In-ko-pah Railroad - Another new building

[finescalerr]

Slow progress? That would be a lifetime's output for moi. And the execution is to a rather adequate standard. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Time for another update...

I did some more preliminary work on the front of the building. I had previously laminated some 3mm PVC foam board to create some raised areas. But I decided that the non-raised area above the upstairs windows needed to be taller. So I had to cut off some of the laminated material. After a bit of effort I got it off, however it damaged some of the substrate:




I patched up the damaged area with some automotive spot putty. It doesn't need to be perfect, since it will all be covered with stone castings later. I also decided to add the arched attic vents above the windows. Originally I had planned to use rectangular vents, but the arched vents looked so great on the prototype building, I couldn't resist them even though it means more work:




To make the attic vents, I laid out the radial "sunburst" design on a sheet of .040" styrene:




My intention was to cut out the indivdual openings, but this was getting too tedious for me. So I went to Plan B: Cut out the entire arc opening, then glue in bits of .040" x .060" styrene strips. It's not as elegant, but it works. Then I built up the frame out of curved and straight styrene strips, and added the "backplate". After it's painted, I'll glue some fine brass screen to the rear of the backplate:



Here's how they look installed in the structure:




The upstairs windows were built in conventional manner, starting with the large frame pieces. Then I added strips of .375" styrene to the rear of the frame as a "backplate". In this photo you can see how I used steel blocks, with a strip of .250" square styrene as a spacer, to align the backplate piece on the frame:




The finer details were built up using various strips of styrene. I cheated a little and built a fake sash into the lower part of the window frame. I didn't want to fuss with trying to cut glass precisely enough to fit into a real sash. This way, all I have to do is glue a single sheet of glass over the rear of the entire frame:




The side window was built the same way, but lacks the short section at the top:




Here are a couple shots of the building in position on the foundation, with all the window frames temporarily installed:






The next phase of the project will be making the rear enclosure. After that I will be able to start attaching the stone castings to the front of the building.

[artizen]

Really really nice.

[finescalerr]

It is so refreshing to see a structure that doesn't use Grandt doors and windows. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Moving right along...

I did some more work on the interior, adding strips of styrene along the top of the interior walls to prevent vertical movement of the removable rooms:




I also attached strips of styrene to rear of the room units. When the rear wall is installed, these strips act as spacers to prevent front-to-back movement of the units. They also serve as convenient handles:




The rear wall is basically just an access panel. I made it from a sheet of 6mm PVC foam board cut to fit inside the rear of the building. On the outside of this, I laminated a larger sheet of 2mm PVC, to create a "flange". Hopefully this will keep out rainwater:




Here's a shot of the rear of the building with the wall secured by eight #2 x 3/8", stainless steel sheet metal screws:




The edge of the 2mm thick portion of the rear wall, was rounded off, then scribed to match the stone pattern on the side wall:




I cut a strip of 2mm PVC and textured it by tapping it with a rough rock. This was glued over the window on the side wall, to represent a rectangular, cut stone:




Finally, I get to the fun stuff -- mounting the stone resin castings! I used a drawing program to lay out some radial lines to match the arches. The lines aren't spaced to match the width of the stones, because I didn't know how to do that with this program. But they at least serve as a guide for getting the angles of the stones right.

I cut a bunch of the stone castings to fit the length of the arch stones. Then I sanded a very slight angle into the sides of each stone. I found it necessary to place the stones over the drawing as I made them, in order to be sure they all fit correctly. It is also important to start with the stone at the center of the arch, both when shaping them and when gluing them to the building:




This is how far I've gotten. I first glued on the stone castings along the sides, up to the top of the main window opening. Then I added the arch stones:




There are a few minor gaps which will be filled with putty later, and blended into the stones:




In this close up view you can see how I cut the stones at the sides, to fit around the end of the arch. I also had to cut a stone into a narrow strip to fill a gap at the top of the column. The stone castings turned out to be slightly smaller than the masters, resulting in some minor discrepancies in the arrangement of the stones:




When I installed the stones between the upstairs windows, I originally started at the bottom of the window and worked upwards. Then I discovered there would be a small gap due to the change in the dimensions of the castings. The gap can be filled with stones cut to narrow strips, however I felt it would look better if this was at the bottom rather than at the top. So I pried up the stones and reinstalled them, this time starting at the top and working downwards.




