The House for San Bernardino
#1
The time has come to begin work on the house for San Bernardino. Actually, I have been working on it a little bit, off and on, in between “difficult breathing” days.

To refresh my memory (and probably yours, too,) I reviewed the parts and plans that I was initially given by the “project manager” at the Scale Rails of Southwest Florida model railroad club.

   

I next measured and cut all the walls, and laid out the window and door openings. I took them with me to the club to use the drill press in the little shop area there. (Hey, I drilled 1/8” holes all around the opening of the two windows and the door of the garage using a pin vise … there’s no way I was going to do that for nine windows and two doors!)

   

Using a very small set of end-cutters, I removed the un-needed material and used the Dremel with a fine carbide cutting bit to remove material to "close" to my scribed layout lines …

   

Next using a “rough cut” jewelers’ file, I removed additional material down to "very close" to the scribed line.

   

   

There were a few spots where I was a little careless about where the center of the drill bit was when using the drill press (hey, I haven’t used one of those beasts in over thirty years! I forgot a few things! :oopsSmile The result was “drilling outside the lines” ...

   

Since I did this more than once (and you may make a similar mistake at sometime, too,) I’ll show you my method of “recovery.”
The procedure is always the same, but the thickness of the repair material depends upon the severity of the miscue.

Here, I used short piece of 0.020” x 0.080” styrene strip and a generous amount of Plastruct Plastic Weld …

   

   

Once it’s been filed back to flat it looks pretty good …

   

… with a little paint, no one will ever know that I had fouled up!

Of course, that has not been the only place where I have lost control (and here is an example of why I don’t use files that really remove “mass quantities of material!” There were a couple places where I got a little overly zealous with the “rough cut jewelers’ file!

   

The repair was carried out in similar fashion to the other, just bigger pieces …

Step One, solvent on the window opening …

   

Step Two, solvent on the filler piece (0.010” x 0.080” strip) …

   

Step Three, wait for the two pieces to soften …

   

Step Four, Squish with pressure …

   

(Yes ... this is a separate window ... one that required repairs to TWO sides of the opening.)

After allowing the area to harden overnight, a little trimming and some careful filing with a fine cut jewelers’ file and we’re almost there …

   

After a few more swipes with the file, the molded windows are a slip-fit ... Just as masonry windows should be.

   

More to follow … after I crop, resize and upload the next group of photos to Photobucket. :mrgreen:
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#2
Continuing … here I’ve once again used bad judgment in placing the material on the drill press table … and I drilled “outside the lines!” This time a bit more severely.
   

The process was again basically the same as before, just a few more steps … a few more pieces of styrene strip in 0.010” and 0.020” thickness “welded” in to build the area up so it can be filed back down to “just right.”

   

   

Several of the windows supplied were the “Standard window with Trim.” They work just fine for wood buildings, but brick and/or masonry structures generally do not have trim around the windows as they sit in a hard masonry opening. (I did a quick survey of the homes on my street … all concrete block with stucco and no windows or doors have trim. The exception was that several homes did have trim around the front door, mine included.)

Therefore, I decided that I would follow convention and since this is a masonry-construction building, the only opening to have trim will be the front door. So the trim had to go on those windows and doors that had it … and every opening would have to be a slip-fit with its corresponding window or door.

So starting with the kitchen window …

   

The trim was removed and the opening was tweaked just a bit and we have a slip fit masonry style window for the kitchen. I’m sure Mrs. LPB will appreciate a nice window over the sink …

   

The next thing that bothered me was the fact that the windows that were supplied had a definite “industrial” feel to them …

   

… so I took it upon myself to “residentialize” them …

   

O.K. … That’s it for now. I have eight more windows to “residentialize” and a door to lose the trim off of. Then a couple more window openings to “tighten up,” and then will come the fun of assembly. I’m still pondering how I want to represent stucco … well, I can’t just leave the walls plain flat painted styrene, can I!!
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#3
Getting the window openings “perfect” was a test of my endurance and dedication ... I was not about to let the situation get the best of me! But now working with the actual molded windows is now testing my patience! Wallbang

The little muntins are so thin, so fragile! I’ve finally broken one in such a way as to be pretty much un-repairable ... a new muntin will have to be fabricated or I will have to order more molded windows. Trimming the unnecessary ones off absolutely cleanly is of the utmost importance, I've discovered. I broke the little, very thin horizontal muntin between two horizontal panes while converting one of those multi-paned "factory style" windows into a four-pane jalousie (louver) or "awning window," as they are often called here in Florida. The "look" was appropriate, but those little muntins are only about 0.020" square and VERY fragile! Confusedhock:

   

Although I will probably split an 0.020” x 0.040” piece of styrene strip to effect the repair … I’m just not up for it tonight. It’s not been a good breathing day and I’m rather tired. I was chasing the numbers on my tax return crap all day and ended up with an embarrassingly low AGI, but that was good as my tax liability was miniscule (none) … the pressure is off, but I’m tired … too tired to deal with cutting things measured in thousandths and trying to be exact about it.

