illinois Central Chicago District - Monee Rebuild

[vinceg]

OK, here are a few Dexter pics. A couple of notes. This is my first Gatorboard experience. Love it so far. Super flat/straight and super strong and only 1/2" thick. Wish I would have considered using that from my backdrop material instead of Masonite. More dimensionally stable - would have avoided the cracking. Anyway.....

This is the first FSM kit I have built in several years. More recently, I have been building Bar Mills kits that have some nice conveniences built in for things like wood plank platforms. I had forgotten how detailed George's instructions are. Also, how difficult some of the details like hand railings for stair cases can be when you build them from strip wood instead of a single laser-cut piece of wood. Definitely a more intricate look when it's complete, tho.

The kit has four buildings. Two of them are attached - the Jacob Tire 'complex." That's what I am showing here. Not yet complete but pretty far into it. I'll try to post a little more regularly. Here are three quick pics:



I'll mention two things. First, I made a very slight modification to the model here where that white shingled shed attaches so the board and batten warehouse. The kit calls for the corrugated roofing to be "flush" with the tar paper roofing where it attaches to the main building. Then, the 1/87th scale "leaks" would be prevented by putting in some pitch where the two roof surfaces mate. That didn't make sense to me. Seemed to me that if I were adding a shed to the building I would want the roof of the main building to overhang the roof of the shed so that the water would just run off. So, I trimmed a skosh off the bottom of the shed so that it would nestle just under the main roof. You can see that clearly in picture 1.

Second, I tried a new technique for board and batten building. In particular, I didn't use any tar paper. I just spray painted the chipboard with Rustoleum dark gray primer and glued the battens down on top of that directly. Then, I scrubbed in some chalks after the battens were down. The net effect seems just as good as when I take the effort to do tar paper. maybe that's just because I do a lousy job with regular tar paper.

Oh yeah -- one more thing. I had forgotten about a few other characteristics of FSM kits - zillions of one-at-a-time rafter tails and Campbell shingles. I especially hate the Campbell shingles. For me, it's really difficult to keep them straight. They always want to bend away from the cuts -- kinda like those hanging Happy Birthday things you can get and hang up in your house. As you look at the kits, you can see I didn't do a great job on these. Will have to be more careful and also be more willing to go into my stash of other shingles and forego the Campbell products. So, this is what my personal hell would be:

For all eternity, stuck in a room with an infinite number of craftsman kits but only able to do:
  1. wall bracing
  2. rafter tails
  3. Campbell shingling - with no guide lines.

While we're at it, let's throw in an endless loop of Kenny G music.

*shudder*

OK, sorry. Said this was not going to be a build thread. Back to a couple pics.






You can see I have a couple of mock ups for the other two buildings. I just started the garage building today (the one-story buliding next to the Jacob's complex). That's a stucco building and I'm trying something new there, too. I'll get a few pics up so you can see how it's going.

More in a while.

[jerryrbeach]

Vince,


Great to see you back and posting.  This looks great.  Dexter's is one of my favorites because it offers so much variety in materials, methods, and types of structures. I love the roofing, coloring and weathering is spot on for both the asphalt and the metal. 


The shed roof would have bothered me, too.  I envy the artistic abilities of kit manufacturers to design and supply such attractive structures.  Still, sometimes I think common construction practices escape them.


I read a tip a long time ago on applying Campbell shingles.  Cut them into strips longer than the roof, leaving enough to grab both ends with fingers and / or tweezers.  The extra length allows you to pull on them when you apply them to the roof.  First, straighten each length as much as possible by pulling on them with your fingers.  Then apply a narrow bead of white glue to the uncut portion.  Stretch them into place following the lines on the roof by pulling on the ends.  (I always add lines to any roof card that lacks them.)  Next, working quickly, I use a straight edge along both bottom and top edges of the row I am gluing down.  I use an Xacto knife to pull any out of line places into better alignment using the straight edge for a guide.  I only shingle a half dozen rows at a time, then set it aside for the glue to dry thoroughly.  I have found trying to do too many rows at once causes some of the previous rows to move out of their original alignment.  HTH

[PRR Modeler]

Your building looks great. Sorry to hear about the backdrop problems.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking really good, Vince.

To follow on with what Jerry said re Campbell shingles - I cover the cardboard with double sided tape, but also add a bead of canopy glue to the top of the row of shingles below before adding the row above.  In this way the double sided tape gives an easy fixing point to keep the row of shingles lined up with the pencil markings, and the glue gives some extra fixing between the paper shingles.  Using this technique I can easily do the entire roof or wall in one go.  When doing walls I shingle straight across window and door openings and cut them out when the glue has cured from the inside of the wall using a sharp chisel blade.

I like your roof adjustment.  Far more prototypical.  Still, I guess that's modelers license.

