Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

I don't know if I'd use the term 'amazing', but I'm not going to ask you to take it back, Tom.  Hopefully I'm showing how a big project can be accomplished in small, somewhat thought out steps with some simple materials and techniques.

So, it seems like any "kitbash" kind of effort means you spend just about as much time building and designing supporting structures as you do joining pieces together.  That holds true for the coal breaker.  I started to attempt to join my two orthogonal roof pieces that attach to the 2nd story via a 12/12 sloping extension on the top of that 2nd story.  I wasn't getting a whole lot of practical support and I couldn't maintain that 45-degree angle, so I decided to build some supporting columns that attach to the back side of the foam board and maintain the roof angle.  Built them out of extra cardstock, folded them into columns and applied some glue...

   

I also discovered that I'd cut the wrong angle on the projecting edge of each roof section.  I'd mistakenly laid each section out and cut at 45 degrees.  However, just like crown molding, that'll guarantee that the two pieces won't join in the corner.  The appropriate miter angle for a "45-degree" corner if you cut it flat is 35.3 degrees, and since we're talking about thin paper, I don't have to worry about a bevel angle.  I had to redo the ends of each roof section, but I now have something that looks close, and I'm going to slap a joiner piece over the corner (also part of the Small Steel Mill kit) and call the intermediate roof done.

       

Another advantage of the supporting columns is that it will give me the perfect spacing to place and secure the 3rd story to the existing structure. More pictures of that when I get something built!