Castle Starcaster - Week Seven

Still no photos this week. I normally use Blogger in Draft mainly because the photo adding is much easier that way, but for some reason it's only letting me upload photos the normal blogger way rather than the draft way and then making them vanish. I can add pictures if I blog from Flickr, but only one per post. Blogger stores all the photos added to my blog in a Picasa Web Album. Those photo's i've uploaded are there, but there's no sign of them on the blog.

It's just as well I was having trouble adding photos last week because you really didn't want to see the fireplace I had made for the kitchen. It was ugly and awkward, so I started the week by pulling it apart and starting again. The re-vamped version has an oven in the left corner (still in need of doors), a central open fire and a hotplate on the right, all sitting on a raised hearth under an angled hood. The hanging bracket I picked up at the fair is installed on the edge of the hotplate box to overhang the fire. To the right of the oven/fireplace is a fake door made of balsa wood. The wood was cut to shape and then the frame and vertical boards were penciled on before a round ended stylus was used to press them into the wood. The door was then stained a nice wood tone while the frame part was painted to look like stone. The door still needs a handle and hinges, but already really adds to the look of the kitchen.

Next door to the kitchen in the entry and dining rooms I spent some time working on the upper walls. The walls of both rooms were painted gold and then covered with a crocheted fabric. The fabric was originally purple, but I recoloured it by simply painting it wtih acrylics, green for the dining room and red for the entry hall. The fabric was attached using wallpaper paste. The effect is perhaps more Morroccan Palatial than medieval type castle, but I like it. The lower section of the walls will be covered with wood panelling at some point after I add floor covering.

Although there is still a long way to go in most parts of the castle, there is one room in the castle that is almost finished. It's the little room that sits on top of the centre tower of the castle. As the only way to see into the room is from the arched doorway on the room's side at the back of the roof and as it would have been incredibly awkward to try and use clay and moulds on the walls inside, I covered the walls with a grey stone paper. The paper is absolutely inferior to the clay and pollyfilla stones used elsewhere in the castle but for a pokey little space no one is likely to pay much attention to, it's more than adequate. All this space needs is the trapdoor adding to fill the hole in the floor.

Finally for this week, I've stained the front doors and put all the windows in place. It's not finished yet as the door needs hinges and handles, the windows could use some more colourful leadlighting and there will be a few other additions like vines or decorative stonework of some sort, but at least you can get an idea of how it will look.

Doll, Bear & Miniature Fair 2011

Doll, Bear & Miniature Fair Purchases a photo by Alennka on Flickr.

The annual Doll, Bear and Miniature fair was held at the local casino over the weekend. For the six or seven years it has been running, the amount of miniatures seems to have decreased each year so it was a pleasant surprise to find lots of miniature stalls there this year. Due to fewer stalls in all, each stall had more space and thus a better range of goodies.

The single most expensive item I bought there was the chest of drawers at the back of the photo. I love the colour of the wood and the look of all the drawers, it'll be perfect for my plans for the Stratford Bakery (a witches' shop). The vendor said she got it in from the UK and judging from the little gazebo woodburned into the bottom it was made by town square miniatures.

On top of the drawers are somewicker baskets that would make great witches shopping baskets. There are also hat stands for the shop's millinery department and the round rug will probably end up on the shop's floor while the weather vane is for the roof. Hetty, the red haired doll will probably be the shops pretty young sales assistant while her friend George was bought simply because coloured dolls are hard to find - he will find a suitable home sometime.

For the castle I found a hanging bracket designed for hanging pot plants but quite suitable for hanging cooking pots over the kitchen fire. The pair of barrels are also intended for the kitchen. Everything else in the photo is just something that was too good to leave behind and sooner or later will find a home somewhere.

Better World Books

I've just done a little online shopping, not for miniatures this time but for second hand books. I am supposed to be saving money, but I'm not doing very well. I placed the order with Better World Books. Like most online stores, they sent out a confirmation email. Unlike most, theirs was written by someone with a good imagination and a sense of humour. Here is part of the email:

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note - it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)

Holy canasta! It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it's time to see the world!

