Town Gatehouse WIP

[rapsmocs]

Here are some WIP pictures of a gatehouse I am building for my town. I took inspiration for this from a part of the Krakow barbican that I found online at Wikipedia. I think it is about 80% done. The gates and porticullis work. There are stairs in one wall section to reach the top of the walls. Ladders and stairs in the towers to reach the upper floors of the gatehouse. There are murder holes over the full length of the front of the gatehouse and one in the tunnel between the gates and porticullis. There are also arrow slits all over to enfilade the connecting curtain walls and cover the gates. I have opening doors on the rear of the towers and removeable floors as well. I did try to stay true to the portion of the Krakow barbican I used but made some modifications that I thought were better defensively.

I just need a few more critical parts and some bricks to swap out the last tan bricks with dark brown. I initially went with tan and dark brown but like the dark brown, dark red and bark tan better. So, I had to order new parts to swap out all the original tan. The roof is done but the top floor can not support it yet so it is not in the pics. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=5180442

[soccerkid6]

Looks pretty good, I can't wait to see it with the roof on. My only complaint would be that it looks a little boxy. Other than that nice work.

[rapsmocs]

Good point. Thanks. I thought so as well. The roof helps that some I think. The ends of the real one sort of curve or are rounded. On this I elected not to do that because, as I built it, I realized it was really getting to big for a small town's simple gatehouse. And, I would need some bricks for the rest of the town and walls!

[soccerkid6]

Yeah, I know how that is, (I just started my first Castle with town MOC). How are you doing your roof? For conserving pieces a free floating roof is really nice, and I think it looks pretty good. Here is an example of one off of my inn/stable. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=5175550 They are actually quite sturdy if done right, mine doesn't even have hinges underneath it and it still is very sturdy. The key is to build a small frame around the free floating section.

[rapsmocs]

I did the roof the regular way with the slope bricks. Quite expensive for such a large rook with all the 45 degree end peices as well. I like how you did the roof on the stable over the stalls...what are they flats on hinge peices? Looks realistic and nice next to the slopes on the barn as well.

[soccerkid6]

Yeah, I realized that buying slopes to do the roof of the main building.
They are just plates sitting there, I put a 2x plate with a 1x plate on the very edge, the 1x plate holds it in place while it rests on the inside lip. It is actually quite sturdy, you also put 1x slopes at the ends to hold it from going sideways. I found it worked quite well with very few pieces. And that is how I am going to be doing pretty much all my roofs from now on. I just did a little ice cream shop with the same style roofing but a little different. I will try to get some pictures of it up soon. EDIT here is the link http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=483835

[rapsmocs]

I have completed the gatehouse with the exception of a little roof tiling on the sides. I had to redo the entire roof to make it wider and longer. The interior is done now as well and I tried to get decent photos . I still have a few details to add once I get it connected to the town. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

More pictures on Brickshelf - Town Gatehouse

More pictures on MOC- Town Gatehouse

[LWC guy]

Looks good! I'm not sure a red roof works, but it still looks nice!

[L_space]

Great work.
I like how the texture of the walls really come to life.

[soccerkid6]

I think it came out quite well, I like your arrow slits and the back being able to open up is really cool. Keep up the good work.

[rapsmocs]

Thanks for the comments/reviews.

I was not sure about the red roof and had originally mixed red, dark red and some smaller 1x2 tan and dark brown. I think this probally looked better. I may go back to that mix but I used the all my dark red slopes on another project. I will have to get some more.