A House for San Berdoo ... but first, The Garage

[P5se Camelback]

A House for San Berdoo … well … first, The Garage.

I belong to a model railroad club that models the Santa Fe. They are serious about the prototype. Each location along the modeled route has been built using reference photos and, where available, actual drawings of the subject structures.

Such is the case in San Bernardino. The Santa Fe Depot, in all of it’s southwestern architectural splendor was built from scratch over two plus years by one of the members. We are now building a couple dozen houses for the adjoining neighborhood. In an effort to become an involved new member, I volunteered to help with the project. I was given a manila envelope with a sheet of paper containing a couple of dimensioned drawings, a few Tichy molded plastic windows and two pieces of 0.060” styrene cut to the size of the floor and the ceiling of the house.



I first looked everything over and determined what parts were to go where …


After some thought (I have not built anything from scratch in twenty years) I decided that I would tackle the garage first … sort of a “tune-up” for the house itself … a little something to get my scratch-building juices flowing.

First up, I cut pieces for the floor, ceiling, side and rear walls. Then I laid out the window and door openings. Since this is a masonry structure and the windows will have no trim around them, the windows must be a slip fit in the wall opening. The work will go slowly as the correct size opening is approached.









It becomes a situation of file and test fit, file and test fit.



I actually got excited when the window got close to being a press-fit! And then … it slid right into the hole … Eureka! One opening complete!


Then there were two window openings finished!


And then the side door opening had a door that snuggled right into its opening …


… and the sides were completed!


With the two side and the rear walls fabricated and openings completed, a front wall was needed. Rather that cut a duplicate piece of styrene like the rear wall and then cut out the door opening, I chose to cut the two pieces on either side of the garage door and the lintel above it and solvent weld them together.





The joints were then filed and sanded nice and smooth and flat.


The garage door frame was then test fit …


… and it slipped right in!


I now have a basic kit to assemble.


The garage floor and the left wall were solvent welded together first, using my trusty chamfered-edge Plexiglas block and a small machinist’s square on a piece of waxed paper to start the assembly process.


Once that joint had cured, I prepared the right side wall for attaching. Preparation involves scribing a line the width of the floor on the side wall to help “contain the solvent” in the area where it is needed.


I flowed several wet beads of solvent on the lower edge of the wall and also on the exposed edge of the garage floor, alternating between the two until both surfaces were “sticky.” Then I pressed the two pieces together and using the Plexiglas block on the inside, and the square on the outside, again on the waxed paper (to reduce the possibility of anything sticking to anything else it shouldn’t) and to insure that the joint was “square.”




The next step would bring the rear wall and the front wall into the assembly process, this time using the Plexiglas block and two small machinist’s squares, as well as the piece that had been cut for use as a “roof locator” to insure that along with being square, the proper opening was maintained.


When the joints had all cured, I had the basic fenestrated styrene box …


I had an instructor in college whose parting words as we left class were always to give our structure model an “S.O.S. … a Sense of Scale.” So in honor of George Manos, AIA, Chair, Environmental Design Department, Philadelphia College of Art …

… Four walls, a floor ... and a 1936 Chrysler Airflow Imperial Eight to give it a Sense of Scale!




Phase One of “The House for San Berdoo ... first, The Garage” … complete! Next up … a hip roof. I have never done a hip roof before, so I know this will be some sort of an adventure in odd geometric shapes and some math that I’ve probably forgotten how to do … could be trouble ... or at the very least, extremely interesting!!

EDIT: to correct a couple overlooked misspellings and to add an additional Airflow photo ... it is such a cool looking car ... you gotta love it!

[tomustang]

Nice work so far, I have to ask why are they modeling santa fe?

[P5se Camelback]

I've gotta guess that between Stan, the guy who built the depot (NMRA MMR #318, who had been a resident of San Bernardino and had all the photos and drawings of the town and as well as Victorville,CA, and several other towns along the route from LA to Victorville, modeled on the upper level of the layout) and several other Santa fe Modelers in the original handful that started the club (now numbering about 40 members - many of them "snowbirds") that Santa Fe was the main choice. Denver, Rio Grande & Western and Burlington are also represented on the Joint Line - from Denver east to Chicago (the modeled portion of the Joint Line goes from Denver to just east of Pueblo, CO before hitting the helix down to staging on the bottom of three levels.)