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

As the books say, Better World Books not only have a vast range of second hand books, some of them hard to find, but their profits fund world literacy. They also offer free worldwide shipping. I reccomend you browse their considerable range next time you're short of something to read or if you're looking for an old, out of print book.

Castle Starcaster - Week Six

Okay . . . No photos this weeks as Blogger seems to be doing something odd with them at the moment - I upload them and then they vanish. While I work on getting them where they're meant to be, please visit my Flickr photostream to see this week's images. And the only way I've managed to break my posts up into paragraphs lately is by manually adding the html tags. Is it just me or is Blogger getting dodgy to use?

I started the week at a point where I wasn't sure what to tackle next. I still haven't decided how to finish the windows, so couldn't finish the outside front and didn't know where to start inside. So for a while I played about with the ceilings. I'd found a fabric with a geometric print I wanted to use in the Library so I cut a thin piece of card to the size of the ceiling, covered it with the fabric and then glued the upholstered card to the ceiling.

Downstairs in the Entry Hall and the dining room I had an embossed paper I had planned to use on the walls, but after I took it out the packet and carefully examined it I discovered the pattern wasn't printed/embossed straight on the pages and trying to make it all line up correctly would be nearly impossible. So I picked out the best pieces and used them on the ceilings of the two rooms instead. Most people don't really look up, so slightly crooked ceilings don't bother me as much as the walls would. I had to join two pages together then cut them to size for each ceiling and them carefully used some rub on paint to colour the paper and highlight the embossed design, green for the dining room and red for the hall.

On the top floor, I created another ceiling in much the same way as I did for the Library, but used black paper and a clear plastic embedded with glitter to cover the card. The bits of glitter look like stars and reflect the light to make the ceiling sparkle like it was lit by starlight.

Having fiddled about on ceilings I finally settle on starting to work in the kitchen. The left hand wall and ceiling of the kitchen were covered with a thin skim of pollyfilla to look like rough plaster and painted white. The back and right side wall and floor were given a thicker coat of pollyfilla. As this dried I used a toothpick to carve out lines to create a stone block look. Once dry this was painted with various shades of grey to (almost) match the stone outside the castle. As I raised the kichen up a couple of steps from the base level of the castle, I filled in the front of the raised floor by adding a strip of card covered in polyfilla and painted white to match the left wall. Into this I cut three arches, lined the arches with stone made from eggcartons and used black card to fill the hole from behind. A bamboo skewer painted metallic grey and cut into short lengths created bars. I call them the dungeon windows, although maybe they open onto a storage celler beneath the kitchen.

Next came the ovens which sit against the back wall. The unit is made from polystyrene which was then coated with (more) pollyfilla and painted with (more) white. A scrap of balsa wood forms the lintel over the open fireplace while beside that are two bake ovens one ontop of the other. I'm pretty sure this would be a pretty impractical arragnement in real life, but this is a fantasy castle so what the heck. Besides, I'm currently thinking that the whole unit is a mess, wrong and needs redoing from scratch, so I might try and fit a different design into the same space. Beside the oven in the corner are the hotplates, which still need a hood or chimney making to go over the top.

Welcome New Follower and Plans

The Waggon a photo by Alennka on Flickr.

Wow! I'm now up to 84 Followers thanks to Ascensión. Her blog can be found here: http://ascension-misminiaturas.blogspot.com/ The most current post on her blog shows some fabulous witches vanity items (purfume bottles etc) and if you scroll further down you'll find some truely amazing cakes and teapots. Welcome to my blog Ascensión and thanks for following.

And speaking of Witchy items . . . .

