Since I'm waiting for some new lighting effects for the Essex, I decided to continue working on Nighthawks and made a significant dent in the process.
I finished editing all the CorelDraw plans to make the adjustments needed to create a 6" X 6" d structure which included changing the Mansard roof pieces, all the floors as well as the walls themselves. I then printed all the pages out in duplicate. I trimmed the images to their exterior lines and them sprayed them with 3M 90 spray adhesive. It's their high-strength product AND does eat into styrene so I wouldn't recommend using this. It was the only one that I had so I used it. 3M77 is milder and is less aggressive. The X'd out windows are last minute changes. The center windows are where the chimney chase will be, and the left window is being eliminated since it will be into a turned stair well.
After sticking the drawings onto the styrene I cut them out using a #11 Xacto and then using a MicroMark corner cutting chisel. Before I decided to use the chisel I was cutting a "X" from the window corners to make it easier to break out the window center. This works, but the corner cutter is better.
I tested each window opening with the two sizes of windows going in the structure (Tichy and Grandt Line) and they fit nicely, based on the drawing accuracy based on measuring the actual windows before doing the drawings.
Here's the corner cutter. A couple of taps with a soft-faced hammer does the trick. You have to be careful aligning it in the cut window edges.
I got all the windows cut without difficulty.
I then added the Plastruct brick sheeting. The first piece was on a wide section (walls are two lengths: full width and full width minus 2X wall thickness.) All I had to do was pay attention to brick alignment AND gluing on the correct side. This embossed brick sheeting has the right side and the wrong side.
After the second wall section was cured under some weight, I realized that I had glued on the brick sheet wrong side out. Doh! While it was pretty well cured using Testor's tube cement, I was able to manhandle the sheeting off the styrene wall. The wall broke at a narrow section, but it was an easy fix. I then used another piece of brick stock and redid it. I was hoping to not scrap any brick stock since I didn't want to use pieces. I then glued up another two walls and DOH! again, I glued another wrong side out. I couldn't believe it. Really? Two brick pieces scrapped! Give me a break. I then had to piece sheeting on two walls. I tried to make the seam as inconspicuous as possible. I left the sheeting overlap the walls and trimmed them after curing. During cutting the edge of one of the front pieces I had the tip of my left index finger hanging a little over the edge of my metal straight edge and almost trimmed the tip of my finger off... close, but not quite. And since I'm on a blood thinner, it did bleed pretty well. I bandaged it up tightly and got back to work. By the end of the session I got all four walls bricked. Openings were cut out after walls we cured.
I was going to leave the brick sheets unpainted except for mortar and picking out random bricks for different coloring, but, the two packs of bricks sheets have different shades of brick red, so I'm going to have to paint the entire sheets. I can now pick any color I want. The bottom four feet should be a field stone foundation. I need to decide how to approach that. I can leave it brick all the way, but a stone foundation would add interest. Any suggestions on the best way to approach this?
Tomorrow, I start planning an executing how to join the walls and cut some floor plates. I could have cut the windows using the "snap and glue" method like I did with the Victorian station since the brick sheeting would hide all those glued seams, But directly cutting the windows worked okay.
