king derelict

Beautiful model' super work alan

The gate looks terrific and you made a good decision to add it. Looking at the earlier photo of the diorama in its case the blank wall kind of chops the scene into two halves. With the gate it brings it all together. Or maybe that's just me. Alan

Having decided to light the castillo decided I needed to get a sense of how the model was all going to look as a whole and where the lights would go and how many etc. So I built up the cardboard formers for the mian structure. This is the first level. Another level will go on top but the lights will need to be installed before the roof is added. There is plenty of room to cut a hole in the floor for wires to run through. Having not done this before I am not sure how many leds will be needed and whether I should try to build some interior walls to separate some of the lights. I will get a handful and experiment. There is quite a bit of time before we get to that part of the build. I have read a lot of lighting builds having problems with light bleed through. I think it could be possible with this if there are chinks in the blocks in the wrong place so I think I might tape all the joints and then spray the interior with black primer. I placed the main castle in its approximate place on the base and it shows there will be plenty of room to route the lighting wires and also the amount of landscaping that will be needed The main castle will have the blocks added as a separate module so I can work on that on my usual bench which will be more comfortable especially if summer has arrived by then. Meanwhile the walls are creeping forward. I am turning the corner at the next round tower onto the next section of wall. I started sanding the first round tower and its taking shape as the edges of the blocks sand away. Thanks for looking in and all the likes and helpful comments Alan

The Olympia looks really nice. Great work Alan

Great subject Craig. You will make it spectacular I am sure. It sort of looks like there is an F=16 stuck in there somewhere Alan

The catapult is a beautiful piece of work. You did a great job Alan

The walls are continuing to rise and I have been thinking as I sand the piles of blocks ready to add more tiers. The Pendraken link from @Old Collingwood sparked my imagination and I have ordered some pikemen for the walls and mounted soldiers riding up the ramp to the main castle. My only concern is that their size may draw attention to the block size but I hope that will not be so obvious once sanded and filled. The kit (I think) represents the current state of the castle but it seems to be largely representative of the medieval days. if not, well then the figures must be reenactors. I also decided to try to light the main castle. To that end I have started to build the formers for the building so I can see how the lights will have to be installed and precautions that might be needed to prevent light leaking where it shouldn't. There seems to be sources of warm white and yellow flickering leds both from Evans lighting site referenced on this site and possibly more dubiously from Amazon. More investigation needed. Thanks for looking in and for the comments and support. I hope everyone has a great weekend Alan

Thank you Gary Its a lot of blocks but I hope to break up the repetitive stuff by playing with the other elements of the kit and probably some short side projects that don't involve masses of sanding and filing. Alab

Thank you very much OC. The Loarre castle tour site is very helpful especially the drone video clips help a lot with the surrounding scenery. They also show that Aedes Ars got the basic layout correct. The outer wall I am working on looks exactly right. You have also solved one issue too. The photos and videos do show the stone as a warm creamy tan colour (limestone?) so the blocks are close to the correct colour and will not need any further tinting. The Pendraken site is also very helpful. If my arithmetic is correct 10mm is only 1 mm taller than 1/200 scale so will work very nicely. Actually I think some of the doorways on the model are a bit overscale probably driven by the limitations of the block sizes. Thanks again Alan

More very nice painting OC Alan

The stairs are spectacularly good. Its already very real looking Alan

I think realistic sails are one of the hardest things to achieve. Your jibs look great Alan

Lovely neat PE work Alan

Thank you very much OC. I think I need an assistant to square and angle the blocks and then we would really see some progress - but that would feel like cheating. I want to try that glazing technique that @Jack12477 referenced recently on one of the figures . That looked very effective. But first the walls have to rise a little further. I'm conscious EG is out there with his howitzer😎 Alan

Pushing long down the long section of wall. The first round tower is complete and I started sanding down the square tower. The little trays are very handy for keeping the squared blocks of different sizes and the angled blocks. Many thanks to my cats for liking that particular brand of cat treat and keeping me well supplied with the containers I think I will be breaking off at intervals to work on some small projects to recharge the enthusiasm. So following the conversation about Verlinden being no longer in production I thought I needed to get some while I can I am taking the 2023 Moratorium on New Kits more as a suggestion than a hard rule. The 2023 Moratorium on new book only lasted 5 days. Oh well Thanks for all the support, likes and comments Alan

Thanks Mark I'll explore for information Alan

Thank you Ken, I've read you can get flickering ones too. I need to sort out the basics of how to wire them up snd them how the main castle will build up to determine how many are needed inside the cardboard formers Alan

Great start.It looks like the gate is going to work out nicely Alan

Thanks Craig. Yes it definitely is fun watching it grow. Its something very different from the usual run of models. It is very messy - the dust goes everywhere. No-one will complain about sanding a wooden hull after making one of these. For that reason I'm working in the garage at least until the weather gets hot again Alan

With the board to square and shape the blocks I'm picking up some efficiency (Thanks Jack) and moving foreard. In the short time available today I reached the top of the wall in the next section and nearly finished the first round tower. So as i work along the walls I'm starting to think about adding lights to the model. The outer wall has no windows so it isn't too late to decide/ There will be plenty of room below the main castle to install wires and the hill at the rear could accommodate a battery box. I have never lit a model so this would all be new to me. The dust is starting to accumulate. I find the soft brush indispensable for sweeping off the tiers of blocks after they have been sanded to remove steps. The stiff brush is used to clean the sandpaper and files which clog very quickly. Many Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments Alan

Jack, that is a great idea (again). I ended up gluing a couple of strips of ply together to make a combined holder / pusher for the blocks seen just below the fence. The ergonomically shaped section further back means I can square several blocks without developing a groove in my thumb. Many Thanks = that really helps me move the model forward Alan

Thank you OC. The look of stone really does make the model. I'm thinking about giving it a thin grey wash when its complete> I think the warm tone is a bit too Mediterranean. Lots of ideas for later on😎

A long old day of real life at the eye clinic yesterday so no progress until today. I managed to spend some time on the Castillo today and finished one side of the first bit of the outer walls. I'm trying not to look at the higher right hand section yet. Thanks to @Jack12477 the construction went a lot faster along the straight sections. The curved towers are still a slow file and fit work Thanks for looking in and all the support and comments Alan

Thank you very much Ken I have some squares of the closed cell insulation board material which I have used for seascape bases. That may be a very good way to build up the basic shapes and contours of the hill. The kit would have you make several pillars out of card for the upper parts of the castle to rest on. Its going to be heavy so I am not so convinced that is a good idea so I'm thinking I might use layers of the foam boards depending on how the heights work out. That would also allow me to carve the landscape right to the walls. Thats going to be a very interesting part of the build - many blocks away. Alan