Thanks Mark! It was really nice earlier today too so the roofer was able to put sealant on our brick chimney that was weeping moisture into our sunroom and another spot on a skylight that needed caulking. Tonight, on the other hand, the boomers have been booming.
Didn't post last night so there's two days of work to report on. Got all the pilasters on the the right side wall (inner and outer) and discovered that I had measured the pilasters correctly and actually had two different lengths cut: long ones that reached the bottom of the wall for the outside and shorter ones by 1 MDF thickness for clearance of the floor. Stephen packed the long ones with bubble wrap underneath the shorter ones. I had forgotten that there were two lengths and just started using them as they were in the box. It only affected that front portion of the left wall. The right wall has them going all the way down.
For the inside pilasters I used an 18" ruler to set the top position. I just had to push them up the ruler and make sure they were square. The Titebond is very slippery and even clamped, they can slide out of position, so I had to go back and check a couple of times. I would glue about five at a time which was the ruler's span.
I blew another small dimensional error. The upper cap strips should have been one MDF width longer since they don't properly overlap the end caps at the corner. The end pieces are just clamped for this fitting. They'll be assembled next week. I'll have to graft a trim piece in the corner with a little filler. The building is a beast! With all the pilasters, trim and windows, it's not really model making… it's more like construction. What I'm actually building is sort of a small shed. It's carpentry. And it's going to weigh a ton, kind of like an IKEA flat pack.
I started painting the windows Harbor Mist Gray (UP gray), but ran out and switched to US NAVY Haze Gray. Haze is a tad darker. I'm going to try and keep the darker and lighter windows on different walls so the colors won't be so easy to compare. They're really close. I used Model Flex by Badger by airbrush. Their bottles have the same thread as the Badger bottles so it's very convenient. It almost has no odor and covers well. Being water-based acrylic, it does clog the airbrush eventually and I had to do major cleaning twice during all the window painting. I use acetone to clean the congealed paint. If you buy one of those inexpensive Chinese airbrushes, don't use aggressive solvents. They have O-rings that dissolve in acetone (as me how I know). Badger, on the other hand, uses Teflon seals that don't react to lacquers.
My attempt to raise the layout platform was marginally successful. In order to use a Quickie Clamp as a spreader, I reversed the jaws and had to screw on a separate block since the clamp was too wide to fit onto the girder itself. I loosened the adjacent risers, applied as much pressure as a I could and maybe got a 1/16" movement. I reattached the risers to this new height. I'll shim the buttresses.
Today I continued gluing things on, waiting for it to set while doing something else. Today, that something else was building windows and running some trains.
Windows are pretty simple and slick. Outer, self-stick frame, acetate glazing laser cut to the exact same size, and an inner, self-stick frame that goes on the other side of the glazing. The inner frame has a wider flange that fastens the window to the inner building wall. When I peeled the inner sash backing paper it exposes the very sticky flange. The windows aren't going in for a while. The building needs painting inside and out before they do. I was worried that the sticky would stick to things it wasn't supposed to so plan A was cutting the outside frames perimeter on the inner sash backing sheet leaving the outer edge in place to protect it. It was a slow process and I have over 60 to build, so I needed to find a better way.
Here was the Plan A window with the perimeter backing strip.
Plan B was much simpler. I just cut up some wax paper and put it between the finished windows to protect the exposed adhesive. I almost got all the small size done, and got all the mediums done.
Last thing I did was start installing the all the inside buttresses. I finished the gantry supports and will put the truss supports in on Monday.