In retrospect, it would also have been better if I'd installed the narrow trim stones by starting at the center, rather than starting from the end. Then the stones would not have ended up off center. It's a minor thing though, so I'm not going to redo that.

You can also see some more small gaps that will need filling later.

Anyway, that's it for now -- more later!

[Chuck Doan]

Those stones are very nice Ray!

[Hydrostat]

Ray,

your textures at the stones are great! Looks very good. It's interesting for me to see which materials and techniques you use, how detailed you're modeling for outside purposes and how elaborate your service devices are.

I'm curious about how things go on!

Volker

[Ray Dunakin]

Got a lot more done...

I filled in the area above the main arch, cutting some of the stone castings to fit as needed. I also added castings on either side of the upstairs windows:




Between the windows and the attic vents, are stone slabs which are smoother than the other stones. I made these from strips of 1mm PVC. I used a rough rock to give the "slabs" a little texture:




The slabs are sandwiched between extra-wide stones. I made these by gluing together three regular stone castings, then using putting to fill the indentation between them. At first I used Squadron White putty, but it was too soft. Later I switched back to using the automotive spot putty:




I shaped some stone castings to fit around the attic vents, once again using a crude drawing as a guide:






After I finished the arches, I added the narrow, vertical stones near the top of the building. Alternating stones are mounted on strips of 3mm PVC. Before these were glued in place, I made sure that all the vertical stones would fit as intended, with a raised stone at the center, and a lower stone at each end. Once the vertical stones were in place, I filled in the remaining area, cutting some of the stone castings as needed to fit around the arches:




The next step was the fancy trim at the top of the building. For part of this trim, I needed a special shape that was built up from two strips of 3mm PVC. The narrower strip was cut at an angle along one side, and then glued to the wider strip:




The first "layer" of trim above the vertical stones is a row of thin stone castings.  The next layer was done using 1mm PVC, with the same texture as the slabs. I built up the fancy bits at each end and in the center, using short segments of the contoured strip previously assembled:




In this closeup you can see some of the texture:




The two-piece, contoured strip that was assembled earlier, was smeared with putty and sanded using sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I also applied the same treatment to the short segments that were already attached to the building:




The last "layer" of trim at the top of the building was made using a .250" x .375" styrene strip as a base. Short sections of 1mm PVC were added to create raised areas:




The top strip was finished with the application of stone castings:




And here's how it looks so far, nearing completion:




I still need to make some protruding thingamajigs for the top of the building, at the center and on each end. I also need to work on the quoins on the side of the building, as well as a few other small details. Later, I'll work on the interior details.

Stay tuned!

[Seattle Dave]

Fantastic SBS Ray, and great results.  coupla questions please:

1.  What is overall size of building front?  Just counting stones, I guess it's around 7-8" wide and 15 inches tall or so.

2.  Would you ever consider pouring another "stone" mold and making it available for sale?  Or a master cast of the tray of stones so others could cast them too?  I can visualize combinations of these stones and brick and variants on other building fronts in a more urban setting.

Dave

[Ray Dunakin]

Fantastic SBS Ray, and great results.  coupla questions please:

1.  What is overall size of building front?  Just counting stones, I guess it's around 7-8" wide and 15 inches tall or so.

2.  Would you ever consider pouring another "stone" mold and making it available for sale?  Or a master cast of the tray of stones so others could cast them too?  I can visualize combinations of these stones and brick and variants on other building fronts in a more urban setting.

1. Good guess! It's 7.25" wide by 14.75" high.

2. I've had a couple requests for molds, so yeah, I probably will do a few.

[lab-dad]

Put me on the "list" please.
Marty

[finescalerr]

Fairly terrific so far and one of the more unusual and creative models I've seen for a while. I'm thinking about doing a story about it next year, since the styrene-to-wood article will run this year. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

A little more progress...

