Pharos Reborn Printer Friendly Version   By AURORA_BOREALIS - Dec. 31, 1969 This project was quite the undertaking. It took me about 3 weeks to do all the casting, building and painting. When I went about designing this piece, I was hoping to maximize its flexibility. The whole building comes apart and can be reconfigured to make other buildings - block-house/lighthouse/observatory/barracks. By adding, or subtracting, floors, towers and/or decorative bits, very different looks can be achieved. Total Blocks: 557 Dimensions: 11 ½ x7x7 Number of Molds Used: 6 Molds Used: Wizard's Tower Mold #50 4" Circular Tower Mold #52 Gothic Church Mold #54 Tomb Mold #56 Prison Tower Mold #60 Turret Mold #61 Square Base: 1st Floor (121 Blocks) 16 window arches #50 16 ½”x ½” floor tiles #60 43 1” basic blocks #50 22 ½” basic blocks #50 2 arch type 1 #60 2 arch type 2 #60 2 ½”x1” floor tiles #60 The square base of this piece is done in two stacking halves forming individual "floors" or levels. Basic construction is quite straightforward. The arched entryway on the main floor was built using the large door-arch pieces from the prison tower mold (see the prison tower building plans for how to put together the arch). The windows in this piece are constructed using paired half-arch pieces from the wizard's tower mold (four of these pieces make up the round window used in Bruce's design). The sides of each window are built using ¼" flat slabs from either the prison tower mold or the tomb mold. The other three sides of the ground floor each boast three windows apiece for a total of nine windows on the main level. The balance of the blocks used to construct the first floor walls are a mixture of ½" and 1" blocks from the prison tower mold. (Truth be told, I was short on basic blocks for the project and so I resorted to raiding my store of prison tower pieces. The pieces were laid so as to produce an alternating pattern of raw stone and finished stone. Check out the close-up of the ground floor to get a better idea of how the alternating pattern was done. The effect is interesting.) 2nd Floor (120 Blocks) 24 window arches #50 24 ½”x ½” floor tiles #60 48 1” basic blocks #50 24 ½” basic blocks #50 Each wall on the upper floor has three evenly spaced windows, for twelve windows in total. These windows were constructed in exactly the same way as the first floor. The floor for the second floor/storey is made from the flagstone-style pieces from either the tomb mold or the prison tower mold. The floor itself is supported by four angled pieces from the gothic church mold wedged into the corners just below the top lip of the first floor (see the inn building instructions for details on Bruce's web site if you're unclear about how to build floor supports for second storey flooring). At some point in the future I may cast another floor/level identical to the second storey to add additional height to the piece. Decorative Columns: (84 blocks) Front Flanking Pillars (2 units – 8 blocks) 2 gothic roof supports #54 2 tall spires #56 2 ½”x1” capitols #56 2 pillars #56 Wrap-Around Pillars (4 units – 52 blocks) 6 ½”x1” capitols #56 6 ½”x ½” capitols (cut piece) #56 12 pillars #56 12 ½ pillars (cut vertically) #56 12 gothic corner footing pieces #54 Side-Wall Pillars (6 units – 24 blocks) 6 gothic footings #54 12 gothic roof supports #54 6 gothic spires (cut pieces) #54 The decorative wrap-around corner-column pieces were modeled after the ones Bruce used in constructing the crypt. Check out the Hirst Arts web site for detailed instructions on assembly of wrap-around corner columns. The capitol and pillar pieces used to build the wrap-around columns came from the tomb mold. The bases for these columns are cast from the gothic church mold. Essentially three corner pieces glued to one another to form a continuous piece. The two decorative pillars flanking the entryway arch, however, use a mix of pieces. The bases come from the gothic church mold (they are actually the pieces used to form the roof support in the basic church design). I wanted something a bit different in height from the more substantial corner support columns, so I went with the squat gothic pieces. The spire piece and pillar-section claim a tomb mold pedigree. The side-wall “ ¾-pillars” are likewise built with a mish-mash of odd and kit-bashed pieces. The pillar sections were done using the roof support pieces from the gothic mold. The spire-like caps for these pillars were created by sawing in half the spires from the gothic mold. The base is a capitol that comes straight out of the tomb mold. I’ve included a close-up shot of the decorative pieces separated from the structure to give a better impression of how they were put together. These decorative pieces can easily be used to dress up other structures as needed – part of the flexibility master plan. ;-) 3-Inch Tower: (36 blocks) 24 basic 