Builder's Railroad Project: in the Beginning...

[Builder 2010]

NH: Turret Side Panels

To figure out the intersecting shape of the two side panels that would frame some kind of hallway back to the attic, I did have a computer drawn template from the laser-cut version which I could have used to cut the curve shape, but I changed both the size of these side pieces AND the angle at which they join the roof so that drawing would not be accurate. Instead, I first cobbled together a cardboard pattern which I thought (notice that word…thought) was a curve match (top picture). I traced the pattern onto some clapboard siding and cut it out. It didn't fit! So I added pieces to the back to keep approximating the curve. (bottom picture).



This happened on both side pieces. I then traced that piece and made a second set out of clapboard. These were better, but there were still gaps that were too big for my standards. I then traced these pieces and then adjusted the curve to further close the gap. This third set worked pretty well, but the left side was still not as good as it could be so I made one last piece. That makes 7! It took just about the entire afternoon. Make sure you're cutting the clapboard with the boards facing in the right direction. I made this boo-boo when cutting the last version. DOH!

But the results I think are worth it. I had to put more backing pieces behind these panels so there were places upon which to glue them. I will also add some thin trim pieces over the junction between the windows and the panels.



I have absolutely no idea if this is even a remotely prototypical way to bring a turret into a building. It's different than my 1957 article and is different than my first set of designs, but it should work...

For the roofing over the turret hallway, I'm going to make it a slightly curved roof that will transition to the flat front roof. I made some formers to support this roof. The last one was still curing and will go behind the other two. It will be covered with "Tar Paper".



I took a picture on the sun porch with the top and bottom turrets in place.



Something was missing. Actually, several somethings. There needs to be something under the top turret which I cut as a circular piece of 1/16" ply that will extend out to the points on the hex roof. And then threes more work on the bottom. There is a small dentil molding that is under the main roof edge and also wraps around the underside of the turret. I had already CA'd the lower turret in place when I realized that more work was needed so I popped it off.

The first step was to make a backing spacer to support the band board that the dentil pieces will be glued. The dentil pieces are going to be 1/16" deep (0.063") and the band board will also be 0.060" so I made a hex piece that was .123" back from the turret edge. The band board will only be under the turret. The dentil will be glued to a much thinner piece around the building perimeter since I only have a 1/16" roof overhand with which to work.



I have some half-round Evergreen strip stock to put a nice edge on the upper roof, and I have to build the s dormers and the chimney. For a little (6" square) building, the roof has plenty of challenges. It's a curse… I never pick stuff that's run of the mill. BTW: the roof has some 1/8" strip wood stock now placed so it can be easily removed and replaced. I don't like gluing down roofs unless I absolutely have to.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Turret Details and Gables Start

Last session until Tuesday. Visiting our son and family over the weekend.

Continued work on turret refining the look with trim pieces and buttoning up the bottom making it ready for the dentil molding. Glued the lower plate to the upper turret, and started working in earnest on the gables.

I added the band boards to the perimeter of that hex piece I cut yesterday and then traced it's outline onto another piece of 0.040" sheet styrene, cut that our and glued it to the previous assembly. While it dried I laid out the 1/16" offset line on the turret bottom which would be where this assembly will reside. I then added some thin strip stock to trim off the area below the windows since there was exposed plywood there. I sanded the sides of the bottom assembly and then thick-CA'd it to the turret bottom.



I finished up the formers for the hallway roof and then sheathed it with thin (0.010"). It's a slightly compound curve and therefore, the un-stretchable styrene is not particularly flat. For the roofs stemming from the gables to the center of the building I'm going to carve the shape out of balsa. I probably could have done the same for the hallway roof also, but didn't.

Here's a picture showing why the turret bottom is notched and how nice it snuggles next to the building.



I glued the base plate to the upper turret roof. It needed to be clamped to get the two pieces nice and tight, but the turret roof has that brass pin so I needed to compress the parts with clearance for the pin. I used an old socket wrench socket and clamped it in the wood working vise.