The walls have all been completed to my satisfaction …

   

I can probably also begin “welding” them together tomorrow while waiting for the window repair to cure. I’ll also have to ponder a more precise way of cutting the un-needed muntins out without leaving any remnants to be filed smooth! I’m not worried … this little detail stuff has never beaten me in the past and I’m in no mood to let it start now!

So much for Installment Three … G’night all! Wink
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#4
O.K. … I lied … one more little tidbit.

Earlier, I showed evidence of “inattention at the drill press” as I drilled “outside the lines.” I showed the first step of the recovery from the error and went right to the completed repair.

Well, I once again got a bit overly zealous with the rough cut jewelers’ file and had to do a little more work on the right side of the window. :oops:

So here we have the results of “the squish” method of joining two pieces of styrene with copious amounts of solvent …

   

Then, using the razor-sharp modeling chisel that I converted from the edge file that came in the Jewelers’ File Set, I carefully trimmed away the excess width of the inserted piece as well as the ooze from the “squish method.”

   

Then with some careful filing with the fine cut jewelers file and some work with a piece of 400 grit wet-or-dry (wet) rubber cemented on a tongue depressor (my doctor donated a dozen to the cause 8-) ) it will be just honky-dory … but first all the “trim” was removed from the window and …

   

… we're ready to drop the window into its new home …

   

PERFECT!

[… well remember, I did mention the wet-or-dry sanding that still needs to be done … but the fit is right on!]

And now … until next time …
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#5
In the spirit of “Total Transparency,” This has been and will continue to be a “Warts and All" type of presentation. It occurred to me this afternoon, the biggest difference between a beginning or average model builder and an experienced model builder is that although they will both make mistakes (everyone does,) the one with experience can usually devise a way to overcome the error, unless it is a catastrophic one, and often it is possible to recover from them as well.

But then only way you begin to learn how to overcome mistakes as a beginner is to work at a bench next to an experienced guy. I was pretty lucky, that was the case at my first two design office positions; my bench was right next to the shop “wizard.” And now I have some experience in working with styrene and you, the reader, are sitting at the next bench!

So here we go … more recovery from lapses in concentration; one of the biggest “mistake causers” when building models!

To start today’s session of assembling the porch for the House for San Bernardino, I marked off with a scribe the edge of the mating surface where the porch side wall meets the front wall. The reason for doing this is that when applying the solvent to the area, the scribed line keeps the solvent from “wandering” across the face of the part, marring the surface wherever it goes …

   

The next steps have been shown before, so I’ll just flash through them …

Welding the first corner …

   

After welding the second corner in the same fashion, there are three porch walls standing …

   

Haste makes waste in one way or another. In this case, the waste turned out to be time …

   

I had to weld in, let harden, trim and then file smooth Filler pieces of strip in two problem areas, both cause by a lapse in concentration while lining up the side wall of the porch!

While waiting for these repairs to harden, stirred up a mixture of Duco Cement for Plastics and Squadron White Putty and applied a very thin coat of the mud to the areas of the porch walls where I scribed too deeply, in areas where I shouldn’t have scribed any lines and a couple locations where I just wasn’t paying attention and my razor sharp home made cutter made a few “stray” gouges.

   

Some filing after that hardened yielded some interesting serendipitous results, which I will happily discuss at a later date.

The porch floor is next up. When completed, if the floor of a structure does not sit down flat on the bottom of the “base,” or bottom edge, I like to use reinforcing spacers to insure the floor stays where intended and does not decide to drop to a lower position. With that in mind, after measuring and cutting a piece of 0.060” stock for the floor …

   

I made spacers for both the house floor and the porch floor. The house ones are longer and so I got them out to use as aids for installing the porch floor …

   

I wedged the longer spacers into the corners of the porch walls and brought them together so I could apply a small amount of pressure with my thumb …

   

… and placing the floor with its edges softened with solvent and very tacky on the spacers …

   

… slide the floor into position with the other thumbs and hold it and the walls tightly together while the bond was made …

   

All that remained was “floating a generous amount of solvent on the joint from the underside to insure the bond was solid.

