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Post by riogrande on Sept 13, 2021 15:00:57 GMT -8
I used to live in Central NY and snow birds there are people who go to Florida for the coldest months of the year and then return, usually Jan - Mar. I thought it was a happy little sad song by Anne Murray. That song reminds me of riding in the family station wagon up to near Donner Pass to the Travis Lodge, owned by the Air Force, to go skiing. Tons of snow and had to carry chains up I80. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Sept 13, 2021 17:41:40 GMT -8
My mother's parents wintered in Florida for many years.
I actually never noticed these snow birds, though, until seeing some fast food places with bright copper metal roof sections had extra pieces which apparently are something like this. But most roofs here in the suburbs and city are shingles. Apparently the snow doesn't slide off the rougher surface as easily.
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Post by Christian on Sept 17, 2021 9:49:15 GMT -8
18. Porches
Photographs one and two are where things stand. This took two days and not one second was fun. So, this will be the extent of the snow birds. Those of you with steady hands, please have at it! At least I’ve protected the doorways. Remember that all this roof work is because I wanted the porches longer than the supplied asphalt shingle pieces. Not that I regret it – the roof looks right to me. We are finally building porches. Photograph three. I used the Walthers porch to set the width. I used a piece of 0.020” thick scribed styrene with the scribes spaced 0.050.” The length is the length of the wall plus a little bit. In this case I settled on the length at a board break. For most of the porch work the front and back porch will be the same, so cut another! I cut 2X8n to frame the floor. Flush contacting the house and set back about 0.020” on the open sides. Taking care that there is a left and a right floor. Photographs four and five. There are lots of prototype ways to support the porch. I chose to use concrete block piers and lattice to close the openings between piers. To that end I cut a two block high strip of my block stock and then chopped off one block wide pieces. Photo six. Using Tamiya cement I made a bunch of “L” shapes using two pieces of my block stock. The cement needs time to dry, so that’s it for today. Photograph seven.       
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Post by Christian on Sept 18, 2021 15:31:14 GMT -8
19. Sloppy Can Be OK
Saturday night is a really dumb time to post. Oh well, One lesson I learned very early in my theatrical scenery design career is that if it can’t be seen by the audience, don’t spend time on it. Those of you who have been backstage during a performance know what I mean. Things are neat and tidy, lots of machinery and electrical equipment, but no magic. (Photograph One – NOT my photo.) Which brings us back to the porch piers. They aren’t square and the blocks don't exactly match. And there are little gaps everywhere. But, when this project is finished none of that will be visible. Photo two. The “Ls” are put together and the piers are sorta square. Since only one face will be seen on all except the corner pier I ignored the shape. I did carve all sides to match the block work since I didn’t want to choose at this point and it only took a few extra minutes. Photograph three. The piers needed a cement cap. I put a couple of piers on the porch and slipped a scrap of 0.030” styrene under. The 0.030” looked close enough. (If you haven't noticed so far, all this porch is B.T.F.) Photo four, five and six. I cut strips of the styrene and cemented the piers onto each strip. I used my Olfa chisel blade to chop the piers from the strip. Then I used the chisel to cut a hair beyond the blocks. Photograph seven. This is the back porch set in place. I think that I’ll do the porches as separate from the main structure as long as I can before running into fit problems. The standing seam roof sheets will remain separate until I paint all the roof.       
