I started working on a simple Japanese Shrine model.
After research I decided to go with this geometry design, which will give me the option of making a larger version too!
This is the "extended" version ...
So far I have the base finished. This is the "easy" version. The outside railings are all filled with wood plank background as filler so you don't have to cut out all the bars. Also the stairs are just a simple flat plane with some clever texturing appearing as stairs. I want to build a better version once I am done with more detail, but for now this fast version is great to test things.
After the 3D render I found that the height of the platform and the railings was too high compared to my research pics, so that is why I changed the geometry in the final build. I am going for a smaller (forrest?) shrine and these seem to not be so high as I thought. It looks more pleasing to me that way :-)