   

In the morning I’ll attack the walls of the house and make an attempt to save the window with the broken muntin. I did order a couple packets of several styles of windows and doors. I’m sure I’ll use them since I’ll need a couple other scratch-built structures to present for review if I want that NMRA Structures Award! If that skinny little muntin is a total loss, I should have a replacement window in a few days … so, no worries.

And now, it’s time to say goodnight …
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#6
I've been working on the walls a bit, making sure I keep the windows for each wall arranged on a piece of blue painter's tape in the same order and orientation as they would be inserted into the wall openings. The openings were filed and fitted for a particular molded plastic window (which had the edges filed flat, eliminating the "draft" and parting line on each side of each window ... or else they wouldn't fit as tight as I needed them to fit!) Each window must go back into the opening it was fitted to or else ...

... Oh, why hem and haw and beat around the bush ... the windows and the window openings are "matched."

Actually, I've spent most of my seat time at the table today experimenting with developing a method of applying a scale "stucco-like" surface to scraps of styrene. Tomorrow, when I'm certain that "the material" has totally cured, I'll shoot some paint on the test pieces and see how close to scale stucco they actually look. If the process seems to work, I'll crop and resize all of the many documentation photos I've taken, put some narrative with them and post a technique piece that might be a good fit for the "New Academy."

I now have one corner of the house welded up. I'll probably post progress photos of wall assembly tomorrow ... I have too many photos to crop, resize and upload to Photobucket to get to it tonight. [Plus, I think I ate too much for dinner and I can feel my hypoglycemia starting to kick in ... it's going to be an early night tonight ... or at least there will be some serious naptime involved. I may be back up again in the middle of the night.]
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#7
I'm falling behind on my posts to this thread! My hobby is quickly becoming a full time job (with no "benefits" and the "pay" stinks) between what's happening on my breakfast table, out on the workbench in the garage and some things at the club! I'm up and working at all hours of the day and night!

So to give a quick, "Well, that's that!" to the porch ...

   

... it starts to actually look like a porch ...[/align]

... And the prospective resident takes in the view from his new porch ...

   
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#8
The time has come to begin assembling the house proper.

I welded the first two walls together the other night, just be fore calling it “a day and a night and there will be time to do more tomorrow.” I should have known better than to do such a thing when I was tired!

I awoke the next morning to discover the two walls were misaligned by 0.020” … maybe acceptable to some, but not to me, especially going after an NMRA Merit Award with this one! It’s an easy fix, though … just decide which will be “correct" and weld a 0.020” strip on the other one …

   

A little trimming of the excess and then filing of the opposite wall and all is copasetic, albeit an hour’s time has been wasted!

Now to weld on the second wall … more carefully this time. Notice that I have scribed a line in the “receiving” wall the thickness of the wall to be joined. The purpose of this practice is that the solvent is contained where I want it … surface tension prevent it from meandering about in areas you’d rather it not be (unless, of course, your solvent application gets a bit over-zealous.)

   

This time I was careful to align everything and took the usual precautions to insure the walls would be perpendicular to each other …

   

The house has a two-foot crawl space under it, so some floor reinforcement is in order …

   

   

At this point, I gave the floor and walls a test fit …

   

As hoped, everything lines up as planned! Excellent!

After reading the Judging Guidelines for the NMRA Merit Award, I decided that just scratch building but using commercially molded windows and doors would not yield the amount of points necessary, so an interior will be added. Most of the needed walls were fabbed up and their locations laid out on the floor of the house with very lightly scribed lines …

   

The usual methods were employed in solvent-welding the main longitudinal wall in place …

   

Then every precaution was taken to insure that the hallway and bathroom walls would be plumb …

   

It wasn’t long before we had a basic bathroom …

   

At that point it was time for another test fit of all the components fabricated and assembled to this point … just to insure that nothing will have to be redone …

   

The “plans” for the house indicate what appears to be (maybe) a utility closet or a linen closet in the bathroom. I have been considering using a couple of interior lights (why not if you’re going through the trouble to include an interior) and figure that this little enclosed space would be a perfect wire chase from the “ground up to the “attic” so two small pieces of styrene were welded together and, of course, test fit …

   

… and then welded into place …

   

Probably the only people who will see the trim around the interior doors will be the Contest Judges …

   

“Hey! Doc! I still got one more piece to cut here … whaddja do with the miter box and the backsaw?” Icon_lol

Time for a little light-hearted humor …

I had a Related-Arts – Environmental Design instructor at Philadelphia College of Art, an architect, who after giving us an assignment and dismissing the class, would always call out, “Don’t forget to give it an S.O.S.!” (He meant a “Sense of Scale.”)

