Witzinger's Post 4 - August 20, 2021
I attached “taskboard” foundation pieces (painted “concrete”) to the factory base and began to look at how to join the office and factory sections together. Photo 29 shows the two sections in position, lying flat on the workbench. The design of the kit requires the vertical rear edge of the short factory wall to be glued into the 1/16-inch-square notch at the right front corner of the office (see Photo 28 above). This surface does not have enough area to securely combine the two sections. A full-depth left factory wall would have avoided this issue. I applied glue to the right front corner of the office, and put the two sections into position flat on the workbench, having made sure that the bottoms of the foundations were aligned. When the glue dried, I turned the structure around and added reinforcement to the common wall, which can be seen in Photo 30.
My next step was to add four small pieces for door-pulls on the factory doors, as shown in Photo 31.
The connection between the office and factory was further strengthened by inserting 1st floors in both sections, as shown in Photo 32.
I next turned my attention to the office roof and chimney. Photo 33 shows the two cardstock pieces for the roof that were included with the kit and the unpainted chimney purchased separately from Bar Mills Models.
I intended to use both cardstock pieces, but I was not satisfied with the fit of the folded triangular panels, so I cut two triangular pieces from basswood and fitted them exactly to the structure. The pieces and painted chimney are shown in Photo 34.
Note that I cut a hole for the chimney in the rectangular roof panel and surrounded it with rust-colored paper to look like roof flashing. My procedure for mounting chimneys is shown in Photo 35. I fabricate a horizontal mount just beneath the roof, and apply epoxy to secure the chimney to the mount. This attachment is stronger and looks better than simply gluing to the chimney to the surface of the roof.
Photo 36 shows the office roof ready for application of shingles and the chimney.
I decided to install the factory roof before applying shingles to the office roof and chose to substitute a piece of basswood for the cardstock part that was supplied in the kit. I also cut three trim pieces to be placed around the upper perimeter of the roof that will be painted Hunter Green to match the green factory trim color, and a piece of black construction paper to cover the remainder of the roof to provide a rough texture without woodgrain, as shown in Photo 37.
Photo 38 shows the bracing I applied to the underside of the roof. Photo 39 shows the factory roof pieces painted before assembly.
Photos 40 and 41 show the factory roof installed.
Photos 42 and 43 show the model on the layout.
I expect that the next step will be applying shingles to the office roof.
To be continued.
MELGAR