NH Gluing Turret Bottom

For the gables, I'm taking a different tack. Instead of trying to cope the side pieces to match the Mansard curve, I just made a couple of parallel cuts and removed the Mansard in that area. This means I can just build a straight cut side. I have drawings of the gable facings and again spray glued the drawing's back and stuck it to the backside of the clapboard sheet (making sure to check to see which direction the boards were going). I cut the window opening before separating the part from the big sheet to give more to hold on to. And instead of trying to bull my way through with the Xacto, I made three cuts to establish the line and then finished up with the micro-saw. This put a lot less stress on the part and gave a nice square edged hole. I then cut the rest of the perimeter the normal way.

I awoke this morning thinking about how to make the gable rounded roofs. I didn't want to go the same route as I did for the hallway. I decided to recheck the 1957 article and, even though the whole building was illustration board and strathmore (old school for sure), he used carved balsa for these gable roofs. I have no probable carving balsa as can be seen in this picture of the huge amount of carving I had to do to make the four engine nacelles in the 1:16 B-17.

I don't have any balsa blocks so I glued up a stack of scrap that I had. I ended up with enough to do the three roofs… just barely enough so I can't screw any up. Luckily, the two gables' roofs that flank the turret aren't that long since they terminate at the hallway edge, not going to the very center of the roof.



I glued up one gable and tried it for fit. This method will work well, and solved a bit of a challenge and saved a few minutes of finicky work. Before gluing up the first one, I traced its side panels for the other two windows. I almost didn't do that, but caught myself. Again, had to pay close attention to the clapboard's direction. I also would like the boards to match from front to side. I'm not worried about the little imperfections at the gable cut edges since this will be hidden by shingles and flashing. Speaking of flashing, the roof will be "slate" so the flashing should be copper, and I have that terrific adhesive copper foil tape that I'm using for the surface mount LEDs that will work perfectly. I can even chemically treat it to get a natural patina.



So until next Tuesday, Y'all have a nice weekend. In looking at the picture, I think I'm going to chop out half the mullions in the gable windows so they match the configuration of the rest of the building's windows.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Gable Roofs and Chimney

I finished cutting and gluing up the plastic parts of the three gables and trimmed the middle horizontal mullions from the gable windows to match the style of the rest of the Night Hawk's windows. I then cut the balsa that would be the rounded gable roofs. The first one I did incorrectly. I made it so the wood fit between the plastic sides.



This position made it impossible to properly shape the roof. I did the other two differently, putting the wood on top of the side rails using thick CA. I then went back and re-skinned the incorrect one with thin, vinegar-soaked balsa and re-shaped it. There was a lot of area needed filling which I did using Milliput 2-part epoxy putty. This needed to cure completely so I let it harden overnight before attempting to grind it to shape. This picture shows the putting before finishing. Another mistake I made was using thin styrene sheeting to make the hallway roof. That too should have been shaped balsa. As a result the roof has a lot of crazy surface shapes. I am hoping that when covered with roofing paper and shingles the topography will be less obvious. That said, old roofs on real buildings can be pretty irregular too.



Today, I used the Flexi-shaft Dremel with a sanding drum and re-contoured the most obvious lumps and bumps. There were some smaller divots that needed filling so I used Tamiya filler this time. While this was curing I started building the chimney.

The chimney is made of four pieces of Plastruct brick sheeting and some square stock. I beveled the edges so the bricks would match at the corners and further helped by aligning the short and long bricks so the corners look right. The top works are pieces of various sizes of Evergreen styrene. The top has a hole in it which will be enlarged to fit the flue tiles. It is not finished and needs some filing, filling, mortar, painting the "concrete" and weathering.



Like with the gables, instead of shaping the chimney to nestle up to the irregular Mansard curve, I cut a "square" hole in the balsa roof. It's not a square since it's entering the curve at a very oblique angle. When the balsa is removed, there is a structural member, the former, behind that would block the chimney from sitting down. Instead of attempting to cut this web away, I simply notched the chimney. Here it is being test fit on the roof. You can also see in this image that the roof filling is much more regular looking although still not very good. I also glued on some half-round Evergreen trim on the roof upper edge to clean up that edge. It works. All the gables, and trim will be airbrushed with flat brown before roofing material goes on. I'm using the adhesive backed copper foil for all the roof flashing. That too is going to look very cool.



Oh… and one more thing. I've gotten firm communications from Railroad Model Craftsman magazine that the 3-part Bernheim Distillery construction article begins with the October issue. This thing's really happening!

