1/35 scale Sandwich Shop ... already in progress

[Malachi Constant]

Thanks Nick -- good to know!  And, as you can see, we've already experienced some of that splitting (and kinda like it).  So it goes.  -- Dallas

[Ray Dunakin]

So, how did you do those nails? They look good.

[Malachi Constant]

Dallas,

    You're not going to like this , but ...prototypically there should only be one nail per stud in each board , which should be just above the top of the board below , i.e. about an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half from the bottom of the board .By only having one nail , the boards are able to expand and contract with the changing of the weather . Having two nails introduces extra stresses in the wood and often leads to premature splitting of the boards .
   However , as we are not in the real World , carry on as you are ,

     Nick

Thanks again!  And, I'll be darned ... I'm borrowing a fair bit of detailing ideas from the structure shown below ... and after reading Nick's post and looking again, it appears that a substantial portion of the siding has been nailed "properly" as he suggests ... but, when I zoom in, I do see an awful lot of instances of two nails together ... AND the splitting that goes with it.  Suspect that it wouldn't take more than a 20-30 minute walk around the neighborhood here to find other instances of other idiots like myself doing it wrong (cuz some of us grew up with the "ah, just nail the crap out of it, and it'll stay together" approach) 

But there is one thing that troubles me about this ... if I had started doing it PROPERLY ... it would only take HALF as many nails ... and I'd be done by now!  Damn.   

So, how did you do those nails? They look good.

Thanks Ray ... I'll post some more notes/photos on that as soon as I get a chance.

Cheers,
Dallas

[Ray Dunakin]

On an old, weathered building like that, I wonder if perhaps the "extra" nails were added later, after the wood started to split?

[Malachi Constant]

So, how did you do those nails? They look good.

There's nothing very innovative here on MY part ... the idea was borrowed/adapted from something I'd seen in Marc's "5x5x7 Project" ... shown above and described here:
http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=640.msg10129#msg10129



For "mass nailing," I pre-paint a buncha strips of Plastruct .010" styrene rod (one laying diagonally across the siding here) -- brown & black from a rattle can.  This gives a shadow color to the edge of the nail heads, which would be extremely difficult to paint with a brush once they're set in.  (Marc cut individual nails, painted the heads and then sunk them in -- I ended up doing over 500 nails here, and this works out quicker for me with the "mass nailing" -- YMMV) 



This would drive some folks bonkers ... I find it kinda meditative and relaxing ... like basket weaving in the looney bin:
-- I glued three rows of siding in place, then did the nails for those, then moved on to the next three rows.  This allows me to get in with the knife from the edge and breaks things up a bit ...
-- Mark the nail locations with a felting needle (optional) and drill holes for those. 
-- Grasp the painted styrene rod near the end with tweezers.
-- Touch it to a drop of Vallejo Mat Varnish.  This acts as a light adhesive, which won't leave any visible residue.
-- Push the rod into the hole.  Cut it off very slightly above the surface.  I just hold my fingernail flat against one side of the rod and push the knife against the other side.  It takes very little pressure to slice .010" styrene rod ... and after 500 of these, there's no visible groove in my fingernail! 
-- If you cut the rod too high, you can use the back-end of a scale-hammer-size drill bit to sink it in a bit ... or sink it in a lot and leave a hammer-sized dent in the siding to show the work of a clumsy-overzealous carpenter. 
-- Repeat ... repeat ... repeat ...



Closer view ... the next crazy step:  go back with a tiny brush and touch all those nail heads with steel & rust tones ... then go back again with tiny dabs of flaking crackle paint.



Siding is all nailed in place ... now I just have to put some trim across the top, scratchbuild some doors & windows, build out the storefront and a few other "little" things like that.  Piece of cake.



Next up:  carve some corbels and work out the details of the top trim.  Then I'll go back and start touching up those nail heads while waiting for crackle paint to dry ... la-la-la. 

Cheers,
Dallas

[finescalerr]

From the first set of photos (before the SBS) I thought you used some very thin tubing to impress tiny circles into the wood. Now I see it required far more work. -- Russ

[michael mott]

I like the way the set nails look, but what a lot of work!

Michael

[Junior]

That looks really great ! Thought all this work wouldn´t really be necessary but what a difference! Excellent work!
What´s going on in Curt Mudgeon´s garage?

Anders 

[Malachi Constant]

Thanks!  The Mudgeon cousins are sitting around talking about motorcycles and women ... and dreaming of going out for a sandwich.  Meanwhile, I'm just glad that things are moving along here again.    -- Dallas

[Chuck Doan]

Wow, I am glad to find nuttier, er, more detail oriented folks than myself! Nothing like a laserboard on rye after all that hard work. I am also glad to see more progress.

[danpickard]

Russ, please mark this down as self analysis for the year...
"This would drive some folks bonkers ... I find it kinda meditative and relaxing ... like basket weaving in the looney bin"

I do enjoy your SBS works Dallas.  I think it gives good insight into creative thinking processes.  The resulting nail heads are rather convincing for the effort they require, so the maddness feels worth it.  I think what perhaps makes this look a bit odd is having to remember this is a timber siding, and I imagine nailed up a bit different to weatherboards/clapboards, and hence the two nails per stud approach.  In the photos, it can be a bit difficult to pick how the siding really is (no fault of the modelling, just one of those photo things where it can sometimes be difficult to really capture what we are actually looking at).  This form of timber siding wouldn't nearly be modelled as often as standard weatherboards, so for a good number of viewers, the false memory would kick in and say there are too many nails.  Closer inspection, and probably an explaination of the type of siding, would probably satisfy the viewers who expect the nail patterns to be different, as done here.

