Partie Haute

The name is French for the upper part, and that is the job it does: this is the crowning section of a larger build, the storey that sits above everything else and gives the whole thing its silhouette. The detailing is fortress vocabulary rather than domestic architecture, all wall and turret work, the sort of stonework that reads as a keep. It comes as a multi-part kit, so it suits a maker who is happy to work through an assembly rather than finish in one go. Builders use sections like this to add height to a scene, either as a standalone centrepiece for a cabinet or as the top tier of a much bigger project put together over several sittings. Painted up it becomes a focal point on a shelf; left bare it still reads clearly as architecture.