Magnuson Municipal Building

[ACL1504]

Count me in too.  Looks like an interesting structure for sure.  Load's of detail in those castings.

Bob,

Thanks for following along. This will be another focal point in the Town of Tahope.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Those are really nice looking castings.

Curt,

The casting details are very nice and I've been wanting to build this one for years.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Good looking building Tom.....I'll be looking in.

Don't forget, if you're thinking of putting a statue out front, we're in the New South and no right thinking pol would dream of putting a politically incorrect statue out front that would offend our brethren, of delicate sensibilities, further north. 

Greg, 

You are definitely an instigator and a rebellious one as well.

You know perfectly well that across from the Courthouse I WILL have a Confederate flag and a Johnny Reb or General Nathan B. Forest in the square.

No, I'm not a racist or white supremacist. Tahope is a town in the South during the early 50's and certainly prior to all this, "It's a sign of oppression and my feeling are hurt bull crap"!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Good looking building Tom.....I'll be looking in.

Don't forget, if you're thinking of putting a statue out front, we're in the New South and no right thinking pol would dream of putting a politically incorrect statue out front that would offend our brethren, of delicate sensibilities, further north. 

EXACTLY RIGHT!

[ACL1504]

Good looking building Tom, and I do think that Tahope DOES need a statue out in front.  Maybe one of Bugs Bunny to not offend anyone.

Jim

Jim,

I'm sure there is someone out there that will be offended by Bugsy being in the square.

Just in case, I think a Confederate General would be appropriate.

Tom

[GPdemayo]

Good looking building Tom.....I'll be looking in.

Don't forget, if you're thinking of putting a statue out front, we're in the New South and no right thinking pol would dream of putting a politically incorrect statue out front that would offend our brethren, of delicate sensibilities, further north. 

Greg, 

You are definitely an instigator and a rebellious one as well.

You know perfectly well that across from the Courthouse I WILL have a Confederate flag and a Johnny Reb or General Nathan B. Forest in the square.

No, I'm not a racist or white supremacist. Tahope is a town in the South during the early 50's and certainly prior to all this, "It's a sign of oppression and my feeling are hurt bull crap"!

Tom

Who.....me? 

[ACL1504]

Okay, now all the political stuff is out of the way we can proceed to the build.

I spent several hours today removing flash and cleaning the casting. I used an Emory board and small metal file to clean the heavy flash from the window, door and wall sides.

This is an old Magnuson kit so the resins used back 40 years ago were very brittle and sticky. More on the sticky stuff later.

On two of the walls, there was an excess of resin build up. I have it marked in green in the next two photos.





This build up of resin will prevent the walls from fitting together correctly.

More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I used a new #11 blade, Emory board and flat metal file to removed this build up.

I used the edge of the #11 blade and scraped the resin and then followed with the file and Emory board to a smooth side.

You can see the green on the side is now gone. The green still visible is on the back side of the wall.




More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Another issue is two of the walls that fit together, DON'T!

I'm showing the difference on the bottom as it is more defined. When the walls are assembled, I'll glue them in this manner so the the top will match. I can better make an adjustment on the bottom more so than the top.

Scenery will definitely cover these bad fitting walls.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

As with all old Magnuson kit walls, these are warped. Not as bad as some I've seen but still bad.

I've dealt with warped Magnuson walls in the past so these won't be a problem to fix.

I'll show how I plan to straighten the walls later in the next thread posting.

[ACL1504]

[ACL1504]

Good looking building Tom.....I'll be looking in.

Don't forget, if you're thinking of putting a statue out front, we're in the New South and no right thinking pol would dream of putting a politically incorrect statue out front that would offend our brethren, of delicate sensibilities, further north. 

Greg, 

You are definitely an instigator and a rebellious one as well.

You know perfectly well that across from the Courthouse I WILL have a Confederate flag and a Johnny Reb or General Nathan B. Forest in the square.

No, I'm not a racist or white supremacist. Tahope is a town in the South during the early 50's and certainly prior to all this, "It's a sign of oppression and my feeling are hurt bull crap"!

Tom

Who.....me? 

Yes, doesn't this have your name on it?

[ACL1504]

Talk about a sticky situation. The early Magnuson resin pieces had some sort of sticky residue on them. I'm not sure this is the mold release or the resin itself. No matter, it needs to come off.

For the walls in this kit, I used a soft bristle brush and warm soapy water. Actually, I used a soft toothbrush and Dawn dish soap. I did this twice and got most of the sticky stuff off. I let the walls dry over night and they were better but still had some of the sticky still on portions of the walls.

I then placed all the pieces in the sink, sprayed them with Goo Gone and let sit for an hour.

I used the soft bristle toothbrush and removed the Goo Gone using warm water to wash as I cleaned.

I let these dry over night and the next day the sticky residue was removed.

I used 1/4" square brass tubes to help straighten the warped walls. IN the photo below you and see how warped one wall was.

I used the ZAP-A-GAP Medium, the light green bottle of CA+(super glue) to glue the brass and walls together. I applied the glue and clamped the brass tubing to the wall.





More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Let me back up here for a moment.

There have been several opinions, all differing, on how to fix the warped walls in a Magnuson kit.

Some say soak in warm water and lay them flat. Others say use the microwave and zap them and then bend them flat. I guess these are the most popular methods but I have one big problem with these solutions.

After the walls have been in the box for 40 years the warp is somewhat permanent or at the least developed a memory.

I have first hand experience with both the microwave and hot water bath and neither work on a permanent basis. Remember the memory thing I just mentioned?

Gluing the brass tubing to the walls has been my "go to" for at least 25 years with these old kits.

Not saying the solutions mentioned aren't good or work, they just don't work for me

I built a Magnuson kit after fixing the walls via the hot water method. Three weeks after the structure was painted and on the layout, the wall started to revert back to the warp position.

You are now warned.

[ACL1504]

After the rear wall was braced with the brass tubing, I glued the side wall in place.

This wall wasn't to warped and actually somewhat straight so I didn't brace it first. The bracing was done after the walls were glued and square.





Diet Pepsi time, back after grabbing a cold one.