[Builder 2010]

NH: Chimney and Roof Dentils

Finally got back on the recumbent bike today so work in the shop started at 2:00. I was able to put everything on the roof needed to be placed before painting could begin. I forgot to add the boards that would delineate the rain gutters, so I'll add them tomorrow and just airbrush that part. I also completely finished the chimney except for weathering. And I got started on the dentil moldings with their installation on the turret. I glued the bottom and top turrets spires (or whatever they're called) and then airbrushed the exposed areas that should be painted Tamiya Flat Brown.

I glued up a square tube that would be the chimney flue pipe measuring about .337" on a side, filed the corners round, and then cut it to appropriate length. I then opened up the hole in the chimney with a carbide router and files and glued the flue in place. I used a tiny bit of filler to clean up the joinery and then started painting. I first painted the mortar like I did with the main building. I then brush painted the masonry work at the top Model Flex Sand, and then painted the flue Vallejo Flesh Shadow which is a terrific red-brown shade that's good for lots of things including rust, bricks and terra cotta. Lastly, I painted the flue interior and top edge Tamiya Flat Black.



What's left is using weathering powders to put some strategic soot around the top and flue. I'll add some weathering to the brick work also.

The original Model Railroader plans (1957) showed a simple dentil molding with a hemispherical notch. I used some 0.040" X .188" Evergreen stock which I laid out with the calipers and dividers. I don't even know what drill size I used to put the curved shape, simply choosing one that looked right. The dentil width is .100" and the centerline is .094". I laid out these lines and used a divider to step off the hole centers at .200". I pilot drilled with a 0.032" carbide drill and then followed up with the selected drill size. I drill about half way through from the front and then turn the piece over and drill the rest from the back which leaves a hole with no burr to clean up. I then set up the Duplicutter to slice off the .100" pieces attempting to slice the hole perfectly in half. This worked…sort of. Even though the razor blade in the cutter is thin, the body of the blade is still thicker than the razor edge. This puts sideward pressure on the workpiece as it cuts and this force is then putting pressure on the steel rule that clamped to serve as the cutting fence. It moves! Not much, but enough that the dimension creeps and the parts stop being cut in the center of the circle. I found that I was adjusting quite often and the sizes are not as consistent as I would have hoped.



Rather than decide on a specific spacing under the turret, I glued molding at the ends of each section, then one in the center and then divided up the remaining space with what appeared to be the correct amount. It looks okay.



After I glued the remaining dentils around the turret I airbrushed the brown that would set out all the non-shingled area.



We went out for dinner tonight and I went downstairs to find the copper foil which I thought that I put away and couldn't find it. So I searched the whole place only to find it sitting on the main workbench right where I left it. I decided to try out putting in some flashing. It's okay, and not fully trimmed in this picture, but I just wanted to see how it worked. I can't put it on in one strip since it's a concave curve and the tape would buckle, so I'm cutting it in smaller squares. I then went back and trimmed the stair step pattern that flashing often takes. I didn't finish doing this on the last piece I applied. I was concerned since the tape was not sticking well to the painted surfaces. Once the roof shingles are in place it won't be going anywhere. Also, the trimming action removes some of the brown paint that will require touchup. Pre-trimming the copper foil doesn't seem like it's going to work very well.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Copper Flashing and Tar Paper

As usual, practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, the practice is occurring on an existing project, not a practice piece, so there is a great range of performance from the first copper flashing I installed to the last. It took several iterations before I really figured how to handle the foil and how to arrange it at the wall/roof junction.

Here's a series of images that shows the evolution of my flashing ability. I should have made a practice piece to perfect the method before doing it on the model.



Here's the last joints that I did. I made the squares bigger, found a way to move them from the backing sheet to the model without having them stick to themselves, and using a solid long piece in the more vertical section of the Mansard. I spent more time burnishing the copper to the siding and didn't care as much if it was perfectly adhered to the roof itself since it was to be covered with first "Roofing felt" and then shingles.



