a small connecting piece, and you can even use the stairs, balustrades and some of the floor tiles to create a bridge to connect two buildings together! There really is so much versatility with this terrain – I can’t wait to see what the community comes up with!
WC: Creating modular terrain must throw up some design headaches! What challenges did you face during this project?
Ray: A lot of the groundwork for our modular terrain concepts was actually done before the Ruins of Dol Guldur kit. The ideas for tessellating floor tiles and wall pieces, as well as pillars that could be built in different ways to give different angles, were all ideas that stemmed from that project.
The big difference between the two is that Dol Guldur is based around triangles, whilst Osgiliath is based around squares; but the principle is very much the same.
When making modular terrain, I always think to myself ‘What could I do if I had two of these kits?’ to help with ideas. I wanted to ensure that not all the buildings looked the same, so many of the wall pieces have a recessed archway on one side which includes the window in order to add variety to the buildings.
One of the challenges was actually to do with the thickness of the wall pieces – they needed to be thick enough to look like they were made out of the chunky stones indicative of Gondorian buildings. The recessed sections give the impression that the walls are thicker than they are, thus providing that solid look whilst not making the actual pieces too thick for manufacturing or modelling. I eventually managed to crack it and I’m very happy with how they turned out.
WC: The Osgiliath Tower is a stunning terrain piece. What went into creating this structure?
Ray: Right from the start we knew that we wanted the tower to be that iconic domed structure that everyone immediately thinks of when they talk about Osgiliath; it’s just such a lovely building.
The tower that we see in the films is cylindrical, which meant that it wasn’t going to be immediately modular with the square-based structures of the Gondor Mansion and Gondor Ruins – though this did make it easier to design!
The real challenge with this piece though was making it as big as possible. The Gondor Mansion is a pretty large terrain kit, and we wanted to make sure that the Gondor Tower, well, towered over it to give that iconic look from the film.
It also has the option to build it completely intact or with a ruined dome after it has been struck by a huge rock flung by a Mordor catapult.
WC: Finally, what are you most proud of with the Osgiliath terrain?
Ray: I’m incredibly proud of how the roofs worked out. They were one of the hardest bits of the project, and I thought that I’d never have a harder roof to engineer than the thatched roofs on the Rohan House, but these were even more difficult! Figuring out the tolerances for the angles of the slate roofs, getting the joints to slot together properly, and then getting them to fit onto all the tiles – both from above and when stuck on at the side – proved to be a very tough but thoroughly rewarding challenge.
Thanks Ray. The new Osgiliath terrain will be available soon, so keep your eyes peeled on the Warhammer Community website, or sign up to our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss the release of these amazing kits!
* That’s the top part of the pillar, you know.