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Post by lars on Sept 23, 2021 8:40:11 GMT -8
I used to live in Central NY and snow birds there are people who go to Florida for the coldest months of the year and then return, usually Jan - Mar. I thought it was a happy little sad song by Anne Murray. These things on the roofs come in whole lots of shapes. "Snow Bird," "Snow Guard," "Ice Barrier," "Roof Defender," and all the name variations you can find. I haven't found any contemporary maker of bird shaped snow birds, but there are lots of folks making cast aluminum snow guards that look like the Tichy ones I used. Amazon has some at twenty bucks a piece. There are lots of the bird shaped cast iron antiques available on eBay and the prices aren't outrageous. I usually hear them referred to as snow cleats. Also, we usually don't get as much as an avalanche type slide but a curl off the roof. As much as cleats are for protecting people, curling or sliding snow can rip rip gutters off. When working with buildings that have no gutters (ag buildings, for example) and instead use a rock and tile drain at the base of the building there are typically no cleats. When you go to gutters, then the cleats go on the roof. |
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Post by Christian on Sept 23, 2021 15:09:03 GMT -8
20. Sloppy Work Continues
As I’m typing it is Labor Day (Chapters are delayed) and it is time to get back to work on my hobby. I took two weeks off of model building. I’m starting again, but rusty. As a result this chapter features sloppy workmanship. I know paint will hide the issues (I think!) so I’m going ahead and showing you the photos from this back to work session. First up is facing the porch. Lattice is traditional and what I intended to use. But when I pulled out my Tichy lattice strips I found that they were way to narrow for this new porch. They are a perfect fit with the porches furnished with the kit so If yo are not raising the foundation you will be good to go. Photograph one. Grandt Line has taller panels, but not in my stock pile. Also I found laser cut lattice panels on eBay. But I’m done spending money on this project so I made do with the Tichy parts. I decided to leave a gap at the top and the bottom. Heck, no one is going to notice anyway. Well, I will, but there are many more models to build. I clipped the pieces to length and cemented them back a bit from the face of the porch frame. Then I added strips of 0.015” X 0.030” styrene on the ends to finish the molded frames that run the length of the pieces. Both front and back porches have steps so I put scraps of grooved styrene in the section where steps will be located. Photo two. Remember that the porches are mirrors. I hate building steps and that is what is next. That might be why I took a two week break – knowing that I had to do steps almost first thing. I do hate wire work more, but steps are a good second place. First I root through my parts box and am almost always disappointed, but, you never know. Then I reach for my supply of Central Valley Steps & Ladders. As I almost always do. That bag of parts as well as the bag of HO Fence & Railings are staples for me. I went with wooden steps because concrete would not be common with this sort of house. I have seen brick steps on simple houses when the sidewalks were brick, but that’s another house down the street. Wood steps are easy to keep clear in snowy and icy weather. Concrete steps, not so easy. These steps are steep. Although they do take up less space than a more likely stairway. And old carpenter rule of thumb is that the tread and the rise add up to about 17. Another old rule is if you multiply the tread and rise the product will be about seventy two. A very common carpenter built staircase uses 2 X 10 for the tread and 1 X 6 for the riser. These are nominal sizes (No inch marks) and result in a roughly 9.5” tread and a 7” rise. These Central Valley parts are a nine inch tread with an eight inch rise which is about as steep as commonly used in construction. Current recommended practice (IBC) is a new relationship with the tread no less than eleven inches and the rise no more than seven inches. If for some reason I really, really wanted to scratch build these porch steps there would be three steps. I don’t and I’ll be happy with the two steps from the Central Valley parts. Photograph three shows the steps I used. I cut two step pieces and glued two together for the front porch and left one unit for the back porch. I won’t go step by step. There was sanding and filing throughout the step project. Photo four. I wanted the sides closed so I cemented pieces of scribed siding to both sides of both units. I added 2 X 8n trim boards to the sides. Photograph five. This was a cop-out. The sides would have likely had decorative framing with 1 X 4 on all sides. Lots of mitered joints and itsy-bitsy pieces. Nope. Next I fitted them to the porches which meant filing, sanding and filling. Photo six. I used a scrap of 0.040” styrene as a spacer for the concrete pad I’ll use with I landscape the house. I put the step onto the porch at this time so that the painting would all be homogenized. Photo seven show the front porch in place against the house. I’ll adjust the fit and then send both porches to the paint shop to become gray and black and white and concretey. That’s next. I think.       
