Snowed in? Build a temple! (Part 5 - finished!)

    At 10 inches tall, this temple is definitely the centerpiece of a gaming table

So, the big temple is now complete. I have to say that I am very happy with how it turned out. This build has to be up there with my Dark Ages Saxon church as one of my all-time favorites.  Is it my best work? Not sure...but it is certainly not my worst!

    Some of my 28mm Pulp figures gathered around the entrance to the temple

All patting myself on the back aside, when I left off in the last article the temple outside was complete. All that remained was the flocking and the interior. I painted the styrene base with white glue and poured medium ballast over the glue as a first coat. Then, I painted the ballast (when dry) with a mixture of white glue, water, and brown paint. I poured sand over it while still wet. Then I painted straight white glue in large patches, sprinkling this with Woodland Scenics blended green turf. Once it had dried, the areas left brown I painted with 50/50 white glue and water and sprinkled lightly with Woodland Scenics brown turf. I added three different colors of clump foliage here an there, as well as some wire plants, flowers, or bushes.

    Eric Bylan and his native guides investigate the rear of the grand temple

At this point, I had a decision to make: Do I flock the roof to represent plants taking roof up there, as well? I went back and forth on the idea, and finally decided to do it. First, I painted the area with straight white glue and sprinkled on blended green turf. I then followed it up here and there with clump foliage atop the green. I even added a couple flowering plants or bushes on top of that. Once everything was dry, I sprayed it with Testors Dullcoate, and then followed that up with a 50/50 white glue and water. I am glad I decided to flock the roof. I think it adds that extra bit of "lost in the jungle" feel to the temple.

    Looking down at the roof of the temple -- I think the flock added to the roof really makes it appear like it as stumbled upon, hidden deep inside of a jungle

For the interior, I downloaded some images from CG Textures -- a free website with great pictures of stone, brick, cloth -- you name it! I resized then in Photoshop and printed them out. I decided to have the interior of the temple made of reddish blocks of sandstone. The floor is an almost-mosaic like rock floor. Once they were trimmed to fit perfectly, I painted the interior with Ceramcoat Spice Tan (the same color as the base coat for the temple surfaces). That way, any join between the walls or floor that doesn't fit perfectly has a nice, dull background to blend it in. Once dry, I painted it with a thin layer of white glue and affixed the images of the walls and floor. I know the images look less three dimensional than the outsides, but I think they look nice as interiors. I used the same technique for my other temples, as well as the interiors of the jungle huts. Using these images is a quick, easy, and nice looking way to finish the interiors of buildings.

    The interior of the temple, which is simply covered with images printed off in color and glued to the inside walls

I'm not 100% sure my pictures do the temple justice -- it is simply so large of a build. Its final measurements are about 7" wide, by 5" deep, and 10" tall. As I mentioned earlier, the roof comes off, and the second story and stupa atop the roof come off the roof, as well. This makes it easier to store, of course. So, with this build, I think I am done with Southeast Asian temples for awhile. If I do anything else, they will likely be small stupas to place here and there to fill out a larger board.

    A closeup of the false second story, which is detachable and lifts off of the roof for easier storage

I hope you enjoyed the series of entries detailing its work in progress! Feel free to leave a comment, or ask questions...! Thanks.