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Messages - Jim Donovan

#661
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 17, 2020, 10:05:58 AM
The 4th floor (roof) of the tower is not added till further in the construction so I used Krylon Matt Finish and sprayed the photos then set the assembly aside. I have not glued the roof panels in place, they are just placed to make sure scene looks right.



The next section to work on is the third floor. The 4th floor has slotted walls that lock into a slotted floor. The floor is also the ceiling for the 3rd floor and they lock into each other when assembled. You can see what I mean in the pictures. Prior to applying any of the following prints I used a gray colored Sharpie pen and carefully slid the edge of the paper across the side of the tip so that the design has a finished look and you do not see the white edges. One of the members on the Forum taught me that trick and it really makes a difference. Be careful as you color the paper edge or you will slip and mark up the printed design (yep I know, that's one reason I make extras).



I put one of the 'ceiling murals' on the ceiling side of 3rd floor using contact cement. The back wall gets the picture of bookshelves and door. HOWEVER, rather than being glued completely only glue the center of the picture at this point. We are going to use the area where the corner bracing meets the picture to hide some wires in a few minutes.  For some reason the jpeg I uploaded does not have the books on left side, if you cut and paste it will fix that. Finally, the animal print pattern is glued to the sides and front. I sized the print (about 3.5 cm) so it pretty much covers the corner bracing. I did not worry if the bracing is seen a little, with windows in place it will be hard to see corners. AFTER the contact glue fully dries, yes I know ::) I used an exacto knife with a NEW blade (the paper dulls these blades in no time) and carefully trimmed out the window and doors.



I again used the gray Sharpie. The ink bled a little on the wall patterns which actually turned out great. The inside of door and windows looks trimmed out. Here is view when back wall wall glued in place.





I had some cornice moulding bought for another project and decided it to use it to trim out the ceiling and more importantly act as a shade so the LED lights would provide soffit lighting. Using my little modeling table saw I cut the moulding to the correct length and then miter cut each so the four sides would align like real moulding. Frankly this was over kill and I did not accomplish a very good fit (but it works). You can use a 1 x 12 board cut to length and accomplish the soffit look needed. In either case the wood trim was stained using Hunter Red Barn, followed by Hunter Medium Brown (like the flooring). The brown wash really brought out the shades in the wood, too bad it is up next to ceiling and will be seen only briefly. When dry, and key, glue the trim pieces to the corner braces at the point just below the ceiling so that a gap is left between the trim and the outer wall.



Now I drilled the two small holes  (just big enough to allow the LED to pass through) for the LED lighting. Each hole is about 1 cm from corner of the bracing on the back wall and located  behind the cornice moulding. The LED lights were put in place and the wires are run down either side behind the back wall photo. Two notches are made in the bottom of the back wall so the wires can come out at the floor and then go into the main building. The lights are locked in place using UV activated CA glue and then the picture is completely glued in place using contact cement. Sounds like more then it is. One thing I did forget was to coat each picture with the Krylon Matt Finish. Since the walls are in place the matt finish needs to be applied prior to attaching to inside walls. I plan to use my  airbrush and use Dulcote to accomplish the same thing.


The lights are on the left side in this photo.

Here shows where to place the lights and glue them in place:



The two nano lights are connected in series and will eventually be hooked up with all the other lights. To test each series I have a Plug and Play module from Woodland Scenics. Using it with their connectors is great as it is essentially a voltage regulator. I start at zero and turn the knob until (hopefully) the lights turn on. This way I can test without current limiters or resistors and not burn out the LED's. Those will go on when we finish up connections.



That covers the third floor library.

#662
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 17, 2020, 09:08:41 AM
Hi Curt, thanks!

Glad you like it so far. Have a long way to go but just taking my time and enjoying the ride. It is a great kit, hope to due it justice.

Jim D
#663
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 17, 2020, 09:05:01 AM
Thanks Steven;

Appreciate the compliment. I like what lighting does for a building, adding another layer of realism and depth. Slim at Micro Lumina has some great articles on his site, must reading before lighting something up. One thing to watch is the voltage, since the LED's operate on only 3 volts (more or less). He addresses this issue very well.

