Sunday Scenic Showcase June 16, 2019

I scratch-built this structure from styrene to investigate working with plastic instead of basswood, which is my preferred material for models of buildings with wood exteriors. Pictured on my 12'-by-8' layout completed in 2004.

MELGAR

MELGAR:

If you did not say styrene I would have sworn wood!

Joe

Nice work guys.  I added some hobos under my bridge near some industrial structures.

i also added a korber switch tower near the entrance of my passenger yard.

Starting on a new laser cut structure kit.  First gave it a wood stain from Michaels and starting assembly.  Still a little warped due to the stain.

EMPIREBUILDERDAVE,

I go out of my way to avoid any warpage on my structures. On a building of this type I would have applied some bracing strips (say 1/8-inch square basswood) to the inside corners of the walls, around the insides of the window openings, and possibly elsewhere. I might also have added doublers (1/16-inch thick basswood sheet) to the insides of the front and rear walls extending all the way to the tops. (That could still be done on your model even at this stage if you think it's worthwhile.) I would then have assembled the walls and stained/painted them inside and out after the walls were assembled. Yes, there is a large front window so you want to be careful to have a realistic look on the interior bracing. My technique is certainly not the only way to do it, so this is just a comment, not a critique, and I hope you find it useful. And I don't think you will have a problem with this building. Please keep taking photographs during the construction process. I'm interested to see how you go about it, as well as the finished product. Who manufactured the kit?

Picture below shows a similar building that I completed in 2018 from a Bar Mills kit. It was difficult to preserve alignment and minimize warpage at the front due to lots of "glass" in the fragile front walls. And if you look carefully, you can see some warpage at the rear of the newsstand.

MELGAR

Joe Fauty posted:

MELGAR:

If you did not say styrene I would have sworn wood!

Joe

Thanks Joe. I just had a look at your website. Very impressive work.

MELGAR

At last I can post something here!

Here is a Coil Loading facility I am building it differs from my other buildings as this will have a fully detailed interior where my other structures don't.

It is 42inches X 18inches and will have a gantry crane among other things as well as all the track will be set in concrete (plaster, painted !). Roo.

MELGAR posted:

EMPIREBUILDERDAVE,

I go out of my way to avoid any warpage on my structures. On a building of this type I would have applied some bracing strips (say 1/8-inch square basswood) to the inside corners of the walls, around the insides of the window openings, and possibly elsewhere. I might also have added doublers (1/16-inch thick basswood sheet) to the insides of the front and rear walls extending all the way to the tops. (That could still be done on your model even at this stage if you think it's worthwhile.) I would then have assembled the walls and stained/painted them inside and out after the walls were assembled. Yes, there is a large front window so you want to be careful to have a realistic look on the interior bracing. My technique is certainly not the only way to do it, so this is just a comment, not a critique, and I hope you find it useful. And I don't think you will have a problem with this building. Please keep taking photographs during the construction process. I'm interested to see how you go about it, as well as the finished product. Who manufactured the kit?

Picture below shows a similar building that I completed in 2018 from a Bar Mills kit. It was difficult to preserve alignment and minimize warpage at the front due to lots of "glass" in the fragile front walls. And if you look carefully, you can see some warpage at the rear of the newsstand.

MELGAR

Thanks Melgar for the advice - I just saw this post and your building looks excellent!  I plan to add some bracing to the false front if adding the roof does not completely work out the warping.  My kit is an American Model Builders laserkit.  

At this point I am not concerned about warp as I believe I can right it with some bracing.  Thanks for the ideas!