Dancing Dragon Inn - Week Eleven

  

There have been no dramatic changes to the appearance of the Inn this week. The front has been finished off with the addition of a multitude of wooden strips, not only on the fronts, but also on the sides of the building. I'm not sure I'm happy with the look of this - I think the tavern level in particular is a bit too busy. However, it's too late to change now, so this is how it is going to remain.

The other addition this week is the windows. It doesn't show up well in all the photos, but all the black holes in the walls now have acetate "glass" filling them in. I used some faux leadlighting outliner on the clear acetate to create the look of a leaded window with a multitude of small paynes comprising the whole. This leading was done in a vareity of patterns in the hope of giving the Inn a bit of an "added to over time" look.  I suspect when the Inn was fiest built none of the windows had glass and this was added over time as the proprietors could afford it.  Certainly the Inn must have been doing a roaring trade to be able to afford to glaze all it's windows at once.

The window that opens on the balcony by the Inn's front door was given a bit of extra attention. Some time ago I downloaded an image of a dragon from a free online colouring-in site and printed it out in a range of sizes to use when I make the signs for the inn. I still haven't made the signs, but have added the dragon image to the front window. I simply placed the acetate window over the printed image and "traced" it using the outliner. I then added a pattern of leading over the whole window and when the leading was dry, coloured in the dragon and parts of the leading with Gallery Glass paints.

Once all the leading on the windows was dry they were glued into the prepared frames of the Inn. Mostly, these are simple rectangles flush with the front of the Inn. The window in the removable section of the tavern front, as well as the window in the side wall of the tavern overhanging the stairs from ground level are both built out about 3/4" and the two large windows on the top floor jut out to make a two payne bay window.

The next task to be tackled is the roof. I have been through various plans for this, including thatch and clay tile. Last week was to use terracotta air dry clay to make indivual tiles to cover the roof. Needless to say that plan has changed; I've come to the conclusion that making that many tiles is going to take from now 'till Christmas . . . 2011! Not to mention where am I going to put all those tiles where they can lie flat while they dry? So the revised plan is to cut tiles from some thick cardboard and paint them to suit. I would have had to use paint on the clay tiles to get the right effect anyway so hopefully the finished effect won't be too different. The final rationalisation for taking this short cut is that without the aid of a stepladder, most of the roof is kind of hard to see anyway.