tjub:
Ite even better and better, amazed both at your creativity and the size of your creations!
Nicodemus:
A little more progress…
The doorway needs a 1" support underneath to hold it up at the correct height of my WHQ board sections, but I didn’t want it to permanently sit at that height as I want the option of sitting it flat on a table if needed.
I decided to take the opportunity to add some weight to the base with a scrap of maple I had in the shop. I also added some pegs in the base that go up into the doorway section to hold it steady.
Working on the vertical smokestack/column pieces. Here’s one. These half-sections of conduit don’t sit flush with the surface. To get them to sit flat without cutting to the foam I glued all the half-segments and then sanded the backing on a belt sander to get them nice and flat.
And the other. I had to cut into the doorway for this one to accommodate the larger round opening for the top.
Here’s how it’ll sit when used in WHQ.
Doors are reversed, but they open, even with the non-standard shape.
Carving up some Chaos Dwarf heads.
Here’s the opposite side of the doorway, with the torches in place.
Close-up of one of the carved heads.
I also decided to replace the floor design for the Daemonsmith’s Forge as well, but still have to carve out the floor so it sits level with the floor.
The glacial pace continues.
~N
Nicodemus:
Just a bit of catch-up on the fits and starts of progress (there’s a reason my main blog is the “Forge of Unfinished Business”):
Copying the grid pattern from the base up the 3D piece is a real pain. I decided portions of the stairs should really following their own pattern side-to-side, but from the front of the board to the back the spacing should follow the grid.
Once I worked my way to the back of the board where the forge and the highest levels are they mostly follow the underlying grid exactly. Unfortunately the central forge area can only accommodate a 1x4 tile section as it’s very crowded with the pipes, etc… but I’ll address this somewhat later on.
More checking placement of grid positions and were spots for models will go.
That middle area of the 1x4 section is very close to having space for a 2x2 spot in front of the forge… and that clear conduit was just going to get primed and painted, but I’m thinking it’d be a shame to waste a nice clear piece like that!
The final mess after getting that Chaos Star cleared out
Now for the lava pit - I wanted there to be some interesting texture, but I also wanted the central area to be slightly cooler. I ended up cutting the bottom out of the piece I cut for the taurus’ head. I then sprayed a little matte finish on the middle of the piece followed by spray primer on the rest. The matte finish is slightly protective whereas the primer eats away at the foam, making a shrunken look.
You can see the cut marks from when I initially carved the shape out (not thinking I’d be using it). I also cut a larger piece of plastic to go under the board, slightly recessed so that it doesn’t stick out. I added a bead of hot glue around the whole plastic piece and stuck it to the bottom, then attached the lava pit piece. Because it’s sealed up with hot glue I was able to start filling in the edges of the lava pit (where the gaps are due to shrinkage) with PVA glue and Woodland Scenics Water Effects. I build it up slowly in stages, this is the first pass filling in.
The smaller forge for the lower level is starting to take shape.
Making a piece for the trapped souls and spirits that power the forge 
This got built up slowly and I was constantly checking to make sure the clear cylinder would still fit.
Checking how it looks in place.
After two more coats of PVA glue and Water Effects I built it up to what I think will be the final application. When it dries it’ll be a little different.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, you can deconstruct a HeroQuest Chaos Warrior fairly easily. Now, what could I be doing with this guy!?! x.x
~N
tjub:
Good progress! I really like these WIPs, spawning a lot of ideas over here… 
Thanks for sharing.
Nicodemus:
Misc Forgeworks stuff
I decided to go back to the well of inspiration and borrow some ideas from my old and much smaller Daemonsmith Forge - from ACXI, the CD-themed Arcane Fulcrum, way back in 2011. Here’s the thread on that: ACXI Arcane Fulcrum
I had my Daemonsmith working from designs of an existing suit of armour, but at the time I just used as HQ Chaos Warrior as-is:
Incidentally, that CW suit of armour and my NanoQuest board from a day ago were both pictured together when I first put plans together for NanoQuest, photographed on Oct 17, 2011 x.x
The new forge will have a better reference suit of Chaos Warrior armour. Here’s a view of the back after removing the arms, weapon and helmet. Pretty good shape.
The hands are slightly different, one is a glove the other is a mitt (in case you never noticed) so they’re not identical, but close enough.
I adjusted the angle of the legs and arms, which requierd removing the elbow joints. The rest will get cleaned up with GS.
Slightly different angle.
Main Forge
Going back to the main forge, it’ll need some serious goings-on within if it’s going to be fitting for the piece so I put a bunch of the pieces back and stuffed some bitz inside to see how they look.
I used some daemon and Chaos Space Marine arms for a bound deamon writhing in agony, and wanted flames and skulls inside.
