Ola everyone:)

I'm proud to announce that I'm really getting close to finishing my tower project. This is my longest and most detailed project ever and I have to say I put a lot of work and love into it. At first I was thinking of duplicating it by making a mold, but because there's no one in my area who has the equipment and experience to do it, it just has to wait.
For all those who aren't familiar with this project I just want to say that this is a fully scratchbuild building, with cast and handlayed plaster blocks (around 800), removable roof and upper piece, wooden floor and door, iron fittings, molded and cast four roof panels and around 60 ridge tiles. I'm working on the roof right now, which can be seen on the pictures, as there's only one ridge tile row present. The roof is already glued together and will be further reinforced tommorow. You can see some progress with the ridge tiles below:







The ridge tiles are a plaster cast from a small mold I made (a mold making feature, which can be found on this forum, was based on this mold). But because I didn't plan it well (as Scott wisely noticed) I had to sand a good ammount of plaster from each tile to go from the piece on the left, to the piece on the right on this picture

:

Fortunatelly it's quite fast and easy with a dremel-like machine, which I happen to have:)

And here I have a couple of questions for all of you:

1. How should I finish the bottom ridge tile, which can be seen here (under shot)?:



leave it as it is or put something inside that tile, a small piece of wood or something like that? Normally the lower tile has an oval shape or has a medium sized metal plate with holes to cover the end. Both of those solutions would not work in the medieval times, the first one was too hard to make and the second one involves metal, which was rather rare.

2. Should I use some wall spackle to cover the cracks between the ridge tiles and the roof? Or leave it as it is?

3. What tile should I use for the top of the roof? A wierd looking four sided ridge tile or something else? I'm not sure what that tile is even called in english, I tried to look for a solution with google but found nothing.

If you know an answer to any of those three question, please reply, the more heads I get involved in this, the better:)

And just to show of, here's an overall shot of the tower, which came out pretty big (around 30cm):



Hope you like it my friends:)

Cheers,
dsc.

Very nice - the last photo is great. I like the detail at the base of the top section.

Good job - it's nice to be close to the end.

Hey, that looks great i love the last picure the stones look cool. To answer one of your questions. I think you asked how to finish off the top of the roof? Like a four sided thing. Well I would make a pyramind shaped metal (copper) peice to fit right on top to cap it off. Let me know iff you donts understand. lol.

Gday Tom
This is just great!
To finish the top, I would either run with a four-sided pyramid made of metal or have an accutely shaped 4-way ridge tile Not too unusual, if only for the steep pitch... I wouldn't worry about covering the ends of
the ridge lines. This would have a special 'domed' ended ridge tile as the last, which would cover the gap...
Cheers
Brad

Ola guys!

First of all thanks for the respons and your kind words, I'm glad you like it:)

I think I will go with a four way plaster top piece to finish the roof on the outside. Metal would be easier but this whole thing is more organic (rock, wood, clay), so I think that such a piece will work well with the rest of the tower.

Here's a small update, I finished all the ridges of the roof and only the top is left "naked". I also have to cover the inside of the roof with some thin strips of balsa and it's done:)

- an overall shot:



- some closeups of the damaged tiles:







- and something to show scale:



Cheers everyone:)
dsc.

Ola

Sorry for responding to my own post, but I have a small update:)

I finished the top piece, which I decided to make from plaster. I just took four ordinary ridge tiles and cut them down to create a four sided piece. After that I glued them together and filled the gaps between them with some wall filler to imitate a bigger one piece top tile. Here's how it looks:






I also thought some more about the inner roof and decided to make an insulation visible version. So basically I will use six vertical rafter on each roof side and cover the space between them with some straw imitation. Than I will use thin balsa slats and glue them horizontally to hold the straw inplace. It's similar to the idea I had before but instead of wooden planks I will use thinner wooden slats to create a sort of wooden mesh.

Do you have any ideas on what to use for the straw? I'm guessing old brushes or dust sweepers/whisks?

Cheers,
dsc.

Yep Tommy, that tile top cover looks perfect!
Great job...
As for the straw, how about getting hold of some hemp? The stuff that plumbers use for water and gas pipe joints... May also be called plumbers tow... If you know any plumbers see what they have on them, or else get to a plumbing supplier who may have a very large roll of the stuff... It pulls apart easily, and subsequently can be packed tightly together as per its plumbing use with jointing paste to form a tight seal ...HTH
Cheers
Brad

Ola Brad

Damn it I had a whole post written and opened some bookmarked pages at once and it all went to hell:|

Well here's what I wanted to say:

Thanks for the suggestion mate, I thought about using some thin dried up grass, which in a big close up looks like a little pipe. It's easy to find and it's free:) I would probably have to try out those two techniques before deciding to use one of them, but I don't really have to as I changed my mind:)
I've decided that the roof was constucted from wooden planks placed on the hip rafters and supporting beams (jack rafters, well actually one jack rafter per side). All of the planks create a flat roof surface to which small strips of wood are nailed to hold the tile. Well because the tiles cover the outer roof side, the only thing I need to worry about are the wooden planks, hip rafters and jack rafters, cause it's the only thing visible from the inside:) Here's how it looks in real life:



and here's my version:



It's all just a dry fit, except for the wooden planks, which were first glued together one side at a time, and then glued to each of the inner sides. The hip rafters are placed on the whole piece with some plasticine and you can see one jack rafter on the bottom side, just to show how it will look like after it's glued together. Of course the hip rafters are too long and will be cut before gluing them on.

