Tulou and Fortress (Part 10) - Let there be Light

The shrine in the middle is looking alright. So it's time to head back to the outer shell. 


I'd preciously cut and scored the foamcore so that I could bend it to the right curvature. Now it's time to add the electronics to the piece before construction work begins. It needs to be done now because it will be harder later to pull the model apart and wire in the lighting.
 
 
The next step here is the make some structural elements out of foamcore that will support the outer walls. Thankfullt for this project, the outer walls are circular so they're generally self-supporting. However, they'll still need to be able to support figurines on them because they're intended as miniature terrain rather than a model. 
 
I've cut the end cross sections of the wall, and scored them in much the same way that I've demonstrated earlier in the project. Folding right angles, taping while glue dries, holding them to shape (this time with clamps), and gluing them to the base board (using the same clamps to anchor them while the glue dries).
 

With two pieces at the end of the wall curve, at least one point will secure the location of the semi-circle. 
 
Then it's time to add a flat ring around the inner edge of the wall. This is to give the bottom of the wall a deeper cross section than the upper part of the wall for stability, and structure of the actual building being modelled.
 
At this point I'll note that I haven't put any windows into the wall... and while I'll admit that this doesn't match a lot of the tulou inspiration images, it's just getting tricky to construct, and I think they'll botch the work if I get them wrong. So they're just being left out.
 
Anyway, here's the flat ring.  

I have cut notches out to both secure the ring and to ensure the height of the level is 50mm above the board, since every floor aligns to this 50mm guide. The walls are 5omm high, so the notches are cut to the thickness of the board. It's all just glued together at this point with some wooden blocks sitting on the foamcore board to hold it in place.
 
Next comes the electrical work. 
Not particularly hard, just a string of 20 LED christmas lights from the local discount store. I wasn't sure how well they'd fit together with the layout I had, but if I zigzag the wiring pattern they generally do work in three lines of lights, one per floor. I've used a soldering iron to pierce holes in the foamcore, ad the lights fit snugly into those holes, with a bit of glue to lock them in. 
 
Once it's all dry, the curving piece of foamcore is glued into the inner side of the wall, and taped in place.


Now to test the power.







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