Sorry for the delay in this post. Loooooots of stuff going on in my personal life – some of it really good, some of it not so much.
I was slowly working on the Astronomy tower in the midst of all that when this spectacular YouTube video dropped on the official Wizarding World channel. The never-before-seen photos of the original castle inspired me to revisit some areas, the first of which I documented in this video of my own:
I’ll warn you that it’s a slow video, but I got requests for some modeling without the usual time lapse speedup, so…there ya go. Here’s the unadulterated render from the end of the video.
I’ve got more fixes to make based on the new photos, but I’ll save those for a later post and round this one out with a bit of Astronomy tower progress.
There’s a lot of detail in the main turret where several important Half-Blood Prince scenes take place. Here’s an interesting “deconstructed” view as I start to build the area that also existed as a full-scale set. This is the lower level where Harry hides during the climactic confrontation, but without anything added above it yet:
Funnily enough, this is closer to how the book version of the tower would look, in that it’s got a flat top and crenellated ramparts.
One challenge is that the dimensions of the full-scale set don’t quite match the dimensions of the miniature, at least according to the available blueprints. I’m aiming for something of a happy medium – the goal is for it to look the way it does in the film, if a little less detailed.
Here the arches are starting to take shape. These were a little tricky because of the way they curve:
Continued progress on this tower will also have to wait till a future post, but in the meantime I thought I’d at least share something.
Hogwarts 4D 
Thank you for keeping us fed king
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Oooooh, it’s all starting to come together now! When you finish the Astronomy lookout, could you be very kind and share shots of the inside, upper and lower levels, in multiple directions? It’d really help for illustration.
It’s cool to see those new buttresses on the front of the link wall. Never noticed those before, and we now have a much better idea of where those steps go!
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I will do my best to share interior shots, although I don’t plan to put quite as much detail into it as the film sets have!
As for the turris magnus window, I so appreciate you looking out for me, but I feel very sure that we’re actually just seeing the flambeaux at the start of the viaduct! Here’s a closeup of that shot after combining different frames to reduce noise and then brightening the result. Comparing that to a similar view of my model, the flambeaux do line up exactly like this. https://hogwarts4dhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/turris-cos-closeup.png
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I suppose it’s possible, but wouldn’t the flambeaux be further down and out of the line of sight? Either way, if you ever change your mind you can always put it back now it’s in the trash folder. It’s really cool seeing how you work btw!
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They line up exactly like that when I try to match the camera angle, so I’m pretty convinced! 😀
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Ah right, that would settle it then! Bit of a pity since it’s a nice window, but that’s how it be sometimes.
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Yeah, I kinda miss it, haha!
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Also Joe! Watching the real time modelling video now – and maybe you realise later in it, but just in case not I’d rather you find out ASAP – but the lower window by the Turris Magnus stairs you removed is actually there in at the very least Chamber of Secrets:
Not sure if it was added for that film or PS and the still we got in the vid was from earlier in development, but at one point or another it was there.
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