Stone, Timbers, Glass and Stairs

 I spent a little time working on the style of build, because I wanted this to be more of a 'town' home and forge rather than one out in the country.

Most of the Tudor style buildings for which I've found pictures have wooden framing and stone or brick between the wooden timbers so I decided I wanted to do that as my style for the first level. It also fits in with the forge.

The framing is also how most of the windows and door openings are supported so I wanted to be sure to keep that element of realism.

I drew it out and then began to glue on my stone.

You can see the lines on my walls. I'm using wood with a layer of chipboard over it to give the walls a more authentic thickness.  The kit walls have mostly been used in the shop.

You can see my windows for the first floor as well. I also wanted a slightly different style of windows. 

While I added the stone to the walls and waited for the glue to dry I glued the three walls of the shop together. That's why the painter's tape in the first picture. I won't glue the furnace/forge into place until I've got my coal, embers and a few other things in place. 

The 'stone' is more of the molded cardboard and rather than the 'mortar' I used on the WQRC I got drywall spackle and added black paint to give it a deep grey color and make it a bit looser. It makes smoothing it between the stone a bit easier and as an added bonus I'm not wearing the skin off my fingers.

It does dry out your skin beyond belief so I highly reccomend moisturizing afterwards.

I won't add the windows to the walls until after I've finished the interior side. I really want to avoid getting 'plaster' all over the wood. I had to reapply some stain to the exterior timbers since some of the 'mortar' dulled the wood despite my painters tape.

And then of course, more waiting, for the glue and motar to dry. 

While I waited for that I worked on my staircase. Staining all the wood before gluing is always interesting if I'm trying to assemble on the same day. But I gathered up my patience and waited for everything to be completely dry before I glued.

Since a blacksmith really wouldn't have the werewithal to build a tower I didn't think a circular staircase appropriate for the build.  Instead I went with a quarter turn staircase.

I'm planning to have some wooden support posts to hold the stairs up, and cut a couple of them so I could see how the first set would look. 

I can't show you the second half of the stairs in place because they'll just fall down.  But you can see my outline of where they'll be on the back wall.

My next big 'project' for the first floor is the fireplace. I need something a little smaller than the WQRC but in a similar style.

I need to make sure there's room on the second floor with a small fireplace there for warmth but also due to how the stairs are positioned. No point in going up the stairs in order to crash into the chimney/fireplace.

I'm going to need to draw that out on graph paper I think.

How are all of you doing?