Altheim: Part 5 - The Watch House

Another day, another finished building! This time it's the home of the Altheim Watch:

The Altheim Watch House, with the Watch on parade outside.

As well as the house, I've also repurposed some old F4 Mercenaries a I painted up a long time ago to act as the Watch themselves.

If you want to see and know more, it's all after the cut...





The Watch House itself (number 26 in the Warhammer Townscape book, the 'Manor House') and takes up a fair amount of space on the table. This is mainly due to it having a small parade ground inside a secure, lockable compound, for security's sake. I'm going to have to make sure that future buildings generally have a smaller footprint, to maximise the number I can fit on the table!

The building itself had stone steps in the original card model, but I decided to go for a wooden staircase to make it look a bit more 'realistic', as stone steps would have defeated the object of having a fortified building with the door on the first floor!

Construction-wise, it's just another card building with wood detailing added on, and a thin coat of filler to represent the plaster lower down. There's actually a rigid structure inside the card, made of cork tiles as from previous experience, the moisture from the filler makes the cardboard bow and distort, so that avoids that happening.

Anyway, here's some more shots of it from different angles, and showing some of the details:

Front view, with the captains of the Day (L) and Night (R) Watch

Offset view, showing the stairs in more detail. 

Close up of the notice board, and assorted posters. 

Overall front view. 

Side view showing the cellar windows

And again. 

Close up. Beware Ye Comet indeed!

Rear view.

 'Much Ado About Ratmen' is a popular, albeit controversial, satire in Altheim

And the Captain of the Night Watch, wondering who keeps putting these posters up. 

Other side, showing the cell window and the courtyard. 

And some more posters. 

He's getting more annoyed by the minute by these posters... 

Both Watches receive a briefing in their courtyard.

The Captains of the Day and Night Watch leading roll call. 

The Watch

As well as the building, I also decided to repurpose a bunch of F4 mercenaries (and some old oddments) I painted a long time ago, making their blue and yellow uniforms the official colours of the watch, which I've repeated on the flag and assorted building parts. Their insignia is the Griffon, which is also on the flag (along with a Boar, because y'know, they're the pigs...) and above the gates etc.

Tasked with maintaining law and order inside the city limits and the nearby villages, they are armed with a variety of weapons and easily identifiable by their distinctive uniforms. Operating out of their fortified Watch House, there are two main types of Watch unit, the City Patrols and the Pursuit Patrol. The City Patrols are separated into the Day Watch and Night Watch, and walk the streets upholding the law, arresting suspects and holding them in their cells until they can be transferred to the Courthouse for trial.

The Day and Night Watches on parade. 

The Day Watch... 

...and the Night Watch. 

The Pursuit Patrol, also known as the Bloodhounds are a small team of specialist hunters and trackers responsible for capturing down the most dangerous suspects and criminals who have fled further afield. They also contain currently the only Dwarven member of the Watch, Glalin Torunn, a specialist marksman (marksdwarf?) able to take down the most dangerous targets from a distance.

The Bloodhounds, about to leave the Watch House to track another suspect. 

Model wise, these are all a bunch of old Citadel models I've wanted to get painted up for years, but never had a reason to get them finished. I especially love the Clint Eastwood model, even down to his pistol crossbow, he's such a great model.

Anyway, there you go, that's another building and some figures down for the city. Next job I think is the baseboards, so I've got something less green to photograph them all on!