Finally got some hobby time this weekend to work on this.
Regarding using pencils: pro - cheap and easy to buy, soft wood easy to cut; con - the graphite in the middle, cutting the pencils got that nasty stuff everywhere if I wasn't careful and clean up after each cut.
Because the platform going onto the wall was the reason for this, I started building the tower at the top.
While this made sense to begin with, it made it harder to build in the long run. Should make building the next one easier though.
After building the frame
and doing the rest of the top
I was initially going to use coffee stirrers and frame in the sides. The next step was going to be covering that with either crumpled paper to paint like armor (GW way) or use paper towels soaked in glue and painted. As usual, I changed my design and went with just more framing.
and doing ladder steps vs using the ladders from the demolition set
The whole thing isn't quite square (non-union orc workmanship) and black paint hides a lot of errors. Most of the problems at this point was doing the additional framing vs doing the framing separate and putting it together.
At this point I can do the detail work and drybrushing when my eyes are tired and focus on painting orcs.
One reason I did the ladder is to have the troll join the battle