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I remain
fascinated by the main entrance. I’m pleased with how this turned out.
You were
right about the finished floors – they do add a certain sense of satisfaction in
the completed building.
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Levels a through d: I find that building without a grid is a challenge to get the spacing right. I started this twice before I found a surface large enough. The photo entitled “32pp8-9 lvl a spacing help” shows an obvious method of getting the spacing right.
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Sub floor modifications and levels e – g: I divided the floor into three “rooms” plus a small irregular area beneath the central tower. Two of the room designs are from the “Mosaik 2” designs made available by Burkhard Schulz. One room is my own design (nothing fancy – just a judicious use of the remaining mosaic stones to fit the space). Some thought went into laying out the room “dividers” to align with where the windows suggest interior walls might be.
The supports for the subfloor use arches so the openings in the foundation aren’t blocked. These are topped off with long narrow stones such as No. 23 & 24 – in this case actual stones instead of wood. This is topped off with a thin layer to form an even sub floor for the mosaic stones so that they are flush with the main entrance. This does create an obstruction across the rear entrance.
Levels
h – n: Note the use of counterweight stones on levels m 7 n to keep the
balcony from falling over. You can also see from the changing lighting that
this was built over a period of days. The small stainless steel clamp is to
help compensate for my shaky hands; easier to retrieve the occasional dropped
stone and nudge the wayward misaligned stone back into place.
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Levels
o – s: As the delicate walls with the graceful gothic arches take shape my
feline overseer (sleeping on the chair back in level e) has been banned from the
room. Once the higher levels add their weight to stabilize the construction he
was allowed back. Beginning with level s there is an additional interior
modification but it’s not visible in the photo. Beneath the wooden beam that
will support the central tower I placed a column (no. 181 stones). The wood is
probably strong enough – but I didn’t want to take a chance. It was at this
point that I stopped and rebuilt the entire rear corner. I found that the
slight imperfections in the stones resulted in the spacing of the inside gap in
the two red towers being off a little more each layer. The tower on the right
in “32pp8-9 lvl q rear” I added internal stones to maintain the correct
spacing while not blocking the windows. I also added floors periodically to
help in retrieving the stones I inevitably drop. The other tower was rebuilt
with a more careful selection of stones to keep the spacing right. The same
problem occurs with the other walls but I was able to nudge them into the
correct spacing once I got to level r.
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Levels
t – x: The roof goes on. I’m not sure if I got the chimney right. It
seems a little higher in the book. This is a massive roof but its weight lends
stability to the layers below. Now when I nudge a stone back into alignment it
generally stays put. I noticed that some of the roof corner stones from my most
recent sets have a bit of flash on them (material squeezed out of the edge of
the mold and slipped by quality control). Selecting where to put those was a
challenge so that the extra material didn’t show or spoil the inside corners.
Does anyone have experience with removing the extra material without spoiling
the stone?
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Levels
c’ – h’’: The towers - I found it easier to lay out several levels in
advance on the construction base and then set each in place. That way I could
see which stones worked best together in the corners without the whole thing
collapsing.
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