One of the big changes I wanted to make to
the whole structure was to curve the mansard roof instead of have all
the angles be straight. I've seen a lot of curved rooves and they
just add more character. As Randy's rooves were solid plaster, I
ended up doing the rough carving with a rounded wood rasp and then
hitting them with a well supported piece of sandpaper.
Here is the top part way through.
As you can see, the thing wanted to bow, so I had to do a lot of sanding
with a block to get the sides straight. It was a lot of sanding
and then looking at it from all angles - then repeat the whole process.
The kit came with little triangular window
boxes that were meant to be glued to the straight roof sides.
Since I curved the roof I ended up cutting these pieces short and then
sanding the backs to match the curve of the roof. The main window
section was made from the metal part shown above. If you haven't
been to a jewelry store - go! The metal pieces had four pegs
on the back, so I cut out places for those pegs in the plaster part (the
boxes marked on the part above).
These little window boxes needed to
actually sit back into the roof a little to get the look right, so I had
to carve spots out for them. I used a carving tool that looks like
a cycle, then sanded it down.
Here's the window front after it was
painted and glued onto the plaster back. The metal piece had a
cardboard back, so I removed them, inserted a piece of clear acetate,
and then painted the drapes on a piece of black construction paper and
inserted that. The metal was painted Pullman Green and then glued
into the plaster part which was already painted with black acrylic
paint.
Here is the roof after the windows have
been glued on. You can see that I carved a flat place on the
bottom as well. On the left is the main roof, which I already started
carving the curve into.
Next up was framing the sides of
the window boxes with strip wood and adding the wood base to the roof.
The roof was a little small for the tower after all that sanding, so I
needed the wood on the bottom to make it wider again - otherwise the
proportions just looked wrong. I usually don't seal plaster
castings when I paint them, but I sealed both rooves with dullcoat to
make sure the glue would stick okay. (Allthough epoxy would
probably stick to Crisco.)
Here are the cornices for the top
of the windows. I cut them with an Xacto knife to look like the
pattern in yellow. (This one isn't done yet.) I ended up
painting them gray like concrete and using a bit of plaster dust in the
paint to give a bit of texture.
What a difference shingles make!
Lots of strips of black construction paper cut with pinking shears.
You start at the bottom and go up, leaving extra overhanging the sides.
When dry, you can come back and cut the sides to the roof contour (which
was a little more tricky with the curved roof.)
Here's the roof from the front.
It's hard to tell because of the lighting, but I've already painted the
shingles Dark Gray. The roof looks much better with the strip wood
on the bottom.
Oh, what a deal the cornice was!
Because of the weird shape of the molding, you can't just make a miter
cut. No, you have to mess around a bunch to get things to line up.
Here are the four sides.
I added some square stock to make
the gluing/squaring process easier. For all my wood parts (and
most everything else I used Quick Dry tacky glue.) I pour a bit out on a
piece of scrap paper and then apply a fine bead with a toothpick.
Or I go high tech and use my fingers.
Here's the deal from the top. i
tried using extra glue as a filler for some small gaps - bad idea!!!
The assembly held well, but sanding the glue down and matching the
texture of the wood for painting was a lot of extra work. I
suppose I'll buy some green putty or something and try that next time.
Almost done!!! This project alone
took several nights (2-4 hours a night). Here I've added
capping/flashing (made from paper again) and added pitch (tar stuff)
around the windows a la George Sellios. The pitch is epoxy mixed
with a little grimy black paint. It comes out glossy though, so I
had to paint it with some clear flat (and then it got chalk weathering).
The top cornice is painted and on and the railing is included in the kit
(it's Grandt Line I think).
The final tower outside. The
sides of the window boxes had skulls molded into them. I painted
them grey, but in retrospect I think I should have cut them off.
The shingles were dry brushed with white acrylic paint and then dusted
with chalks. The railing was spray painted with black and rust
paints and then dry brushed white - then chalked. The last detail
was the lighting rod which I got from Dr. Ben and painted rust.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that.
Maybe there are a few things you'd like to try out huh? Maybe you
know of an easier way to cut molding? If so, email me!!! Now
that the tower roof is done it's.....
On to the making the walls!
Welcome
to Grimm's!