With the flashing in place in all adjoining surfaces, I started adding the "Roofing Felt" black construction paper. This was measured and cut and then fully coated in the backside with MicroMark Pressure Sensitive Adhesive (PSA) to adhere it to the roof. I finished all but one gable roof and the next session will start shingling. I went to the LHS and got some more Evergreen strip stock for the rain gutter edging and a thin backing piece behind the dentils that will ring the underside of the roof edge.



The gable and hallway roofs will get some more treatment to make them look more like composite roofing with "tar' seams at strategic points. The remainder of the roofing will get Rusty Stumps (now produced by Rail-Scale-Models.com) fish scale shingles (Mansard) and straight shingles (Flat Roof). Walt, at Rusty Stump, has given up all their laser cut products to concentrate on 3D printed ones. Rail Scale Models has purchased the drawings for the laser cut products and will continue to make them available. Their O'scale shingles are very good.

Shingling the top turret roof is going to be 'fun'. These kinds of tapered roofs when done in slate has shingles of diminishing size as you move up the taper. Slate doesn't bend so to get it around the decreasing diameter requires smaller and smaller shingles. I thought about buying HO and N scale shingles to do it, but that's a very expensive solution when I would barely need 1/10th of a sheet to do the job. So I'm going cut the O'scale shingles in such a way as to make smaller and smaller ones that will wrap around the roof. The lower turret dome gets no shingles and will be painted.

I was right. The paper covering has hidden all the awful surfaces imperfections on the roof. And when I add the "tar" it will be more realistic. There are to tiny triangular roof areas that flank the hallway that I'm going to paint semi-gloss black and not attempt shingle. Roof should be done on Monday or Tuesday.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Rolled Roofing and Shingles

Happy Monday! Thanks Mark, and I did get the shingling started.

On Friday I had the pleasure of having my young 8 year old protege, his dad and three-year-old brother over for some train running. His dad, who I've been sort of mentoring in his new roofing business, informed me that the flat portion of the Night Hawks roof would not have shingles, the pitch is too shallow. It would either be rolled sheeting or standing seam metal. Since the standing seam would add more thickness than I wanted, I went with rolled roofing.

I've been using left over sheet roofing from Bar Mills for years now since I substituted "metal" roofing on the Idaho hotel and Rusty Stumps shingles on the Gravely Building. This is a scale 4-foot wide adhesive backed fine grained paper. I airbrushed this with Tamiya Nato Black (a very dark gray) to give the roof a pre-weathered color.



I tried as best as I could to have the overlapping seams running from the high side to the low. After all the shingles are done, I'm going to go back and hand-paint semi-gloss black on all the seams to simulate roof tar.



After getting all the sheeting in place I went back and checked any loose areas that weren't holding as they should, I added a bit of help in the form of thick CA. When done, I added some thin pieces down the 45 degree angled peaks at the four corners to finish it off.



It was time to add the fish scale shingles. I started by adding the starter row that's a separate line item from Rusty Stumps and now Rail Scale Models. You put shingles on from bottom to top, and I began with the longest continuous surface. I actually made it more difficult by starting from the chimney cut and working towards the corner. This made it challenging to get the two sides in sync so the continuous strip that would be above the opening would align with both sides. Instead I should have just paved over the opening and cut the chimney opening AFTER the row was burnished down. To get the right side bottom started so it would at least be a little in sync, I held a full strip aligned with the left side (which I started first) and trimmed the chimney cut edge so the shingles would be continuous. But even with this extra care, you can see that the first continuous strip above the opening is not quite aligned on both sides. Only I will notice this!!



Here's the job with the chimney dropped in. There will be chimney flashing on three sides so it will look spiffy. I also have to use a nice sharp blade and trim down the Mansard corner. Once shingles are complete I will take more copper foil down the seam. I will then carefully attempt to chemically age the copper, but may not if I see it's not working right. I will do a test off the model. I don't know what it will do to the paper shingles.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Shingles Completed

The shingling is complete and so is the copper corner flashing.

Due to slight variations in the starting point at the Mansard bottom, the top row of shingles in most cases needed to have a very small amount of material cut off the top edge so it would snuggle under the bead molding at the upper roof edge. The copper strips at the corner actually stretched a bit and conformed to the multi-directional curve the roof corner represents. I got one side of the copper to lay down and then burnished the opposing side starting at the bottom until it laid down on both sides equally. I also trimmed some of the roof edges on the gables. They were hanging down too far, plus they were starting to pull up and needed some CA encouragement to stay put.