There has been this growing pile of white stuff off to the right side of my board in many of the photos to date. It is just the dust from wire-brush cleaning the files and the small shavings from scraping the edges of parts with my homemade chisel/scraper that I haven't yet scooped up and dumped in the trash. Just for grins, at the end of a long session at the work bench, I took a photo of the pile and in honor of George Manos, AIA, a man from whom I learned bundles about architectural design (and who I eventually ended up working for part-time between classes, on the weekends and full-time during the summers) I gave the pile of shaving and styrene dust an “S.O.S.”

   

Just for you, George! Thanks for everything!
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#9
Gary S Wrote:I would have guessed that the scrap shaving pile would have been even bigger, considering all the filing you did for all the windows!
Well, I suppose it could have been but I drilled all those holes first. Yeah, I did file a lot, but when I used the Dremel with the fine cut tungsten cutter, the shavings were flying everywhere around this breakfast area! The next tenant in this house will probably find some ... they really were flying! 357

Gary S Wrote:What color will the house be painted, and what kind of roof does it get? Will you be doing the electric service and meter and panel and such?
The house will be either a pale grey-green or a pale blue-grey ... depending on what the "project manager decides when I tell him I'm ready to paint. The windows will have to be painted white. I was going to do it in light tan with dark brown windows, but the P.M. did his first one that combo, so I'll repaint my windows white ... no biggie ... I like my airbrushes! Thumbsup

The roof will be dark grey shingle, that's been established. I will add the plumbing vent pipes for the bath and the kitchen. (A structure wouldn't pass "Code" in my book without them. They're things that you don't miss it they're not there, and when they are there, you look right by them because they look "normal." Besides, if you use short lengths of brass tube and run a short machine screw up from the bottom, they make good handles to grab when removing the roof!

And there will be electric service, the meter and the whole nine yards (maybe not the wire, as it won't get "planted" until all houses are built and the neighborhood will come out as one good-sized piece and all the houses will be "planted," the necessary wires will be run from the underside for lighting and the neighborhood will itself be "re-planted."

For Contest Judging, I think I'm going to place it on a lot, with the driveway and the garage and maybe a backyard tree. I may run a tempoary wire to electric service for that. But the lot will not be part of the layout ... the Project Manager has a plan ... :?

And, yes, Tetters, at this point, I too am looking forward to the finished model. I have made many mistakes and done things over ... that has added time to the build. I have not worked on it as consistantly as I should have, plus I've now spent over a week developing this applied wall texture. I think I may have finally arrived at the way to apply it and get a consistant texture. We'll see. And then, I'll have to send a couple photos to Model Railroad Hobbiest and wait for their decision ... it all depends on if they like the photos! Then I'll have to sit down and work (write!) (And I'll have to get some decent photography lights! I had some, but they failed to make the move when I went ahead for the new job and my then-wife packed my stuff ... coffee cans of collected red shale dust and actual culm collected from a Colliery up near Scranton-Wilkes Barre, PA didn't make the move, either!) Wallbang Wallbang Wallbang Curse
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#10
P5se Camelback Wrote:I will add the plumbing vent pipes for the bath and the kitchen. (A structure wouldn't pass "Code" in my book without them. They're things that you don't miss it they're not there, and when they are there, you look right by them because they look "normal." Besides, if you use short lengths of brass tube and run a short machine screw up from the bottom, they make good handles to grab when removing the roof!

Great idea, biL, I never thought of that. But I'll have them on the houses I build from now on.

P5se Camelback Wrote:And there will be electric service, the meter and the whole nine yards (maybe not the wire, as it won't get "planted" until all houses are built and the neighborhood will come out as one good-sized piece and all the houses will be "planted," the necessary wires will be run from the underside for lighting and the neighborhood will itself be "re-planted."

Anxiously awaiting more progress! Thumbsup
#11
Just a "quickie" this time ...

My LP Bozo crew found the back saw and the miter box and cut the last trim piece for the bathroom door ...

   

... good thing the walls are still loose ... we can trim the end later 357
... and we still need a door for that bathroom! Wink

Now, just to see where we are in this whole deal, here's a shot with all the major parts fabricated to date test fit as an assembly ...

   

... looks like the job foreman is laying down on the job! Icon_lol
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#12
O.K. ...

