So, as mentioned before, I have a mental illness. I’ve been seeing a psychologist, and one of the things she said I needed to do was to get a hobby: the mixture of agoraphobia, writing and working from home had made it so I not only would never leave my house, but I would rarely leave my office.

Many years ago, I used to play wargames–not board games, but tabletop games, where you collect and paint little miniatures. I played Warhammer (both 40k and Fantasy) since I was about 15, and I’ve dabbled in a few others, most recently Warmachine.

Anyway, I put all of that stuff away when my first kid was able to crawl. Wargame figures are both fragile and and expensive (and swallowable) and having kids running around pretty much put an end to that hobby. However, when my psychologist told me to get a hobby, my wife immediately suggested that I get back into wargames. (Truth be told, I almost never really play the games. I’m mostly in it for the modeling aspect.)

The plan

So, I’ve been painting little guys. And, given my similar love of model railroads, it should come as no surprise that I’ve recently gotten enamored with making scenery. I’ve built some of the packaged scenery models (with lots of little additions and alterations of my own), but the other day I came to a realization: For the same cost as a pack of balsa wood (the modeler’s wood of choice, because it’s so easy to carve), I could buy a big 4′x8′ sheet of 2″ insulation. Back when I used to work for a theater, that was a staple of set building, because it was lightweight and easy to carve.

But what to build with it? I wanted some kind of large fort, but I’ve already built medieval castles before, and I wanted something different. I downloaded a free trial of AutoCAD–I download a free trial of AutoCAD about once a year for weird projects like this–and in an hour I’d designed an Egyptian fortress/palace thing.

Richard Dreyfuss Goes Crazy

And then the mental illness kicked in, and I obsessively worked on the thing like a crazy person, like Richard Dreyfuss building the Devil’s Tower in his living room.

Anyway, here it is. I apologize for my crappy photography skills.

Front view

Looking down into the courtyard

The back view. I'm particularly pleased with the crumbling wall.

I also particularly like the rickety walkways. (Note: they're the only things I haven't finished painting yet.)

A view up the front entrance. (The sphinx is part of the building. The snakes are models.)