Just a little update for tonight as work continues on turning the lighthouse from a solid white monolith into... well, a lighthouse! You may remember from my last post that I was working on the lower panels for the lantern room. I mentioned that it was hard trying to align the hole punch in the right position, but then the solution became obvious; taking off the base of the hole punch:
Now I could easily align the panels to the hole, it was quick work to make a hole in 7 of the 8 panels:
The 8th panel would not have a hole cut out as it would be the access hatch onto the balcony, that encompasses the outside of the lantern room. Eventually, the smaller ventilation holes will be drilled through the whole assembly, but for now I'm stuck as the only chuck suitable for the tiny drill bit is too big for the Dremel.
The panel that forms the hatch is made up of numerous parts; a U shaped frame with a door rain deflector, and the hatch itself which is formed of the panel and 4 tiny edge strips. As the interior will be visible, a similar hatch will need to be made for the inside, perhaps with diagonal bracing to make it stand out a bit more.
With work halted on the lantern room for the time being, I turned my attention to the lighthouse tower itself. This has been somewhat neglected ever since I finished the stepped lower section. Whilst I didn't get too far, I did manage to make all the stone frames around the 5 windows and the door.
Made of the same thin plasticard (20 thou) as the panel overlays (the ones with the circular holes), the design of the stone door surrounds were copied from photos of the type found on the prototype lighthouse at Spurn Head.
Before any of these can be attached, I have decided that the tower will need to be given a light sanding to smooth the surface somewhat, as it is a bit patchy and uneven. If I was to make my life easier, I would just paint the whole tower white and be done with it, but I quite like the natural stone finish of the prototype. This means that every single brick will need to be scribed; not a process I'm looking forward to given the shape of the lighthouse. As neither base nor top are flat, it's not a simple case of spinning and scribing mortar lines!
Anyway, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!
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