I've decided that my Stratford Bakery kit will become a witch shop. Those of you who haunt the DHE forums will be familiar with Dolly Donut's (Sal's) "Salestras" shop. Those of you who aren't DHE forum regulars, you can see the shop here: http://www.dollshouseforum.com/forum/home-sweet-home-gallery/6954-salestras.html (photos of the finished item are on page 27) Now who could help but be inspired by that? Despite the fact I would love to make exact copies of everything Dolly Donut has done, I'm going to try very hard not to copy anything except the "feel" of the finished item. For one thing any copy I tried would just look second rate in comparision. That said, I may still need to ask permission to borrow some of her ideas depending on how the rest of the planning process goes.

I'm going to add an internal stair case to create a store over two levels. Downstairs wil be shelves and displays of potions, broomsticks and other various witchy necessities. In the room directly above a book section with a large fireplace and seating for customers to get comfortable while aquainting themselves with the stock. I expect there is also a regular meeting of a book group or some such up there after hours as well. The final room upstairs will either be a bed-sit for the owner to live in or maybe an office. By adding a solid back wall under the overhanging room and a fence down the side I hope to create a small garden area where some of the herbs used in potions sold in the store can be grown.

Next weekend is the annual Doll, Bear and Miniature fair at the local casino. I'm hoping to find some bits and pieces there to start the shop and don't want to make my plans too firm until I know what I might find. I would like to know what I'm going to do with the Retreat by then as well so I know what I need to keep an eye out for for it, but at the moment I'm still stuck on that one.

Follower's Blog Links

A couple of weeks ago I welcomed new follower Sharon Larkin, but didn't know her blog.  Sharon has since let me know that her blog can be found here:  http://lavenderandpearls.blogspot.com/  while her dedicated miniature blog is here: http://hazeltonaminiaturetown.blogspot.com/ 

Castle Starcaster - Week Five

Welcome to the newest follower, Sussexpaula! There's no blog listed for Paula, but if you have one and would like the link posted here, just let me know Paula. Thanks for following. Over the past few posts have you received the impression that work on the outside of the castle has been driving me a little nuts? If not, perhaps this photo of what I've done to the inside will convince you. All those steps are a little crazy, right? Well, the Entry Hall has doors all over the place, kitchen door on the right, large open arch on the left, front door on the front (well, naturally) and a door to the rear as well. All that traffic from all directions meant it had to be a walk-through room rather than a proper room like a sitting room with lots of furniture, so to make it more interesting than just a big empty space I raised the floor heights of the two adjoining rooms and had fun creating curved steps with polystyrene foam. Eventually, the foam will be covered with clay tiles or maybe stone. Modeling the steps is a new friend of mine called Arthur. He's another Heidi Ott but with a different face to most. He's not as handsome as the others, but has more character. And by the way, the urm . . . toga he's wearing is just temporary, a scrap of fabric artfully tied about him. I'll get him some proper clothes . . . eventually, but at least for now he doesn't have to face the world in the raw. (Um, back on is a different story however.) Mostly this week was spent on painting the remaining bits for the outside; the windows and crenellations. The original plan was to paint these in a lighter shade than the main body of the castle, but a test of a lighter shade and a darker shade proved the the darker looked better with the stone of the walls. Each of the forty-two pieces of crenellation and window was given two coats of dark grey and then "washed" with watered down light grey which was mostly sponged off to give the grey a bit of variation and interest. Then at long last I got some much needed shelf and bench space back by attaching most of the crenellations to the top of the castle, along with the bay window and front door surround. The windows won't be glued in place until the inside of the fronts are finished and until I decide whether to go with the basic "glass" that comes with the kit for the window panes or with something more . . . unique. Even with the unglazed windows just sitting in place, the castle has suddenly started to look like I'm winning the battle to finish the outside. And to Cyndy, winner of my giveaway prize, you now have less than two weeks to go before I hold a new draw for the prize, so please get in contact with me soon!

