Building the C & AV, or, What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

[Greg Hile]

So here's the latest. Some of the guys over at LSC have mentioned that it would be a shame to (1) cover up the framing with siding, and (2) reduce the whole thing to ashes (although they seem to have no problem requesting a live You Tube feed if I do). Regardless of how well I did with the framing, it does seem a shame to totally reduce it to ashes, so I won't. One of my personal heroes was the late Steve Jobs. Jobs had an obsession with the quality of things unseen. That's why the inside or the backside of an Apple computer was a work of art as important to him as the more visible design. Just because it can't be readily seen doesn't mean I don't know it's there, and I try to follow that notion in my modeling.

So when it is completed and fully documented, I'm going to attempt a partial burn of the structure. Then, after the Challenge is over, I'm going to go back at some point and do some additional detailing of what's left. I always did want a partially built or partially destroyed building, and since it turns out that the livery stable was already torn down and rebuilt next door by the time of the 1904 fire anyway, I am seizing on the "loose" modeling of the city after all!

As for the latest progress, I finally got a chance to start on the exterior siding. I brushed on a basecoat of burnt umber, gray, silver and white. Then, after it was dry, I applied FolkArt Crackling Medium to the siding. I spent a good bit of time beforehand looking at the Ranger Crackle Paints thread here and it turns out I couldn't get any of the Ranger product until after the Challenge was over, so I did some further research and the FolkArt stuff seemed to be the best alternative out there.

After letting it dry for about 30 minutes and while it was still a bit tacky, I brushed on a thinned wash of white. The crackling effect takes effect when the top coat dries. The close-up below gives an idea of where things stood about 15 minutes after application of the white and we'll see it looks like in the morning when it is fully dry. I'm not particularly thrilled with the color and I still need to do some additional weathering.

[Ray Dunakin]

I think the paint looks great. Reminds me of many old barns and sheds I've seen that have been sloppily whitewashed.

[Greg Hile]

What this town needs is a good 24-hour a day train store!

Getting closer. I started on the clapboard siding, added the top layer and put down the subroof. I have shingles ready to add and once I finish the clapboard I'll be able to paint and weather it. Then, windows and doors and we're pretty much done.

The wife went to bed early, it was warm in the garage workshop, and the plan tonight was to finish the clapboard and do the base coat, but I ran out of the .030 wooden rods needed to elevate the one side of the clapboard siding. I did lay down a couple rows of shingles (cut out by way of a Cricut die-cutting machine) but I didn't want to get out the pin nailer with its loud compressor that might wake up the wife, hence the green tape for now.

So, we'll pick it up tomorrow ...

 

 

 

[Lawton Maner]

     First, the white wash looks as if Huck Fynn was the painter.  Good job!
     
     Second, can you please show us and end view of the siding to give us a better idea as to your use of the dowels?  Could you use square stock instead?  If so, get yourself a Barnes table saw, buy your lumber at a local full service lumberyard and cut the middleman out.  Once I bought mine a decade ago the cost of model supplies dropped through the floor.

     Finally, the blow by blow of the build is quite informative.

[Greg Hile]

Thanks! I hadn't thought about it but Huck Finn was the look I was going for. The facade will be similar but not quite as much Hucky.

As for the process, I start with a backer board. In this case it was 1/16 basswood, but in the future I think something thicker would be better as it had a tendency to curl. Anyway, the first strip (again 1/4 wide, 1/16 basswood) gets glued flat at the bottom. Then the dowel is placed next to the first piece. I usually put glue down for the second board and kind of smear the dowel along with it. Then the next piece is layed on top of the dowel with the other edge flat on the backer board.

I used .030 dowel because I had lots of that size styrene laying around and used it for the test pieces, but I don't see a reason why square stock couldn't be used instead. In fact, I may have no choice as I may have already bought up the .030 dowels my LHS had.

BTW, are you referring to a Barnes table saw or a Byrnes? http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/tablesaw.html

[Greg Hile]

Finally finished the project and here are some of the results. The structure was always intended to be highly distressed and the rear of the building was intended to be a patchwork without the clapboard siding.















And, finally, the fire. At the request of my wife, who had the good sense not to trust me with matches, I spoke with a friend of mine who is a technical theater director and has lots of experience with special effects. First, I thoroughly watered down the one side of the building I didn't want to burn and then placed a votive candle and, when that didn't work, one of those fireplace log starters on the other side of the building.

It took quite a while for the structure to really take hold, but when it did, things went quickly and I took the garden hose that was standing by and put the fire out.











Here is a link to the video: https://youtu.be/c9t3-gJmHq8

I also have a color version if anyone is interested.

As for materials, I pretty much used all of my 42 inch 2x4. I also had some rough cedar on hand for the sidings. The shingles were 1/16 basswood strips that I had run through a Cricut die cutting machine several months ago (more on that later). I also purchased a couple bags of strip wood for the clapboard sidings, and a couple packages of .020 basswood rounds for the elevation of the clapboard. All of the paint was from supplies on hand. The sliding mechanisms for the barn doors I got at a swap table from the BAGRS annual meeting, and the crackle medium from Michaels. The "tree" was actually a weed from our front yard and the sign I created from Affinity Designer out of simple copy paper.

Because of the nature of the competition, which limited the resources and time to complete the project, and because of the ultimate goal of a burned out finished product, I did not undertake as much detail work as I would otherwise have done, but I was pleased by the outcome.

[Ray Dunakin]

I must confess to feeling a touch of anguish at seeing such a fine old barn come to a fiery end.

[Greg Hile]

Yeah, I know, me, too, but I do intend to keep it on the layout. I also learned a lot about working with wood, not to mention how to dig out the splinters in my fingers! Not too many splinters working with plastic ...

[Design-HSB]

A special type of modelling that I have never seen before. Learned something again.

[Lawton Maner]

The link posted is the one.  When I bought mine, Kappler lumber stock dropped 20%
Sad to see the final product, but art has its price.

[Greg Hile]

I was revisiting this thread and thought I might bring everyone up to date. I have not been modeling much this year, primarily due to an eye condition, but hope to resume soon. I've got several old and new projects and ideas, so I'm looking (pardon the pun) forward to being back at full modeling speed.

There is also an unfortunate development with regard to my burned-out livery stable. As you know, I had intended to preserve it and keep it on my layout. This spring, however, our gardeners came to do their annual super clean-up at a time when we were out for the day. I came home to find that they had, indeed, cleaned up and threw the whole thing away. Could. Not. Believe. It.

[Bill Gill]

OUCH!

[TRAINS1941]

I have no idea why anyone would spend that much time building something and then turn it into a heap of ashes!!!!

Jerry

[Greg Hile]

Believe me, Jerry, you're not the only one who has thought that! My layout is loosely based on my adopted home town of Martinez, California around the turn of the 20th century. Fire has played a monumental role in the history of the American West and Martinez is no exception. A fire destroyed a large swath of downtown Martinez in 1904 and my project was to acknowledge that incident. It was planned from the start and I even consulted with a technical theater friend of mine to control the burn so as not to destroy the entire structure.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, and, in fact, while it has slipped a few notches on the priority list, I fully intend to. Will I give the gardeners (who are actually very nice people and have taken care of us for a long time) explicit instructions NOT to mess around with the layout? Already have.

Greg

[Lawton Maner]

You and Banksy have something in common.  Next time, set it on fire after the auction.