Thanks Again

Jim D
#664
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 17, 2020, 08:54:03 AM
Opa George;

Great to hear from you and thanks. I'm like you, I love the old Victorian age / style hotel over the new square block buildings. When the Boss and I travel we always try to find a unique hotel or B&B.

Jim D
#665
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 17, 2020, 12:25:46 AM
After completing shingling of the four roof panels I set them aside. Next I adjusted all the photos and designs selected for use on each of the floors. I use Inkscape for this purpose as it is a vector program (allows for much clearer designs when printed) like Photoshop but is open source and free. It has more than enough features to handle any work I need accomplished and there are plenty of YouTube videos and how-to postings to educate you on how to get what you want. I suggest you set your preferences to millimeters in order to make your shapes as exact as possible, also eliminate the 'snap to' function, it is annoying. I find the metric system so much easier to use then the English system I almost always convert to it whatever I am doing, modeling or 1:1 work.

To print the final designs I used a brother inkjet printer using premium grade letter size paper. Make sure the ratio is set to 100%, sometimes (especially if the printer thinks there are boarders) it will 'fit to size' making the picture smaller then needed. Set print quality to the best and hit print. I first test print each design to test make sure they are the right size and provide the look I want. These are just black and white draft quality and cut using a pair of scissors. After more corrections then I want to admit I was ready to print for real. I combined the designs onto two pages. I make sure I print enough to complete the job and at least one extra of each picture, just in case. Using an exacto knife and ruler I carefully cut out the various pictures.

I took three of the four observation deck pictures and using Elmer's Rubber Contact Cement put a picture into a quarter panel using a concave manner. I did not put a crease in the middle, rather let the photo be rounded and centered. Make sure the three panels selected are the front and two side panels. The rear panel is going to have more electric and needs more work done before the photo can be applied. I don't normally use contact cement but it is a must in order to glue the photos in place and not have them wrinkle (trust me I know  :o). To use contact cement correctly you must spread glue smoothly on BOTH surfaces in order for it to adhere correctly (again, trust me I know  ::))

Next I installed lighting for section using four, 3 volt, warm LED lights. I drilled a small hole in the top of each center quarter panel and ran the bulb wires through the quarter panel and then through center hole of the rear quarter panel. I made sure the bulb was snug to the hole opening. To keep the bulbs locked in place I used UV activated CA glue. Used primarily by fishing lure hobbyists I was put onto this great product by Daryl Jacobs. It is a CA glue that remains a liquid until UV light is applied, then it hardens in seconds. It is great for applications like this as it allows you working time to get things lined up and then hit it with the light. I don't use the manufacture type Daryl recommended any more, I find using the same stuff as made for lures works great and the light that came with it is much more powerful and faster. You will see a photo of it below and it can be bought on Amazon. With the three lights in place that already have the photo glued into the panel I glued the 4th light into the rear panel near the hole with the wires coming through. Then I placed copper tape 'pads' on the wall and wired the four lights in series, soldering them together at the copper pads. I will need to figure out how best to bring the wiring into the main building and keep it out of sight but that will wait till the main walls of the hotel are up. So here are the pictures which hopefully show you better what I did.









Well computer out of power. I will post more tomorrow.

Jim D
#666
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 16, 2020, 11:05:18 PM
Well I have made enough progress to share.The tower being a focal point I want it to look complete. I studied the drawings for some time to determine possible uses for each floor as the directions do not offer any ideas. The second floor is a connector for the two wings. While I still need to figure out how people get from the first to the second floor I decided to make the tower's second floor a foyer complete with carpet, back wall tapestry, wallpaper and even a ceiling mural. I may put a couple of chairs and a table in area once completed. I spent a couple of evenings looking on the internet for appropriate background photos. For this floor I found wifelife photos for the tapestry and ceiling. Fabric samples worked great for the floor and walls. Here are the photos I came up with to use. All are open source. If I have done this right they should be sized correctly if you wish to use them.


Back Wall Mural


Carpet


Second Floor Wallpaper


Ceiling

The third floor took some thought. The main two wings of the hotel are positioned so this part of the tower is forward of the wings and only connected by one wall. I decided a picture with a door surrounded on either side by books would work best glued to the back wall. It would make the area look like a library and the door in background connects the room to the rest of the hotel. I used the same ceiling mural, a different wall paper scheme as well as a different carpet.


