Waddingtons 6701 Ellmau, Tirol, Osterreich - box
Make: Waddingtons
Serial: 6701
Title: Ellmau, Tirol, Osterreich
Series: -
Pieces: 768 (24 x 32).
Size: 58 x 43 cm.
Date: 1978
Bar Code: -
Origin: England.
If anyone is feeling a sense of déjà vu then I have built a puzzle of this image previously, and that was a Waddingtons too. Images of that puzzle and the box are linked.
Not sure why the same puzzle, with the same piece count, was issued with two catalogue numbers within a year or two of each other. 124A is undated, although later letters in the 124 series are dated 1979. That is in an older style box, reminiscent of Tower Press, while 6701 - this puzzle - and later letters in the 124 series are in a longer and shallower box. Something for the Waddingtons historians to explain.
I remember having problems with the sky pieces in the previous puzzle, but that didn't prevent me from starting there and essentially building the puzzle from the top down.
And again it was all about the sky. Despite the experience gained since the previous puzzle was assembled, this was still a struggle.
Assembled the horizon, including the church tower, and the border without too much difficulty. Separated the remaining interior pieces into three groups: all blue, all clouds, and a mix of the two. Began with the latter group with the idea of building the edge of the clouds first, but was unable to progress past putting some of the more obvious pieces together.
At this point I separated out all of the non-standard shaped pieces from the three groups and put them together as best as I could. This did give me an area of white cloud to the right of the church tower. Some more of the obviously white, rather than grey, pieces followed and I could start to see some progress.
After some more slow progress with the borderline of the clouds, switched to the plain blue pieces in order to place some more pieces and reduce the size of the working area. Placing these pieces was largely a process of trial-and-error, as there were no real clues as to what piece should be placed next. The standard-shaped pieces do by and large have horizontal and vertical orientation shapes, but a number of the pieces are ambiguous when it comes to orientation. Even only placing pieces where there were at least two adjacent faces to fit against still resulted in some rearrangement when it came to the last few pieces and discovering that nothing would fit in the remaining spaces.
Something that I did find help a little, particularly with the clouds, is to stand above the board and look down upon the pieces and the puzzle rather than sitting and looking at an angle from closer.
Unfortunately the Waddingtons cut, at least of this vintage, is not good enough for this sort of work and very quickly the sky went from challenging to frustrating.
As for the rest of the puzzle, that went together without any real problems. So 2 days for the sky and 2 hours for the remainder. Hopefully I don't find a third example with this cut, but am wondering if this image was originally released as a Tower Press puzzle…
Bought more jigsaws…
DONE: 224 puzzles (149306 nominal piece count). TO DO: 888 puzzles (1041286 nominal piece count).
Waddingtons 6701 Ellmau, Tirol, Osterreich - box
Make: Waddingtons
Serial: 6701
Title: Ellmau, Tirol, Osterreich
Series: -
Pieces: 768 (24 x 32).
Size: 58 x 43 cm.
Date: 1978
Bar Code: -
Origin: England.
If anyone is feeling a sense of déjà vu then I have built a puzzle of this image previously, and that was a Waddingtons too. Images of that puzzle and the box are linked.
Not sure why the same puzzle, with the same piece count, was issued with two catalogue numbers within a year or two of each other. 124A is undated, although later letters in the 124 series are dated 1979. That is in an older style box, reminiscent of Tower Press, while 6701 - this puzzle - and later letters in the 124 series are in a longer and shallower box. Something for the Waddingtons historians to explain.
I remember having problems with the sky pieces in the previous puzzle, but that didn't prevent me from starting there and essentially building the puzzle from the top down.
And again it was all about the sky. Despite the experience gained since the previous puzzle was assembled, this was still a struggle.
Assembled the horizon, including the church tower, and the border without too much difficulty. Separated the remaining interior pieces into three groups: all blue, all clouds, and a mix of the two. Began with the latter group with the idea of building the edge of the clouds first, but was unable to progress past putting some of the more obvious pieces together.
At this point I separated out all of the non-standard shaped pieces from the three groups and put them together as best as I could. This did give me an area of white cloud to the right of the church tower. Some more of the obviously white, rather than grey, pieces followed and I could start to see some progress.
After some more slow progress with the borderline of the clouds, switched to the plain blue pieces in order to place some more pieces and reduce the size of the working area. Placing these pieces was largely a process of trial-and-error, as there were no real clues as to what piece should be placed next. The standard-shaped pieces do by and large have horizontal and vertical orientation shapes, but a number of the pieces are ambiguous when it comes to orientation. Even only placing pieces where there were at least two adjacent faces to fit against still resulted in some rearrangement when it came to the last few pieces and discovering that nothing would fit in the remaining spaces.
Something that I did find help a little, particularly with the clouds, is to stand above the board and look down upon the pieces and the puzzle rather than sitting and looking at an angle from closer.
Unfortunately the Waddingtons cut, at least of this vintage, is not good enough for this sort of work and very quickly the sky went from challenging to frustrating.
As for the rest of the puzzle, that went together without any real problems. So 2 days for the sky and 2 hours for the remainder. Hopefully I don't find a third example with this cut, but am wondering if this image was originally released as a Tower Press puzzle…
Bought more jigsaws…
DONE: 224 puzzles (149306 nominal piece count). TO DO: 888 puzzles (1041286 nominal piece count).