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Messages - nycjeff

#1
Hello Jerry, I hope that by catching up, as you say, with some stuff you did while the forum was down, now you can make some steady progress on your layout. This hobby is a place to relax and get away from the real world and spend some time in our own "little worlds". Looking forward to more of your work.
#2
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After gluing on my home made ridge cap pieces, this is what it looked like. Not perfect, but better than it was.

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The top of the dormer roof looks better now.

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Here is a view of the roof from above. I still need to work on the coloring of metal roofs, but I'm getting a little better.

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Next I started the building trim installation. This picture shows the gable end area. There are three pieces of trim here. On the top of the gable wall are two pieces. One placed on top of the other and then stuck on the wall. The third piece is placed on the edge of the sub-roof cards. I think it looks good.

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Next I started on the posts and handrails of the left side porch. They provide two additional pieces for each post called post thickeners. You place one on each side of the post to give it some added girth. They also give you some pieces to place on top of the handrails. This was not an easy task with my shaky hands.

That's it for now, more later.
#3
Continuing on...

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I removed the ridge caps that came with the kit. After looking at the top of the dormer roof, I began to think that I did not place it properly.

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This is a view of the low edge of the dormer roof from below. I have a lot of overhang. Since the roof piece was peel and stick I thought I could remove it and re-position it a little higher up. Nope, The stick part of peel and stick, at least on big pieces like this roof piece means it is stuck on for good. I didn't want to destroy the roof so...

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I painted the visible blue tape with some silver craft paint I had on hand.

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Next, I turned to the remains of the roof sheet and cut up the edges to give me some pieces to work with.

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Here is the kit ridge cap on the left and the piece I cut from the roof sheet on the right. It is almost twice as thick. I think I can work with this.
#4
Hello Curt, thanks for looking in, I appreciate the interest in my kit build.
#5
Dioramas / Re: Justice City Dioramish
March 24, 2024, 01:35:47 PM
Hello Marty, your diorama is really coming together well. Can't wait to see it when finished
#6
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Next up is the roofing material. The kit provides a sheet of standing seam metal looking peel and stick paper. The sheet as it comes with the kit is white. I first sprayed it with a rattle can grey primer and when dry sprayed it again with a rattle can metallic looking color. I then brushed on a brown wash to take away the shine of the sprayed on paint.

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I then sponged on several different rust colors to show some wear and tear to the roof. I guess I got to busy working to take any pictures, but the peel and stick roof pieces went on easily.

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 I didn't have any problems until I put the peak cover piece in place- see here. This piece is only an 1/8 inch wide and it didn't cover the gap as well as I wanted it to. Maybe I didn't place the dormer roof piece up as high as I should, but the blue tape that I used to seal the sub-roof card gaps is visible. Also, the long ridge cover piece did not bend easily and the peel and stick adhesive did not let me lay the piece as flat on the roof as I wanted it to.

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Here is the roof material sheet after all of the pieces have been cut out. I'm thinking of trying to form a new, slightly wider ridge cap with the border material from this sheet.

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Looking ahead a little. Not all of the kit pieces are identified in the instructions. For example, this sheet is labeled building trim. It is left up to the modeler to figure out where all of the pieces must go. Not complaining, just letting you know what comes with the kit. It wouldn't be any fun without challenges, right.

That's it for now, more later.
#7
Continuing on...

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The next step was to work on the second story dormer that overhangs the left side porch. The side walls fit into the slots on the roof card with a little bit of adjustment with a small file. I glued them in place as shown. the front wall of the dormer is showm laying next to the side porch. At the bottom of the front wall and also on the face of the left side you can see green pieces with slots on the top. These are for the floor joists that will be installed next. In this picture you can also see the colored paper that I glued onto the back of the window openings for window shades.

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The front wall fit well with the slots and tabs lining up nicely. After the glue dried I started to install the floor joists. I first glued the middle joist in. I had to flex the front wall slightly to get it to fit properly. The end of the joist fit nicely into the small slots on the green pieces.
The rest of the floor joists went in with only a little bit of trimming for length. These joists will be difficult to see once the model is completed, but they are still a nice touch to the overall appearance.

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Next are the rafter tails. The rafter tails are laser cut with a little tail that is meant to go into the little slots visible in this picture. I had a difficult time fitting the small rafter tail tail into the small slots with my shaky hands, it's not easy getting old, so...

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I then cut the little tail off of the piece. You can see the pieces with the little tail on top and the two below with the tail cut off. This made it much easier for me to get the rafter tail in place using the slot as a guide for positioning. As I said before, I think that the paint on the piece added enough thickness to make fitting it into the slot a little more difficult.

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Here are some of the rafter tails after completion.


#8
Quote from: deemery on March 23, 2024, 06:35:23 PMThe problem I have with tab-and-slot (when it's done precisely) is it's really hard to bash the model.  When the tabs & slots aren't well aligned, they are really difficult to assemble.   So it's good to hear this one is on the 'precisely' side.

dave

Hello Dave, you're right about the inability to kit bash this type of kit. It is engineered to be built just as it is, with little to no room for free lancing. Also, I think I mispoke when using the term precisely. Precise to me means darn near perfect and I have had to make some minor adjustments as I go along. I have to remember that the pieces are made to fit together as they are made. When the modeler adds paints, washes and other surface covering materials, the wall or piece surface is changed and that makes fitting the pieces together just a little more difficult.

