Westlake Publishing Forums

Ray,

already at this state the building's textures look so realistic. You really grooved that sintra carving. I'm following along every of your posts and am looking forward to the painted building.

Cheers,
Volker

Just excellent Ray! As the others i am enjoying this.
-Marty

With all that excellent work it ought to be Tres Manos Depot. It just keeps getting better.

Ray:
In your how to do for the stone work, which you linked, the plastic I have used is the Mylar packaging from potato chips and other salty snacks.  With an open back mold like yours, a jolt of vibration from a sabre saw to jar the bubbles loose and then the Mylar sheet under a piece of plate glass with a weight on top and things are beautifully flat. 

Thanks, guys!

BTW, yesterday I came home and discovered water seeping out of my mountain:




Apparently the neighbors behind us, on top of the hill, have a leak in their sprinkler system. I told them about it and they said they'd get someone to find the leak but so far that hasn't happened, and it's still leaking. I'm a bit concerned because I don't know how long that slope can hold up with water constantly flowing through it, and we've got rain coming tonight.   

Ray, Hope the water get stopped before problems develop!

That rain is tangible evidence of how the weather patterns have changed. In the 1990s rain always swept south and my area would get much more rain than Ray's, 100 miles south of us. The radar map tonight shows rain over San Diego but the chance of showers here is zero. That is because a few years ago storms began coming up from the south and now our area gets less rain than Los Angeles, Orange County, or San Diego! -- Russ

They finally got someone out to fix the leak yesterday, and now everything is drying out.

Thats good news ray!
Has the flood advisory been lifted for the town?
The depot is just stunning!
-Marty

hi ray
having a look at your landscaping i looks really solid-is it just loose fill or a solid base.
cheers kim

Quote from: 1-32 on December 21, 2015, 12:19:10 PM
having a look at your landscaping i looks really solid-is it just loose fill or a solid base.

Some of the front edge of the layout is on fill, the rest is very solid, old seabed. Also, there are concrete retaining wall blocks under a lot of the rock "mountains".

civil engineering in the back yard.if the  a structural blocks they would work very well.cheers

I finally got a little modeling time the past few days, and the depot is progressing nicely...


Adding the blocks to the pillars was kind of tedious due to the need for custom fitting many of the blocks:






After I finished the pillars, then I installed blocks on the south side of the depot:




With the blocks finished, I could finally put the roof on over the waiting area. I started by gluing styrene strips on the inside of the north and south walls. These were sloped just slightly towards the end, for drainage purposes:




The roof was cut from 4mm Sintra sheet, and styrene rafters were added:




Then the roof was glued in place. I added short strips of styrene between the rafters, at each end:






The terra cotta tile floor was made to look less perfect, and more natural, by carving cracks, pressing in irregularities, etc:




I also finished adding the capstones along the tops of the walls. These were mostly made of 2mm thick Sintra strips which were scribed, then bent to fit and glued in place:




I added a few other details too, such as the rafter "tails" under the eaves, and support beams under the balconies. Here's how it all looks so far:










I installed two styrene tubes to drain the flat roof over the waiting area:




The foundation on the south side needs some work. Some parts aren't level with the floor of the depot, and there is a large crack that needs to be filled with mortar:






At the west end, I need to extend the foundation to create a sidewalk around the end of the depot:




I'm using some large, fancy brass buttons to represent decorative concrete castings on the depot:




Here's one with a quick coat of concrete color paint, just to get an idea of how it will look:




I was going to work on the Spanish tiles for the roof next, but I want to try casting them in resin and my mold compound has gone bad, so I have to wait to order some more. In the meantime I'll work on making the doors and windows. I still need to make the interior details too.

Basically quite satisfactory at this stage. Any serious criticism would be unjustified. -- Russ

Ray, More really well done fabrication! Happy New Year!