Building Sarissa's Chateau Part Three

You can find part one here: The Chateau Part One
And part two here: The Chateau Part Two

Well, another week has gone by, and I'm glad to be able to say that the ground floor of the Chateau is finished...well, almost!

The first thing to do was to finish painting the window frames. And as they needed multiple coats, you can see why it's taken me so long to do this. To be honest, it was a welcome break to turn my attention to the next floor!  Now, as the window frames and shutters are made of cardboard rather than mdf,  I decided to stick them to the walls before coating them with size.

Of course, both sides of the walls needed a good coat.

Unlike the windows on the ground floor, the frames fit over the etched window frames rather than around them, as you can see in the next photo.

Whilst the size was drying, I began building the ground floor. This was harder than I had expected.  The extra leeway in the joints mean it kept falling apart as each section was added.  I'll refrain from another, "Not with TT Combat kits..." comment.

However, I can't promise the same when it comes to discussing the stairs.  Because I was not impressed.  Not one little bit.  I already said in the last part of this build that there will be a gap between each stair.  Quite why is beyond me.  How hard can it be to add in another step?  Anyway, what this means when it comes to building it is a complete fiasco.  You see, the steps are attached to the house wall and the railing section.  By a single peg. And with a gap between each step, you can imagine how floppy they are.  Seriously, this would have been much easier if they had been made a little longer to allow two or more pegs to secure them. But they didn't.  So you know what's coming!

They could honestly learn something about building secure steps from TT Combat.  Have a look at this build from their Tavington Place kit.

It's a simple design that leaves no gaps between each step and secures each piece firmly in its rightful place.  Honestly Sarissa, how hard can it be?

As far as the chateau goes, I had to do the best I could in the circumstances.  This meant I had to glue the steps into the railing piecce first and hope for the best while I let the glue begin to set.

Even though this made them wobble alarmingly.

And armed with only a pair of hands and my trusty tweezers, I did my best to not cuss as I tried to get them to fit together.  I was eventually successful. Well, with the building anyway. But there was no time to take photos in the process. At least it looks good enough when it's done.

And with the ground floor glued together, I was able to paint the steps.

Oh, and before I forget, here's the view from the back!

And this time with the painted steps in place.

Of course, with a building looking like a piece of Swiss cheese, I needed to turn to my milliput.  You can see the two separate parts away to be mixed in the next photo.

This is a rather messy process.  I apply the milliput with either finger or tweezers, pushing the milliput into the gaps.  I then take a damp piece of kitchen towel and wipe away the excess.  But as you can see, it still leaves a stain on my paint job.

Oh well, I'll be able to tidy this all up with some paint in the morning when the milliput is properly dry.

With this done, I turned my attention instead to the window frames and shutters.  They were given a good coat of pale blue grey.  As you can see, I wasn't too fussy with the edging.  This will be tidied up when I paint the walls.  It was more important to make sure the colour got to the edges.  

 I also made sure I painted the wood grain effect on the floor.  No need to go to the edges, as they will be painted white as they protrude round the outside of the building.

Here's the completed undercoated windows. If I'd had the sense I'd have made sure to photograph the reverse of one of the walls. That way you'd have been able to see the interior painted frames.

 And here's the freshly cut piles of perspex for the windows.

And that's as far as I've been able to get.  So for now, thanks for stopping by!