Gotta keep building if I intend to have something to show before mid-June, so here goes - the Helm's Deep / Deeping Wall diorama building continues with the completion of the engraving of tiles to the wall tops, and building of the stairs on the back side of the wall. Here's the longer wall section, now with top tiles:
Next, a hair-rising stunt - cutting the blown-up section along block seams:
The top part was cut apart and glued in place only at this stage. The pen and the knife mark roughly the spots where the top part has been cut in three parts. The pic also shows the early steps of building first of the stairs, formed of blocks of 6mm Depron sheet cut to shape.
Now, the Weta Helm's Deep environment shows three sets of stairs behind the Deeping Wall:
However, this screen cap from the Two Towers movie clearly shows a fourth, at the Hornburg end of the wall. This staircase makes sense - if you'd want to quickly retreat to Hornburg via the small door in the side, without this fourth staircase you'd need to run all the way to the Deeping Stream in order to get up to the Deeping Wall.
Thus, I will also do four sets of stairs. In this pic you can see the additional one still as a skeleton, while the first one I built has received a wall part from 3mm Depron. I've yet to emboss the block structure on the side, however. You can also see the blue block of foam heightening the tower to its proper size.
Here's a pic of the third staircase, divided into two parts due to the modular structure of my Helm's Deep terrain.
...and here's the fourth one being built, furthest from Hornburg:
After completing the stairs, I'll finish the crenellation details and start working on the stairs connecting the Wall to Hornburg, as well as on the ground contours around the Wall.