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Post by sd40dash2 on Sept 23, 2021 15:15:45 GMT -8
Such good quality parts, workmanship and photography to be stand up to the critical digital lens. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by simulatortrain on Sept 23, 2021 17:32:16 GMT -8
Really enjoying this thread! I can see one or two of these kits in my future, and I'll definitely be looking back at this build!
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Post by valenciajim on Sept 27, 2021 16:25:14 GMT -8
You are really inspiring me to get one of these kits and make a distressed model out of it. Yours is wonderful and I am truly impressed with the detail and craftsmanship. However, I have an open area on the top deck of my layout that will have a Campbell abandoned house, and a distressed version of this house, as shown in your prototype photos would go well with it. Thanks for another great thread! Well, I am working on my distressed model, which still needs a lot of work.   This model is fun to build. I recall building this model many years ago on an older layout. |
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Post by valenciajim on Sept 27, 2021 17:19:45 GMT -8
As I was walking out of my train room, I noticed that the model I built ages ago, it part of a town at one end of my layout. The house is located behind several stores and a motorcycle shop just before the mainline junction.  |
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Post by Christian on Sept 28, 2021 6:01:48 GMT -8
Well, I am working on my distressed model, which still needs a lot of work. I have photos of old farmhouses that are just as rough. Don't forget to stain that concrete foundation. Here's a representative photo that I posted very early in this thread. It looks like your weathering job.  |
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Post by Christian on Sept 28, 2021 6:09:46 GMT -8
I noticed the model I built ages ago,  |
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Post by valenciajim on Sept 28, 2021 8:32:25 GMT -8
Well, I am working on my distressed model, which still needs a lot of work. I have photos of old farmhouses that are just as rough. Don't forget to stain that concrete foundation. Here's a representative photo that I posted very early in this thread. It looks like your weathering job. I used your photo as inspiration for my model. I am not done with it, but have reached a temporary stopping point because I have other stuff to take care of. There is still a lot of work to do, including weathering the foundation. I already painted it with a light concrete color. I was not planning on spending a lot of time on the foundation because I was going to have overgrown weeds around it that will obscure the foundation. By the way, I used white pan pastels to simulate the paint that was flaking off. I found it worked better than dry brushing paint. I have really enjoyed this thread, for both the information provided and also for the inspiration to start a fun project that I otherwise would not have considered. |
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Post by Christian on Sept 29, 2021 15:10:25 GMT -8
21. Porch, Pier, and Step Paint
This was another job that I seemed to get as a kid. At least the porch floor was in the shade! I decided to use my airbrush on this. I had intended to make this project all hand brushed, but the porches are such a mess that I don’t think I can get a brush into all the nooks and crannies. If I had been painting as I built the porches I could have used a brush although the lattice would have been difficult. It has been awhile since I posted my airbrush setup so here I go again. But I’ll shorten it. To the left of my workbench/desk, back under some shelving is a small compressor I’ve had since about 1990. It is padded with carpet scraps, but still makes a racket. To my mind TV’s make a racket so I’m not bothered. Photograph one. From the compressor regulator which is set to the max a short hose connects to a second regulator which is set to about forty pounds. That is high enough for most other household needs. When I need to use an air tool requiring a higher pressure I crank it up. From this regulator a hose is threaded through my desk to an airbrush regulator screwed to the left leg of my bench. Photo two. Also see is the trash can I use to spray out paint and cleaners. Note: I only airbrush acrylics, inks and watercolors. That is all I have used for more than fifty years. When I need a rattle can I go out to the deck. I do have some weathering materials that are thinned with mineral spirits. But I don’t spray those. Photograph three. Here is the bench set up to paint the porches. This was the first outing for my Badger Xtreme Patriot Arrow. About once a year Badger has a blow out sale announced to their mailing list customers. Typically it will be every airbrush in the catalog for the same low price. This is from their summer blow out. To cut to the chase, I like this airbrush a lot. I did get the #5 needle and cone which handles acrylics better than the stock needle and cone. Actual painting took less than five minutes. The first time. I made the classic error of spraying the Badger Stynylrez dark gray primer first and then attempted to cover it with brushed white paint. Nope. Yucky, but in the continuing theme of sloppy work on the porches. So I painted them again, this time spraying white Stynylrez primer and brush painting the gray. This worked fine. I treated the cement piers the same as the earlier piers. After touch up the lower parts of the porches are finished and don’t look so bad. (As I knew all along.) Photo four. I attached them to the house with just a few dabs of CA so that I can break them loose if needed. Photograph five. When the house is planted into its site there will be sidewalks, lawn and flower beds to take care of the bottom edges. Hollyhocks are great for hiding things! Next up, a fix.     
