The Baltic German Town Center on a Bright(-er) Day. . .

 A half-timbered, or fachwerk, house.

A delightful couple of hours spent this late morning and early afternoon tweaking the construction of my foamcore lightbox and then taking a slew of better-lighted photographs of the recently completed model buildings.  While some a re rather good, others need to be reshot.  I've tried three-point lighting, but that still leaves shadows and certain important details in the darkness, so a fourth source of diffused light, probably positioned behind the camera and  bounced off the ceiling of the lightbox, will solve the problem.  Stay tuned.  

By the way, the Young Master, who returned Sunday evening from 10 days visiting his grandparents in Seattle, approves of Dad's recent construction boom.  We're planning a very simple Featherstonian-type wargame this weekend using his soldiers that he received last Christmas.  A few of the buildings here just might make an appearance.  Can't wait!

-- Stokes

 Another half-timbered house.

The Duke of Brunswick Gasthaus.  No trouble figuring out what goes on here.

A better photograph of the sign hanging above the door into the pub and inn.

The more interesting front half of Das Heiligen-Geist-Hospital, or The Hospital of the Holy Spirit.

The local Latin school, or Lateinschule. 

Das Rathaus, or town hall.

Die Universität, or as we like to call it in English, the university.

Das Waisenhaus, or town orphanage.  And just what are those two ladies with the generous decolletage doing outside an orphanage??!!

Two more half-timbered houses.  The timbering on all four of these was done with a combination of magic marker, colored pencils, and crayon.

And finally, das Zollhaus or the custom house where duty is collected on all goods entering town, and paperwork is processed for all imports and exports.  It's almost Kafkaesque!