coach joe posted:You're just banging them out one after another! Can't wait for them to be doneand on the layout so we can see them in Tall Buildings Tuesday.
Lol, me neither! Would love to have these done so I can see them all downtown... but building them is the fun and stress relief for me - so I suppose that's goodness too.
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I made a little but of progress on this building here and there. Not a huge difference in appearance, but I've built major parts of the assembly, reinforced the structure, and thought through most of the mechanics of how it will be painted and built. This one is a little more complicated since, due to it's size, I'll have to paint it before it's fully and finally assembled. I'll also have to wire it in modules that plug together at the very end.
In this first picture, I'm testing the look and fit of the upper tower. It may be too tall... but I will hold off cutting it for now while I decide what the rest of the zeppelin dock will look like.
I glued all the sections of the tower together (using the stacked half-stations), reinforcing the joints with strips of basswood and providing additional rigidity overall with some square dowels across the back.
Here's what the inside looks like with reinforcement. In the top of the photo, you can see where I plugged the back of a wiring slot with a smaller piece of wood (so I can fill it from the outside and sand flush).
Next, I added a strip of basswood vertically on each side - and built up the middle of each support piece so that it matches the height the sides.
This edging and matching center support will allow me to attach and fully seat the side wall of the tower after painting and lighting.
Here's a few mock-ups I just did tonight. Trying to get a feel for the overall look of the building so I can see where I want to go with that tower ...and what color I want to paint this thing. Something along the lines of tan or off white is probably where I'm headed.
Next is more work on the zeppelin dock to finalize the shape and cut out the components. In parallel to that, I'll do some sanding/cleaning and then begin painting the major components. The wood section will get a cost of clear water-based poly before it's painted to try and hide that wood grain.
