The Upper Floor

Day 15

Version 1.0 16/11/02

Day ……err where were we? 15? Ooer.

Sorry. I was busy. Then I was ill. And then I was busy again. And I had some technical difficulties. And my dog ate it……

Really, I have been building, but getting it all written down and sent off seems to have been the tricky part. The good news is that I can now treat you to a bit of a mega update. So here goes then.

Firstly I needed to complete the walls. The front wall extends across the length of the building, and has two triangular shaped extensions to match the rear wings.

This was glued into place with a healthy amount of PVA glue. By some strange quirk of fate, I discovered that I hadn’t measured/cut this piece correctly and the “points” for want of a better word were a bit uneven. Of course, I only discovered this AFTER attaching it to the building. Still, it all adds to the ramshackle appearance of the place so no harm done.

Ok, so the walls are up, and the basic external construction is in place. The question is where to go from here? Do I place some internal walls, put the roof on or what? Let’s have a look at where I’m up to at this point.

Frankly, at this point I had no idea how I wanted it to look on the inside, so I decided that the best thing to do would be to start getting some of the timber framing done while I waited for inspiration, or some suggestions from you blokes.

I got some sheets of balsa card and cut up some strips to form the timber planking. I cut lots of these. Lots and lots in fact, as you need a fair few to get the job done.

Some things to remember when applying the timbers. Always place the upper and lower timbers on each side first, and then place any uprights between them as supports. Also, make sure that the lintel of any door is a complete timber resting on top of the door frame. If you look closely, you’ll notice that I didn’t do this on my first house, and it just looks wrong. (Because it is.)

You can either measure the pieces in advance, or more simply glue on the strips and cut to size in situ. For the earlier pieces this is a speedy method of getting the wood onto the building.

I had to be careful not to go over any wall areas for now as I wasn’t sure where the windows were going to be so I busied myself covering all the edges and doorframes. I boxed in the courtyard section as there are no real surprises waiting there.

The rear ends of the wings were also finished off. I’m still not sure what windows to add here, but they will be fairly plain for the back of the building.

I haven’t touched the front of the pub as I need to work out how high the main windows will extend and whether or not to have them protrude out from the wall.

As I was running out of “safe” places to timber over without deciding on a design I also squared off the internal corners with a diagonal plank, just as I did downstairs. I’ll be adding a timber along the upper edge, but only once I have placed the internal walls and squared those off too.

These timbers give a nice texture and look to the corners of the rooms and add a little extra stability which is always nice to have for gaming pieces.

Right, I’ll stop there before this page gets too photo heavy and so that I can get this sent off before any more delays occur. Still, you always knew it was going to be this way didn’t you? Ah well, at least no-one has started heckling yet.

Adrian Champion
Champion2k@ntlworld.com