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Post by valenciajim on Sept 30, 2021 19:10:22 GMT -8
Christian your discussion is terrific. I am building this model concurrently with you and it is amazing how many different ways you can put the parts together for subtle differences in the configuration of windows, porches, etc.
I am looking forward to seeing you paint the roof.
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Post by Christian on Oct 1, 2021 1:49:15 GMT -8
Coincidently, that will start today. I'm working way ahead of my postings. The front porch will have more chapters since that porch is the signature feature of my house model. (I like how it turned out although the process seemed like making sausage for a while.) I'm not sure at this time (6am) how far I'll get with painting since I've got to first clean up my work desk which is a mess. I'm pretty sure of my anticipated painting procedure which has be getting more thought than it should!  |
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Post by valenciajim on Oct 1, 2021 16:58:39 GMT -8
Christian--your desk and my desk look a lot alike (except yours is neater)!
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Post by Christian on Oct 4, 2021 8:02:21 GMT -8
 22. Truth
Photoshop Lies, Procrastination, and E. L. Moore to the Rescue
From the get-go after assembling the painted walls there have been corner gaps. They don’t bother me while I’m working because I intended to fix them at the right time. But the photographs of the structure bothered me a lot. Photo two shows some of the corners. I’ve “fixed” the corners in all the photographs I’ve posted because otherwise, the photos would drive me nuts. Dealing with these corners has become important as I start to do the finish assembly on the building. Specifically, the porch posts and roofs will have to be fitted around the fix. At first, I was going to wipe Tamiya putty into the cracks, wet smooth, and then touch up the paint. Because I tossed the remaining wall paint a long, long time ago I’ve been letting the little touch-up jobs accumulate so that I could do one final mix and paint. Then I saw alexandrianick’s model with the neat white corner boards and decided that that was the way I would do the corners. Sometime down the road. It's now “sometime down the road.” The past few days I’ve been musing on how wide the boards needed to be and how I could do a gap free corner. Part of the problem with the corner boards is that the boards molded into the model are kinda wide, have a rounded corner, and are flush with the siding. So I was toying with one by eight boards which are really too wide. This morning I flashed on E. L. Moore and how he did corners. Either butted the walls to a square piece of balsa that formed the corner and the trim at the same time or used a wood angle which was a common item back in the good old days. I don’t have any wood angle, but I do have Plastruct white styrene angles – 1/16” on a side. That they are narrower than the Walthers molded in place boards is going to be a non-issue. It looks like fancier corners. All six outside corners are the same height so I marked the length with a bit of tape and proceed to chop enough angle for the corners. Photograph three. I used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to attach the angles over the corners. Photo four. This cement is new to me and has been useful. I was careful to not get any near the top since I’ll have to cut away part of the angle for the frieze boards which will happen after I’ve removed, painted, and firmly cemented the roof. Photograph five. Now I don’t have to Photoshop the pictures before posting! The gaps on the inside corners will disappear when the porches are in place. Next up, porch posts.     |
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Post by NS4122 on Oct 4, 2021 9:28:17 GMT -8
I guess if your idea of model railroading is buying or building model freight cars and locomotives and putting them in boxes or on shelves, then line side structures wouldn't be needed.
