Monday, July 14, 2014

Back to Middletown Tower: Cuttin' Up


I haven't done anything on the Middletown Tower project since I introduced it over a week ago. I did end up getting some clapboard styrene from The Time Machine a couple days later, but the "re-kitted" building has been languishing on the workbench waiting for me to get the nerve to actually cut it up. 

As I looked at the walls more closely to decide where best to cut them, Haksaw's comment made more and more sense: considering the work involved  in adapting this re-kitted building, why not just scratch build? Good point - but now that I finished with the razor saw, it looks like I'm on my way. See the photo above.

To determine where to cut, I counted the clapboards on the prototype from the bottom of the windows to the ground and cut the excess boards from the bottom of the back wall. I forgot to account for the trim board across the bottom, but I don't think that'll be too difficult to remedy.

The side and front walls on the kit had doors and windows, to I decided to cut & remove all the clapboard from below the "chair rail."  It would have been more prototypical to remove from just below the window sills, but as you can see on the left side wall, there's a door that goes down to that "chair rail" (wish I knew the proper term) and cutting through it or rebuilding that wall from scratch wouldn't have been worth the time.  Since this is supposed to be Middletown Tower Q&D, it needs to be Q (quick).

Next steps will be to cut the new styrene clapboard walls to add to the bottom of the front/side window sections, add trim, and paint to match.  At least that's the plan for now.  I'll let you know how it goes - though in addition to the Q, there could very well a good deal of D (dirty) in this particular build.

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My day job has started to interfere with my blogging a bit (day jobs have a way of doing that), so after being able to post pretty regularly, I haven't been quite as regular lately.  Rest assured though, progress continues - although at a slower pace.  And it must continue - after all, I have my next ops session scheduled for July 26 and only one weekend between now and then to get through my growing punch list!

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