Proper Week Four and other business

Yesterday's post was a bit of a waste of time, but the way the week was going I thought I'd better throw something up before it got to be next week. Um . . . but I just looked at the blog and discovered the post I did yesterday doesn't exist. Also all the breaks between paragraphs on this post seem to have vanished. It's just been one of those weeks where there's been lots to do and if anything could go wrong with it . . . well, I'm sure you're all familiar with the saying. I hope to have a little time now to do a proper post about the weeks' (lack) of progress. Firstly, a warm welcome to the newest follower of the blog, Caseymini of http://caseymini.blogspot.com/ Many of you are already followers of Casey's blog and are familiar with the antics of Tessie. Casey, with Tessie's help, is a dedicated daily blogger whose posts are always enjoyable to read. Work on the Castle in week four has been slow. It has consisted of more painting. Since week three, a wash of a mid-brown-grey has been appiled over all the walls and then largely sponged off again. This added to the variations in the stone colour but mostly covered the pale grout colour to give it a more timeworn, dirtied up up. This was followed by drybrushing a couple of different light greys over the stones which helped to highlight the uneven surface and surprisingly added to the timeworn look of the walls. As they are now, the walls are darker overall than I initially had in mind, but I think they are going to do as they are. Next up I need to paint the windows, crenellations and side towers. Question is how? What colour and effect. I did paint the side towers in the same colours as the main walls as I did the walls, but sponged instead of drybrushed the colours on the smooth surface. I doesn't really look right, especially when in position against the 'real' stone. And should the windows and crenellations be a lighter or a darker tone, smooth, sponged or something else. Part of the reason why not much has happened to the castle lately is that I'm at a point where I can't decide how to procceed for the best.

Which room will it all end up in?

Continuing the indesicion theme, I've changed my mind yet again on the internal layout. I've come to the conclusion that the various doorways in the librabry make the layout too awkward, so the library is moving accross one room to the room above the kitchen in the East Wing Extension (the right side of the castle). The room that was going to be above the kitchen (a second bedroom) can't go in the middle where the library was as that room has a doorway leading to another bedroom, a fake door at the back and stairs up to the next level. Not exactly the spot for a nice quiet bedroom is it? So what is the room in the heart of the castle going to be? At the moment I'm open to all sugestions. I also can't decide how to decorate the rooms I do know what to put in. Yes, this castle is going to drive me absolutely batty before I finish it.

To try and avoid a complete mental meltdown, I've been ignoring the castle and thinking about my other two kits, the Retreat and Stratford Bakery, instead. Somehow this hasn't helped. The Stratford Bakery has an obvious layout of ground floor shop, top floor living/kitchen room and bedroom. But what sort of shop? An apothecary? A cafe with outdoor dining under the overhaning room? Something fantasy like a wizard supply store, a dragon pet shop or a dress shop for fashionable sorceresses? A jewellery store? A post office? Perhaps if I buy another half dozen or so kits, I can do one of everything? The same can be said of the Retreat, too many ideas, but nothing quite right for the kit. I think it's time to find a brick wall and bang my head against it until all the ideas start falling out, stopping when there is only one idea for each kit left in there. One decision I have made. Cyndy won my giveaway at the start of February, but has yet to get in contact with me. I'll give her until the 20th March to do so. If I still haven't heard from her then, I'll hold the giveaway again with a draw in early April as the winner can receive their prize in time for Easter (hopefully). So hurry up and drop me a line Cyndy, you only have seventeen more days!

Ignore this post. It's pure rant and drivel.

Tomorrow is Launceston Cup Day and for some parts of Tasmania, that means it's partly a public holiday in parts of Tasmania.  Confused?  Try reading this:

All day – Municipal areas of Break O’Day, Dorset, George Town, Glamorgan-Spring Bay (north of and including Cranbrook), Launceston excluding Launceston City centre and suburbs specified in Item 2 of Part 2, Meander Valley excluding suburbs and townships specified in Item 2 of Part 2, Northern Midlands, Southern Midlands North of but not including Oatlands, West Tamar excluding townships specified in Item 2 Part 2.