According to Stan, the "Project Manager," NMRA MMR and former resident of San Bernardino (back in the second Ice Age Wink 357 ) this was a neighborhood of relatively inexpensive small houses built on the "other side of the tracks" from the Depot. There is only a portion of one row of those houses remaining along the south side of West 5th St. / West Foothill Blvd. (a.k.a. Cal Rt. 66) seen HERE using the Google Maps. The rest of what was once the neighborhood is now a paved over repository for containers on skeleton trailers and possibly a few 53 ft. trailers. Depending how close you move in to the view, you will notice that the wheeled units that unload the containers from the rail cars (they appear to not be on rails but on rubber tires) move a bit from view to view. So ... now we know that as you move in, you will be viewing an image captured at a different time that the one farther out or closer in ... interesting!

At any rate, after combing the area for hours of apparently wasted time, looking for this house to determine the correct color to paint it, I can tell you that the house I am building no longer exists, having become a victim of progress. Stan confirmed this fact for me at Tuesday afternoon's Operating Session (the last of the season as the snowbirds have now all flown north for the summer!)

But when the house did exist, it had a footprint of 24'-0" x 32'-0" for a total of 768 sq. ft. of living space under roof. The front porch at 5'-6" x 16'-6" yielded 36 sq. ft. additional outdoor space still under roof.

Here is a peek at where I am on the project this afternoon ... and a glimpse of one of the reasons it has been taking me so long to put this relatively little house together, now that most of the major pieces have been fabricated and sit ready for assembly ...

   

There are a few things going on inside the house Icon_lol that will ready for viewing in the near future ... :arrow: 8-) Icon_idea Big Grin ...

And then there is the roof! Let's hope I can build this one the correct size!! I already have a garage roof that will be very nice on a slightly larger garage!
357 35 Wallbang Wallbang
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#13
I appreciate all of the suggestions, Gentlemen. They would all be excellent concepts to investigate if this house was for my own layout. However, this house will be installed on a club layout, about 3'-6" (or possibly farther) from the layout's edge where all lighting is hard-wired to one of the local "lighting" power busses. From what I understand, all structure interior lighting on the layout to date uses 16v incandescent bulbs, run on something less, like around 8 or 10v, for reduced brightness and bulb longevity.

I intend to use LEDs and resistors and eliminate the need to have to access the house to change bulbs (or just live with the "nobody is home" look.) The heat generated within the structure should be reduced by this tactic as well. I still intend to provide access to the interior for LED/wiring maintenance should it ever be needed. One of the two pieces of styrene that was in the envelope (along with the Tichy Group molded windows) was just such a ceiling piece as Mark "Fixit" suggested. I'll use that and a couple of drilled and threaded bosses to fasten the roof sheathing to the "ceiling" with a couple of judiciously-placed screws. The roof assembly can then be lifted off for interior maintenance and the wiring and LEDs between the ceiling and the roof can be accessed by removing a couple small screws.

I’m well aware that this project is taking longer than it probably should (I think "Project Manager" Stan at Scale Rails is wondering if I'll ever finish this house, much less ever get around to building the other few I had indicated I'd build!) But I have been laying some design/engineering/”technique” groundwork to be used with subsequent builds, which should all go much quicker as a result. I'm sure Stan will be pleased by what I bring him for his beloved San Bernardino! And I should have material for a photo tutorial or two when all is said and done on this house.

In the meantime, I’d better get back at it! With any luck I’ll have some photos to post late this afternoon …
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#14
SP1 Wrote:... Take your time! If you rush you wont be satisfied with the result of your work in the end. Or you end up doing it twice. Guess, why I know this.

Exactly!

Besides, if when it's completed I take it to an upcoming NMRA event to be judged, If I expect it to win a Merit Award (my current goal) it will have to be "right."

No ... I'm taking my time, but I'm not being lazy ... I have yet to unveil one of the details (that I spent a week and a half investigating materials and developing application methods) that I think will win points with the Judges! And today was spent working in the bathroom and the kitchen ... Big Grin ... things are coming right along ... slowly, but progressing!

I did manage to chuck a couple of straight pins in my variable-speed 1/4" hand drill and using a file, turn down the pinheads to be scale doorknobs! And the whole time, I kept saying to myself, "You are one sick man, William ... one really sick man!)

Thanks for the encouraging words, Jens! My work does not measure up to yours ... that "Container Grabber" is some beautiful modelwork!
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
#15
P5se Camelback Wrote:    

It's at moments like this in project when you can start to see it as a model instead of a bunch of abstract parts. I hope there are no activities of ill-repute going on within those walls BiL. Wink


Big Grin


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