I added pieces of .020" thick styrene sheet to the front corner of the side wall, to represent quoins. These were lightly textured by tapping on them with a rough rock, after they were glued in place. Because the resin rock castings ended up with different spacing than I'd originally planned, the quoins didn't match up with the scribed stone pattern on the side of the building. So I also had to add new scribing to fill in the blanks:



I built up the three decorations (crennelations?) at the top of the building, using layers of PVC foam board and some resin castings:






Now it was time to do something about the missing stairs and sidewalk in front of the building's foundation. I began by building a form out of 2mm and 3mm PVC. Here's a shot of the form, lying upside down. I scribed the inner surfaces to simulate wooden planks:



I bent a short length of brass tube and connected it to a small hole in the front of the foundation. This will provide drainage when it rains. Then I set the form in place, and secured it with hot glue. I used small scraps of foam core art board to seal gaps, particularly along the lower front of the form:




Here's a closeup view of the form, so you can see how it was put together. I had to make sure that no parts of the form would be trapped between the foundation and the concrete casting:




Then I mixed some high strength mortar and added a tiny amount of concrete colorant to give it a slightly darker tint. I poured this into the form, filling it about half way. When the first batch began to firm up, I mixed up some more and filled the form to the top. I skimmed off most of the excess mortar and then covered the top of each step with a strip of foam core art board, taking care to avoid trapping any air bubbles. I used a large piece of foam core to cover the sidewalk at the top of the stairs:




The following morning I pulled off the foam core strips and exposed the upper surfaces of the concrete. The steps turned out ok but there were many small air bubbles in the larger sidewalk surface. I sanded it down and eliminated most of the pits, then filled the rest with a thin layer of fresh mortar. When this set, I sanded it again, lightly, to smooth the surface a bit more:




Then I dismantled the PVC form and removed it. You can see some of the impressions left by the "planks":




Next I used a 1/8" masonry bit to drill some holes into the sidewalk and steps. (I wanted smaller holes but this was the smallest masonry bit I could find.):




I cut short segments of 3/32" brass tube and glued them into the holes, using paintable acrylic caulk. Sections of 1/16" rod were inserted into the tubes to aid in making sure the glued in as vertically as possible. Later, the excess caulk will be trimmed off, and eventually it will be painted to blend into the concrete:






When the caulk had set up, I removed the rods, coated them with solder, then reinserted them into the tubes. Then I soldered a scrap of square brass tube across all five rods, so that they could be removed and remain aligned. This temporary piece would be removed later when it was no longer needed:




Then I cut the tops of the rods off to the desired height and soldered on the horizontal piece across the top, following by the top angled piece. The end of the angled piece was bent around and soldered to the side of the upright rod at the bottom of the stairs, to form a simple handle. At this point I was able to unsolder the temporary piece of square tube. Then I soldered in some shorter pieces of rod to create the lower rail. My soldering method is pretty crude and results in lots of excess solder on the material, so when I was finished I filed and sanded down the excess:




The finished handrail was cleaned, then primed and painted gloss black. Later I will weather it. I also have to detail and paint the tubes that support the handrail, and eventually I will extend the sidewalk at each end, and weather the concrete. But for now, here's how it looks. Oh, and I used a Dremel to trim off the drain pipe:




I hope to begin painting the building soon.

[Lawton Maner]

Is the PVC sheet the same material that you can purchase as full sized exterior trim in?

The how to on the stones is great.  With the different thickness available, it would work in smaller scales.  In the first half on the 20th century, there was a cast concrete block the same size as cinder blocks available and used extensively in construction (at least in the mid Atlantic States).  The problem with it is that all of the blocks on most projects seem to be identical.  This would entail making 1 block and a whole lot of clones before you could make a production mold.

[Ray Dunakin]

Is the PVC sheet the same material that you can purchase as full sized exterior trim in?

I don't know. I've heard of PVC exterior trim but so far have never actually seen any.