Expanding on Chugman's idea... My Masonite mosaic method of building construction

Elliot, as Hannibal from the A team says I love it when a plan comes together. Great job. And thanks for the step by step and the problem solving making it easier for us guys....,.Paul

Always the architectural model maker...I'll need to stop by and see this one.

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

Recently Art posted about needing an odd shaped building to fill a specific space on his layout. His solution was to take a building front, and expand it using Masonite sections, then just apply brick material to the blank wall.

That gave me an idea! I need a lot grain elevators and a couple mills which are models of specific structures, for my layout. Armed only with an image from Google Earth, I set to work.

Here is that image.

The first thing I needed to do was some math, to get a rough idea of the size of the windows, and the height and width of the facade. I came up with 15' foot segments center to center on the pilasters, and windows that were 3' wide by 6' high.

Using my table saw, I cut 1/8" Masonite into strips 1-1/2" and 3/4" and lopped them off to the height of the wall. I laid the strips out on the table in the alternating pattern of the building.

I set up two long strips of Masonite to form a square on the table top and put down wax paper, to keep the glue from sticking. Following the window pattern on the picture, I cut small pieces from the 3/4" stock to define the window tops and bottoms, and simply edge glued everything together.

Construction progressed until I reached the end of the top piece of wax paper. I had been fighting with it all afternoon, when I got a much better idea.

So I flipped it over for a minute, and glued long strips going the other way. It was pretty strong before that, but it wasn't coming apart after that.

I flipped it back over and continued to the end, not worrying about it sticking, because it was raised up off the table.

I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. It was the solution to a huge problem. This is only the first element in a much larger project. I will add the glass and brick later. This was fun and easy. Not sure why I started with one of the largest and most complicated ones, but it does prove the theory is sound.

Give it a try, you're only limited by your imagination!

Well done! Elliot!   The process, creativity and finding solutions is the best part of our hobby!  Dave

Impressive work. Thanks for the step by step and construction insight. Hope you keep us updated would love to see your finished project.

-- Tom

Great idea for a large building, Elliot. I'll have to keep it in mind for some areas on the left side of my new layout I'm building.

Jay

Thank you guys, and you're welcome. It's my pleasure to share my ideas and techniques with everyone here. This wall took me the better part of 8 hours to complete, but I expect subsequent walls to go much faster.

Jon (Mill City) knows my background better than most here on the forum. I worked as an architectural model builder for a few years in my younger days. We were always looking for ways to save time.

This project was an exercise in pattern recognition, to the extent of what repeats. In this case the window pattern doesn't repeat, but the columns of brick between the windows do. Every time there is a window on adjacent floors, the piece between them is the same size. I took a bunch of the 3/4" and made a bundle with duct tape, then just chopped them to length. After that I just had to custom cut the other pieces. In hindsight, I suppose I could have counted the odd pieces , because some of them also repeated.

Perhaps the greatest thing since sliced bread is Google Earth. The fact that I was able to do this from the comfort of my home, still amazes me. It's only about a 25 minute drive over to the actual building, where I could take my own pictures, but why bother? Beside, I could never get that overhead angle and see everything so well from the ground.

Of course, if you want to do a building from somewhere far away, Google Earth may be your easiest option.

Thanks Elliot, that's right down my ally! Low cost and scratch built! I am sure to give this one a try, maybe even a couple of times! Thanks again!

Elliot,  really nice job, I have thought about doing a warehouse building like this for a long time.  Thanks for sharing the details, photos and step by step, now I'll definitely move this project up the list.