Moonshiners Cabin by Inter-Action Enterprises

[Oldguy]

First up a mea culpa.  I messed up on "the chair".  There is a spreader that is to go only half way up the legs.  I put mine all the way up to under the seat.  The diagrams show it only half way up.  So my bad.

I got the interior details painted and placed.  Then the furniture placed pretty much as suggested. 


Work started on the motor bracket.  Again, instructions clear and straight forward.  Here is where I caught the chair spreader mistake. 

[Janbouli]

The interior looks awesome , what a great little kit.

[PRR Modeler]

Great interior.

[Oldguy]

Jan and Curt, I concur, great furniture.

Got a little done working on the motor.  I just Goo'ed the motor to the bracket being careful not to get any adhesive near the rotating bit.  After that had set, one adds a cam.  This bit needs a spacer, so I used a parts carrier sheet.  Seems to work.

This little motor is really quiet, but then I was using a single AA battery to test it out.

With the bracket being glued to the cabin base, it is now time to figure out how and where this cabin is to be located.  I have a decent location, on the inside of a curve, so access to the battery pack and installation for the on/off switch will be easy.

[swisstrain]

Incredible job so far, Bob.  I have that kit too, and am watching with interest.  Will put your build in my links for later reference.

Nice how the interior comes together and how you give it your personal touch.  Only thing missing is a rack with Moonshiner bottles/jars ...

Urs

[Oldguy]

Incredible job so far, Bob.  I have that kit too, and am watching with interest.  Will put your build in my links for later reference.

Nice how the interior comes together and how you give it your personal touch.  Only thing missing is a rack with Moonshiner bottles/jars ...

Urs

Thanks.  And yep, no mason jars.  It did have two milk cans though.
I'm not sure if I'll do an actual moonshine operation as I hadn't planned on a cold spring in the scenery area where this will be planted. 

[Oldguy]

Because this has the rocking chair, I need to glue the cabin to it's base board.  Before I can do that I need to figure out how this will be placed on the layout as a hole has to be cut for the motor and provision for mounting the toggle switch.

So basically, this is how it will look.  Really bare bones, but I need to draw some lines and don't want to do it with the cabin glued on.  The farm house is by Campbell.

Then the scene will get set on the inside of a curve.   It'll be a decent focal point at the end of an aisle.  With the track 2" above the baseline, this will be either 4 or six inches high.  I still need to play with height so I don't block access to the track for maintenance.  And yes, my track roadbed is 1/2" foam spline, topped with cork.


I did mix up some epoxy to mount four rare earth magnets that will be used to attach the cabin base board to the 1/2" foam core. I'll see tomorrow how well it works.

[Oldguy]

Postal Karl discussed "the chair" assembly and he's right.  It is a it fiddly.  Then one has to cut the provided aluminum tubing to given size and glue it between the rocker ears.  I found it was easier for me to have the bronze wire pushed through the tube to ensure that it is perfectly aligned while the glue sets.

Hint - on the deck, test the chair rocker/ear fit before gluing it to the base piece.  This way if yo have to do some trimming, it would be a lot easier.  Also, Darryl mentioned that the actuating arm doesn't need the lower doubler.  Just as well as the deck slot is cut for a single thickness.

By some miracle I got the rear earth magnets epoxied in place, all correctly oriented. 


Fiddled with the porch slots and working up the nerve to glue the bearing rods in place.   I did find one figure whose butt will fit in "the chair".  Seemed rather weird not to have someone seated while "the chair" is rocking.   Once "the chair" gets set, I can start to actually work on the porch post, railings, roof, etc.

[PRR Modeler]

Congrats on successfully finishing the rocker. It sure sounds like it would be very easy to mess it up.

[Oldguy]

"The chair" is driving me nuts.  With the aluminum tube placed between the rockers and the brass/bronze rod inside of it and out the other side, it took several attempts to get the tubing glued to "the chair" and yet have the brass/bronze axle free to rotate.  I placed some oil, as per instructions, which should keep glue from seizing up the whole thing. But now, I have such globs of ACC, Hypo Cement, that the axles really don't fit in their slots.  I did some surgery, never a good idea, but I am going to make this work on the porch deck.  So while the glue(s) were setting up, I worked on the steps.

These were different in that one is to glue one riser, add one tread (two are provided), then add the other risers.  I needed to find something to rest the tread on while the glue sets.  ThenI measured the porch height and decided that I needed two steps.  Rummagging around the left over carrier sheets and parts, I found two pieces that were perfect.  Glue on one riser and let it set up a bit.  Stack the two rectangular bits and glue one the upper step.  Let that set up,  Just use the smaller bit and glue on the lower step.  When set up enough, glued on the other riser.  Easy peasy.


Hint - When screwing in the provided self-tapping screw and grommet, watch your depth.  Most of the screw sticks out.  The actuating arm winds up a little loosey goosey, but it works because the upper slot is tight. 


Soooo, it finally became time to decide how this thing wold work after my fat fingers got involved.  I will need to make a set of upper bearing surfaces to hold "the chair" down.  I am way too nervous about gluing everything together to keep the original clearances.  I could have just as easy made the axle rod a lot longer than called for to move any glue well away (relatively speaking) from the rocker.  But this would have to have been planned on before I glued the upper and lower porch sections together.  So, I am using some left over cut offs to make an upper bearing surface.  First though, I need to put some thin material to gain some elevation, then add a short piece of material over the axles to hold them vertically.  The other piece should hold them horizontally. 


I had also handled "the chair" way too many times and had to add a metal wire to replace the left rocker arm that broke off.

While this was going on, I put the railing together.  Only slightly easier than "the chair".

[PRR Modeler]

It looks great Bob.

[jerryrbeach]

Bob,


Simply beautiful modeling.  Once again, I admire your persistence in staying the course with the rocking chair assembly. 

[nycjeff]

Hey Bob, after all the work involved with the working rocking chair I hope that you will place it front and center so that viewers will be able to see the result of all that work.   Jeff

[Oldguy]

Hey Bob, after all the work involved with the working rocking chair I hope that you will place it front and center so that viewers will be able to see the result of all that work.   Jeff

It will be in the front at the end of an aisle.  I posted a basic shot of it's placement.

[Oldguy]

Bob,


Simply beautiful modeling.  Once again, I admire your persistence in staying the course with the rocking chair assembly.

Thanks.  I wasn't going to let it mock me.  Well, it did, but it does work.