Back to the Walls...

 

The Chapel Backside Continued....

By now you know the drill, Dear Readers, the long step by step process for making the illusion of rocks on the Castle walls, so you might find this post redundant. But I need to document the way the walls have been "finished" because it might be a long time before anybody sees them again! The next step required making the arched tops for the Chapel windows. This time I am leaving them very simple with no carved teeth. It is unlikely that such small windows would have been given such an ornamental detail (or maybe I am just in a hurry and will regret this one day!) And yet I have used a "carved stone" motif for the sides of the windows. My only excuse is that I have already attached this same trim to the sides of the other Chapel window which is on the outside wall and readily visible. I thought they should match and I really just wanted to get the back wall done!

Once the walls had been primed

 the next step was the lighter gray paint.

And then the outlining of the "rock" courses.

It went faster than I expected... 

I had already worked out many of the details

 on the more complicated back wall of The Great Hall.

I just needed to make the courses relatively consistent

 with those of The Great Hall... 

because they will stand side by side 

and those courses will be continued

 around to the front eventually!

 They needed to match!

(Another reason to get all the back walls done at once.)

The tower is quite tall... 

I needed to use a step ladder!

And then the "rocks" get painted...

Here you can see the window arches have been attached.

And the "rocks are all painted...

And it is dark and late....

And you can hardly see it back there!

In the morning light it is time to paint the grout.

Again, this went faster than I thought it would!

And again, it transforms the structure in a magical way!

I can't fit the entire Tower into one picture!

Here's the top with the crenelations.

This is the back wall that will hardly ever be seen!

I wanted to see the Chapel windows with the lights on...

Now you can really see them!

I have to confess, I just love the way it looks!

And because the back wall will not be visible.... 

but the side wall will be, where it rises above The Great Hall,

I needed to get the "rock" courses continued around to the side.

(Sorry for the blurry photo!)

Here the rocks have been painted....

And grouted. 

Again, it is getting late and dark.

And even though I really didn't want to...

I turned those painted sides back to the wall.

And you can see how little The Castle looks changed.

But now, Dear Readers, 

I know what it can look like... 

and will look like...

Someday...

 When I get the rest of those walls finished!

I will Dream of it...

 

Rocks We Got....

 

Quite A Lot...!

It took a couple of tries, Dear Readers, to get the Rocks for the Crenelations lined up in a good pattern. They needed to be smaller than the rest of the rocks on the Castle, in order to fall right around the gaps. I need my Rocks to look like they would in RL, that is to say they obey the laws of  physics... even though this is just a Miniature castle. Here you can see I have only the chimney rocks still to outline.

And I can't resist showing every step.... 

I hope it does not bore you!

You might notice that I am not covering over the wiring

 that is "buried" in those channels. 

This is to be sure I can find the wires if they ever need repairing. 

This is the back side and will hardly ever be seen!

And Finally, it is time to start adding the "texture" to these "rocks"!

This is the "slap-dash" part.... 

I really do not spend time on the texture.

I am interested in the darkness of the "rock" more than anything else.

There needs to be some darker and some lighter rocks

 spread throughout the whole structure.

There needs to be some contrast, but not too much... 

just enough to differentiate the rocks from each other.

And the more "rocks" I painted....

The more I loved the look!

Oh my...! What a difference it makes!

Just the crenelations still to "rock"...!

And a closer view of the lower part....

(it is getting late and the light is fading...)

But... Oh my!

I just Love this Castle!

But we are not done yet......

We still have to add the grout.

But that needed to wait for morning......

In the fresh light of morning, Dear Readers,

 I almost talked myself out of adding the grout lines.

I just loved it so much as it was. 

But I checked my references....

(lots and lots of Castle picture books...)

And they agreed that Grout was needed!

This is Not a "slap-dash" process.

The very opposite, in fact.

It got off to a rough start...

 it is hard to reach carefully into this narrow space

 and lay a single white line down the center

 of all the gray outlines!

And not get the white paint anywhere else... 

even though the surface is rough

 and the paint line needs to be continuous, not full of gaps.

Slow but steady... with a lot of rests to stretch the legs...

Because it is hard to squeeze in where I have to work. 

I thought you might want to see...!

Slowly but surely.... here you can see the comparison... 

part with grout and part without!

Slowly... slowly transforming the walls...

I, myself can't believe the difference it makes!

But I know I say this every time!

 

Can you believe this is just plywood?

The electrical box has all but disappeared!

(See the cracks...?)

It has become Grand... and imposing.....!

I can't tell you how impressed I am!

And I cannot believe I will have to turn this to face the Wall!

But this is, after all, just the back side of the Great Hall!

And now that I know what it will look like when I finish the front....

Well, Dear Readers, I can Dream, can't I?

Because I still have an awful lot of Rocks to paint!