Matsue Castle

I have completed painting Matsue Castle. The castle, technically the castle keep, is located Shimane Prefecture about 250 km northwest of Osaka. Dating back to the early 1600s it was the home of the Horio, Kyōgoku and Matsudaria clans, remaining in the possession of the latter for ten generations until 1927. Known as the "Black Castle" it has survived more or less intact despite wars and earthquakes. Today is registered as a National Treasure of Japan.

This was the last, and by far the biggest, of the Japanese buildings in the current set. I had put it off until the end in part because it allowed me to practice all the skills needed to complete it on the smaller structures and in part because it is such a big beast, with a total of 15 large and 38 small parts.

Thankfully assembly was pretty straightforward with clear plans.  All the pieces fitted together perfectly in the dry assembly.

Some parts, however, were just as awkward to paint as the Geisha House because some the interior pieces are all printed as one. 

Sensibly I worked from the bottom up. The internal space of the entrance way had to be painted before it was assembled otherwise it would have been impossible to get at the nicely detailed stone work and its supporting timbers. No exterior painting was done at this point, but the doors, gatehouse floor and lintel were painted at the same time.

The movable doors and lintel could then be assembled. I used some welding wire as pins for the doors so that they could swing inwards.

The gatehouse floor will remain removable after assembly to allow the doors to be opened and closed.

The next piece was the gatehouse wall that sits on top of the previous piece. This piece was painted interior and exterior with the shutters open.

The final piece for this first level is the main floor...and it is a big piece. Yet again I started on the worked on the interior parts that were the most difficult to access with a brush. The stairwell...

And then the main floor, with the well cover removed here.

Just getting the woodwork right was the main challenge here and I wanted the tone on this level to be richer than the entrance way so my colour mix was a base of Burnt Sienna over a black undercoat, then a blend of Burnt Sienna and yellow, followed by the same tone with a splash or two of white. Getting into those areas around the stairs and the well was difficult.

With all the interior work done the gateway and gateway wall were fixed to the base.

With that assembly done the stone base was painted.

Then it was onto the level one wall, the black wall that gives the keep the name of the "Black Castle", and gatehouse roof.

The second floor (one piece printing) was a relatively simple painting task. The rich wood tones and the blue tiled roof are the stars here.

And the castle was beginning to get some height now.

The third level was the most difficult to paint with those damned shoji panels again! But it was worth it...

This is where the real height comes in...

Levels four and five, and the final decoration pieces, complete the model.

And there it stands in all its glory - all four faces - 220mm deep, 180mm wide and 280mm tall.

I had thought this piece would take two weeks to complete, but it took six days - about 13 hours of actual painting time.

 

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