Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Middletown Tower: Walls Done, Trim to Come

Made some more progress on my "scrapbuilding" project tonight . . .

First new wall glued in. You can see the horizontal braces which place the wall in the same plane as the original kit wall, and the vertical braces/splices which glue to them and hold everything together.

Another view. The width of the front wall goes from one corner of the original wall to the other. The side walls will fit inboard of the front wall.

I decided to add some inside-corner braces for added strength. I would usually use 1/8" or 1/4" square strip, but there wasn't enough room given the length of the horizontal braces (I didn't think that far ahead), so I used .060" instead, two of which are sitting on there on the cutting pad ready to install.

Installed corner brace. I've become fan of the Model Masters cement - it's thicker than the Tenax and includes a needlepoint applicator.  So it's easy to just put a fine bead on on a part and add it to the model.  It sets up fairly quickly too - though not as quickly as Tenax. I use Tenax when I can clamp the part in place first and then flow it into the joint. I couldn't clamp these corner braces though.
All three new walls glued up and done.

And here's how it looks as of tonight.  Almost there!
Next step will be to have the Missus help me come up with some colors to match the "original" wall & trim color (BION I'm colorblind, so the help is most welcome - and needed!). Then it's just a matter of painting the walls & trim and then gluing the trim to the walls.  Oh, and I have to reattach the roof and add "glass" to the windows. I haven't decided yet whether I'll add an interior - but since it's October on my layout, maybe the steam heat will fog up the windows a bit...

I hope you're enjoying this (re)build - it's really putting me in the mood to do some more structures.  Which is good, since I need a lot of structures on the layout - or at least mockups - to determine the final placement of my sidings & such, and to make sure my crews will still be able to operate effectively with the new "obstructions."

But one thing's for sure - this little cut-down tower isn't going to obstruct much of anything!

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