Looks even better now that it is dry!

These days, I'm pushing to get the exterior done. Then I can finally turn to the interior and windows, which finishes the tower for 95% before final weathering and finalizing the landscape.

Today and yesterday, I focused on the entrance to the tower, the railing there and the paintwork. Also, I painted the roof gutter and rain pipe. I bent 0.5 mm copper wire into a bracket for the rain pipe and painted that aluminum. The roof must remain detachable (otherwise there is no point in putting too much effort in the interior) so the rain pipe is fixed only by these brackets to the wall and via the lower end into the base of the diorama.

Here are some detailed pics, the railing on the back side near the entrance is now fixed and final.

Hope you like it!

Michel.

Today I worked on the tower again.

As you can see from the above picture, these guard towers were featured of a lightning protection. It runs all the way from the base to the top and connects to the railing on the roof. These towers were often the only high feature in the landscape and since the railing was metal, lighting bolts preferred earthing to the tower. Nothing as safe as a good lightning protection! Here is my crack at it:




The way I did is was make a 1.5x1.5 mm base from 0.5 mm styrene with a hole in the middle. I bent a strip of 0.2 mm copper wire through the hole and fixed some black florist wire (the actual lightning protection wire). Black is not a bad color because anodized copper oxidizes in black. Copper is usually the material of choice for lightning protections because of its low resistance.

I like the fact that the wire is not straightly running up the tower, it mimics the expansion that will have happened in bright sunlight over time. My tower is modeled still in use (lot abandoned) but it looks ok to my standards.

Hope you like it too!

Love he lightning protection wire, my friend @michel-verschuere!
Like our friend @lgarner said, all those things add up to present an utterly realistic and extremely attractive model!
Looking forward to your progress!

We love it, my friend @michel-verschuere!
This is amazing work!
Gute Nacht!

Finished all windows (exterior) and dry fitted them. Here are some pictures.

Today I worked on the interior and the back side of the windows. I made a ladder to fit to the ceiling, used only to access the roof. There is more work to be done on the interior but part of it will be tables OOB from a Dragon kit. Here are some pictures, the protective film is now removed and the interior of the 2nd floor visible.

And here are some shots from the outside in the current state of affairs:



I mainly used this reference picture since it is the only good view I have on the interior.

Hope you like!

Michel.