Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Right on cue!  

   

My granddaughter was taking a nap after the dog and I got back from our hike, so I took advantage to squeeze a little more work on the bank job.  Folded up the center section (doors and windows) and added the fluted columns and the awning over the door with the supports, which are nice gothic architecture features.  The awning had long supports that were meant to go through the cardstock to be secured on the backside, but I thought that was overkill and just glued to the doorframe.  You'll notice in the picture that virtually every seam gets a liberal dose of gray marker to get rid of the white edges of the cardstock.

A couple of more tips and tricks.  Once folded, some of the seams between 90-degree angles don't have any support - in this case I added corner support by cutting pieces of cardstock and gluing them to the corner to support the corner and get a nice 90-degee angle.

   

Also, the columns required multiple folds to get them into shape.  I straightedge and a light scoring with the back edge of my knife did the trick.

   

[TMo]

More progress.

Fitted the center section of the bank into the facade and glued it together after adding the cornice.  Once that was done I joined the remaining wall sections to the front, added some reinforcement to the floor and added a middle-of-the building reinforcement, and added the roof.

               


Now, the problem areas....  As you may be able to see in the pictures below, there are some non-existent roof details in the free kit that left me a bit wanting.  The blue arrows show some of the issues:
1) The roof is too short to go all the way up to the front of the facade if you pitch the roof.
2) After folding the capstone pieces back, they hang in the air unsupported.
3) There's no sidewall detail for the walls under the wall caps.
4) From the back side, the wall is only a sheet of paper thick.

       

All of these problems are rectifiable, but each takes a little time.

1) I printed out another page of the roof and cut an additional section to run all the way to the front facade.  That one was pretty easy.
2) I cut out the top of the front facade and made an equivalent "backside" of the top of the facade and glued it under the capstones.  A little more involved.
3 and 4)  I cut additional top-of-the-sidewall for each side and carefully measured/estimated the roof angle and glued the interior side of the wall to the roof.

A couple more shots follow.

       

I still have to do the interior portion of the wall above the roof on the right-hand side, add the chimney, and I think the bank job is about done!

[tompm]

Nice job. Looks great. I am always surprised by how good these buildings look when you finish them.

[TMo]

Thanks, Tom! Glad you like them.

Hopefully I'm showing you guys that it's not magic - it just takes time, a little bit of specialized tools, and a little bit of forethought and even these free buildings can be adequate substitutes for typical plastic kits. A special doff of the cap to Charlie for finding the website for these freebies - this bank's going to work well in White Haven.