Cheers, Mark.

[Zephyrus52246]

Looks great so far.  As to backdrops, would the gatorfoam bend well enough to a small radius for curved backdrops? 


Jeff

[Keep It Rusty]

Great post, Vince. Has fun reading that and excellent work!

[vinceg]

Vince,


Great to see you back and posting.  This looks great.  Dexter's is one of my favorites because it offers so much variety in materials, methods, and types of structures. I love the roofing, coloring and weathering is spot on for both the asphalt and the metal. 


The shed roof would have bothered me, too.  I envy the artistic abilities of kit manufacturers to design and supply such attractive structures.  Still, sometimes I think common construction practices escape them.


I read a tip a long time ago on applying Campbell shingles.  Cut them into strips longer than the roof, leaving enough to grab both ends with fingers and / or tweezers.  The extra length allows you to pull on them when you apply them to the roof.  First, straighten each length as much as possible by pulling on them with your fingers.  Then apply a narrow bead of white glue to the uncut portion.  Stretch them into place following the lines on the roof by pulling on the ends.  (I always add lines to any roof card that lacks them.)  Next, working quickly, I use a straight edge along both bottom and top edges of the row I am gluing down.  I use an Xacto knife to pull any out of line places into better alignment using the straight edge for a guide.  I only shingle a half dozen rows at a time, then set it aside for the glue to dry thoroughly.  I have found trying to do too many rows at once causes some of the previous rows to move out of their original alignment.  HTH

Thanks, Jerry. The straight edge is a great idea. I did do most of what you suggested on the shed (longer strips, glue on the uncut portion, shingling over the windows, doing a few rows at a time to let them dry - and also keep my temper in check). So, I think that shed ended up looking a little better than the front of the main building. There are still plenty of shingled surfaces left in the kit. I'll try the straight edge next time and will report back.

[vinceg]

Your building looks great. Sorry to hear about the backdrop problems.

Thanks, Curt. In the end, I'm sure I'll appreciate the extra "accomplishment" I did. In the beginning, tho, it just helps make me lazy (which I was already crushing it on).

[vinceg]

Mark -- I completely forgot about 3M transfer tape. Funny, actually, as I routinely use it for other shingling using non-Campbell shingles. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to try it here. It isn't just the adhesive that comes on the Campbell shingles -- I have long since stopped relying on that. But the "swimming around" of the shingles on the wet glue combined with their propensity to bend is what generally caused me the problems. Transfer tape will fix that. Gonna give it a try. Two good methods I got from you guys now -- straight edge on soupy glue or transfer tape. Thanks!

[vinceg]

Looks great so far.  As to backdrops, would the gatorfoam bend well enough to a small radius for curved backdrops? 


Jeff

Hi Jeff -- no way the 1/2" stuff would bend. It is super stiff. You would have to kerf it. But, Gatorfoam also has a 3/16" product as well. That is what I would use if I were going to try it as a backdrop. I suspect that would also not bend well, though. Again, kerfing might save the day. One other consideration -- Gatorfoam is very expensive. I think my 4x8 sheets of Masonite were around 10 bucks at HD. 4x8 sheets of 3/16" Gatorfoam is around 100 bucks.

[vinceg]

Thanks, Craig - I appreciate the support.

[tom.boyd.125]

Vince,
Nice progress photos of that FSM classic. Where did you find the Gatorboard in NW Illinois ?
Tommy

[vinceg]

Vince,
Nice progress photos of that FSM classic. Where did you find the Gatorboard in NW Illinois ?
Tommy

Hi Tom. I ordered it directly from Dave Myers (the Gator Guy) in Vermont. He cuts up 4x8 sheets to your liking at no charge. Shipping is crazy expensive, of course, but with so many accolades about the product I wanted to try it. Here's Dave's site:

https://gatorfoam.net/

[vinceg]

Here are the garage walls after painting.



Curious note: I should have laid these out better, but the wall in the upper right corner is the front wall. Lower left is the back wall. Left wall to the upper left, right wall to the lower right. After doing the bracing, I discovered that the left and right walls are not the same width. Front and rear walls are the same but the right wall is just a little wider -- about 1/16" I would say -- than the left wall. I can't find anything in the directions regarding why that is. Had I noticed it sooner, I would have trimmed it to the same size. As it is, I will have a building that will be trapezoidal. I'm sure it won't be noticeable but it's a bit odd.

These are stucco walls but you can't see the stucco very well here....hang on....

[vinceg]

Here is a view with the light better situated to show you the stucco effect. The stucco is made using a rattle can of Krylon fine texture paint. For color, I'm using ArtMinds Cocoon chalk paint. Many thanks to Jason Jensen for pointing both of these products out in his many very helpful videos on YouTube.



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