Oh Those....

 

Electrical Woes.... 

Having Accomplished so Much on the Castle Tower last week, Dear Readers, I was eager to continue the forward momentum and "complete" the electrical box and wiring for the Ladies' Tower. The biggest step (or so I thought) would be attaching the hinged door to the front panel, and attaching the whole front panel to the buttress with the plug strip neatly nestled inside and all the plugs plugged in! I had already cut and painted the front panel and the door, but had not attached the hinges. That was easily accomplished and I moved on to attaching the whole front panel. This required much drilling and screwing (but still not gluing!... must test things first!) and that also went fairly smoothly. I was on a roll! The next step was more complicated... the attaching of the plug strip inside the box... in such a way that it is firmly in place but also removable (in case of need!)... and the linking of the plug strip to the transformer that all the Castle plugs strips use. I had decided that the plug strip could be held in place "between" screws that kept it from moving around. No glue needed and the screws can be loosened if the need to remove the strip should arise.

 Here you can see the arrangement. (Sorry my photo is a little blurry.... the lighting is not great and I was just skipping along...!) The silver headed screws just keep the plug strip from moving but are not attached to it in any way. I ran the wire under a "staple" to hold it steady and out through a notch in the side wall and then attached it to the transformer. And the plugs are all plugged into the strip there at the bottom. Are we ready for a test?  I plugged the transformer in to see how it all looked... but the lights did not seem to be lighting up..... Whaaat?????? Then I noticed the little light on the plug strip was on...!!Whaaattt???? That means the fuse has blown....!!!! I quickly unplugged the transformer... This has NEVER happened to me before! AAAcckkk!!! What to do...????? I decided I needed to just test each light separately with a different transformer and plug strip to see if they all were still functional. This gave me the reassurance that the chapel lights and the dungeon light were still functional... Whew!!!...... they are the hardest, if not impossible to replace! But The little candle in the Monk's cell did not still work. At the very least I had to see if changing its bulb would work... only to discover I had not used a replaceable bulb and socket lamp! (This was one of the very first lights I made for the dollhouses... I was a total newbie...!)

 

I was going to have to remove the entire candle

 and its wiring and start over.... 

this was challenging to say the least......! 

I could not see into the Monk's cell.... 

(this shot is the camera view through the door!)

 but I could get my hand in through that door.... 

(didn't I just recently make all those parts

 of the Castle permanently un-removable???!)

 just enough to pry the candlestick off the ledge where it sat....

 (it was only attached by museum wax!).... 

 

And I had to pull all the wiring out of the channel it was glued into... 

(the reason I use these accessible channels...!)

 actually... I had to do this first in order 

to be able to loosen the candlestick... 

so that I could remove it.

 

Here you can see the old candle on the left... 

that tiny lamp connected to the wires

 which ran through the sculpey "candle" 

I had made all those years ago. 

I had not thought to use screw base bulb lights

 that can be replaced if they burn out.

 And on the right is the "new" candle... 

this time just made from cardboard painted white.... 

the candle is very hard to actually see in place! 

I reused the sculpey "base" and re-ran it through the wall

 and glued it into the same channels as before.

 

And gave it a "test" with the alternate plug strip and transformer

 that I was using to test the lights all along. 

Yay! It lights! 

It looks "right at home" there in the Monk's cell! 

But that little detour took me most of the day 

and didn't answer the question of

 why the fuse blew on the plug strip....!

 And I absolutely didn't want to risk 

damaging any of the other Castle lights. 

This was going to take some sleuthing.... 

not so simple. 

So I decided to work on the easier stuff instead...!

 

The Postern Gate door needed to be "weathered" 

so it looked ancient and rarely used. 

I started with darkening the wood....

 

On both sides.... since it would be opened 

from time to time.... it shouldn't look new! 

And I needed to make some elaborate hinges... 

 

Just made from sculpey..... but in an elaborate design. 

They needed to be not just hinges but also

 the iron reinforcements to the heavy wooden door.

 

Which also needed to be aged... 

weathered as though it has been left in the 

sun wind and rain for a very long time... 

I made a start but need to add more "weathering".

 

And those great iron reinforcing hinges 

also needed to be weathered..... 

 

As you can see here... I have made a start. 

There's a long way still to go. 

I think I will need to see what it looks like

 tucked into the doorspace

 once the rocks have been painted before 

I will be able to tell when enough is enough.

 

Which brings us to that postern gate and the buttress

 that also has had some augmentation. 

I thought there needed to be a finial of some sort

 at the tip of the buttress there by the door. 