Here's my usual status shot showing the roof as it is now. I added the counter-flashing to the sides of the chimney, but there's a gap that needs closing too. I need to go around with the Nato Black and carefully touch up the cut edges of the rolled roofing to hide the white paper underneath. I'm then going to do the tar strips.



Once this is all done tomorrow, I will need to shingle the upper turret roof. These kinds of roofs when shingled in slate have steadily decreasing sizes of shingles applied as you move up the taper. I will simulate this by trimming the Rusty Stumps square shingles to narrower strips with cuts to reduce the shingle width. I hope that works. I don't want to buy entire sheets of HO and N shingles for a couple of inches. I have to add a plumbing stack or two, and then finish the chimney and install it. Next, I'll add glazing to the 3 gable windows and install them. Finally, I'll go back and touch up the trim and add the board around the perimeter which will serve as the rain gutter. The overhang of the roof (1/16") is not wide enough to install a downspout. So I'll maybe add a couple of scuppers (boxes that collect and distribute the rain water into the downspout.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Roof Finished

Today I finished the roof! I'm glad since we're leaving Friday morning for an 8 day trip to Montreal and Quebec. I wanted at least the roof to be complete so when I return I can get to work on another part...

I accomplished several things today including: painting the tar strips, painting the lower turret drop, painting then shingling the top turret spire, painting the polished steel balls, touch up painted the brown, glazed and installed the gable windows, weathered the roof and chimney, installed the chimney and the remaining flashing, and did an experiment using the patina chemicals.

I used semi-gloss black for the tar strips instead of pure gloss. I just hand-painted the lines with a medium fine brush. Any irregularities simply make it look more like it was tar slopped on by a big brush handled by a roofer. This image also shows the shingled turret which I'll discuss in detail further in this post.



I decided to do a patina test to see if I wanted to chemically alter the bright copper. I put down two strips on a piece of scrap styrene. On the top one, I directly used the patina chemical. You're supposed to use a stiff brush and abrade the surface while applying the liquid. My brush may not have been stiff enough and the chemical only had the effect in a limited spot. I then read in the instructions and it noted that it would be more effective if the blackening chemical was used first. So the bottom piece shows this effect. The blackening chemical etched the copper much more deeply and the patina chemical formed the color on the entire piece. The patina is really not firmly attached to the copper and it does rub off, which is what happened where you see the bare spots.



With this test complete, I need to do one more. I proved that I can make the color change without having to dip the parts directly into the liquid, but I don't know what it's effect is going to be on the material surrounding the copper. I'll run that test tomorrow, and then I'll make my decision. If the roof was just installed, the bright copper would be appropriate, but I've weathered it a bit and the bright copper looks out of place.

I painted the lower turret drop Burlington Northern Green by Model Flex. The paint was pretty thick and I had to thin it with Testor's Universal Acrylic Thinner. It took four, hand-brushed coats all force dried with the hot air gun to get good coverage.

It was time to shingle the top turret spire. The first three courses I used the standard Rusty Stumps O'scale square-edged shingles, but sliced the shingle further up into the non-cut portion so the shingles will separate more and wrap around the strange shape without buckling too badly. For the next 3 courses I cut the shingles in half, but kept their original length. For the next 4 course I reduced the length by a decreasing amount. Finally, for the last 5 courses, I cut the shingles in 3rds, and made them individual pieces since the attached strip was creating more trouble than it was worth. The top three courses were treated to some thin CA at their top edges since the pressure sensitive adhesive backing was getting pretty skimpy and was no longer to be trusted. It's not as neat a job as I envisioned, but Frankly, the only way I could have done it better is with all the shingles being put on individually.