From 11am – Launceston City centre and the following suburbs and townships: Alanvale, Blackstone Heights, East Launceston, Elphin, Franklin Village, Glen Dhu, Inveresk, Invermay, Killafaddy, Kings Meadows, Mayfield, Mowbray, Mowbray Heights, Newnham, Newstead, North Riverside, Norwood, Prospect, Prospect Vale, Punchbowl, Ravenswood, Riverside, Rocherlea, St Leonards, Sandhill, South Launceston, Summerhill, Trevallyn, Vermont, Waverley, West Launceston, West Riverside, Youngtown.
 
What is really odd about the holiday is that it is in honour of the Launceston Cup, so why does Launceston only get half a day while places farther away get the whole day?  Strike that.  Actaully what's really, truely and completely odd about the holiday is that it is in honour of a horse race?  I know it's Australia, but is a sports event really that important?  Why not a holiday for the football and cricket too then?

Welcome New Followers

A Warm welcome to the two newest followers of the blog, Sharon Larkin and Angeles. I can't find a blog for Sharon, but you will find Angeles' here : http://elrincondebaldu.blogspot.com/. Google translate has decided to act up on me so I can't say much about her blog, but I love those bottles!

Remember a few weeks ago I tried to show you images of some of the ideas I had for Starcaster's layout, but couldn't make them upload to blogger properly? Well, for some reason they are working just fine now. The images are a little outdated now given much of the changing of mind that has been going on, but in case anyone is interested, here they are.



Castle Starcaster - Week Three

Castle Starcaster - Week Three
Originally uploaded by Alennka

The week started with yet more clay as the centre front panel was completed. I should have then kept working with the clay to cover the two half round tower structures that adorn both side walls but quite frankly couldn't face up to the thought of yet more clay. So the current plan is to paint these to match the crenellations and hope of the best. If it looks odd, I can always come back and go over them with clay to match the walls later.

With the clay work finally behind me (for now) I eagerly made a start on painting the stonework. After trimming back the excess clay to allow the crenellations and other features to fit ptoperly, I started with a couple of coats of light grey to hide the multicoloured clays used and to become the mortar between the stones. Next I dry brushed a medium brown and various greys over the stones. The results of this are what you see in the photo. I still need to do some more painting to lighten the overall colour of the stones and to pick out some individual stones in different colours and then, well, whatever I figure it still needs to look right.

I have (I hope) made a final decision about the interior layout, now I just need to decide on the decoration of the rooms, which is proving about as hard as deciding what the rooms will be and how to acess them was. I've decided to have two bedrooms, one at either end of the middle level and have one masculine and one feminine. Hopefully the feminine room will be suitable to display some of the lovely items I won in Linda's blog giveaway before Christmas. In between them will be the Library. It's walls should be lined with shelves of books, but between doorways, a fireplace and the stairs up to the next floor I'm wondering if there will be enough bookselves to justify calling the room a library, I may have to downgrade the room to a study.

Above the Library will be the magic room. As I have male and female bedrooms I had thought I might divide this room in two and have a masculine table of spells and potions and a feminine table of the same. Again, I don't think there will be quite enough room for two separate areas, so maybe one long table with a jumble of both styles? One member of the household will be researching dragons, so have dragon eggs, teeth, diagrams, skeletons and perhaps a couple of small live specimens.

Downstairs on the ground floor will be the entrance hall, dining room and kitchen. The high ceilings on this level enable me to alter the floor heights of the rooms. The kitchen will be a step or two up from the hall and have a faux cellar or maybe dungeon underneath. On the back wall of the entry hall will be a faux door raised up several steps from the floor level.