Also, someone should clue in Walthers so line side structures can be removed from their "Model Railroad Reference Book" (catalog) if they are not part of the hobby.
By the way, that first photo sure has some interesting features. Isulbrick on the side, vinyl? siding in the front, chimney on the front porch etc.
Good idea with the corner boards, as I sometimes have trouble making corners come together cleanly.
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Post by lvrr325 on Oct 4, 2021 22:42:08 GMT -8
I don't get that. If you aren't interested in a particular post, don't read it. If you want to run your Genesis and Rapido engines with Tangent and Moloco cars on E-Z track over a grass mat with hot wheels cars and lego brick buildings, go do you. Maybe get real fancy and use one of those Tyco fold-out cardboard mats that's a picture of a layout, even.
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Post by edgecrusher on Oct 5, 2021 10:04:08 GMT -8
Whom ever sent you that message clearly doesn't have any interest in learning or expanding they're skill set. My modeling focuses on a very dense urban/commercial type setting, I will likely never be building a farm house any time soon. However I look forward to every update on this thread, I always learn something. The techniques Christian is sharing with us here can be applied to any kind of modeling, from a caboose to a spaceship. The key being the modeling part.
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atg
New Member
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Post by atg on Oct 5, 2021 15:22:43 GMT -8
So someone doesn’t like this thread, and decides to message you…..that is a person that has to much time, and deep down is mean spirited. I only read(and follow) topics that interest me. If anything, we should be encouraging one another. Keep up the good work…cheers
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Post by GP40P-2 on Oct 5, 2021 18:00:46 GMT -8
 Let's see now, there are non-railroad buildings near railroads, oh and you are also sharing significant BUILDING/MODELING TCHNIQUES that apply elsewhere. Ignore that person, keep going. They can always not look or just leave. |
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Post by wp8thsub on Oct 5, 2021 19:48:09 GMT -8
This is a great thread and I've been enjoying it. I like projects that don't necessarily relate directly to the railroad, as they're necessary parts of the scene.
I recall somebody elsewhere trying to foment a campaign against Walthers, hoping to stop them from producing off-line structures. I think it was some hotel kit announcement he was holding up as an example, saying it was bad for the hobby to offer kits that weren't for rail served businesses. Makes me wonder if it's the same guy at work here.
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Post by Christian on Oct 6, 2021 1:47:31 GMT -8
Thanks for the kind comments. You guys get it: railroad modeling is more than rolling stock. That message was so venomous that it still rankles several days later. I'm really not used to personal attacks nor bullies. I guess I've had a charmed life. And none of that needs to be vented on a model-building thread.
I do these blog-like projects to show that anyone can make a model that is closer to a prototype than the starting kit. That is what the whole prototype modeling movement is/was about. I extend it to the rest of the scene behind and in front of the rolling stock. Clicking on the thread is a choice. Many have exercised that choice one way or another. Just as I exercise that same choice.
Again, thank you folks who have clicked on the build. It really is nearing an end. I've made a real blunder that you'll read about in the future. And am in the midst of fixing that blunder. Such is life with the knife and glue bottle.
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Post by Gino Damen on Oct 6, 2021 1:56:54 GMT -8
Christian,
Just keep on building. I have learned a lot of neat tricks from your posts. Last and not least the smart use of those angled cornerposts. I do hate those gaps on mine buildings but never thought about this simple solution.