To finish off the top row of shingles I wrapped a piece of thin Chartpak matte black tape to make sure that top row stays put. I couldn't use the thin CA there since it soaks into the paper shingles and discolors it. Also, I may add an old-style TV antenna to keep the chronology correct (my railroad is generally in the 1950s… I use "generally" rather loosely)

To finish off the polished steel balls on both turret roofs, I dipped the ball into Tamiya Clear Blue (2 coats) so it looks like a glass mirror ball. When I started shingling I wasn't overjoyed how it was looking and seriously considered tearing it all off and painting the this roof also, but I persevered and from a distance it does have the look that I wanted. There is another mistake that I made that I can't correct. If forgot to paint (or remove) the bare wood roofing structure inside the turret windows. That train has definitely left the station since I can NO LONGER GET INTO THAT ROOM. I did remember to paint the inners behind the gable windows flat black, but neglected the turret. Partly because I had the windows all masked for most of the time so it was out of sight (and out of mind).



I glazed the gable windows using the Formula 560 canopy cement, and glued them in place using Testor's tube cement. "Yes Virginia, I actually still use tube cement." I use it where longer drying times are helpful and/or there's some potential gaps that need bridging.

I weathered the chimney with dark gray washes and then black weathering powder. I also put some white highlight powder on the roof and some black smearing down the Mansard roofs. I could still add some more color variety to this roof is the likes of some green milder in strategic places. I then thick CA'd the chimney in place and added the remaining flashing to nicely seal up the area.



I still need to add a stack vent which should go on the same side as the chimney.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Extended Roof Edging

Last post before Montreal trip...

Ran the 2nd patina test. I'm not particularly happy with the change it made to the adjacent roofing shingles. And it is impossible to add the fluids and rub the darkening agent into the copper without having some of it wick onto the paper shingles. It really gives the copper a nice and very real—since it is—coloration. But I probably shouldn't go this route. #2 grandson suggested trying to do it with painting effects. I'll do an experiment on that approach too since I really don't want to screw that roof up. It was a 15 day project to build it.



I started building the extended roof gutter system that I brought up in the last post. I'm fabricating it out of a piece of .040" X .250" styrene strip with a piece of .060" X .125" strip glued to one edge and then a piece of .015" X .188" thin styrene strip attached to the combined edge. This profile forms the gutter proper. I chose the .125" piece to create a pocket where the actual roof will sit creating an extension of the plywood roof onto the styrene extension. And it's .060" thick stock so it matches the roof ply's thickness.

This assembly is edge glued to the extreme upper edge of the wall, and then another piece of the .015" X .188" is glued onto the wall under it to form the backing for the dentil molding. The dentil molding will also strengthen the bond to the wall also. In this image you can see the edge on profile. I reinforced the joint with medium CA.



The ends are mitered at 45° before gluing them to the wall after carefully picking out the exact corner so the mating pieces will snuggle up properly. I cut the miter in a miter box and razor saw and then touched up on the NWSL precision sander.



I was able to get two done before the session had to end due to picking up grandson at school. I had made this second piece the same length as the first, only to find out after gluing it to the wall that the right end had to be relieved quite a bit since it must nestle up against the turret structure. Whoops! So I noted where the interference was as best as I could estimate, cut off the extra with a razor saw, fit it again and cut off some more.



It is still not fit perfectly, but that will have to wait until we come back from our trip. I did prove the concept of building the roof extension as a separate assembly, correcting the roof sizing error. We all make mistakes… it's how you recover. There will now be sufficient overhang to put in some proper downspouts.

So, I'll be reading the forum on my phone, but probably won't be responding so, y'all have a nice upcoming weekend and following week.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Roof Edges Finished

In case any one who is still reading wondered where I was, we took a 10 day motor trip to Canada and it was terrific, but now I need a vacation to recuperate. We flew to Philly, rented a Caddie XTS luxury sedan (split between another couple) and drove first to Hyde Park, NY where we toured the FDR homestead and library, then overnighted in Albany, NY. Then we drove to Quebec City, QC and spent one night and a day. We then drove to Montreal and stayed five more nights. We really did Montreal hitting the Botanical Gardens, the Museums of Modern and Fine Arts, and Old Montreal and the waterfront. My wife and I were at Montreal and Quebec in 1970 (we were 25) and didn't remember any of what we saw. That's because it wasn't there. Instead of a charming, restored French 18th Century village (Quebec), it was basically a run-down slum. Both cities were impressive and vibrant. We ended up eating in 4 star restaurants almost every night and all I wanted when we got home was a hot dog. The food was incredible! Actually, we had hot dogs in the food court of Chicago Midway Airport while waiting for our Southwest flight back to Louisville. We drove back to Philly yesterday. I gained 5 pounds! We walked our tails off, averaging over 4 miles a day. So it was good to be back in the shop building stuff. My body can't take more than a week of all that activity and food.