Being a cheap-o I went with a left-over piece from a Bloodthirster kit I’ve had for a year or two. It’s a piece for the base that had nice skulls and flames. As it was double-sided and the forge only has one viewing side I cheaped out further and cut the skulls from the back off and used them on the front too :hat off
Here’s what that piece looks like from the original kit:
The inside part of the forge is from a 40K terrain set. Again, I’m only in need of one side, but I wanted the matching bolt so I had to improvise a little.
Here’s the framework put together. I ended up cutting a paper tempalte for the inside of the forge so that I didn’t have to keep working inside to make sure things fit. The chains are supposed to be ensorcelled chains that are keeping the daemon bound within the infernal forge.
Final check and some additional bling for the forge from a 40K tyranid kit… there will be more flames and more skills and probably some bodies and spirits trying to escape, but it’s a start.
Forge base
Testing out some ideas for the lava pit…
The lava inlet pipe in its final palce.
Working up the grid from the base is tough, but after getting everything mapped out I wasn’t happy with the number of tiles around the main forge. Only 1x4 is to small.
Test fit with some tiles for a central 2x2 area.
Looks like it should work, but there’s too much overhang.
In the end up added some space to the outer edge of the upper area. It’s breaking my rules of keeping pieces within the footprint of the base of the piece, but I think I can get away with it here since there’s never going to be a doorway or other board sections directly underneath.
The Lift
I also had a lift build for ACXI that I quite liked how it worked.
And I had some levers made up for operating it.
I decided there needed to be a way to get things from the lower forge to the upper forge and a lift was the way to do it!
Starting materials for the new lift control levers.
First one done and looking cooler than the original.
Hacking away at the side of the main forge to accommodate some of the lift mechanism parts.
As I need the chains for the lift to hang down I need there to be a little bit of overhang, hence the angled upper piece. The blue markings are for centering the various mechanism parts.
Cut the spaces for the exposed chain wheels and checking approximate placement for where the chains will hang from so that they will clear the chain wheels. It puts the bottom of the lift partly on the lower stairs, but I can live with that.
Happy with the height for the chain outlets I put some holes in for pinning:
I took extra care to make sure the chains, outlets, and wheels would all be in-line.
Sconces
I wanted to have some light sources to highlight the central area of the board where fighting will be happening and also to draw the eye to the mural and lava pool. I made a template for a support arm and cut out duplicate parts. I decided I didn’t like them coming straight out of the wall to I cut an angle on one side and added the clipped piece back on to the opposite side of the support arm to help complete the angle.
In position. Not too shabby. They’ll get filled out with GS later on.
…
…
And finally:
The madness without begins to reflect the madness within!! :hashut
~N
Kamphre:
I don’t have enough vocabulary (and english skill) to describe my feelings…
It’s so huge !! Pure genious !
tjub:
Wow, didn’t realize it was that huge! Amazing, but how do you store all of your creations!?
Nicodemus:
Wow, didn't realize it was that huge! Amazing, but how do you store all of your creations!?Our place that we bought about 2 years ago gave me a chance to significantly upgrade my hobby space. Having the walk-in board game cellar really helped free up space in the gaming & hobby room. My current room for this stuff is 4-5 times the size of the one I had in our old place and I've since upgraded with some extra display storage:
tjub
That larger green display cabinet has adjustable shelves so I can easily accommodate the Daemonsmith's Forge I think, just barely anyway, although the smoke plumes will be removable so that will help for sure!
No shots of the floor as it's clean-up weekend here and I've got things spread out and getting organized into parts organizers/tool boxes x.x
~N
Cloister:
So jealous of that hobby space! And I am imagining all of the goodies inside those tackle boxes.
My hobby desk is also my work desk and kitchen table haha…
Nicodemus:
Working on some additional pipes for the top piece. I use Evergreen plastic tubing and heat it up with an embossing heat gun. The trick is to hold the tubing maybe an inch or so away from the gun and roll the tube around so that it gets evenly heated, while applying a little bending force at each end so that when it gets soft you can see it right away and remove it from the heat. The bigger the tube the harder it is to get clean bends (see the right side of the lower piece).
After bending a bunch of these and cutting them into sections to see where they fit I decided I needed a couple of more interesting looking ones. I decided this pipe should carry some smaller pipes along with it. I started by welding these on to the side with dichloromethane and using the heat gun again to guide the smaller tubes into place.
Here’s what the big one looks line fitted into place. I added some braces part way up the larger pipe and will later add rivets and patches, etc.
Rotated around (one of the pipes is a bit loose but this’ll be hidden once everything is primed and glued into place).
The smaller Daemon Forge needed to get some attention. After building it up and checking for scale (this is still fairly big for a forge, but the Chaos Dwarfs are not known for subtlety). After checking the fit I realized the forge would need to sit at an angle to the back wall and left an awkward space. After cutting a spacer to fit and roughing it up I checked the fit again - good to go!