3” curved blocks #61 8 arrow slits #52 4 textured lintels (cut pieces) #52 16 triangular roof wedges #61 1 gothic spire #54 The 3-inch tower section is actually the heart of the whole piece. It was this section that gave birth to the much bigger end-project that you’re looking at. I had been playing around with the 3” -tower pieces and had wanted something a bit bigger than the tiny circular window from the mold. My original idea was to build a simple lighthouse. The round windows just weren’t suited to a lighthouse concept, so I improvised. The solution came after a fair bit of kit-bashing and experimentation. Basically the windows for this section starts with the arrow slit blocks from the 4” tower mold. To give a more square look to the windows I inserted the textured lintel blocks from the 4” tower mold between the arrow-slit blocks (these textured blocks are used in the basic tower on Bruce’s site to line the doorway lintel). To give a better line to the simulated window, I took and cut the blocks on an angle - about half of the block was lost. The result should be a wedge-shaped block that matches the slope of the inner arrow-slit. To properly mesh with the curve of the smaller 3” diameter tower, some trimming was also needed on the sides of the textured blocks. The desired shape resembles a triangle that has had its point cut off. Unfortunately I don’t own a digital camera to call my own, so there’s no pictures to clearly illustrate how this was put together. Hopefully the shots of the finished piece will be enough. The top of the piece is capped off with the basic 3”-tower roof design. 4-InchTower: (57 blocks) 32 basic 4” curved blocks #52 8 4” curved footing blocks #52 1 round 1” centre block #52 8 triangular flooring slates #52 4 decorative braces #52 This part of the project is the easiest to replicate. The 4” tower is simply one third of Bruce’s standard tower – the base to be exact. The base was simply inverted onto its head to provide the lip and flat surface to support the 3” tower at the apex of the structure. Decorative pieces from the 4” tower mold were flipped upside down from their normal orientation to provide the sweep up into the 3” tower. Flying Buttresses: (12 blocks) 8 buttress arches #56 4 decorative caps #61 The quasi flying-buttresses were dead-easy to make. They are simply pairs of buttress arches from the tomb mold glued back-to-back. The round decorative pieces come from the 3” tower mold and just add a bit of character to the arches. The arches don’t need to be glued in place. In fact, not gluing them in place allows for about three different variations using the buttress pieces. Railing: (112 blocks) 24 basic gothic footing blocks #54 4 corner-section gothic footing blocks #54 12 gothic squared spires #54 40 gothic spacer footing blocks #54 16 1” half-pillars #54 8 ½” half-pillars #54 8 small round balls #56 The railing piece was also built to be used in a range of different ways. I wanted an elaborate railing for the main walk-about, but I also wanted something that could be used elsewhere. What I ended up with was a piece that fits snugly around the floor section, but that can be used on its own as well. When used on its own, this piece has a Versaille-like quality. If you’ve ever had the good fortune to visit France’s stunning Versaille palace gardens you’ll know what influenced the piece. To build this railing, I used castings almost exclusively from the gothic church mold. Some trimming was required to get the pieces to fit closely but still be removable. The red, round decorative pieces hail from the tomb mold. There really are a lot of fantastic pieces in that mold! The base for the railing is built out of upside-down base pieces from the gothic church – simply build the sections as you would the church and flip them over. The corner pieces come from the steeped roof caps out of the gothic church mold, just used a bit differently in this case. The only real challenge in putting together the railing is working up enough patience to get the bits supporting the rail to be properly spaced. The floor section is built with flagstone tiles from the prison tower or tomb molds. It will have to be carefully sanded to allow the railing to fit over and not leave a gap. You’ll see from the shots provided that, once assembled, the railing projects over the main walls and rests nicely on the capitols of the wrap-around corner-pillars. I had a lot of fun building this piece. If you have plans to tackle this one though, be prepared to do a lot of repetitive castings of certain pieces (especially for the windows and the observation platform railings). Hope you enjoy my handiwork. Cheers Scott   1 Ratings     12345      Public Comments Please log in to post a comment    You must be a registered member to post comments. You may sign-in Here.

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