Today I got all the roof edging and dentil details completed ready for paint.

I made the dentil pieces as I did with those under the turret (speaking of turrets, saw a lot of neat buildings with them in Montreal). I needed a bunch of them and it took over an hour to drill and cut all of them. That was a lot of drilling and cutting!



The only thing I had to pay attention to was the squareness of the back gluing edge. The Chopper, due to the shape of the razor blade, doesn't cut pieces with any thickness very square. There's usually a taper from the top of the cut to the bottom. If it was particularly noticeable, I trued it up with some hand sanding with the tiny part held in a needle nose.

I was initially going to space them about 3/16" apart, but got concerned that I didn't have enough pieces cut so I extended the spacing 1.5X longer and set out the marks with a tool maker's divider. Here's the first row glued on. As it was I had a ton left over, but I'm satisfied with the spacing.



Since I wanted to have the dentils to start at the corners, I placed the first one there and worked towards the other end. In the case of the one wall that had no interruptions, I spaced them from both corners and let the slight irregularity fall in the middle.

Here's the building will all the dentils in place.



The last thing I did was mask the building so I can air brush the brown on all this trim. There was no way I was going to brush paint them. Instead of masking the inside, I cut a piece of cardboard to fit. I removed the outside stair while working on this since it was in the way. It just screws in so it was no problem to take it off.



Tomorrow I will paint this, and then there will be more more excuses to get to building the complex front window structure and then making those Edward Hopper figures.

Got the article proof and found out that it came off the press today. I got an eMail Friday that they needed the captions of the pictures going into this first part. Since I was about 1,000 miles from my computer, I ended up producing them on my iPhone in the back seat of the car as we rolled down the New York Thruway. I talked to them today and all of them worked and were in the article. Part 1 is 10 pages long.

[Albany Rifles]

Fantastic work.

One question....can I hire you to do some work around my house?!?!?!!?

[Builder 2010]

NH: Store Front Started

My wife tries to get me to do more around the house too, but I only work in 1:48 scale.

As planned finished painting the upper molding and got to work on the store window. Even though the extended roof edge was an afterthought (not on my drawing) it did work nicely. It was, however, in the original 1957 article, but I missed it when I redesigned the job for scratch-building.





The Plexiglass window sprung back a tad after heat bending so it needed to be constrained a bit when assembled with the sills. I chose to build upper and lower sills with a containment groove that would capture the Plexiglass. A while back I had cut one piece, and I used this as a template for the other sill and the four framing pieces. I had to scrap a couple of them due to poor cutting quality on the scroll saw. I glued the pieces together with thick CA and sanded their edges after gluing to make them uniform.



A little piece of the end of one of the inner frames broke off in sawing, but it will not be seen since it's on the inside. I may glue a small piece of 1/16" ply to repair it before painting.

I glued the upper and lower frames to the Plexiglass using thin CA wicked into the junction. I just had to make sure that the top and bottom sill assemblies weren't cocked in any direction. The plexi was just a bit longer than the frames so I sanded it all square with the True Sander. I also finished sanded all the parts.

I tried the assembly in place to take a measurement for the lower sill construction. This will consist of a curved piece extending from the sill bottom to the pavement. It will be all framed with horizontal upper and lower pieces and a number of vertical cross-pieces. And it will all be painted a nice green.



I'm making this lower piece out of 0.040" styrene. It's a small enough piece to be bent without heating, although I did give it a little help with the heat gun. To help make the curve stable, I built a little former that will maintain the curve when glued in place. I made the former so it would not interfere with the Masonite floor plate that's well glued in.



I was concerned about getting this main window in place, but my concerns were unfounded. It went together better than I expected. Building the curved framing will be fun and I'm looking forward to that. I've been trying to figure out the best way to hold those super-fragile bar stools in place since the legs are sooooo tiny. I'm may CA a piece of brass wire down one that will go into a corresponding hole in the flooring to anchor it a little better. I also want to build some brass tubing foot rests on the bottom of the counter. I was looking at these on our trip and noticed that some are fastened to the bar and others are fastened to the floor.

