On my way!

There's no going back now!

The top level walls are now completed!  It's been a while since my last update, but only because I've been spending my free time building.  There's still a bit more to do yet on this section, but at this point I have a pretty clear idea what to expect with the next level and how the keep will look as a whole.  There's really a lot of challenges to overcome here and a lot of important details to work out.  Not least of all is the shape.  I chose octagonal towers, this causes a slight offset so that the corner is not perfectly square.  It's still quite workable but has been annoying to work around.

The battlements are such an important feature of a castle, it's undoubtedly one of the defining architectural features of the genre.  I tried to add as much detail as possible, utalising SNOT tiling and offset stonework on the crenels to frame the merlons.  Confusing?  Merlons are basically the part of the battlements that are higher than the wall which provide cover for defenders.  The crenel, or embrasure, is the open space between the merlons.  Oh and crenallation is just another word for battlements.  Most of the confusion stems from the fact that there are two words for most castle features, an Old English word and a Norman word.

The arrowslits look awesome, but aren't actually my design.  I pretty much copied them from brickshelf user RabbitSpook, Jacob C on Classic Castle.

To avoid "Big Gray Wall" issues I used tiles to make the brickwork look a little more interesting, especially as I have decided to stay away from mottling.  The battlements on the tower tops took the most time, I must have rebuilt them at least four times trying to get the right scale, shape, and feel.  In the end I think they look a little thin but I'm not unhappy with them.  I may yet rebuilt these again to give them some more depth.

As with many of my creations I used 1 x 1 round bricks to round out the corners on the towers.  I have used this technique so many times but it is easily the best way to finsh the corners on any tower that has more than four and works perfectly with an octogon. 

As I said before the octagonal turrets posed a few challenges, not least of which was the flexibility of the hinges which caused the entire structure to suffer from structurally.  Because of the inprecise nature of the shape I used this brace constructed from technic axels to help keep the tower sturdy.  It was a relatively late revalation as I had simply used bricks to brace my towers before.  I may yet add another to the bottom level of this section at a different angle to reinforce it further.  I'll definately use two in the next level.

There's so much to do next; a sliding panel, an interior for this level, or even starting on the next level.  This is a great stage to be in with a build like this, there is so much to do it's hard to get bored.  If one thing holds me up due to construction difficulties or cost I can simply move to a differnet task until the other resilves itself.