Initially, I had no interest in the Santa Fe, and being a dyed-in-the-wool Reading Company guy and having always made a conscious effort to stay as far away from anything remotely Santa Fe, feeling it was over-modeled, so I didn't join right away. But, after a while, thinking that the cameraditie of being around other living and breathing model railroaders might be just what the doctor ordered as a cure for loneliness, and that it never hurts to learn new things, I decided to join ... first as an associate member. Withing three months I was having so much fun with the other guys, I joined as a full member and jumped in, volunteering for this project and another involving building a three-track signal bridge (to happen after San Bernardino.)

So that's it ... a total guess, but probably pretty close to the truth. Hope that answers the question.

[tomustang]

Being overmodeled, why I asked. My grandfather use to model Santa fe, I have no idea why, during most of his life the LV allowed his family travel. The only time I could think of him modeling something that far west was when he was transported to the pacific in ww2

[nachoman]

The warbonnet F unit that came with every HO scale starter set, or the warbonnet lionel F-3s may have something to do with it as well. That was a schnazzy paint scheme that caught the eye of many young kids.

[SP1]

Thanks for showing, biL!

I would have built the garage the same way you did. But I would like to comment the tools you have used. I noticed you glue everything together on your cutting mat, protecting it with a sheet of something looking like baking paper? I use a thick glass plate instead. It is hard, perfectly flat and does not need any protection.

Next, your files. Nothing wrong with them - I have used those files for years. But I feel they dont remove much material and glog up easily. Probably because they are meant to work on metal. For filing styrene I use selfmade files, that work much better. Basically sanding paper glued on wooden sticks. I lay down the sanding paper with the backside up, spread the glue and press on a number of wooden sticks, mostly coffee stirrers. When the glue is dry, I cut the the files from the sanding paper. It takes less than a minute to make a handful of them. As a result I get files in various shapes (normal, broad, odd shaped) with various grits.. and they are cheap enough to throw them away when clogged or dull.

[P5se Camelback]

Thank you for the comments, Jens! You are observant and I appreciate that quality in a modeler!

... I noticed you glue everything together on your cutting mat, protecting it with a sheet of something looking like baking paper? I use a thick glass plate instead. It is hard, perfectly flat and does not need any protection.

In these photos, I am using common kitchen waxed paper to keep things from sticking to things that they shouldn't. I also have a 15" square piece of ground plate glass that I often build on because it is very flat. When I need a "perfectly" flat surface, I use a 15" x 24" DoAll machined granite surface plate, machined to a flatness tolerance of +/- 0.00005" ... it is "dead-flat"!!! When precision measurements are required, I use a height gauge on the surface plate.

I often use the waxed paper to solvent weld on (with Toluol or lacquer thinner) as it prevents unwanted sticking of parts to the build surface, eliminates the worry of ruining the surface underneath should there be an overly exuberant application of the solvent, and it is cheap and disposable. (Its use is a hold-over from my early teen years of building balsa model airplanes directly over the sheet plans.) I generally cut and fit parts on the glass or the surface plate ... the matt is generally for cutting and unfussy, non-critical assembly ... and to save the top of my breakfast table from getting carved up and destroyed from getting solvents and paint on it. :mrgreen:

For filing styrene I use selfmade files, that work much better. Basically sanding paper glued on wooden sticks. I lay down the sanding paper with the backside up, spread the glue and press on a number of wooden sticks, mostly coffee stirrers. When the glue is dry, I cut the the files from the sanding paper. It takes less than a minute to make a handful of them. As a result I get files in various shapes (normal, broad, odd shaped) with various grits.. and they are cheap enough to throw them away when clogged or dull.

For material removal, I have a vast assortment of metal and plastic files, which I have augmented with home-made sanding sticks of a variety of sizes, shapes and grits, assembled much as you have described. I also make the occasional trip to the local Beauty Supply House where I purchase an assortment of sizes, shapes and grit coarsenesses of "emory boards" that would make a salon nail technician jealous. (I often reshape these to perform specific tasks.)

The smaller jewelers files visible in the photos are what I generally use for "getting down to perfect," especially when a very close-tolerance fit is desired. I also use a set of small riffler files for getting in those difficult to reach locations that need reshaping or reducing in thickness.

I rely heavily on a small collection of personally fabricated, task specific, handmade tools, fabricated from a variety of materials early in my career as an Industrial Designer, for working in styrene, including my trusty 1"x 1-1/4" x 2", chamferred-edge Plexiglas block, machined on a vertical mill to insure "dead-nuts" 90-degree surfaces. Other tools, mostly cutting and shaping tools, were produced from worn hack saw blade steel using a disk grinder and then sharpened on an oiled stone and finally stropped on leather ... very, very sharp ... need a shave?