Gino
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Post by jonklein611 on Oct 6, 2021 4:14:39 GMT -8
Thanks for the kind comments. You guys get it: railroad modeling is more than rolling stock. That message was so venomous that it still rankles several days later. I'm really not used to personal attacks nor bullies. I guess I've had a charmed life. And none of that needs to be vented on a model-building thread. I do these blog-like projects to show that anyone can make a model that is closer to a prototype than the starting kit. That is what the whole prototype modeling movement is/was about. I extend it to the rest of the scene behind and in front of the rolling stock. Clicking on the thread is a choice. Many have exercised that choice one way or another. Just as I exercise that same choice. Again, thank you folks who have clicked on the build. It really is nearing an end. I've made a real blunder that you'll read about in the future. And am in the midst of fixing that blunder. Such is life with the knife and glue bottle. I took a gander in messages area because I thought you could report direct messages just like you could on posts. Turns out that's not a feature on this board's platform. I would suggest forwarding the message in question to one of the Admins, I'm sure it doesn't align with the T&C / Policies of this site. The admins could then provide moderation as well as temporarily or permanently banning the user. |
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Post by idgara on Oct 6, 2021 10:32:15 GMT -8
Keep posting, building plastic building kits, railroad or not is my favorite part of hobby. You’re doing a great job, I’ve assembled and kit-bashed dozens of non railroad structures, it looks great.
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Post by valenciajim on Oct 6, 2021 14:15:26 GMT -8
Christian,
I am sorry that you had to endure that nasty message. That is why I rarely participate in social media other than model railroad stuff. Your work is inspiring and informative.
Regards,
Jim
PS, I am looking forward to hearing about your blunder. It is easier to learn from the mistakes of others than learning from your own-although I have learned a lot more from my mistakes because I make so many of them.
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Post by Christian on Oct 9, 2021 2:53:35 GMT -8
23. Posting
No drama this week. Thank you for all your kind comments. I haven't heard a peep from the bully so I’m letting it pass, this time. This post doesn’t cover very much construction. It was going to, but I made too many mistakes until I figured it all out. Way back when I cut the porch floors I also cut and framed the ceiling and was going to talk about it in this posting. You might have spotted them unnoted in other photos. Alas, the one for the front porch won’t work and I have a feeling that the one for the back porch has the same problems. Namely, I didn’t allow for roof overhang nor for any simple means of attaching the metal roof. I thought about a lot of ways of doing porch posts but came back to the ones in the kit intended for other models. Pretty darned basic porch posts, railings and spool work. Photograph one. The railings won’t work because my porch is longer. I won’t use the spool work because I don’t want to. So I clipped out the posts and cleaned them up. So far, so good. When I figured out where they would mount I realized that my porch roof sub-structure wouldn’t work. Photo two shows the half posts that attach to the walls. You can see that the fancy work at the top extends past the porch floor. Also I felt that the posts were too tall, but there wasn’t an easy cut or slice that I could make. So I decided to incorporate the lintel of the post-and-lintel construction of the porch between the posts instead of on top. I have one example of that (sorta) in my research file. Photograph three shows the notching I had to do in the corner trim we put on in the last chapter. (I knew all along that I would have to do that notching.) I actually did this after making the sub roof in the next step and it’s a good thing I waited because the sub roof that is in the last photograph is the third that I made today. I also removed the roof locating ridge molded into the wall at this time. It was a good idea, but I went another direction. Photo four. Here is that sub roof. Remember at this time that I need to remove the metal roofs for painting because they are too hard to mask and brush work on large surfaces with metallic model paints isn’t a good thing. ( Tamiya metallic paints brush great, but Tamiya wasn’t my choice of paint for the roof.) I think you can see how the metal roof will be supported. Where I kept making mistakes was in allowing for styrene thicknesses and getting the slope correct. Photograph five. Here is a test of the roof in the notched trim pieces. The notches allow for the thickness of the standing seam pieces. Photo six. I turned to the railings. I used spool railing from Grandt Line. Tichy also makes suitable railings. These turned spindles have been available for nearly one hundred and fifty years. And still are available. Turned porch posts are available today from Lowes for under $70 each. Spindles start at two bucks each. In the 1970s renovation I imagined for this house these sorts of posts and spindles would have been an easy path to take. I cut the railing sections to length and cemented them to the posts. Photograph seven. Here is a dry fit. It’s going to work, but I’m not ready to cement things down yet. Next up, “Fussing With Lintels”       
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