Middletown Tower Project: "Scrapbuilding" Walls

Looks like progress on my Middletown tower project is on about a once-per-month schedule - not quite as "quick & dirty" as I expected.  But now that "Mockup Structures" has floated to the top of my to-do list for my next operating session, this project is back on the front burner.  Click here for the previous installment on this project - and continue reading for the progress that I made tonight.

After cutting the walls down to closer-to-prototype height, and removing the wall sections that had unneeded doors & windows (see this post), it was time to "backfill" with reconstructed walls of clapboard styrene. 

I got a total length of the clapboard needed by setting the walls side-by-side and then used a square and ruler to score and snap the pieces.

Cuttin' up

While the score & snap method is certainly fast, and using a right angle ensures the wall is square in one plane, the cut doesn't always result in a square edge.  A NWSL True Sander (1st time using this Christmas present!) squares the cuts up nicely.

The clapboard sheet styrene is thinner than the thickness of the original walls, and I wanted to brace new to old, so I decided to thicken the clapboard walls with some strip styrene.  To determine how thick those strips should be, I needed to measure the thickness of the original walls, including trim.  While doing this, I also measured the width of the trim so I could match it on the new walls.

I kept track of all the measurements on a Post-It.  Clapboard thickness is .035" and I'm using a scale 1x6 (.011x.066) for trim.  Adding the new trim (.011) to the new clapboard (.035) results in a thickness of .046".  The thickness of the original wall, including the thickness of its trim, is .069".  So the thickness of the styrene strip backers need to be .023" (.069-.046).

I used scale 2x8s for the backers/braces.  At .022" thick, that's close enough to .023" for me. Using Tenax 7r liquid cement with a microbrush made this step go quickly. The braces that will strengthen the joint between the old and new walls will be glued perpendicularly to these backer/braces.

Final step for the evening was to go ahead and glue two of the original walls together using a Right Clamp. While this step seems a bit out of sequence, I think having at least one corner done will help me determine where/how the new clapboard/trim corners should go together.

Since I wanted this joint to set up fully, I decided to leave it overnight - and call it a night. I hope you're enjoying this blow-by-blow account. I'm not sure whether this project would be considered kitbashing or scratchbuilding. I "re-kitted" a tower, essentially making it scrap, and have then been building it back up using those "scrapped" parts and some new styrene.  Hmmm.... maybe I'll just call this process "scrapbox building" or - better yet - "scrapbuilding." :^)

Roman and Pieter are coming over for a work session tomorrow, so I hope to have some more layout progress to post in a day or two - so stay tuned!