Spiral Staircases; Step One (yes, that was a very bad pun)

     Part of the Hexagon Tower Project but perhaps worth examining as a separate issue. Spiral staircases were a common element of Dark Ages and Medieval architecture; easy to build, space-conserving and (if spun the right way) an aid to the defense. However, in modelling terms, they are a bit of a bother to build. This is a method that has worked well-enough for me so I thought that I would share it with everyone.

    The first step is to find a sturdy dowel, between 1/8" and 1/4", you can go larger if you like but this will make your stairway proportionally bigger. I chose 1/8" dowel as I have a limited amount of space to work with. The next step is to cut a ton of triangular bits of blueboard or foam core. This is greatly eased by having access to a Proxxon  Hot Wire cutter but can be done by hand using foamcore and (a lot!) of patience. But this is easier shown than explained:

 

yep. you will need about a zillion of these, I try to make

 the step big enough to support a figure base (most of mine are on pennies) 

the truncated end of the triangle should provide adequate surface for gluing to the dowel

 

next step, stab the dowel into a chunk of blueboard,  or any other stable base so that it stays vertical while you glue steps onto it, then -ever so carefully- glue the steps to the dowel and each other,

 this takes time and a steady hand

 

I'm good at many things, but none of them are waiting,

 I fired up my nemesis, that finger-buning minion of Satan the hot glue gun, to speed the process along, a hole drilled in the plank keeps the dowel steady

 

in a few minutes I was done

 

then you invert the whole thing and hit the back of the joints 

with wood glue to harden up the whole project

     That is the first past of the task, next we will be adding railings to meet OSHA safety standards.