I do appreciate the interest and the insightful suggestions, Jens! It is exactly this type of observation, involvement and information-sharing that make up the "the meat of the Big Blue Forum-Style sandwich that we all enjoy so much and keeps us coming back here!" Thanks for volunteering! It is greatly appreciated!

[SP1]

Good morning biL!

I realize I can't tell you anything new about tools. Should have known that.

[mountaingoatgreg]

Bil,

I really like the look of you little garage and am pating close attention to your building techniques as you have already created a very nice model with very simple materials. I have been looking for some true 90 degree blocks and was thinking of getting the 1-2-3 blocks but I really like your plexiglass block. I have been tossing the idea around about getting a mnual mill for some of my modeling as I figure it would make a lot of things easier, but not sure I can justify the cost at this time. Either way keep up the great work and I look forward to a completed garage and house.

[mountaingoatgreg]

Bil,

I really like the look of you little garage and am pating close attention to your building techniques as you have already created a very nice model with very simple materials. I have been looking for some true 90 degree blocks and was thinking of getting the 1-2-3 blocks but I really like your plexiglass block. I have been tossing the idea around about getting a mnual mill for some of my modeling as I figure it would make a lot of things easier, but not sure I can justify the cost at this time. Either way keep up the great work and I look forward to a completed garage and house.

[P5se Camelback]

Jens ...

That was not my intent!! I truly do appreciate the input ... I do forget that I have some of these things (due to numerous moves and not always unpacking everything.) Along with age and experience comes a rather healthy dose of forgetfulness! You have reminded me that there are some useful modelling impliments in one of my yet-to-be-unpacked-after-a-year-and-a-half boxes, probably buried somewhere mixed in with the boxes of "trick, go-faster" car parts out in the garage! Possibly a project for this afternoon!

Please ... Jens ... all comments are always welcomed! I have not been totally forthcoming regarding my professional background ... for the most part people seem to care less about such things and speaking about my educational, professional background and subsequent accomplishments are often perceived as being braggadocios; therefore I usually don't broadcast any of that type of personal detail unless asked or if the situation warrants some further explanation.

Volunteering such a personal tidbit ...

Last year, when I had a procedure to repair an Abdominal Aortic Aneurism,
it turns out that during the procedure, I was on a ventilator that I had
designed while working for a producer of medical equipment called
Puritan-Bennett ... now that's pretty cool in my book!
But then, my book is rather biased!

[Ralph]

I keep thinking of the Mission Impossible opening, "Your mission Mr. Phelps, if you decide to accept it is...to build this garage!" I'd be feeling the pressure to do well had I been handed an envelope with those items but they seem to be in very good hands with you bil. Looking great!
Ralph

[SP1]

biL,
no harm done! Did you notice the - icon?

[P5se Camelback]

Duely noted, Jens!

[P5se Camelback]

O.K. … on to the hip roof! As expected, it is proving to be an adventure in long-forgotten geometry and algebra! I have two trapezoidal panels that are “close enough for Government work,” as they say, and the two triangle panels will be arrived at by measuring what’s needed to fill the gap left at the ends of the garage roof.

I allowed about 16 inches of roof overhand and cut a base for the roof. Scaling the roof height from the drawing (in 1:1 practice, a definite architectural No-No) I cut a series of ridge pieces to tie the “trusses” together longitudinally and the “trusses” themselves, solvent welding them over a gridded system of scribed “locator lines.”




Next up would be test fitting and solvent welding the corner “trusses” to the roof base.


… first one side an then the other …


… and then the same thing was repeated at the other end of the roof base.

After checking out an architectural design web site and then a construction “how-to” web site pertaining to hip roofs 8-) , I made some basic measurements and cut two trapezoidal panels to act as the roof side panels …


… and used small pieces of Blue Painter’s Tape to hold them in place for measuring and test fitting the triangular end panels …


While I was at it, I located the center of the roof base and scribed a “part location line” on the bottom of the roof base to prepare the location where the “roof locator," referred to earlier, will be solvent welded in place to allow for a removable roof … always a nice thing!


Now the time has come to measure, cut and fit the triangular roof end panels in place. I’ll get to that later today or this evening … but first, while it’s still daylight and the weather is nice, I'm out to the garage to attempt to locate a box of specialized modeling tools that Jens just reminded me that I had not yet uncovered after my move a year-and-a-half ago!

The installments on this thread will now necessarily appear a bit more slowly, as they will be photographed and written as they happen, and not pre-produced, as the work to date has been.

No, I can’t work as fast as Gary does … absolutely no way!