You Might Not Remember....
I had to do a lot more Undoing, Dear Readers, in order to access the Chapel Ceiling which needed to be trimmed an eighth of an inch shorter in order for the Proscenium to attach flush with the walls. I had not noticed this discrepancy all those years ago when I was actively constructing the Chapel... it would have been easier to correct then! But fortunately, most of the Chapel is not yet glued in place, because the ceiling is not yet finished being painted....(by those suspiciously absent mini artists...) so I was not destroying anything. But it was hard to remember exactly how to access the ceiling after all those years!
Once I had removed all the furnishings
and sent Father Alban on a Dream Vacation,
I could begin to explore and reacquaint myself with
the structure of this very complex part of the Castle.
The ornate pillars are all still loose so the ceiling can be worked on.
Once again, I cannot attach the ceiling until I have completed the paintings....
Here I have shined a light in so you can see the partly done work....
The empty quadrant on the left will show the Creation scenes...
The right quadrant is a partly finished Last Judgement scene.
Above the altar is God in Magesty
and at the front is Archangel Michael defeating the Devil and his demons....
(The Medieval models I am painting from were shown long ago
in This post if you care to know them.)
Perhaps someone else knows why I have not yet completed these paintings...
why I started on the Great Hall Ceiling before I finished this one....
But I have forgotten!
The entire vaulted framework of the ceiling slides straight out...
in order to pass the supports without snagging.
The arched vaulting pieces are notched on the ends to pass the floor support beam.....
Here you can see it a couple of inches out...
The arched pieces of the ceiling are made from
ordinary corrugated cardboard, curved to shape
and covered with a thick watercolor paper for the painted surface.
They are fitted to cover the entire ceiling when in place,
so they have to slide perfectly along the edges of the walls
and not catch on the framework of the monk's cell in the corner.
The view from above as it slides out......
The ceiling removed.... the edge along the front
will need to be trimmed by one eighth of an inch!
And with the ceiling out of the way
you can see the structure of the interior walls.
The stairs in the wall to the right lead from the Great Hall
to the Lady's Solar on the next floor up....
and they pass over the Chapel entrance from the Great Hall.
In the back corner is the Monk's Cell....
The Monk's Cell from above....
showing the structure of the piece of ceiling
which does not slide out... is glued in place!
Here you can see the front wall to the Monk's Cell is still removable.....
and the ceiling is not grand but is the unadorned brick
(painted on the corrugated cardboard...)
and the furnishings are quite simple.
Here is a closer look...
the cot with the woolen blankets, the candle on the ledge,
a simple cross on the wall, a shuttered window with no glass...
and a brass ring in the floor...?
Which opens a trap door....?
And if you shine a light in you will see stairs descending......!
Where do they go..... I hear you ask?
Well, Dear Readers, all good Castles must have
a Postern Gate Somewhere!
This door leads out onto the cliffs above the Sea...
and if the need arose, anyone trapped inside the Castle
could escape this way!
You can imagine how reassuring it is to know this!
But for now we are more concerned with
the completion of the Chapel structure....
The floor support beam also needed to be trimmed by a "whisker"...
and you will be glad to know I did not have to
remove the beam to accomplish this!
My goal at this point is to attach all the "Prosceniums"
and the exterior doors to ensure that the basic
Castle Structure is solidly assembled.
I managed to trim the ceiling section with my coping saw
without doing the artwork any harm
(although the edge of the painting also needed to be trimmed a tiny bit).
Then I screwed the proscenium and the doors in place!
Oh, I do Love it when the doors swing open!
As before, nothing is glued in place....
waiting for me to complete the paintings first!
But for now we are moving on to the Solar....
There were nowhere near as many adjustments needed here....
since the room is essentially unfinished.
The stairwell wall had been painted and needed a little trimming...
but is still unattached.
(I apologize for the dark shots... no excuse!)
I really wanted to get the fronts all finished...
so I pulled out my big saw and cut the
final proscenium and doors for the Lady's Bed Chamber,
the top room on this side of the Castle.
And again, this is where I encountered the warping of the plywood.
Both sides were fairly bent...
But they pulled back into shape with the screws and a little pressure!
As you can see here!
More trimming needed to be done before the doors would fit...
It was getting late....
I chiseled away at that annoying "bump"
in the top edge of the proscenium....
my sawing was clearly not very precise!
And I attached the doors!
The only part still to attach is the top roofs on both towers!
(And the crenelations.... and the exterior stairs.....)
It is actually starting to look like a Castle!
And before you ask....
yes, I completed lilac blossom number twenty-two!
Count them if you don't believe me!
Well, Dear Readers, if you are like me,
you might not even remember where we started....
with the Chapel all Undone...!
So much still to do!