So what's you verdict dear friends?? Is it a pass? or no?

And here's a small thing I've added to one of the hip rafters, it's a vertical crack, which can be seen quite often on wooden logs:) What do you think of it?



And at the end I just wanted to thank you guys for your replies and all the help you have provided:) I bow down:)

Cheers,
dsc.

Awww man you're just toying with us now Tommyboy! :-)
This keeps getting better and better... The research you are putting into this is really showing, and combined with your craftmanship the sky's the lmit

Ola Brad

Mate thanks a lot for your constant replies:) a huge goes to you and you should know that polish beer is one of the best:) So cheers my friend!!

Does someone perhaps know how to use rope to tie these four rafters together:



I'm asking because I want to add some rope to hold those four wooden beams together. I think it would work in reality and also should add some detail to the rather boring wooden constuction of the roof. So those anyone know any log joining knots? I have a lot of beer to give away so reply :-)

Cheers,
dsc.

How about asking the salty seadogs in Model Shipwrights? I'm sure someone would know of or have reference for different rope tying methods...
Cheers for the brew

Ola

Brad: I've decided to leave it as it is and not add any rope. Actually with rope it would be harder to lay all the upper horizontal wooden planks, so it's no rope at all:)

I've got a small update here, well actually this is one of the last updates I'll be doing as the buidling is finished
I only have to work on some details, but that's nothing compared to the whole construction process.
So here's how it looks:

- inner roof finished



- the whole thing with a ruler to show scale



- a cool shot I did, it looks like at night:)



What would you add regarding details?? I was think of some wooden pegs that will hold the angle bottom frame of the roof together and some moss on the roof and walls. Also some small damage to the wooden parts.
I even made a small test piece to see how magic sculp works as moss:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/dsc2/brix/P1010059-1.jpg

It's a link cause the photo is a macro shot and it's quite huge so can take a while loading. Is it ok or would you use something else like sponge or smth?

So any suggestion on the details which can be added would be great:)

Cheers everyone,
dsc.

Hallo Tom,

You did a superb work, nice, clean and exact !, congratulations.

Regarding painting and wheatering i would at this stage only suggest to think ahead at the setting the tower is destinated to. You need to blend it a bit in the surroundings.
What are your plans for this ?

Cheers
Claude

Tom:

Great work. Looks very realistic. The roof is very detailed.

Keep up the good work

Ola

Sorry for not responding for so long, but I was away and had no internet connection.

Claude: Thanks a lot mate!! About the blending in, I thought of placing this tower on a small hill, cause it's a look out tower after all, it should be placed in a way which gives good visibility of the surrounding area.
I'm a little afraid to paint this piece, as I'm not such a great painter and I don't want to mess anything up. I guess I will have to try out different color schemes and techniques of painting rocks and wood.

Brain: Thanks for your kind words my friend:)

Cheers,
dsc.

Tom,


BRA-VO!!!
Excellent work!
I like how you finished the inner roof. I think I may be reproducing your layout for a similar project I'm working on. I like how the magic scuplt moss came out. I think it would look pretty good on the walls, maybe even the roof.
I would suggest making afew small walls to practice different painting techniques because that thing would look even more awesome with a nice paint job. I'll be watching.

BillK.

Ola Bill

Thanks for your comment mate:) glad you like how the building came out. I will build some smaller walls and practice painting on those, cause I don't want to mess up the finished model:) I'm actually buidling a wall right now, so excuse me I have to go

Cheers,
dsc.

Tom, some very beautiful work you have done! I am sorry it has taken so long to post on it. I like what you have done on the inside with the beam work, the tiles and tile cap piece are also spot on. Looking forward to seeing it painted, good luck with the trial parts cheers Kevin

Love it!
Must have been a dusty job those tiles :-)


mvg Peter

Hello Tom : I can only say : Bravo!

Ola guys

Kevin: sorry for not responding for so long, I totally forgot about this thread. Thank you for your kind words:)

Peter: It took a while to make, but it wasn't so bad:) compared to the stones it was really easy:)

blockhaus: glad you like it mate!!:) I'm always stunned by the quality of your works, so it's nice to know you found smth interesting here also:)

Cheers,
dsc.

I'm quite impressed... I love seeing buildings, and something that is not a ruin, but a full building is also somewhat refreshing.

Ola

Thanks a lot Keith! It's funny cause when the buidling was finished I thought that I could have probably done a lot of things different. But I won't change anything here and will leave my ideas and improvements for future projects.

Cheers,
dsc.