Builders in Scale Sassen Vinegar Works - not really

[deemery]

Someone asked (on Facebook) "what wood should I have to build craftsman kits?"  Here's the list I came up with:   scale 1x6, 2x6.  1/32 square, 1/32 x 1/16, 1/16 square, 1/8 square.  The latter is for additional bracing.  Then I thought, "It would be good if some vendor came up with a starter kit that had 3-4 pieces of each of those sizes in a single package."


dave

[Mark Dalrymple]

Someone asked (on Facebook) "what wood should I have to build craftsman kits?"

One would have thought everything needed would be supplied?

Dave - you lost me a bit when you swapped from scale inches to imperial, but...1/32 seems like an odd measurement?  That's a little less than scale 3x3?  I'd certainly put 4x4's on the list...

Cheers, Mark.

[Oldguy]

Lots of progress, Bob!

Things are really taking shape nicely.  The doors came up well.  I like that technique of painting and weathering the stripwood and then assembling the doors.  Using two colours you can achieve a very convincing paintjob.  Your corrugated iron in white looks very good, too.  Some nice interior detail - worth the extra effort.  It sounds like these old BIS kits come with a good amount of details.  I have the Silverado mine tucked away for a future build.

Cheers, Mark.

Yes, they did (do).  I met Jim when he first started to produce the kits and bought several over the years.  When he had a kit that I didn't really care for, I bought a bunch of detail parts.  He was to produce a mine, but he didn't get the chance to get it out.  The instructions are a mixed bag.  Each step details what parts are needed, but one has to cross reference with either illustrations further on in the instructions or one of the detail sheets.  If you are one wanting to do an application of A&I, you have to read ALL the instructions and pick out the pieces to be weathered.

I bought some cheap pre-painted figures from Asia and each needs to be repainted, but they are a decent starting point, especially for interiors.

[Oldguy]

Someone asked (on Facebook) "what wood should I have to build craftsman kits?"

One would have thought everything needed would be supplied?

Dave - you lost me a bit when you swapped from scale inches to imperial, but...1/32 seems like an odd measurement?  That's a little less than scale 3x3?  I'd certainly put 4x4's on the list...

Cheers, Mark.

I'm wondering if the person was curious as to extra wood that might be needed?  And all mentioned would be appropriate.  But then I have some of just about all sizes available.  I've added some 5/32 square for bracing in certain areas as well.

[Oldguy]

The main building has a truck dock with a canopy.  They provide very nice cast supports, sad that they won't be seen.  The instructions have one add two 2x6"s to hold the metal roofing.  From my experience, this won't be enough, so I added three boards.  The white painted one was scavenged from my 2x6 bin.  I made a couple of patterns to cut out the metal and then installed the roofing.  Not my best work, but serviceable.

I am liking the self etching primer.  One can still scratch thru the paint layer, but it is a bit harder.  The metal has three coats of white craft paint.  The flashing, is heavy duty aluminum foil, cut the a scale width of 1 foot.  It is them placed against a straight edge, and the center bent up a bit.  I really like how this looks.

I have decided to add some exterior lighting.  So, I'm making my own using Campbell shades, 1.4mm tubing, and 0402 SMD leds.

[Oldguy]

I'm really liking the proportions of this section.

I found cutting the roofing metal went better but adding some painters tape to the bottom of my cutting edge.  Then place the metal against a straight edge as it has a tendency to bend.  Then cut the material starting at about the center and work to each end.

I found that 1.4mm tubing will slide in the bezel of the Campbell shade.  Then it is a matter of soldering the two together and clean up the joint.  The one must first clean up any cut ends and after soldering, ream out the holes on the end.  Admittedly, I got waaaaay ahead of my self and made the bends using wire looping pliers.  I learned real quick that feeding the wires past the bends wasn't going to happen.  So more cutting and cleaning and soldering and using straight tubing pieces, feed the wires through.  I used the pancake battery to test the leds.  Feeding the wires takes a bunch of patience.  I found it best to feed one wire partially through, then get the other wire in and while slowly turning the brass tube slowly feed the wires through.  The wires might form more of a knot, if so, back them out and try again.  I should mention that with these teeny leds, I fortified the solder joint with a drop of Canopy glue.  Before pulling the wires tight, I added more Canopy glue to hold the leds in place.  These have been primed, so I didn't photograph them yet.

[PRR Modeler]

Excellent Bob.

[postalkarl]

hey Bob:

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see more.

Karl

[Oldguy]

I got all the lamps primed and painted.  I'm only going to use 3 of these for this build. 

I added some 1/8" blocking behind where they will be placed to give a bit more support than a 1/16" piece of wood can.  In the future, I hope to do this prior to assembly of the building.
To my eye these give out decent light at 3 volts.
I wanted to check on the actual resistance of the resistors that came with these lights.  That and determine the resistance of the LEDS.  My multimeter must be off as I can't get it to read much of anything.  Although apparently I am generating 13 millivolts DC.   Well, it varied between 13 and 6 millivolts.     

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob:

Lamps look great. Isn't it fun bending all those wires and they even light up. Great job can't wait to see more.

Karl

[GPdemayo]

I love the added dimension that lighting the structures gives the layout, but still haven't figured it all out.....

[PRR Modeler]

Looks great.

[Oldguy]

I ran into a bit of a snag.  I recently bought some more brown spray paint for my ground cover base making sure it wasn't a gloss.  Matte seems a decent option.  I measured out my foam core base, got it spray painted, marked off building placement, and cut out areas for access to the LED wiring.  I add additional 1/2" strips around the perimeter for bus wiring.  I got the  grain section glued on and after drying overnight.  Then I tilted the base on it's side to pull out the internal wires and . . . the building slid off the base!  Luckily, my desk is a bit messy so it didn't go far or hard.  So now it was a matter of figuring out how to save what I had.  Seems the Matte paint was a bit too glossy.  Nothing would stick to it decently.  I did find that if I did an over spray of a matte varnish, I could get Canopy and Elmers glue to hold.
Now I can finally add the buildings.  First up the grain building.  I needed to make and install a set of steps for the door and then add some gravel now as later, it''l be a royal pain to do so. 


Then the mill portion was added with the stair housing.  Now I can start to add all the extra building bits and bobs.  Then the plan is to tone down the white with white weathering powders.

I really need to pause on building and clean off my desks. 

[PRR Modeler]

Beautiful modeling Bob. I'm lucky that I have a folding table that I place build parts on when doing something large.

[deemery]

Wow, that must have been a scary moment as the building slid off the base.  I wonder if you lightly sanded the gloss paint, if that would be enough to get better glue adhesion.


dave