Stone Buildings

[tom.boyd.125]

Roger,
Walls are starting to take shape and look great !    What brand of plaster are you using ?
Tommy

[Random]

Tommy, I'm using Capital Ceramics Hydrocal.  It claims to be high strength and I would agree.  Those narrow bits are just delicate and come with molded in snapping lines.

That said, I decided to try to improve the masters for the door opening wall sections.  I chose copies of each warehouse door and the entry door and added a plate of styrene which will create a solid connection at the base of the door and can be left in place to sit behind the door casting. 





I also built a master for a blank wall section.  This will let me set up four masters for casting which uses a full pot of casting rubber.  (Using the full pot at once saves having to weigh out the 10-1 ratio of base to kicker.)




Here's an illustration of the ability to interconnect the wall sections in any combination using the 3 new masters. 







Some filling has to happen but that's what glue is for. 



They also work on a corner.  This requires a bit more filing to get a nice looking corner but at least they fit.




And here is the crop so far.  I'm getting closer to the number needed for the station.





Cheers!

[Janbouli]

I think " amazing " is the word to describe your work.

[jerryrbeach]

Roger,
I really like the way you have designed and cast the interlocking wall sections.  I'll be following along to see how everything comes together into a finished product.

[Random]

Thanks. 


A bit more progress today.  The new augmented masters have been mounted for mold casting along with the new blank wall master. 





And I've continued casting walls.  I think I have enough good ones to start grouping and fitting.  The trick to getting the bubbles out was Dave Frary's old "spray the mold with wet water" trick.  He used this for his rock castings and it worked just as well in the nooks and crannies of these walls.





Now I'm off to wait for the team to show up to install the new A/C.   The drying time for castings should drop once that's done.   

Cheers!

[Random]

A bit of work today on the first building.

I had never measured to see how the station platform was going to fit so I drew out track spacings and platforms and used a set of walls to see where things stood.  The height is pretty well spot on.  I anticipate a little over 15 scale feet of clearance on the roadway to put the platforms at the correct level.  I have some wiggle room there.  But as you can see below width is an issue.  I need to space the entry door panels a little further apart in order to get the platform width needed.




If you look closely at the picture above you'll see that by putting a single block between each casting I get a good overall width.  So I headed back to the masters bench to put together a couple of spacers.




I built these using my "fingers jig".  Here are the two finished masters which I'll use to make a new mold.




While the new masters dried I worked on fitting sections together to form walls.  These will be the two side walls of the station.




And here I've finished fitting an end wall.  The red arrow marks the corner of the building.  I left gaps for the filler strips.




And here are the platform doors for the upper level.




I've got one more end wall to sand and fit.  That won't take too long.  And of course I'll have to cast several filler sections.  I'm planning to mount the stone walls on the black chipboard which will be reinforced with strip wood. 

Thats it for now.

Cheers!

[S&S RR]

Roger


This is really taking shape - love it! Now this is scratch building.  I'm following along and really enjoying your thread.

[restocarp]

This really is a phenomenal and inspirational project. Thank you for sharing.

Matt

[Random]

Thanks.

I didn't make much progress over the weekend owing to family obligations but there was some progress.

I finished sanding and fitting the outer wall sections.




I set up the masters of the wall spacers for molding.




And I made molds from the upgraded door sections, the blank wall master, and the spacers.  Here's a shot with the first castings.   The first set always shows me where I missed a bubble in the mold.  They are easily removed by snipping off the little bump with some parts nippers.





I need to make 8 spacers to fill out the station walls.


That's if for now.

Cheers

[jerryrbeach]

Roger,
I find the use of the spacers to be a great idea.  The number of slightly different wall sections and spacers offers the opportunity for a wide variety of structures from your basic castings.  I find your thread very interesting.  As usual, I'll be checking your progress.

[JusticeCity]

By any chance you played LEGO when you we a kid?

[GPdemayo]

Absolutely fascinating Roger.....

[jimmillho]

That is quite an undertaking Roger.

Jim

[Mark Dalrymple]

Watching your progress with much interest, Roger.

Cheers, Mark.

[Random]

I finished casting the spacer bits and got them sanded and fitted in between the door sections on the right last night.  The next step is to cut and reinforce backer boards.




I also cleaned up a set of the new door castings with the plaster reinforcement.  Its designed to be hidden behind the plastic door casting (from Tichy) and clear the windows.




Cheers!