Castle Starcaster - Week Two

Castle Starcaster - Week Two
Originally uploaded by Alennka

Another week . . . more clay.  Lots more clay.  It seems I'm slowing down with the clay and impress mould work as this week all I've finished are the two side front panels.  I haven't used or handled the impress moulds for a couple of days now, but I can still see the impression of their handles on one finger.  Once that divet clears up and I can type without the tips of my fingers tingling each time they impact a key I'll move ahead and work on the centre front panel and the two half round towers that hook over each side.  Maybe this time next week I'll have all the clay stonework finished.  Maybe.

I have two new followers to welcome to the blog.  Erica is a fellow Australian and has a few different blogs.  Her main blog is http://dragonfragments.blogspot.com/ while her dedicated miniatures blog is Miniatures:  http://grimoire-miniatura.blogspot.com/.  If you're a fan of Terry Pratchett, or simply of fantasy, be sure and take a look at her Library complete with oragutan Librarian.

The other new follower is Teddy.  Although Teddy doesn't seem to have his own blog, those of you who have found your way here from the DHE forums will be familiar with his fantastic work (and thanks to Bluebird for refering him here).  Work on Teddy's own castle has been forced to grind to a halt lately and he has been living vicariously by following the castles of others.  So for his benefit and for those of you looking for ideas for your own castles, here is a random selection of blogs featuring castles or castle type structures:

http://wwwmichellesmadworld.blogspot.com/


http://myminiaturemenagerie.blogspot.com/

http://castlestocottagesminiatures.blogspot.com/

http://aboutmydollhouses.blogspot.com/
 
http://peppercornminis.blogspot.com/2011/01/enchanters-tower.html
 
Two weeks ago I drew my giveaway and announced the winner was Cyndy.  Cyndy has yet to get in touch with me at let me know her address or even to acknowledge the prize.  She has no blog of her own.  I have tried sending an email from the email link on her profile, but still have no response.  Does anyone out there know Cyndy and how best to get in contact and let her know she's won?   I'll give Cyndy a few more weeks to make contact before I either send the prize to the second place entrant or hold a new draw.  Anybody know the protocol for unclaimed giveaways?

Castle Starcaster - Week One

Well, what can I say? Pressing a mould into clay over and over and over and over and over again for hours on end is rather boring. In fact it is incredibly, mind numbingly boring. The results, however, are worth the effort.

I use a mix of paperclay and ordinary air-dry clay, one pack of paper clay and half a packet of air clay. Once thoroughly mixed the clay is rolled out into a thin sheet (about 1-2mm thick) and large enough to cover the entire wall. PVA glue is then spread over the wall and the clay sheet pressed over it and trimmed to size. I then added the stone effect using Impress Moulds made by Malcom's Miniatures. Each set of stone moulds consist of half a dozen individual moulds, each creating a stone of different dimensions. The stone moulds look like little plastic mallets from side on, but when the end is pressed into the clay the result is a single stone block. By using the moulds in random arrangements a random stone pattern is achieved but it takes time. To give you an idea, the wall in the foreground of the above photo took about three and a half hours to complete.

Despite the many times I paused while working with the moulds and thought "Wouldn't it be better just to buy some stone look paper?" I persevered and worked slavishly on the outside walls of the castle until all the side walls of the castle were finished. Now all I have to do are the three front panels and those funny little round tower bits on either side. And some of the inside rooms. Maybe. The finished stonework is not perfect but never the less looks good. The effect of the moulds and clay is much more realistic than either paper or stencils and probably only bettered by genuine stone slips. Once all the stonework is finished, the stones will have to be painted to complete the effect. At the moment the plan is to make them light grey.

For those of you planning to use air drying clay, I'll share a few tips. When rolling the clay out, use a plastic rolling pin (a piece of PVC pipe works well) or a wooden rolling pin covered in plastic as the clay tends to stick to wooden rolling pins. Approach the clay like a baker. When you roll out dough you dust the table with flour first to prevent the dough sticking. Do the same with clay, but use talcum powder instead of flour. If you find the clay sticking to the moulds, use more talc to dust the moulds the same way you might use flour to dust biscut cutters. Measure and mark out a horizontal line every 10cm to help keep your stonework level. Use cling film to cover the areas of clay you're not working on to keep it moist until you're ready for it. If the clay starts to dry out, use a spray to lightly mist the clay with water, but be sparing. The more water added to the clay, the greater it's tendancy to crack.

