Temple of the Golden Jackal Printer Friendly Version   By AURORA_BOREALIS - Dec. 31, 1969 Total Blocks: 96 Dimensions: 5x4x4 Number of Molds Used: 5 Molds Used Wizard's Tower Mold (#50) 4" Circular Tower Mold (#52) Gothic Church Mold (#54) Prison Tower Mold (#60) Turret/ 3" Tower Mold (#61) Base Assembly The base is the only part of this piece that required anything but standard, uncut bricks. Start by gluing a gothic corner footing-piece to the curved footing piece from the 4” tower mold. This needs to be done twice, once for each of the end bits to either side of the base assembly. Next glue a full sized 4” basic curved block to an ½” square standard block. Again, do this twice. Stack the standard pieces on top of the footing pieces to get a partial curve assembly that is two bricks high. You’ve now built the end bits of both sides of the base. The next step is to assemble the mid-section of the curved base. You’ll need to glue a standard sized 4” footing curved piece to one that has been cut roughly in half. Next glue a standard 4” curved block to a 4” curved block that has been cut roughly in half. Stack the standard bricks on top of the footing bricks to complete the mid-section assembly. Let all three pieces dry (mid-section and both ends). To assemble the stairs, you’ll need the small stair piece from the prison tower and two pairs of the triangular wedges from the gothic church mold. The wedges are glued to the underside of the stair pieces to support the stairs and to close off the space that would otherwise show on the underbelly of the stairs (the wedges should square off the stairs when viewed from the side or back. Next you’ll want to assemble a base-like section using the round piece and five of the triangular floor slabs. Make sure that you glue the pieces together upside down so that the textured bit of the round centre piece is flush with the triangular pieces (otherwise the centre bit will project ¼” higher than the rest of the circle. This floor piece will give you the right curvature for the base. Once the floor has been glued, put another round block directly underneath the central round block (it will support the floor at the right two-block height). Unfortunately I don’t have a shot of the underside of the base. Then take the pre-assembled end pieces, two stair assemblies and the mid-section and lay them up against the curved floor piece. Make sure that the floor section ends at the start of the ½”square blocks on the end bits. I’ve included a photo that shows the base assembly in good detail. You should be able to see from that picture what I mean. Once the pieces are flush against the curve, you’ll be able to see whether the pieces needed to be trimmed slightly to be the right size. Don’t worry if there’s a slight gap between the stairs, the mid-section and the end pieces. The lintel pieces will hide that gap. You will have to trim the end bits and mid-section slightly to get the pieces to sit snugly up against the stairs and keep the right curvature. Once the test had been done and the trimming accomplished, glue the stairs, end sections and mid-section to each other and to the floor assembly. You will now have the basic three-quarters-circular-base. To dress up the base, glue four textured lintel pieces over top of the base and have the lintel just slightly overlap the edges of the uppermost stair steps. Make sure that the lintels sit so that they match the curve of the base underneath. Top the lintel pieces off with decorative rounded caps from the 3” tower mold. You’ve now finished off the base. Support Assembly The supports for the rear of the temple are very easy to make. Simply stack one round piece from the 4” tower atop another – just off-centre. Put together three of these. The spacers that go between the circular supports are just as easy to throw together. Just glue a half-arch from the prison mold to the textured lintel piece from the 4” tower. Put together three of these, two for the rear supports and one for the space between the two stairs at the front of the temple. Dome Assembly If you look closely at the stepped dome, you’ll notice that there is a ¼” riser between the base and the start of the 3” curved blocks. This is simply a circular pattern of the triangular floor tiles from the 4” tower mold. The floor tiles should be assembled as normal with just one variation. The circular centre piece must be cut in half (lengthwise) to make the height/depth of the centre block match that of the triangular tiles. The end result is a ¼” deep circle. The riser can be left loose to allow it to be positioned in different ways (or left out altogether for a bit different look). Once the riser is complete, the rest of the dome can be built. The dome is pretty simple and requires absolutely no block-cutting or sanding. The first row of the dome is simply eight 3” curved blocks laid out in a circle. The next row is made up of four of the smooth pieces used in the turret mold to build the underside of turrets. The four pieces can simply glued to one another and then positioned atop the circle of 3” curved blocks. They should sit right in the centre, offset back from the edge of the 3” blocks underneath. The next row is made up of alternating upside-down 3” window arches and standard sized 3” rounded blocks. The half-circle blocks of the next row are positioned on top of the 3” curved blocks and inter-spaced between the inverted arches. These are just the standard half-circles from the turret mold (flat side facing down, with the curve projecting out. The next step is to glue together pairs of the triangle-shaped roof pieces from the 3” tower. Each pair should be positioned pretty well flush with the flat inside of the round block below. The arches of the roof pieces meet in the middle of the open dome. The only draw-back of this design is that the dome is a bit fragile. The inside of the dome is made up of two different assemblies. First off, you’ll need to put together a circular floor tile assembly using eight of the triangular 1’4” tiles from the 3” tower. Once assembled, this floor sits inside the base of the dome, flush with the bottom of the 3” circular blocks at the dome’s base. The pedestal inside the dome is extremely easy to make. Just glue two of the rounded pieces from the turret mold back-to-back to form and circle. Then glue that two-piece circle to a 1” deep round piece from the 4” tower mold. To get the stepped look, the riser and the 3” blocks of the dome should be offset from one another. The result is a multi-layered dome that projects both backwards and upwards – angling away from the steps. When looked at from behind, the angle is even more pronounced. If you don’t glue the dome assembly to the base, the base can be used in tandem with other structures as an elaborate entry. As with everything I make, I like to maximize possible combinations. I’d hoped to make a flocked base complete with terrain for this piece, but I simply ran out of time. I envision the dome projecting out over a drop-off of some sort with a pair of paths winding up to the stairs at the front. Ah well, I’ll get to that eventually. I really like the way the steps in this piece mesh with the curves of the base. I’ve been toying with a bigger project using that element, but haven’t found the time to get to casting enough blocks to build it – oh well, there’s always HADD3 to look forward to. So many ideas – so little time. Cheers, Scott   0 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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