NW 58th St., Miami

[cnw1961]

The hardest part of scratch-building anything (including detail parts) is just getting STARTED! :oops:

Steve, that’s the only thing that’s really difficult about scratch building, the rest is pretty easy.

Tyson, thank you. I want to stick closer to the East Rail district with my layout than Lance, so no drainage canal for me, but I hope to really capture the look of this part of Miami. If you think I am getting it wrong, please tell me.

Concrete stairs are easy to model. I use .080" styrene and cut each piece 1/8" longer than the next smaller one. The glue has to be perfectly dry before I can sand the sides, so I am putting the stairs together now.



Though I prefer .080" styrene (especially for walls with rolling doors), I use .060 styrene for the walls of this structure, because I still have some sheets in stock and I want to save up my .080" sheets for more important buildings.

This structure will be placed at the end of the extension close to the wall and you can’t look at it from the right , so I can use a plain sheet of styrene on this side. The other walls will have rolling doors and a few details.

The rolling doors are made of corrugated styrene, the backside facing to the front. To make the doors look more like the real thing, I glue .020 strips to the inside of the wall before I attach the door itself.



Now I only have to add some strips to the inside of the walls to support the roof and then I can put the walls together.



I use a thick 1/8" piece of cardboard for the roof. It is starting to look like a house now. Next step will be to sand the joints where the walls meet, but I have to wait until the plastic cement has completely dried.