Finally for today, welcome to the 77th follower, sophie appleton. She is another follower who doesn't appear to have her own blog, but as ever, if you do have one Sophie all you need to do is let me know and I'll add the link.

P.S. Is Cyndy out there? I'm still waiting to hear from you so I know where to send your giveaway prize.

Starcaster Layout

I was going to show you some rather poor quality diagrams of my planned layout of the castle in this post but when I try to upload the images all I get is a white box with a little red cross.  So I'm going to have to try and explain in words alone what I have in mind.

Let's start on the ground floor.  There are three rooms.  The room on the left is connected to the central room by a large open archway.  The room on the right has no direct access to the adjoining room but does come with a fake door to give the impression of access.  The front door opens into the middle room.  This makes the logical uses of these three rooms (from the left) Dining Hall, Entry Hall and Kitchen.  Most Cumberland Castle kits I've seen pictures of have used this basic layout.

The next floor is also three rooms.  The left room is connected by a door to the central room while the right room depends on fake doors for access.  I've cut a hole in the floor of the right side room to allow for stairs up from the kitchen.  These three rooms will be (from the left again) bedroom, library and a mystery room.  As it is connected by stairs directly to the kitchen, the mystery room will be something domestic like a laundry, a buttery, servants quaters, storage, etc.

The top level consists of one central room.  The will be the workroom of the castle's resident wizard.  A hole has been cut in the floor to allow for access to the room by a spiral staircase from the Library below.  A hole in the side wall gives access out onto the roof of the bedroom where I may add a roof garden.  A trapdoor cut in the roof of this room give access to the high roof where the wizard may have a telescope set up.

This is the basic plan I had for the castle until this morning.  Now I am considering re-arranging it all to something like this:

Ground floor from left: kitchen (block off open arch), Hall, solar
First Floor from left: bedroom, wardrobe (add wall to divide middle room), hallway/stairs up, Library
Top Floor: Magic Workroom

Or possibly leave the kitchen out entirely and make the ground floor: Dining, Hall/Entrance,solar
Or maybe have two bedrooms at either end of the first floor, one masculine, one feminine.

Or . . . . perhaps I could try making up my mind and sticking with it.

I still have time to debate the internal layout as my first task is to be the exterior.  Anticipating the arrival of the castle, I ordered some more of Malcom's Miniatures Impress Moulds from Silly Sisters webshop.  I bought some brick moulds for the Dancing Dragon and apart from the clay cracking, I was really pleased with the result.  This time I bought some stone moulds to create a stone castle.  I was expecting the moulds to be the same as the brick ones, a single square with raised bits in a brick pattern that creates a square inch of brickwork.  Instead, the stone moulds are a half dozen individual moulds, one per stone.  This is a good idea as it will let me randomise the stonework, but a bad idea because switching between separate moulds will take longer to do. 

Lastly, I'd like to welcome my newest follower minimariba to the blog.  Minimariba doesn't seem to have a blog of her own.

Giveaway Draw Time.

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway draw over the past few weeks.  It was interesting to see where you thought the prizes would look at home.  It seems that the faux window will find a home near the peak of a cottage roof and the candle sconces will either line a stariway or frame a mirror (unless the winner changes their mind).  Who is the winner?  I entered a list of all the entrants names at Random.org and then randomised the order of the list.  The name that came out on top (and therefore won) was . . . .

Cyndy

Congratulations Cyndy.  Please let me know your address and I will post your prizes out to you.  You can email me at celestial@y7mail.com or if you prefer, just leave a comment here.

For those of you who are interested, here's a copy of the randomised list: