The Commandant's Office

As we continue with the build, James and I had considered the idea of detailing some of the interiors and rooms as part of the lecture for the pupils.  At the moment the game play is limited to the exterior of the castle, the rooves, towers, walkways and gatehouses, but the interior presented too many opportunities not to explore in some detail.

We are fortunate in that there are a couple of good, first hand, reports of Castle Itter’s transformation from picturesque schloss-hotel into formidable prison.  Of the existing nine rooms on the first floor, two were given over as offices for the Commander of the SS-TV detachment that formed the permanent guard and his Executive Officer. There was an additional private lounge for the Officers and a latrine and we decide that this suite of rooms might be a good place to start our refurbishment.  

Painting an interior is all well and good, but it suddenly dawned on us that we needed were some items to put in the rooms to make them feel, well, lived in.  “We’ll just make some, what do you need?"  Now there's an offer you can't refuse and before I could say, “flat, pack, furniture”, James had designed and cut a series of sprues to furnish the office of the high command.  We had a set of shelves, a cupboard or wardrobe, a set of chairs and a rather splendid office desk.

The chair sprue gives you a couple of options in that you can press out a couple of shapes and then cut some card for the back and seat or perhaps stick four together for a much more sturdy piece.  Ingenious!  I couldn't resit adding a rail to the inside of my wardrobe, by using some plastic rod, but all of this is optional.  

Painting saw much of the pieces covered in brown, a less than original choice in hind's sight, but it got the job done.  I had a little fun with the office desk by adding some coffee cup rings to the surface and some scratches to the worn leather writing panel. One rather lovely surprise was just how useful the Imperial Eagle was.  This was just a little fun to fill up the sprue, but I rather like it hanging above the door. 

The wall panels in the pictures are prototypes for the castle interiors, although the windows will eventually be a different shape and will have frames in them before too long. I used a couple to establish the furniture, painting them in much the same way. The addition of some Vallejo Red Oxide hinted at a crumbling wall surface above the wood panelling and what with the addition of some paintings and trophies the illusion was complete.

With the offices underway, James turned his attention to a couple of items that might be useful for the barrack room, namely some bunk beds and individual lockers.  These haven’t been painted yet, but the rawness of the scorched MDF rather suites the utilitarianism of the furniture.  That said, I might spring* for a mattress or two before the end.

*No pun intended. 

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