[Ken_NJ]

Looking good, been following along silently.

For the bar stools, maybe a dab of clear silicone on each leg would be enough to keep them in place. For a trial shove 4 toothpicks as legs into a piece of foam, put a dab of silicone on the foot of each leg and see if that works.

I used clear silicone as an adhesive on plexiglass windows on a model boat. Windows have stayed in place for years.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Store Window Progress and Figures Started

Glad you're still engaged Ken. Your ideas are always worth trying. I have the silicone and I'll give it a shot.

More window work today, and it was a pretty long session so I got a lot done. First up was gluing the front panel to the bottom of the lower sill. I first glued on the former aligning it by eye as best I could in the apex of the curve. I used thick CA to hold it. I then glued some 1/8" sq. styrene along the glue line to support the extremis of the front panel. I used solvent cement and then followed this up with thin CA for a more secure junction.



I tried the window in with the panel.



The window glazing itself is just about 1/8" proud of the building wall so I boxed it in with some 1/32" ply. I'm not sure if this is actually ever done this way, but I couldn't push the window in deeper without doing MAJOR surgery.



It was time to finish the panelization of lower panel. I used a combination of 0.040" X 0.188", 0.040" X 0.125" and 0.040" quarter round trim. The upper rail was the .125 stock as were all the verticals. The bottom rail was the .188. I used the quarter round to trim between the top rail and the sill and on the bottom edge.

After putting in the extreme verticals, I estimated where the curve began and put a vertical on one side. I then measured this distance with the caliper and spaced off this distance on the other leg so the middle verticals were somewhat centered. I then divided the space between these verticals in thirds and marked a line that was then squared up with a machinist square. This was the center line for the verticals. Since when I glued them on I would obscure this line, I then put a little extension of it on the upper and lower rails so I could get it right.



Here are the panels complete.

[Builder 2010]

NH: Store Window Progress and Figures Started (Part B)

With the lower panels complete, I built the boards that would hold the Hopper "Phillies Cigar" graphic. I had isolated this image from his painting and then reworked the perspective so it was squared up. I cut the banner panels to fit from the building corner to the ends of the windows. This length measured 4.5". I then went onto the computer and sized this image so it was 4.5" wide. It looked a little bit skinny so I stretched the height a bit. I printed out a set of four on 5 X 7 glossy photo paper, but they were very dark, so I upped the exposure and reprinted them. This time the color felt right. I measured the exact height of the output image and used this to cut the banner panel height, plus 2 X 0.040" sq. stock that I glued on as a finished rim. I glued on the edging and tried it out on the building with a cut out Hopper graphic just put in place. I used final fixative for all my photo prints going into models to protect the inkjet ink.





All of this is going to be painted BN Green (Badger Model Flex) and since there's wood and styrene I took it all outside and shot it with Tamiya Rattle Can Gray Primer.





Before putting on the color coats, I needed this to dry completely, so I took the lull to start attempting to make the figures. UGH! This isn't going to be pretty.


I made a wire armature with some 26AWG black iron wire roughly duplicating the size of an Artista sitting engineer figure. So far so good...





Then I started to wrap it with Sculpey. I'm using the standard Sculpey which is pretty soft. Too Soft! I got this far. And I'm really not very good at this...





The process SHOULD go like this. First you put a thin layer on the armature and then bake it at 275° F for 15 minutes which sets the figure's posture. Then you add another thin layer of clothing and fire it again. You keep repeating this until you have a respectable figure. The instructions that I found were terrific, but they were for making a figure in 1:16 scale where you can apply much more clay and therefore, have more strength. At 1:48, the armature wire is almost too fat so the clay keeps exposing it. You push it one way and it exposes on the other side, then push it back and it exposes the wire on the first side. It was time to start cooking the rack of lamb we had for dinner so I stopped before I had anything worth baking. Tomorrow, I'm going to try using Super Sculpey which is a harder clay what will hold shape better while working. The beauty of this method is you can harden each layer so you don't undo what you've already done. I have some lighter gauge wire I could try as well. I keep y'all posted… of course. As has always been my modus operandi… I show you stuff that doesn't work as it should as well as all the successful stuff.