Dancing Dragon Inn - Week Eight

Dancing Dragon Inn - Week Eight
Originally uploaded by Alennka

It may be a little late to mention this, but last week I gave the blog a quick make-over, changing the colours and adding a few gadgets. As a result, the tabs to change between the main page and links page seem to have become disjointed from the main body of the page. If anyone out there in blog land has had this problem and knows how to fix it, I'd appreciate it if you would leave me a few tips because nothing I do seems to work. Just for fun i've added a poll asking which of the miniature projects featured so far in my blog is your favourite. It is open until the end of December and you can vote for as many houses as you like. To help you choose, I'll add a page sumarising each project over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for new tabs at the top of the blog.

Now, on to business . . . .

Last week finished with the exterior walls of the second floor in place. This week saw the internal walls added and decorated. The first task was to make a "garderobe" (toliet facility) which lives behind the back wall of the "high" bedroom on the left. It is separated from the main room by a curtain. Sadly, the actual garderobe can't be seen once the walls and ceiling are in place, but trust me, it's there. Walls made of foamboard were then added to divide the bedrooms from each other and from the central hallway-come-stairwell. On the back wall at the top of the stairs is a (badly) hand painted scene of a hallway on the far side of the back wall to make the inn seem bigger than it is.

On the left is the "high" bedroom for use by the Inn's wealthy customers (this is why it is the only room with a garderobe). To give it a touch of luxury I covered the upper walls with "tudor frieze" by Jackson's Miniatures. The lower walls were panelled with thin balsa wood. More balsa made the door and door frame. As usual the door opens by pivoting on pins inserted in the top and bottom of the door. Eventually, this room will have a big four post bed and other accessories. The suit of armour you might spot in this week's photos prbably won't stay. He was bought for the hall, but it turns out he won't fit, so I'll probably keep him to use in the Tower of Magic, which will probably be my next project after the 'Dragon is finished.

The "low" bedroom, which isn't low so much as just a bit lower than the "high" room, already has it's bed. It's a cupboard bed built into the back of the room. Not so long ago it was comon for people to sleep enclosed in a cupboard to protect against draughts and keep heat in, the cupboard doing much the same job as the curtains around a four post bed. My cupbaord bed is a built in fixture of the room. Some wood turnings create a vent across the top of the bed door to guard against suffocation. The "carved" panels on each side of the bed are felt ribbon (intended for scrapbooking) laid over balsa wood and stained to match the rest of the wood. Having the bed built in at the back of the room leaves a large floor space free at the front of the room. In time this space will be filled with a table surrounded by some rather shady characters who are studying maps of the city in order to plan a daring robbery

All the walls of the "low" bedroom and the hallway are covered in wood panelling. This is made of very thin balsa wood with thicker strips over the top to create the panelled look. Once the walls were finished, the stairs up to the top floor were glued in place and ceiling beams were added. Although not shown in the photos, the next (and final) floor, another piece of foamboard, was then laid on top of the beams. By the end of this week, the final floor walls should be well underway and the roof should be started. I haven't decided what to cover the roof with yet. I had thought about thatching it, but when I thought about that idea I had to wonder - how do you get dust out of thatch? And the worse thought - how do you stop the cat eating, clawing and otherwise abusing the thatch? So for practical reasons I think thatching the roof is out. So maybe tiles? Anyway, that's something to decide after I've got it framed up.