3298 Castle Expansion Capabilities???? I want higher walls!! Help!

[BlackPearl2006]

Well, just bought my first system x castle, the 3268, but now I am dissastisfied with its limited configuration.

I have searched for expansion capabilities here with little success.

Can someone help me with ideas?

How would one go about raising the walls?

The only thing I can think of is to buy more 3268 walls and cut off the tops, and then drill holes and bolt the walls together in order to stack them 2 levels high.

Any possibilities with steck? 

Also, has anyone painted their castles (weathering, metal parts, line detail on the bricks/mortar?)  Pics and ideas please!

You're help is much appreciated!  Thanks!

[tonguello]

2 days ago I got my first castle, 3667, a steck castle. I'm in love with the possibilities of steck, you can do almost whatever you want if you have the right parts. As far as I know System X has more limitations. As for making walls higher I think it is impossible in that system, unless you make an extreme modification like cutting and drilling like you said....
It is possible though to expand horizontally and there are in fact expansion sets, towers, a gate and lateral walls you can get on DS or ebay.
Steck and System X are not compatible unfortunatelly.
Hope this helps a bit.... 

[BlackPearl2006]

Congrats Gaston!  I too only got my first castle (3667) just about a week ago as well! (for only US$30).  I love it!  Admittedly it was just a stand in til I could afford a 3268 castle, but I actually like the 3667 aesthetics and design possiblities better.

The 3268 does have extra walls and towers available I guess.  But I'm hoping to build up the walls and the front towers if possible.

[Wolf Knight]

Ok Atto, first things first...

Officially, you can expand the 3298 Knights Empire Castle with the following extensions:
7758 - Wall Extension for Knights` Empire Castle
7761 - Tower Extension for Knights' Empire Castle
7836 - Wall Extension B for Kings Castle

But, these are not capable of giving you more hight for the walls... A sollution for that would be to use system x walls like in attachment 1 but, their pattern does not match the castle pattern... There 3298 castle has pieces like that that can match the external walls.

The people who did the castle in attachments 2&3 did a much better job but in order to do something similar to these external walls 30 24 8120 - Castle wall, single-height with trapezoidal section in cntre you would probably have to cut the battlements... and then again, there is no holes to place a piece like that 30 22 2720 - Base plate, rectangular (2x4 units) on them.... so cutting, drilling and glueing might be unavoidable...and they will certainly be in the case of the gate towers...

Now, there are no direct/official possibilities of connecting steck and system x together...the latest castles are something of a hybrid between steck and system x http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=5897.0 but, some of their parts might fit your 3298 castle ... you'll just need to experiment 

And if I was to colour the walls, I'd use any spray paint to do the job!

Hope these ideas work... I'll try to see what else I have gathered!

[Andy R]

You have no idea how excited I am that you asked this.
Build a stepped castle wall. The bottom most level of wall is X wide, the next going up is X-1, then X-2, X-3, etc. The upper most wall section is one wall thick, so this is probably where you want to put widows, archery loops, etc.
In the schematic (attached),
Grey=3Ø 24 763Ø (or like)
White=3Ø 24 763Ø (or like)
Blue=3Ø 21 158Ø

The lower sections at at least 2-wide, so you may want to brace them every so often (such as 30 26 1040), and you may or may not want to put 3Ø 24 763Ø’s at the base (better footing). Something to consider.

[BlackPearl2006]

You have no idea how excited I am that you asked this.
Build a stepped castle wall. The bottom most level of wall is X wide, the next going up is X-1, then X-2, X-3, etc. The upper most wall section is one wall thick, so this is probably where you want to put widows, archery loops, etc.
In the schematic (attached),
Grey=3Ø 24 763Ø (or like)
White=3Ø 24 763Ø (or like)
Blue=3Ø 21 158Ø

The lower sections at at least 2-wide, so you may want to brace them every so often (such as 30 26 1040), and you may or may not want to put 3Ø 24 763Ø’s at the base (better footing). Something to consider.

where's the pic?  Do you mean to make a tiered castle?  So far this is what I am trying: I just took some steck walls from my 3667 and literally just placed them atop the inner decking for the 3268 castle walls.  Perhaps some custom cutting might have to be done to make the steck walls sit flush against the two jawbridge towers and the rear keep, but this is the simplest "mod" I can think of without hacking anything at all so far.   So it provides a lower level of walls (the stock 3268 walls) and even some planking room for klickies to roam about the perimeter, and then a second tier of walls that are closer in to the castle keep, and higher than the first tier.  Is this what you mean?

(sorry for the poor pic, taken at night with my celphone...my camera upload cable is fritz

[BlackPearl2006]

Ok Atto, first things first...

Officially, you can expand the 3298 Knights Empire Castle with the following extensions:
7758 - Wall Extension for Knights` Empire Castle
7761 - Tower Extension for Knights' Empire Castle
7836 - Wall Extension B for Kings Castle

But, these are not capable of giving you more hight for the walls... A sollution for that would be to use system x walls like in attachment 1 but, their pattern does not match the castle pattern... There 3298 castle has pieces like that that can match the external walls.

The people who did the castle in attachments 2&3 did a much better job but in order to do something similar to these external walls 30 24 8120 - Castle wall, single-height with trapezoidal section in cntre you would probably have to cut the battlements... and then again, there is no holes to place a piece like that 30 22 2720 - Base plate, rectangular (2x4 units) on them.... so cutting, drilling and glueing might be unavoidable...and they will certainly be in the case of the gate towers...

Now, there are no direct/official possibilities of connecting steck and system x together...the latest castles are something of a hybrid between steck and system x http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=5897.0 but, some of their parts might fit your 3298 castle ... you'll just need to experiment 

And if I was to colour the walls, I'd use any spray paint to do the job!

Hope these ideas work... I'll try to see what else I have gathered!

thanks for the info!  I can't wait to mod this baby somehow!

[Gis]

What I can see Rock Castle (3269) IS much more customizable.

Many System-X castles are made from the Dark Grey pieces instead of the light grey that comes with 3268.

YOu could try and combine the two?

[Andy R]

where's the pic?

It’s up now. (Never post when you’re falling asleep.)

EDIT: I have reviewed the pic you put up (fuzzy yes, but more than adequate for these puroses;)), and it’s really kinda like my idea, but in reverse. There’s no reason you can’t do both (I could get a pic together, but I think you can figure it out on your own very easily). In fact, I plan (eventually) to do something very similar (not exactly, but close).

EDIT 2: Ah Hell, I included the second castle schematic; In this version, the Yellow is any kind of door (most likely the 3Ø 26 236Ø/3Ø 27 22ØØ/3Ø 24 768Ø arched doorway/door/padlock system).

[BlackPearl2006]

Ok, so I completely disassembled my 3667 steck castle so I could play with the parts and see how I can add it to the 3268 castle and here are my preliminary results so far:

Raised walls (steck) on the east and west sides.
An extra blockade/stockade wall on the west wing (steck).
Extra west tower/battlement second story using steck!  (I made only a slight cut in the systemx tower battlement to accommodate the steck tower and it fits perfectly!  Interesting because it ends up taller than the stock 3268 east tower, and is, of course, a different design which makes it more interesting.

The only parts that I need to custom-fit still are the front castle walls; I need to cut some steck wall panels to custom fit the contours of the jawbridge towers so they are flush.

Wudya think so far?

p.s. Oh, btw, the seige tower is now just a bit too short to work against the higher walls without the ramp being inclined upwards at about 25-30 degrees.  Unless I find a way to move the ramp to the top-most platform of the siege tower.