Woodberry FCSME Module Construction Thread

[restocarp]

Dave,

While I had thought about creating a recess for overlapping the pilaster from one casting to the other (and nixed it due to concerns about proper layout and accuracy,) I had not thought of casting the pilaster as a separate piece. That would go a long way towards eliminating joints and be easier to get right. This is my first modular casting so I erred on the side of simple, but I will definitely think about that for the next time. Thanks!

Matt

[vinceg]

Wow, Matt. That is some serious, heavy duty engineering skill. Inspiring. Thanx for sharing.

[restocarp]

Working today to assemble some castings.



Matt

[restocarp]

The castings are now assembled and ready for paint.



Matt

[restocarp]

I spent some of my vacation time painting and weathering the machine shop.

Now for some work on the interior.

Matt

[Janbouli]

Great stone wall.

[restocarp]

I have painted both the inside and the outside and installed the windows. I also scratchbuilt a door. Now I am figuring out the roof structure.


Exterior


Interior (front of building) with door in place.


Interior (middle of building) with mocked up machine locations


Interior (rear of building) showing stockroom door cutout and failed plaster wall.

The failed plaster wall was made using a small, thin piece of casting made by pouring a puddle of leftover resin into my stone wall mold. That was glued onto the interior face of the exterior wall casting and buried in Durham's wood filler.

Matt

[postalkarl]

Hey Matt:

As mentioned at the start this is quite the project. The row houses look just fantastic. as does the stone building. I will be following along with much interest.

Karl

[restocarp]

A quick update to this thread to prove that I am, indeed, working on the modules.

I built my version of the small millrace in the corner of the right hand module.
The prototype again:


I cut a triangular hole in the front of the table and built a small shelf.



The walls were constructed with a method used by several modelers. I cast square rods of plaster and snapped off individual stones. Those were then laid up to create a master wall, which I then made a mold of and cast multiples. My joined ends weren't great, but I made them work with a little filing and filling.



I included a concrete drain at the far end (a piece of cardboard tube,) a large drain pipe (a soda straw,) and a small drain pipe (a plastic coffee stirrer.) Those were drilled through the plaster walls and the wood supports beyond. All was glued in with epoxy. I then added some foam topography to form the stream bed. I carved and sanded this to create the banks, including some undercuts. I picked at the foam with an Xacto blade to roughen the undercuts up. The rest of the surfaces were sanded smooth.



After sealing the joints between the walls and the foam with latex caulk, I painted the entire surface with my Home Depot reject ground colored paint and then sprinkled grout over the wet paint. I used wet water and glue to attach ground foam on top of this base. I used Bragdon powders to darken the stream bed to give the illusion of depth and wetness. The walls were painted using spray primer followed by craft paint applications. Bragdon powders were applied to the wall surface as well for weathering. I strategically placed real pebbles throughout the stream bed. The dried grass tufts are bristles from a disposable chip brush. The tire is a slice of a rubber hose, per a tutorial from Todd at HO Scale Customs.


The final step was the application of a gloss polyurethane. I used several coats, allowing them to dry completely overnight. I ended up repainting the stones in the river bed to remove the gloss on them. This helped give the illusion that the water was flowing through them. There is not a lot of depth to the poly, but I wasn't looking for a raging river and I think it turned out pretty well.




Until next time,
Matt

[PRR Modeler]

Beautiful modeling Matt.

[Jim Donovan]

Great modeling and thanks for the detailed explanation. Definitely learning and flagged for reading and note taking.

Jim D

[Janbouli]

looking great Matt , keep sharing those photo's.

[vinceg]

Good looking scene, Matt. Could you explain in a little more detail how you make the plaster "rods?" I can imagine creating some formers out of wood or styrene and pouring plaster in but then I wouldn't get that cut stone look at you have achieved.

[restocarp]

Good looking scene, Matt. Could you explain in a little more detail how you make the plaster "rods?" I can imagine creating some formers out of wood or styrene and pouring plaster in but then I wouldn't get that cut stone look at you have achieved.

Vince,

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I basically used the same system that Roger did in the beginning of this thread:
http://www.modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=2769.0

I used hydrocal for my castings and found that I could very lightly score around the perimeter of the rod and then snap off a block. The backs could be sanded if necessary, but mostly I just used them as they were. I did have some difficulty getting my rods out of the form, and my form came apart a bit, but I had more than enough to make the short section of wall that I needed.

Read through Roger's tutorial. I think it is very thorough and will help you a lot.

Matt

[restocarp]

I have begun fabrication of the roof structure of the machine shop. This is complicated by the fact that the building is both a cut away and joins the front fascia at an angle. In order to wrap my brain around it, I built the basic roof from cereal box cardboard. I then began building and gluing each primary truss to the cardboard. In between I installed Evergreen v-groove styrene sheet. On top of that I added secondary rafters and purlins. Once all of those are installed, I will install all of this to the building and then add the intermediate rafters. The interior ceiling and trusses will be painted brown. This will help hide some sins, including the fact that the v-groove should have run in the opposite orientation.   

The posts, girts and braces are whitewashed to lighten up the interior and draw the viewers eyes down into the main shop. A red high visibility safety stripe was added to the bottom of the posts to add some variety.




I also built and painted the Crow River lathes. All of the machines are painted to represent and industrial green look. I felt the green would be more easily seen than a gray or black. They were weathered with Bragdon powders and the machined edges were highlighted with Tester's Silver enamel.



I added a glamour shot as well.


More as more develops.
Matt