How about a career in ARCHITECTURE: August 2022

A toy of Cinderella Castle was released as part of the accessories for the Walt Disney World Monorail Playsets. It was a variation on a previously released Castle playset that opened up to reveal an interior with furniture and figures.

But this version is a static prop that does not open and contains no furniture or figurines…it is simply a building for running your monorail around. It has been a mild annoyance of mine that this version of Cinderella Castle does not quite have the majesty of the real thing. For starters the central spire is much too small and located in the center of the Castle instead off to one side.

As part of my “Scottland Kingdom Castle Railroad” layout I finally decided to modify the Castle to more accurately reflect the real Cinderella Castle…I “fixed” the Cinderella Castle Monorail Toy Accessory!

Cinderella Castle is depicted at heroic scale in many illustrations and I wanted my layout and my version of the Castle to match the spirit of how it towers over Walt Disney World.

Promotional art, and souvenirs over the 50 year history of Walt Disney World portray the central spire at an exaggerated scale; it was very important for my alterations to capture that feeling.

The Castle on my “work bench” after I had mocked up the towers.

I carved additional towers out of styrofoam, added bamboo skewers for detailing and applied a base coat of gesso. I used some scrapbook paper to sheath the picture window tower and drew some roofing pattern over the paper.

I think the original grey and blue paint scheme is classic and elegant and I wasn’t interested in painting the entire castle to match the current 50th anniversary version. I applied gold paint to the spire and and the tips of the turrets. I used hot glue drops, gessoed, and painted to detail the spire and topped it off with a Lego banner.