Adding some bodies and spirits to the inside of the forge.
The lower lava pit also needed some building up. The plan is to have the souls being sucked out from the remains of bodies cast into the lava… so this was a good enough start for now.
I also need a bed of skulls for the larger forge so I made a mould from a floor section of the Chaos Dreadhold and cast up some pieces.
And finally, working on the weapon rack that will go next to the main Daemonic Forge. I decided I wanted curved bars instead of the usual straight ones… partly to be different and partly to fit the layout of the upper level and minimize the impact on the space for models. To get the curvature right I used a metal paint can and heated up the plastic tubes until I got the parts I needed. I used the old HQ Weapons Rack as a reference for overall size and height. I bulked up the feet so the piece would be more substantial and used smaller pieces of rod to insert into the legs of the rack to give some added stability.
~N
Abecedar:
Your stuff is great.
And can I show this here, (If not I will delete it). As it is your creations that has inspired me to try.
My son does DnD and has been making his first foam tiles for a dungeon, so I made this for him.
Nicodemus:
Nice work Abecedar!! Prefect!! You’ve got an entrance, now you need the rest of the dungeon
Admiral:
Absolutely phenomenal stuff! The detailwork is top of the line! I’ve spent a long time watching it closely. This truly is a mad Daemonsmith’s laboratory hellforge. :hat off
Nicodemus:
As with the continuation of the project my off-topic Warhammer Quest blog is decidedly on-topic!
Lava pit
3 bodies in the lava pit having their souls sucked out wasn’t anywhere near enough so I made a few more sacrifices
Here’s all of them so far. I’m planning on a few more skulls, etc in here afterward.
Dawi Zharr Weapon Rack
Here’s the frame of the weapon rack, the suit of Chaos Armour and the various bitz I assembled for the build
part way through I started thinking that maybe it was getting too far out of scale so I wanted to check with some models… actually, out-of-scale for Chaos Dwarfs shouldn’t be a thing anyway, but it was good to check.
Finished weapon rack… which puts the old HeroQuest one to shame and is much more fitting for a Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith!! :hat off
Checking the fit at the forge
Another angle. Although, I shouldn’t be surprised at the fit…
I traced the template from the forge itself and then matched the curvature of the rack to the template a few days before
~N
AtomTaylor:
Excellent stuff, spent the past hour looking over this thread. Inspiring work.
Abecedar:
Yeah. Good idea. I need to do that again
Uther the unhinged:
Will you just stop doing such cool stuff! Some of us as struggling to find enough compliments. I mean after wow, great, awesome, fantastic, cool, fabulous, amazing and incredible it gets tricky! If this continues I will just have to switch to welsh!
Admiral:
Exquisite! The devoted attention to detail and the highly thematic creations are a great source of inspiration! Demented Blacksmiths of Chaos indeed.
You make us come alive in our full insanity with this dungeon. :hat off
Nicodemus:
After taking a break to work on my Daemonsmith and the HeroQuest shadow box I’m back at the forge, so to speak:
Going back to my original sketches I wanted an anvil as well as some kind of bench/machine that is used to infuse daemonic energies into new creations. After creating some basic shapes of things and checking their placement with the weapon rack this is what it looks like around the forge:
I decided I wanted a large cracked anvil to work from so I went back to my old Daemonsmith’s anvil I made for an AC contest ages ago and used that basic shape, but added some extra details. The rest will get filled in with GS.
The infusion machine has an odd shape as it has a pipe that wends its way down the rock in behind. Makes it darn hard to work on, although the pipe made for a useful handle at a few stages
You can see the old anvil in the background. The infusion bench is coming along… Oh, and I have these 1.5"x1.5"x2.75" blocks of maple I made for fastening minis onto so that they’re easier to hold while painting. Here they’re just useful to make space for that pipe.
Finished - The Infuser also makes damn good pumpkin spice lattes for those long sessions at the forge. It uses a combination of warpstone and daemonic essence that’s piped in from the main forge. There’s a floating ball of electricity held between two rounded plates (smoothed down Dwarf bucklers) and an evil-looking control lever. It’s also got several out-flow pipes that go back under the floor.
A closeup of the bench itself, with the warpstone and control lever. BTW, those grey pipes going into the floor are actually bits of resin sprue from Forge World repurposed
Here it is at home at the forge. I also designed the part with the green coil based on the paired condenser coils that are on the back of the Hellcannon.
:hat off
~N
Admiral:
A tour de force of Chaos Dwarf engineering, and indeed architecture, down to the smallest details. Utterly fantastic! I’m happy that such an extraordinary build actually exists.