One thing I would wonder though...would all the nails have a prominance on the timber wall?  I imagine that at one point in time, they would have sat fairly flush to the timber and be nearly hidden by paint.  Despite the flaking paint over the ages, would some nails still be masked over by the remaining flakes of paint, or be deeper set after the clumsy-overzealous carpenter had belted them in?  Just wondering if the nail pattern looks too regular, and needs just a few to disappear under paint, or rust out all together.

Cheers,
Dan

[shropshire lad]

Wow, I am glad to find nuttier, er, more detail oriented folks than myself! Nothing like a laserboard on rye after all that hard work. I am also glad to see more progress.

  Sorry , Chuck , but it is official . You are the nuttiest fruitcake of the lot .

  And long may it last ,

    Nick 

   

[Malachi Constant]

One thing I would wonder though...would all the nails have a prominance on the timber wall?  I imagine that at one point in time, they would have sat fairly flush to the timber and be nearly hidden by paint.  Despite the flaking paint over the ages, would some nails still be masked over by the remaining flakes of paint, or be deeper set after the clumsy-overzealous carpenter had belted them in?  Just wondering if the nail pattern looks too regular, and needs just a few to disappear under paint, or rust out all together.

THANKS for the suggestions/input!  Some of them are flush ... most of the ones that "stick up a bit" only do so by about 1 or 2 thousands of an inch (which actually makes it a bit easier to go back and paint them).

So, next steps:
-- Go back and dot the nail heads with steel and rust tones.  Those that lie in areas where the siding paint has been chipped away will just get some rusty detailing.
-- After the nail heads have the first coloring, I can go back and sink more of them flush.  The mat varnish is a light adhesive, and a little push with the end of a drill bit will sink them easily ... but that probably won't be necessary, as the crackle paint (next step) has a fair bit of thickness to it and will likely form a fillet around the edges of some nails.
-- Then I'll go back with the various crackle colors and inks ... as mentioned above, the crackle paint has a fair bit of thickness ... so some nails will more-or-less disappear and many will become more subtle ...
-- And, if I manage to pull this all off, all those nails should add up to a rather subtle effect that adds depth and detail without becoming a focal point.  Maybe I'll do an "interesting" bent nail or two on the lower level, more in the focal area ...  

Russ, please mark this down as self analysis for the year...
"This would drive some folks bonkers ... I find it kinda meditative and relaxing ... like basket weaving in the looney bin"

     

If I'm ever forced to put a string of Christmas lights back into one of those little plastic nests and get that to go back into the box, I'll certainly have a psychotic episode ... the nutty business with the nails ... well, just like basket-weaving in the looney bin ... while looking forward to a little tapioca and maybe bingo later.  

Wow, I am glad to find nuttier, er, more detail oriented folks than myself! Nothing like a laserboard on rye after all that hard work. I am also glad to see more progress.

Yes, well ... meanwhile, THANK YOU too!  IIRC, you used the approach of treating various siding boards individually prior to assembly ... I did that here and think it will make a huge difference in the final appearance.  Or, maybe I picked that up somewhere else, who knows?  I think it was Chuck's fault.  

Wow, I am glad to find nuttier, er, more detail oriented folks than myself! Nothing like a laserboard on rye after all that hard work. I am also glad to see more progress.

  Sorry , Chuck , but it is official . You are the nuttiest fruitcake of the lot .    And long may it last ,  Nick 

Yeah, not sure I'm up to the challenge of doing 1/35 scale wasps nests in the eaves ... and it's always nice to know there's someone nuttier out there.  Nice try, Chuck. 

Cheers,
Dallas

[Malachi Constant]

Dallas,

    You're not going to like this , but ...prototypically there should only be one nail per stud in each board , which should be just above the top of the board below , i.e. about an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half from the bottom of the board .By only having one nail , the boards are able to expand and contract with the changing of the weather . Having two nails introduces extra stresses in the wood and often leads to premature splitting of the boards .
   However , as we are not in the real World , carry on as you are ,

     Nick

Well, I figured that I wouldn't have to walk far to find examples done "ye olde ham-fisted way" with incorrect nailing ... and I didn't.  Fellow modeler Bill Gill sent me photos from a couple of old garages near his home in New England.  While I fully agree that Nick has described the "correct" and/or "preferred" way of doing this, my experience with (loosely) studying old structures on this side of the pond leads me to believe that many more than a few were built by less-skilled and/or less-knowledgeable "carpenters" ...

(And, I certainly appreciate Nick's input because I really and/or obviously didn't know that ... and it might come in handy if I decide to build a structure that represents the work of a skilled carpenter.  In this case, I'm going for more of a working-class area where a "make do" attitude would be more prevalent.  This will become even more apparent on the actual "storefront" portion of the building, where the owner may have well done the "handyman renovation" work!) 

Bill's photos also show a nice variation in texture on the old novelty siding boards ... from relatively smooth to rather rough grain with varying degrees of weathering.  Thanks, Bill!

[Malachi Constant]

This one really matches the texture and nailing that I had in mind when setting out on the project ... even though I was going from memory/impressions and didn't go out to shoot photos for the siding.  (Thanks again to Bill for the photos.) -- Dallas