We stopped in to see it on our way home from dinner this evening. It looks great! Glad to see it coming together looking like something.
Also ran into @Oldcrafter on our way out and got to catch up with him!
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I know this is a ridiculously long thread, but at least its finally starting to look like a castle.
The curved pieces still need to be bolted to the rest of the center section, but that’s where i’m running into a bit of a complication… the metalframes didn’t sit all the way down in the fiberglass like i had planned, so there’s becoming an alignment issue between panels. I think i can make something work, but it may take thursday to make it happen.
Dave managed to get more glue, so we’ll try to get some more of the round pieces done during maker monday.
Despite the set back, it seems like we’re on track to have this beast ready for the renn faire. Though there are some thoughts popping up to make the castle look nicer as well as make assembly easier. The tooling to make assembling the castle easier might be something we should get done before the first full assembly of the castle (might help align the center section to the towers instead of using tool boxes to prop it up like the old castle)
I’m hoping to have another paint day on Friday since it looks like we may get some rain on Saturday. I’ve appreciated all the help and company while painting, it’s made the process a bit more fun. 
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That looks really cool!
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Cought @rustin.atkeisson after Maker Monday to help him assemble these two pannels. They are looking amazing, and I don’t think the stone is going to make us ake when setting up and tare down at the Renaissance Fair like the old wood castle.
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‘Don’t ask how we made it happen, we probably wouldn’t repeat it.’
It was a pretty fun and a bit comical tonight. Each person grabbed some different paint, painted something, and then someone else came in and went ‘i like my color better’ over the first color… this went on several times until there were enough paints and colors muttled together that we couldn’t tell who did what, and where in the blazes did the blue panels come from?
At some point we turned into a performing art group with spectators…
But it definitely felt like a ‘wow’ moment to take a look at all the panels at the end of the night.
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Looks legit
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The center section is all bolted together!
With any luck, i can finish drilling the bolt holes to attach the top of the tower tomorrow, which hopefully means we’ll be able to fully assemble the castle!
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Those pannels in the background are looking fantastic. What time are you planning on being around?
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Oops, i was around most of the day…
We’re pretty much at a point to address nitpicky things, like fixing gaps and some white spots… and well painting the center section.
I’m planning on taking Tuesday night on finishing the ‘trim and drill’ step on the center panels. Hopefully Thursday we can paint those panels and get some clear coat on the others (Friday and Saturday are calling for rain).
…also, we proved today that even without being fully bolted together, the center section is strong enough to support all of Matt’s weight.
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To be fair, I weigh like a stick. Also, I thought it was all bolted.
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Yeah… definitely didn’t feel like we were able to exactly duplicate the magic of the other panels, but there was definitely some 3d printer zen moments as we applied the lightest colors. We were surprised and captivated by how the edges and voids popped as the lightest color was lightly dry brushed over each area.
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Woot! The castle was fully errected today! Thank you to everyone in the electronics lab that helped with the lift!
There’s still a few things to fix, but at least the work seems like something that can be done before fair. (Like adding some bracing, touching up paint, and covering up some spots where light is shining thru)
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Thank you Paul and Andy for the help laser cutting out a sign tonight!
It’s not glued together yet, but it is pretty much all painted (may take some touch up yet)… next is figuring out how to attach it to the keystone on the castle… which will pretty much need to happen tomorrow night.
A big thank you to everyone that has helped make this castle a reality! Woot!
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A big thank you to everyone that came out and helped setup today!
It was a little trickier than anticipated to assemble the castle facade on the slopped dirt, but for assembling it the first time, it seemed like things went together calmly and without any panicked runs to the hardware store.
It was kind of weird. I’m usually pretty high strong when it comes to setting up for fair, but for this one, i felt pretty relaxed and collected. It definitely helped that we loaded up most of the big stuff the night before instead of the day of.
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