Building the arena part 2

I hope the most laborious part of this build is now over. Upper and lower tiers, left and right are finished and I solemnly swear that I will never cut a sheet of foamcore in carefully measured curved rows ever again!

I added covered entry points to both sides. They're covered so that I don't have to make the stairs inside!

After sealing the foamcore with thinned wood glue mixed with brown craft paint (that wasn't nearly dark enough!) I'm calling those parts done, apart from the outer wall, which I'll probably glue to the seating section. I sealed the foamcore in the hope that when I spray paint them, the propellant won't eat into the exposed foam edges.

Next I made a high level vip seating area. This will not have a lower level seating area underneath it as that's where the pavilion will go. I made the seating here straight. I'm really not going to cut more curves!

I decided to make the main entrance/portico next so that I can fit the outer wall around that rather than vice versa. I think this will be the focal point of the model after all and want to get it right.

I made this out of good old cork board; a lovely material that works with either wood glue or superglue depending on how fast you need it to set.

The columns are tubes that once contained vanilla pods. I knew they'd come in useful one day! I've sandpapered them so that they will hopefully take paint better.

Luckily I remembered to add an entrance to the vip seating on the back of the portico. Somebody would be sure to ask how you get up there if I hadn't!

The whole entrance piece is still in two parts so that I can paint all around it easier. Sometimes I surprise myself with my forward thinking. Of course, having said that something is bound to go wrong now...

I'm very happy with how this piece is coming along so far.