Hello Richard...
Well, the bad news is, the pirate town
isn't done yet... The good news is that it is well on its
way! It is fully built, at least the main part!
I am now finishing up on the painting and waiting for my
palm trees, etc. to arrive from Playmobil mail order... I'm
shooting to have it all wrapped up by the end of
October! I've enclosed a rough sketch from my notepad
that shows the basic lay out... Kind of hard to
decipher. Also am sending a couple of pictures of the
Tavern to get people in the Halloween mood... You'll see
what I mean!
The other features on your page have been
great! I'm really looking forward to the pirate photo
stories!
Take care and keep up the great
page!
Jonathan
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Hi Richard,
Thank you for your interest in the
tavern... It was a really fun project to work on!
Before building, I tried to make some
fairly accurate plans on paper. I managed to follow these
pretty closely, but of course had to make some modifications
based on the materials I used. The base of the model is a
couple of pieces of styro foam used for packaging
electronics, which I glued together with hot glue. The walls
of the building, and the roof (yes, there is one!) are made
out of foam board. I covered the walls with spackle and made
the dark blue framing beams out of light balsa wood strips
to give it a Tudor look. The brick foundation along the
bottom of the outside walls is also made with spackle. There
are three pieces: the base and the bar wall and back wall
are connected. The front wall and other side wall are
connected and can be lifted off. Of course, the roof is also
removable. I tried to make it as accesible for hands as
possible. I made the base look like rocks and cut the steps
in it by using sand paper, kind of messy. I painted it with
acrylic paints. I suppose you can use this method to make
just about any type of building for any era!
I also made a couple of Spanish style
buildings, and in fact had plans to do an entire pirate
town, complete with docks and a Spanish style fort to guard
the bay. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time or
inspiration to complete it.
My Playmobil collection is mainly
pirate-centric. I do have some safari sets, some eskimo
sets, and some of the very old western sets, but the pirate
sets were always my favorite. I have the older version of
the ship and a lot of the smaller sets. I also like the
castle sets but only have a couple of the minor ones. I
really like what you have done with your site, as you have
shown how versatile the toy can be for creating characters
from varying periods of history.
I live in Lombard, IL. It is a suburb of
Chicago,an area where there is a multitude of smaller toy
shops selling Playmobil.
I'm really looking forward to seeing your
finished pirate site!
Take care,
Jonathan
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