Jabberwocky and Castle Design

As promised, I've been repairing an old Warhammer tower I bought about 15 years ago. It's called Deathknell Watch, which is not to be confused with Deadskull Mance, Dreadskull Tor or Deathydeathyskullskull Boulevard (or indeed anywhere else I just made up). But more of that in a moment.

As I was looking at Empire buildings online, I realised what it is that Warhammer towns remind me of: not just the paintings of Hieroymous Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but the less refined art of Terry Gilliam's 1978 film, Jabberwocky.

Jabberwocky is not a classic. Indeed, sometimes I wonder what induced me to watch this film and its stark naked princess. It's pretty wonky, the pacing is all over the place and a lot of it just doesn't work despite all the fart jokes, like watching a stand up routine by Geoffrey Chaucer. However, it looks sort-of-right for the Empire and spot on for Brettonia, by virtue of being really, deeply sordid.

The picture below, for instance, might as well be sold as a perfume called L'Essence de Warhammer. A crazed preacher leads some men with banners while a half-naked zealot runs about in front of a giant cog. What more do you need, except a skull the size of Berkshire?

I mean, just look at the horns on these two:

And this rat-seller is Mordheim personified. Except that he's smiling.

Anyway, back to business.

I got this Deathknell Watch thing ages ago. This is how it's supposed to look:

As you can see, there's some really nice sculpting and design there, and some dumb massive skulls (and some marginally less dumb little skulls). I dug this thing out and decided to have a go at de-skulling it, with the help of plasticard, green stuff, a hacksaw and the local A&E.

Halfway through, I decided to add an entirely new bit sticking out the side. Why not? I think that's how people in Warhammer build houses, after all.

Having constructed this rickety thing, I painted it and tried to make some sort of sense of it.

Dwarf to scale, as much as they ever are.

It is ridiculous and unfeasible, but it looks right in the company of my other ridiculous and unfeasible buildings. Which makes me think that I really ought to make the Jabberwock. I've got an old conversion somewhere. Perhaps it's time for a re-paint...