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Completed through Step 3
INTRODUCTION
There's no reason your first scratchbuilding
project need be relegated
to the back of the closet when finished. We'll be using very
simple techniques, accomplishing a little at a time, and before you
know it, you'll have a first effort that any modeler can be proud to
have made.
So, you ask, just what is it we're building? It's freelanced, but
can easily be used as a tool shed, a handcar shed, even a
small freight house. I plan on using it as a tool and parts storage
shed next to a RIP
track, with the small addition being a place for doing paperwork and
taking
warm breaks around the pot bellied stove during cold winter days.
Designing a freelanced
model can be a difficult task. It's one thing if there
are plans or photographs of a prototype structure to follow, but with a
freelanced structure, one must be certain to make the construction
design believeable, and not only that, the style and features one
chooses must be appropriate for what a similar structure with a similar
purpose in real life
might have. That means relying either on a general
knowledge of construction techniques (of the era being modeled), or
studying similar structures that exist in real life.
Our model is very simple. It's a railroad structure that would likely
have been built somewhere around
the '20s or '30s, designed to be quite utilitarian on one hand, but
sturdy enough to last on the other. That means durable materials
and methods, without any design bells and whistles, save for perhaps
what might be
necessary to reflect a certain company style.
A design protocol calling for a completely utilitarian style might
result in a building with all board and batten siding and maybe a
tarpaper roof, while a
more decorative style might include any one of a number of roof options
such as a hip roof, shingle or slate instead of corrugated, decorative
roof supports, and siding options such as shingles, a narrow tongue
& groove or bead board
instead of the more utilitarian
board and batten below the clapboard, or even clapboard
that extends all
the way to the foundation. The building might even be a bit taller for
a more commanding presence.
One thing that all structures have in
common is a foundation. The foundation
can be most commonly stone or concrete, or in some cases treated wood.
The purpose of the foundation is to provide a solid base to build upon,
and to keep
the untreated wood components from contact with the ground, protecting
them from insects and rot.
That's enough theory. Let's talk about our
model.
A structure like ours,
built to last, would most likely have a
concrete foundation. This might be a concrete pad. But unless there was
a
real
need for a solid floor, some footings around the perimeter and a packed
dirt
floor (perhaps with an application of oil to repel moisture and keep
down the dust) would probably be sufficient, and that's what our
structure will have.
Note that the floor level of the
addition, as defined by the bottom of the door (the opening you'll cut
is a few inches taller than the door casting itself), is higher than
the top
of the footings. This allows room for the installation of wooden joists
and floor planks on top of the foundation.
1/8" scribed wood covered with
individual 1x4
battens will be used for the vertical siding below the windows, and
3/32" milled clapboard is used above that--however,
the milled clapboard will only be used as a positioning guide to locate
individual clapboards. Why individual clapboards? Milled clapboard has
an extremely "regular" appearance, and unless one is doing a very well
maintained building, it's just too neat. Take a look at the siding in
this photo:
This is a building that has been fairly well maintained, although the
paint is quite worn. Notice that some siding has been replaced, and
some board edges are worn and
uneven. This is very difficult to duplicate with milled siding,
but with individual clapboards, the task is simple.
Finally, the smaller section at the far end of the main structure will
be straight board and batten. The original plan was to have a tarpaper
exterior held in
place by battens, but re-thinking that, B&B seems more logical for
the durability and longevity required of this structure. Tarpaper would
be more typical of a less permanent style of construction. A mine
outbuilding would be a good use of a tarpaper and batten exterior, for
instance.
Here are a set of templates to download to cut
wall
sections and
window and door openings. Or, you may download a zip
file of the templates. The templates will appear reversed when
compared to the sketch. This is correct, as the templates are to be
glued temporarily with rubber cement to the rear surface of the siding
for cutting. They will also appear larger that HO when viewing
on-screen due to their 150 dpi resolution, but they will print
correctly.
Roofing is Campbell corrugated. You'll learn how to age and
distress the aluminum corrugated in Radio Shack's Archer circuit
board
Etchant, although a well-maintained building like this would have
little if any heavily rusted roofing. Tichy windows with a separate
upper sash are the windows of
choice in the
main
section, and a couple of smaller Grandt Line windows are going
into the smaller addition.
While you may choose to use acetate for the window glass in your model,
this project will
demonstrate how to use microscope cover glass. If
you want to try
the cover glass, you'll need a carbide tipped scriber like
one of these.
I have the scriber
shown at the top of the list, but it looks as if the second one will
work,
too.
Since these are made by General, your hobby shop might be able to order
them.
Some well equipped hardware stores may very well have them, too.
You
can find the
cover glass locally if you have a lab supply in town that will sell to
the
public, or you can order it from Edmund
Scientific. I use #1 thickness, so go for either the second or
third listing on the above page. Mine
came from a company called Anachemia (as I remember). They have several
branches across the US, but there are many, many other lab supplies
around.
The
brand I have is Labcraft, #1 thickness, 22 x 60mm.