Back Wall


Wall Paper


Carpet

I will be putting a staircase in so that the third floor leads to the 4th (Observation Room) so it too is connected to the rest of the hotel..

Finally the 4th Floor is a Gentlemen's Cigar/ Observation Room. The construction of the top of tower has two laser cut sections that slide into each other to form an X shape. I found a picture of a view from a real B&B observation room that looked similar. The center window may look a little too close to the front but for interior enhancement it will work.



More in a minute
#667
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 16, 2020, 08:58:47 PM
Hi Larry;

Thanks for checking in. I make a quart of the thinner at a time. So far I have seen no change in it after it sat but I make sure to shake it before using it. I have had real good luck with it so far.

Jim D
#668
I agree with George, your building is coming along really well.

Jim D
#669
Loved the story, like going back in time.

Jim D
#670
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 09, 2020, 09:30:20 AM
Karl and Steven thanks for hopping in and the compliment. I have watched the video Daryl provided several times as well as reviewing the directions and seeing other versions of this kit that have been made. I think a lot can be done to bring out the grandeur of the hotel so I hope to add a lot of items like the hotel photo and lighting.

Jim D
#671
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 09, 2020, 09:25:43 AM
Dave, thanks for stopping by. You are right, this kit cries out to be lite. I will at a minimum be lighting the interior of tower so that glimpses of the lobby photo are possible. The foyer will have hidden ceiling light and I picked up two wall entrance lights (Woodland Scenics, not cheap and need to be re-painted) to lite the front of the tower. I am thinking of more interior lighting along with a controller to turn rooms on and off to produce 'lived in' look. I have never done that so we will see when I get to that point.

Jim D
#672
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 09, 2020, 09:12:34 AM
Hi Opa George;

Great to hear from you. I want to have the hotel look like the bell of the party, thus the varnished floors. I hope I can do this kit justice, the more I work on it the more I am amazed at the detailing and overall look.

Jim D

PS: Hope you are getting your grandkid hug fix this summer. We are. They are coming over today and Wednesday. Being called Papa is the best!
#673
Kit Building / Re: FOS Harbor Master Office build.
August 05, 2020, 09:31:45 PM
Really coming along Tom. Love the office building, nice touch..

Jim D
#674
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 05, 2020, 12:09:44 AM
So that is as far as we have gone so far. Until next time.



Jim D
#675
Kit Building / Re: Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel
August 05, 2020, 12:05:53 AM
As you can see from the paint bottle picture I airbrushed most of the parts prior to assembly. The kit comes with the various sub assembly parts bagged together. It makes finding parts easier. The directions provide life size templates of the various laser cut wood with all parts numbered.

The directions indicate not much needs to be done for the hotel entrance as it is not seen much. I decided to go the other direction and make the entrance look like a 4 star hotel. This is where I decided to make the flooring stand out like it would in a top resort. I also used the false front for the door section to place a photo of a top grade lobby sized to scale and mounted on the back tower wall. The Hunterline washes were hand painted resulting in some wicking up the back wall. However, this area will not show so I did not fix it.



The doors were part of a sub assembly built up from laser cut tack board and wood. I made my first mistake here, putting the tab backing for the doors upside down. It is hard to see the needed direction from the plans. The correct way allows all the windows to show. By doing it wrong the bottom two windows have wood behind them. I used copper to highlight the frame and doors so I think it turned out OK. I will be lighting both on the inside of the doors as well as in the foyer.



To complete this area I had first put a decal across the top announcing the name as B. Alan Hotel. It is hard to see and if I did it again I would use a cream colored background to help bring the name out, but it works and will not show much in any case.* (I have changed this further along in the build. I covered the sign with a 1 x 12 that was stained per the flooring method, then I put 2 x 6 stringers from the front ceiling to 1 x 12, placed 2 feet apart and also stained.) Here is end result of changes:



You will note that I am using real glass in the doors. I intend to use glass for all windows as well. With the doors and windows laser cut this is a great kit to learn to use glass. It is easy to cut the glass to the needed shapes using the acetate versions  provided with the kit as templates. I think the glass adds a touch of better realism that can be seen.
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