I stumbled across a small sculpey angel 

I had made a long time ago that didn't have a home.... 

it fits perfectly and is suitably worn and imperfect for the job!

 (I love finding those little serendipitous treasures!) 

These pieces are now getting their coats of primer and paint. 

Which also led me to deciding it was time to lay out

 the courses for the rocks on this end wall of the Castle! 

(This is momentous!) 

So far only half the exterior of the Castle has been "rocked"... 

the entire back side and the end wall on the Lord's Tower. 

It goes without saying that the courses (rows) of rocks

 across the front facade of the entire castle will have to

 line up perfectly evenly to avoid looking wrong...  

and ideally they should "match" the courses on

 the end walls where they go around the corners. 

Since I have been painting them "freehand" there is no 

guarantee that they will end up matching on their own. 

Yes, I have been using a "ruler" to guide my spacing...

 but have not been precise.

 And the front facade will be the last part I paint! 

So any "adjusting" of courses needs to happen

 on the end wall of the Lady's Tower. 

I made myself a "precise" stick to guide me. 

I held it along the Lord's Tower wall and marked

 all the courses along one side of the stick... 

a custom yardstick of sorts. And then did the same

 on the back corner of the Ladies' Tower where it met the 

back wall and marked the courses along the adjacent side of the stick.

 It tells me clearly where the adjustments need to be made! 

Fortunately, it is mostly quite close in alignment.

 

 Can you see all those lines I drew on the Tower wall...?

 

Can you see them now? (Ha ha!..... )

except for the buttress part..... where it gets complicated. 

Here I am starting to mark the vertical edges of the rocks... 

continuing the rock from the back side alignment 

so they are staggered the way they would be in real life.

 

And Just carrying the back wall lines to the buttress edge...

 

Filling the rest of the rows with the staggered block pattern... 

and adding the "texture to the buttress rocks... 

since they continue from the back wall. 

It will look more realistic when the grout lines are painted. 

 

Well, Dear Readers, It looks like

 I got a lot done in spite of

 Those Electrical Woes!

 

 

 

The Next Steps.....

 

Are Not So Fast....

You Might Suppose, Dear Readers, that now that The Chapel was finished and I was finally able to work on The Ladies' Solar, that progress would be quick and satisfyingly efficient. So much of the Castle structural methods were already firmly established.... just pull out the lumber (rocks) and get building, right? As you can see... I got going on the next steps right away... the staircase to the Lady's Bed Chamber above. But then I realized just how late in the year it was! October??? Oh... uh oh.... October! Clearly, Time was getting past me... I don't know how... but it was already October....! (long time blog readers Know what that means around here... a special form of mayhem erupts all on its own schedule... but with a dreaded Deadline.... (heh heh)...spooky... right...? .....) And more importantly... the season was changing... I would soon lose the time for opening doors and windows to air out the fumes.... painting with Primer being a culprit on big tasks... and I really REALLY needed to get that final exterior wall on the Ladies' Tower primed and painted! It was already three (Three!) years since I had done this for all the Lord's Tower walls. The weather had already turned chilly and Autumnal in my neck o' the woods... but I saw a day being forecast for temps in the high sixties.... on Thursday.... and after that... heading towards the fifties at best. So what was stopping me? All I had to do was get the Ladies' Tower wiring channels cut... the powerstrip box constructed and built into a new buttress on the back side of that wall..... Was there enough time....? Well, only one way to find out.....

 

I have been doing so much work recently on the back wall.... 

(which got its coats of paint back in 2021 when

 I had realized how badly the exterior of The Castle

 needed to be painted to protect the plywood!) 

that you might have forgotten that this side wall

 was still not painted. 

It has been bothering me for years! 

Here you can see I made a start on carving the 

wiring channels for the few lights already in place. 

The Dungeon has one torch light... 

the Chapel has the two candlesticks by the Altar...

 and there is a tiny candle in the Monk's cell... 

I think Henry left it there when

 he was using that room a looong time ago.

 These four lights were some of the first ones

 I put in place in 2010 when I began to build the Castle. 

I ran the wires to the exterior and "around to the side" 

where the power plug strip was "attached" 

(the peel and stick backing on these strips is not known for lasting).

 The glue gave out long ago and the power plug strip

 dangled off the side of the Tower 

(I was careful to make sure no wires were crossing!)

 and only got used when the Castle lights are turned on.... ie. plugged in. 

Sixteen years of dangling took a toll on the plug strip...

 its wiring came apart! 

 

So we are starting almost from the beginning here.

 

This is the Tower side wall with the flash turned on. 