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The oil colors you
should have on hand for basic weathering are Titanium White, Lamp
Black,
Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna. You'll want something
non-porous to mix your colors on (a piece of styrene works well), or
you can buy an artist's oil pallette at the art supply. Pick up some
odorless thinner,too. It's
somewhat pricey at the art store--about $7 for 4 oz, but you can order
it in
quarts
or gallons much, much cheaper from Dick
Blick. (I wouldn't be surprised if a place like Home Depot also
carried odorless thinner a a reasonable price, too.) Dick Blick's Windsor
and Newton oil color prices are good, too:
The 37ml tubes of the colors listed above are around $4.24 each in June
of 2004. Most art
supplies will be
asking more. (I have a couple tubes bought at an art supply that are
priced at $4.80, but I think those
are a
few years old.)
Don't worry too much about brushes. Any medium quality
brush suitable for oils will be
fine for our purposes--I use whatever is the right size when I reach
for
one. If you're hand-painting the pin stripes your diesels, or
decorating fine china dinnerware, then you might be a bit more
particular in your brush choices!
LET'S TALK TOOLS
Above
are three tools that I use the most in wood construction projects. The
emory board file is extremely handy, as it has a straight, flat hard
surface with two grades of emory paper. They're available in the
cosmetics section of just about every drug and grocery store in the US.
The single edge razor blade, available in hardware stores (often in the
paint section, as they are used in paint scrapers) is my
choice for making chop cuts because the blade is much thinner than an
Xacto blade: a razor blade is .008" at the thickest section, while a
#11 Xacto is .021" (a #2 is .024"). When cutting with a #11 blade, the
edges of what you are cutting can be distorted. While the razor can
distort too, it's much less visible. Below are two pieces of stripwood
cut with
these two blades.
The upper piece was cut with a #11, the lower piece with a
single edge razor blade. You can see the rounded shoulder formed on the
top edge of the piece cut with the #11 blade. While this isn't always a
big
concern, it makes a visible difference when cutting pieces of wood that
will be butted together. Since we'l be cutting clapboards and battens
that will have butt joints, the razor is the blade of choice for this
work.
Another
plus with the razor blade is the reflection in the blade will help
align a straight cut. Just make sure the reflection of what you are
cutting and the piece itself align visually without any deflection
where the reflection begins, and you can be certain the cut is straight
and vertical.
A word about surgical (scalpel ) blades: The point on the #11
surgical
blade can get into places the square edge of the razor blade cannot. It
is also sharper than either a #11 or razor blade. However, it is
.016" thick, so it's between the razor and #11 in
thickness. It comes
in very handy when you need something extremely sharp, but since
they
are difficult to find locally and we can cover what we're doing here
easily enough without a surgical blade, it's not used in this project.
Below is the materials list. When you have everything you'll need, go
to Step
1 to begin.
Ron Hildebrand
July 2004
Photographs made with Nikon D1x and Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8
Copyright 2004, Ron Hildebrand
Materials List
WOOD LIST
Siding (all 1/16" thick):
approximately
10" linear of 3/32" spaced clapboard
approximately 8"
linear of 1/8" scribed
Scale Lumber:
1x10 (for
individual clapboards), approximately 190" linear
1x8 (for roof
edge trim), approximately 24" linear
1x4 (for
battens), approximately 90" linear
1x6 (for
trim), approximately 30" linear
2x6 (for
large door inside trim) approx 4"
WINDOWS, DOORS, ETC
Tichy 8090 windows, 1 pack
Grandt 5030: 27
x 48 double hung, 8 pane windows, 1 pack
Grandt 5239 28 x
26 single sash, 4 pane window, 1 pack
Grandt 5021 5
panel door, 1 pack
Grandt 5023
stovepipe set, 1 pack
ROOFING MATERIAL (Campbell Scale Model's
Corrugated)
Campbell's corrugated comes in various widths. We'll use about
20" linear of
either 10' or 12' wide corrugated. You'll be trimming this to 6', 8'
and 9' lengths, all in 2' to 4' wide sections. If you already have
some Campbell corrugated on hand in various widths, here's
approximately how the required quantities of each will break down:
8" of 8' wide corrugated (bottom row of main structure roof)
8" of 6' wide corrugated (top row of main structure roof)
3-1/2" of 9' wide corrugated (entire roof of small addition)
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If
you're doing this primarily as a practice
structure, you can keep the cost down by omitting the small side
addition, and just duplicate the left end wall on the right end. This
will eliminate all the window and door castings except for the package
of Tichy 8090s. I'd suggest sticking with the individual clapboards and
battens, however.
We'll be using some 1/16" thick cardstock for subroofing, and some
1/16" x 1/8" (6x12" scale) styrene for concrete foundation footings.
There will also be a small concrete pad in front of the door of the
small addition. Some .080" styrene, or a sandwich of thinner pieces
built up to .080".
If you want to take that one step further, you'll learn how to make a
simple mold of that styrene piece, and cast it in plaster, which can be
aged and weathered more effectively than the styrene. |
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