Paper Terrain for 7TV Dracula Finale

I’ve been playing through the 5-scenario campaign for 7TV Dracula (see my battle reports here), and one of the primary challenges is that each scenario asks for some wildly different terrain setups. I’ve managed the first three with mainly paper terrain, and I’ll be using the Battle Systems Ruined Monastery kit for chapter 4, so that only leaves the grand finale.

I was hoping to cobble this together out of pieces I’ve already built, but it looks like I’ll need at least one new building. I think I’ll be able to use the Battle Systems kit and the resin walls that came with the 7TV Dracula Kickstarter for the two structures in the foreground. I thought I’d be able to use one of the crypts from chapter 3’s graveyard for Dracula’s Tomb, but I’ve concluded that they’re all a little too small — I want something a little larger and more impressive.

I have Dave Graffam’s High Ground paper model kit, which should work great for the elevated platform Dracula’s Tomb stands on. For the tomb itself, I picked up a new paper kit, the Vault from Mystic Mountain Productions. The building looks to be a little larger than the Graffam crypts, and the completed model is meant to fold down (relatively) flat when not in use.

The scenario setup calls for an interior to the tomb as well. I found a post on the Cardboard Warriors forum from 2015 where some helpful soul kitbashed interior walls for this very model, so hopefully I’ll be able to use that. If I can’t make it work, I’ve got a flat piece from Heroic Maps that we can use for the interior. We’ll see how it goes.

Normally paper terrain buildings are relatively easy to assemble — they’re really just printed boxes with some bits added, it’s just getting angled roofs on that’s the hard part. However, this kit (“The Vault” from Mystic Mountain Productions) is meant to be disassembled and stored more-or-less flat. I’ve done a few like this before, and the extra engineering involved in making the buildings collapsible usually adds a little complication to the proceedings.

It took about 4 hours to cut out and fold the separate pieces. I always score the folds with a ballpoint pen before I cut each shape out, it makes for a nice even fold. I also run a black sharpie along any edges that I think might show when the model is complete, but that will be a little tricky since I’m not sure how completely the tabs will fit into their slots without gluing them.

Getting the walls together and slotted into the floor wasn’t too bad. As usual, the roof is the hard part. I’m not 100% sure that the hassle of getting all these tabs into their slots makes up for the convenience of being able to store this building flat when I’m done with it, I suppose we’ll see.

All in all I’m happy with the finished piece. It’s bigger and more impressive looking than the crypts I built for Chapter 3, but I think it does still need a raised platform as pictured in the setup illustration. Luckily I have just the thing…

The setup illustration shows Dracula’s Tomb on a raised stone platform, and luckily I already have Dave Graffam’s High Ground Tile Set, a collection of raised platform that will be perfect for this. I already used a ramp from this kit for Dracula chapter 2, so that’s one fewer piece I’ll need to print and assemble.

These 6x6x2 inch platforms are essentially just boxes, and I got four of them cut out and assembled in no time. When placed with the ramp, I’ve got something that’s reasonably close to what’s shown in the setup illustration.

It looks like I’m just about done, but there’s one last piece: the scenario calls for an interior to Dracula’s Tomb. If the battle starts going badly for Dracula he retreats to the tomb interior so hopefully I won’t need it (I’m playing the forces of evil in the campaign), but given the way the other games have gone…

Google can be a marvelous thing. Somehow, I managed to find an eight year old forum post that talked about doing an interior for the very papercraft kit I’m using, and the poster helpfully included PDFs of the wall artwork, reformatted to fit as the interior. Oddly there wasn’t a floor included, but I’ve got several stone floor tile sets so that’s no problem.

After cutting out the interior walls I’ve determined that I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work, but it occurs to me that all that is really needed is to paste the new artwork to the flip side of each wall and the floor, so with a bit more cutting, here we are. I’ve taken care to ensure that the tabs still fit in their slots so the building can be disassembled and reassembled as it was designed to be.

With that, I think I’ve got what I need for the Dracula grand finale. However, that tomb interior is looking a little sparse…

In taking another look at the setup illustration, there are three sarcophagi in one of the foreground buildings (which I will most likely be assembling using the Battle Systems Ruined Monastery set). There should also be one in Dracula’s tomb. The 7TV Dracula Kickstarter included two wooden coffins, but first off, that’s not enough, and more importantly, I feel like Dracula would have a more permanent place to rest when he’s on his home turf.

It’s papercraft to the rescue once again, in the form of the E-Z Dungeons Expansion Set #9 from Fat Dragon Games, which features several different medieval sarcophagi. There are three different smaller sarcophagi for the foreground building, and a couple of options for a more elaborate one for Dracula’s tomb.

What do you think, are the bat wings too much?