Quote from: ReadingBob on March 24, 2024, 09:44:06 AMThis is coming along really well, Jeff.  It's an impressive looking kit and you're doing an outstanding job with it!

Hello Bob, thanks for looking in. I'm pleased with how the kit is turning out and thank you for the kind words.
#9
Quote from: PRR Modeler on March 23, 2024, 08:49:39 AMGreat looking progress Jeff.

Hello Curt, thanks for looking in and for the kind words

Quote from: jerryrbeach on March 23, 2024, 09:02:46 AMJeff,

Your build is progressing nicely.  While I'm not a fan of tab and slot construction, this kit seems to fit together precisely for the most part.  Your color choices and attention to detail are definitely on point.  Thanks for taking the time to share this build with us.

Hello Jerry, this is my first time with this type of kit construction. You are right, things are fitting together precisely. I've had to make only minor adjustments so far, but as we all know, that's where the fun is.
#10
The next step called for gluing what they called the sub roof cards onto the structure. When test fitting these pieces I found that the tabs did not fit into the slots all that easily. I think it's because of the paint I added to the walls. It was an easy matter to use one of my small files to open the slots in the roof cards a little. They then fit onto the tops of the walls easily. here are a few pictures showing the sub roof cards installed.

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There were some small gaps between the sub roof pieces so I used some blue painters tape as flashing to close those gaps.

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That's it for now, more later.



#11
I continued on gluing the walls in place. When test fitting the right side wall I noticed a gap between the wall and the interior second floor ceiling. I also noticed that the left side wall was bowed in the middle. I then realized that the second floor ceiling was not the same size as the base floor. So, gluing the walls to the second floor ceiling, which I "assumed" was the right thing to do, was not helping matters at all.

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I took my #11 blade and broke the glue joint between the left side wall and the second floor ceiling. This straightened out the left side wall and gave me the gap between the wall and ceiling. I inserted a vertical piece of 4x6 stripwood between the wall and ceiling as shown and all was well and things were nice and solid again.

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Next I glued in the right side and front walls, with again using vertical 4x6 stripwood in the gap and evrything was good. I'm not sure why the ceiling piece was not the same size as the base floor below. I guess I should have laid it onto the base floor to make sure it was the same size before proceeding. As you can see in the picture I glued a piece of 1/8 square stripwood between the gable end peaks for more gluing siurface for the roof cards. This was not in the instructions, just a habit of mine when building kits.

I should mention here that this kit is not for someone without previous experience building craftsman kits. The instructions do not provide step by step points for building the kit and the parts are not all labeled. Having built more than a few craftsman kits and also scratchbuilding several structures, the instructions were clear enough for me.

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Moving on, the next step called for installing rafters on the front bump out. Asa you can see in the picture I pre-painted the sheet with my trim color. I used a sponge to do this. The rafter pieces came out of the sheet fairly easily. You do need a new blade in your cutting tool to do this.

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The rafters have been installed. They fit perfectly in the slots in the gable end wall and the front bump out wall. The engineering of the laser cut pieces is impressive.

 
#12
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on March 21, 2024, 03:41:27 PMEnjoying watching the engineering of this kit, Jeff.

Looks nice and solid with all those interior pieces.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, this kit is turning into an adventure. I thought the same thing while building, but stay tuned and you'll see that the interior walls do not help in making the structure solid.

Quote from: PRR Modeler on March 22, 2024, 08:59:59 AMGreat looking modeling Jeff. It's turning out much better than I thought it woukd when you said it was a heavy paper. The windows remind me of tge ones in a BTS kit.

Hello Curt, I didn't know what to expect when I started, but I'm pleasantly surprised so far. I guess we all get into a comfort zone with our familiar wood walls and bracing. The fiberboard or heavy paper as you call it is a different medium, but it's working out very well. I haven't done a BTS kit so far, do they have similiar windows to what I have in this kit ?
#13
I just lost a whole post with pictures because my log in time ran out. I usually log in for an hour, but this time it was not enough. Live and learn, I'll repost soon.
#14
Continuing on...

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Here is a view of the rear wall after drybrushing, painting the exposed foundation, installing windows and a door and placing shades on the inside of the windows. The bottom middle window is modeled to be open with interior shades blowing in the wind.

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Here are the rear and left side walls. You can see how the tab and slots fit together. From looking at the instructions, the corner joint will be covered by trim boards on both sides of the corner.

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I've glued the left side and rear walls to the base which has some interior walls and a second floor ceiling. You can see the gluing surface for the walls around the base perimeter. I also put some glue on the tab and slot corners of the wall.
The next step got me into a little bit of trouble. I "assumed" that the second floor ceiling was the same size as the first floor floor. We all know what happens when we assume. So I merrily placed some glue along the edge of the second floor ceiling because I figured it would further stabilize the walls and make everything tighter.

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Here's a view of the left side wall after gluing it to the base.

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And here's a view of the rear wall. The corner joint fit perfectly. The laser engineering on the parts of this kit are impressive. The glue dried, everything was nice and tight and solid and I was a happy camper.

 
#15
Hello Mark, Jerry, Greg and Terry. I'm glad that all of you guys liked the windows. They were a lot of work, but I'm very satisfied with the end product. This is the first kit that I have built using this type of material and I'm enjoying every bit of it so far.
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