You can see the beginnings of wiring channels for 

those first lights carved into the old wood. 

The darker wood is much harder to carve than the paler wood.... 

so putting the channels in white wood where possible

 is much easier on the hand...! (This was a major reason 

I had not simply painted the wall a long time ago.)

Even so, I don't know where all the lights for the upper rooms 

will need to be placed, and at the very least 

there needed to be a vertical channel at the back corner. 

The fireplaces run along the back wall to this channel 

and lighting for the upper two rooms will be

 brought over to this channel too. 

From there they will run down to the wiring box

 tucked into the buttress at the back corner.... 

still to be built!

 

And the buttress has to fit in to the narrow space 

beside the Postern Gate Door!

 (It is not entirely hidden and not entirely secret.... 

but very seldom used... you would need to scale the cliffs after all...!)

 You can see the channel for the Dungeon torchlight

 runs up over the door to the power box area on the left.

 

Yes... there are stairs in there... 

they come up through a trapdoor in the Monk's Cell...!

 

Here I am starting to "block out" the structure of the power box

 and how it will all be attached (very securely!) to the Tower wall. 

The block of wood on the left will be glued and screwed

 firmly to the wall and the power strip will be attached to it. 

The base will be attached from below to this block 

and to the one on the right side of the door. 

 

Here you can see I have cut the two side walls for the buttress... 

the right hand one will have a staggered wall to pass the window. 

These walls are screwed into the first block 

and the inner base along the sides.

 

Here you can see the basic structure of the plug strip box and buttress base... 

it will be glued and screwed onto the Tower wall....

 thus when it (the buttress) gets used as a "handle"

 to move the Tower around.... it will be very firmly attached

 and no harm will come to the wiring!

 

 It became clear that the wiring needed to be glued into those channels

right away in order to continue building the buttress!

 

And in order to do that I had to splice 

and shrink-tube the connections

 at the right length to reach the plug strip 

with the right amount of wire to spare.

 

Here you can see the candlestick wires 

from the back wall of The Chapel ... 

I run them "through" the corner so as to

 minimize stress on those wires at the corners.

 

And the Dungeon wires need to go around the door... 

As you can imagine, Dear Readers... this takes a while!

 

The upper ends of the buttress have to be 

glued and screwed to "blocks" (5/8" x 5/8"stock wood) 

which are themselves glued and screwed firmly to the Tower wall. 

The buttresses need to be very sturdy!

 

Here the buttress pieces are mostly built 

and "tested" for attaching but not yet 

glued permanently in place. 

The front panel will have an opening door section

 at the bottom to access the wires.

 

And the short piece of "buttress" 

on the right side of the Postern door

 also needed to be constructed. 

It holds the base section firmly in place

 and helps hide the door. 

 

But by now it is Wednesday night... I am tired.... 

the primer needs to be painted the next day... 

the section over the Postern door can be added another time. 

The basic framework is now glued and screwed securely in place!

 

The next day, as sometimes happens after a good night's sleep, 

the fresh eyes of morning see things differently! 

There was a scrap of wood... a cut off piece from years ago... 

kicking around in my way... making a nuisance of itself

 as it would not settle into a category of scrap.... 

it was large and pointy and ... odd! 

But suddenly I thought it might fit over the Postern door

 as part of the buttress framework I was still trying to build.... 

so I cut it to fit the space....

 (because you couldn't tell if it would work

 until it had been cut to fit.....) and ...

 

I know it is hard to see... but it fits the spot just right! 

And then maybe it needed to be given a saw-toothed edge... 

like so many of the other old door arches.....

 

But I was hurrying that day and forgot to get many pictures.... 

you will have to wait 'til later to see it in place... 

because now it was Finally time to get the primer on the wall!

 

 

Oh my goodness... this felt like such a relief.... 

like old dry skin getting a soothing lotion at last... 

 

 

which then has to dry sufficiently... 

you can see in the background 

my door is open to the porch outside... 

a lovely breeze wafting through the house 

and out the window on the south side....

 

 

And then the gray base coat of paint...

 

 

And the whole wall is now painted! 

Just awaiting the "rock" details.... 

along with the rest of The Castle facade.

 

 

And yes... I am still working on the details of the Postern Gate...

And I have to attach the front of the buttress 

and the opening door to the plug compartment... 

 but I got the bulk of it done in time! 

 

So clearly, Dear Readers, 

the Next steps weren't at all 

what I thought they would be.... 

Not at all Fast.... but (mostly) done at last! 

 

 

The Chapel Undone...........

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!