Panels and putty... the Tavern continues to take shape...

A little more work managed over the weekend... Having added the wooden trim to frame out the ground floor, I pressed on and added a simple paneling effect by cutting out rectangles from thin card (cereal box type stuff), and rounding-in the corners with a hole punch.

These were simply glued into place with PVA. I also started tidying up some of the joins in the framing with a liquid Greenstuff and DAS clay. The Greenstuff is OK to use but annoyingly shrinks on drying, invariably revealing the gap you have just filled... hence I went back to using the DAS...

Click Picture for a closer look

Just have to add the card stock doorways, and I can press on with clay cladding the top two stories, then brick etching to follow... At the rear I have added the lean-to... though I have not glued this into place, as it will make the brick etching around it a pain, so I'll do it separately then glue it into place.

It's all slow but steady work... as usual I have several things on the go at once and kids off school wanting to play and do stuff with me when I get in from work... plus my Dad arrives for his visit from UK on Friday, so there has been a noticeable amount of spring cleaning and gardening going on, for 'His Lordships' arrival ;-) .

One good thing about having folks in UK - it gets round some of the dumb restrictions on the GW website... Some stuff is listed as mail order only, and when you twiddle around with the country portals, different stuff shows up, and if its not in your country's slot you can't order it. Ridiculous! So Dad is bringing with him the Hobbit/LOTR set featuring Lobelia, Paladin Took, Fatty Bolger and a Hobbit Horn blower, and for good measure Gandalfs Cart too. The cart I could have ordered from the NZ site, but its way cheaper from the UK... On the flip side I managed to order Bandobras (Bullroarer) Took from NZ site which wasn't on the UK site, so in that case availability was on my side, but sadly at NZ prices, oh well, sometimes you have to bite the bullet... All these are going to go together for my Hobbiton build...

So I have two weeks annual leave from the 20th to enjoy... I hope to still try and fit in some hobby work... there's only so much sitting in the sun together (if summer actually arrives this year!?) and chatting, quaffing foaming ale together you can do in one day! ;-)

Plus as part of my holiday we are all going to head north and visit Hobbiton (Matamata) again - I am looking forward to a pint of ale in the Green Dragon ( It comes in pints!? I'm having one...) - more photos will be taken, for inspiration for the Hobbiton build...

And finally, I caught the first episode of Ripper Street last night on SKY - great stuff, really enjoyed it... I don't watch much TV and rarely tune in to 'shows', as most are garbage and I always feel I could be doing something more constructive. I am more a documentary or DVD/movie watcher, but this show has my attention... I am sure I can spare an hour a week to enjoy it :-)

If nothing else, it will provide some inspiration for more buildings to make - I was having a close look at the police station building for one of my next builds. I was wondering if I can add some kind of transparent blue film over one of the model street gas-lamps I have to effect the police blue lamp...