Building the Alamo

by Mark Latham

I’m often asked questions about the rather fantastic Alamo model from the Victory or Death supplement – questions along the line of ‘How was it made?’, ‘What are the dimensions?’ and ‘Can you put templates up on the website?’

As a result, I’ve been in touch with Ray Dranfield of Games Workshop’s Warhammer World scenery team, who built the model from the book along with Mick Cudworth. They’ve provided us with some rather good photos of the model, complete with measurements, so you can get an idea of how to build one yourself!

Ray and Mick in the workshop, shortly before taking their third tea break

The Alamo is one of the most recognisable backdrops for any battle in history, and building it in 28mm scale is no mean feat! Ray and Mick bravely volunteered for the task of building the north wall, a set of barricades and redoubts, and the mission itself. The task took them several months, lots of wood and plaster and, of course, uncountable cups of tea!

Before starting work on the Alamo model, Mick and Ray spent a long time on planning the construction and gathering the right materials. Researching on the Internet, in history books and documentaries, and even several movies, the plans were painstakingly drawn up. Eventually, Ray was able to print off a blueprint of the chapel in exactly the correct scale, enabling him to transfer all the dimensions to the model’s base.

Ray started by using historical sources to draw up a set of blueprints

While Ray worked on getting the proportions of the mission as accurate as possible, Mick began constructing the north wall. To lend strength to the model, he made the frame in one long section, using sturdy wood to prevent warping. The various buildings were then fleshed out, along with the battle-damaged wall. Even the positioning of the various scrapes and dents were taken from reference images to provide the most accurate possible translation of the 1836 wall to the 28mm miniature.

Mick constructs the north wall

Once the basic wooden construction was complete, the entire model was clad in a brick texture. Some of this was made from pre-formed plasti-card, while most was made by painstakingly etching into plasterwork! Various extra details needed to be made to bring life to the Alamo – Mick and Ray created a host of crumbled walls, barrels and crates, water troughs, redoubts and gun emplacements to lend authenticity to their model.

Some of the battlefield accessories: gabions, crates, palisades and
crumbled wall sections

Two views of the hastily fortified outer walls

The burned-out shacks that lie outside the walls add an extra level of
authenticity to the battlefield

The crowning glory of any Alamo model is the facade of the mission – this is the recognisable image from the front of many a history book. Ray and Mick pointed out that the arched ‘bed-head’ top piece of the mission was actually added long after the siege, and so it was omitted from their model.

The crumbling statues and twisted pillars were hand-sculpted once, then duplicated in plaster by using silicon moulds. Finally, the model was painted to match photographs of the present-day Alamo, with plenty of hand-painted weathering and battle-damage effects added for good measure.

The mission frontage, complete with measurements

A top-down view of the mission, with measurements

The finished chapel in all its glory

The complete terrain set, laid out as it would be on a 6’ x 4’ table

A game in progress over Ray and Mick’s wonderful terrain

 

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