Fountain Brewery kitbash #2 - 2021 winter build challenge

[postalkarl]

Hey Mark:

The roof is looking great. Keep the pics flowing.

Karl

[Mark Dalrymple]

I think it depends on both the part of the world and on the size of the city.  US in general uses a lot more wood in structures than most of Europe.  The smaller the town, the more likely you are to see wood commercial buildings.  And that's because larger towns/cities passed restrictive fire codes, usually after a big downtown fire :-)  Commercial buildings would be subject to more stringent building code requirements, either by the town or by the insurance company.

Absolutely, Dave.

However - when I look at pictures of prototype city scenes they are almost always pictures of New Zealand city scenes, and I find the majority of city structures in NZ in the 1930's to be masonry.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Your brick coloring and mortar on the Bicycle building is truly phenomenal.   

I haven't done it in quite a while but I enjoy the challenge of taking a plastic kit and making it look craftsman quality with a proper finish and some weathering.     Gee, that could be the basis for great forum contest someday.

Thanks for your very kind compliment, Bob.

I agree it would make a great forum challenge.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hey Mark:

The roof is looking great. Keep the pics flowing.

Thanks, Karl.

I'll try to keep the momentum up!

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Next up was the deck for the alcove.  I put some painters tape on my desk, marked out the position of bearers and joists, and then attached a piece of low tack painters tape sticky side up across the length of the deck.  After cutting my decking (a little randomly) and giving it a dunk in some stain, I attached it to the painters tape.  I then added three joists (you will only see the front one, so three is enough to keep things together, square and true) and then the bearers.  Finally I added piles and bracing.  Typically the piles would sit under the bearers, but in a model it is so much easier to glue to the side of the bearer and joist and to the bottom of the decking.  It could be done this way, but one would have to add coach bolts or similar to get sufficient strength.  Somehow I managed to cut my posts shorter than intended so I think I will add small squares of styrene painted grey to the bottom of the piles to represent the top of the concrete of the pile holes.  These are often boxed a small way out of the ground.

Photo 1 - shows the deck upside down on my tape template.

Photo 2 - shows the deck in position.  The styrene squares will lift the deck so it sits flush with the bottom of the threshold.  The owner of the Zealandia cycle works factory is a stickler for the rules and so even though the bicycle boxes are not heavy, he enforces two man lifts - very unusual for the times.

Photo 3 - And, of course, here are the bicycle boxes, along with some B.S.A. fittings boxes.  The boxes display an array of different bicycle brands, some of which you may see on the factory signage.  I made box shapes from card and balsa, and printed the bicycle names in various fonts on brown paper to represent cardboard.  The box shapes were then cut out using a template, the edges scored, and then folded and trimmed around the balsa/ card box shapes using canopy glue to adhere.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice job on the deck.

[ACL1504]

Mark, Cheers,

Your work is truly masterful and very inspiring. I always get a boost of energy after reading what you've done on this build.

I love using the Northeastern shingles. They look really natural, can be stained/weathered with ease. The ridge caps set the shingled roof apart from others.

Fantastic stuff Mark.

Tom 

[Mark Dalrymple]

Very nice job on the deck.

Thanks very much, Curt.

Yesterday I cut some 1.5mm styrene into a 3mm strip and then chopped that into 3mm squares.  I sanded the squares and then fixed them to a piece of painters tap sticky side up, which I had marked the position of the 6 piles on.  I painted the styrene with three coats of grey and when dry, glued the deck piles onto the square styrene footings.  When the glue had set I carefully ran a sharp knife under the footings to remove them from the painters tape.  I then glued the deck into position.

Photo 1 - shows the deck glued into position with the footings added.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Your work is truly masterful and very inspiring. I always get a boost of energy after reading what you've done on this build.

I love using the Northeastern shingles. They look really natural, can be stained/weathered with ease. The ridge caps set the shingled roof apart from others.

Fantastic stuff Mark.

Thanks so much, Tom!

I actually used your reply above in an email to Northeastern Scale Lumber yesterday.  I believe their latest offerings are no longer 'natural looking' as the different shades of grey seem to come in big vertical runs.  If you look back at the aerial view of my roof on the previous page the shingles at the back L are the new ones, while the ones in the front L are probably 8 - 10 years old.  I also sent that photo in my email.  Its not just a compliant, I believe they will lose a lot of sales unless they rectify this problem.

To attempt to rectify this problem on my last tile roof I took a sample of the slate tiles into my local art shop and purchased a couple of Copic markers - natural #2 and natural #4.  I used these to colour more tiles in the two darker shades to try to hide the vertical runs.  I think I need to colour a few more, but I see this as acceptable - just.

Photo 1 - shows the markers I used.

Photo 2 - shows the roof with 30 or so slate tiles darkened.  These markers seem a pretty good match for the two darker shades.

I haven't heard back from Northeastern Scale Lumber yet, but I will update when I do.

Cheers, Mark.

[Oldguy]

Great recovery on the dock.  Probably ought to be seeing more concrete footers for wood posts than we do.

[Keep It Rusty]

Copics are a wonderful idea. I have a whole load of them here but never gotten around to using them on a build. Next project it is! Great work Mark.

[deemery]

Those slates look good.  Variation without looking "funny".  You could try stippling some brighter colors of chalk/pigment (particularly blue) to get a bit more variation on individual slates.  That's worked well for me.


dave

[Mark Dalrymple]

Great recovery on the dock.  Probably ought to be seeing more concrete footers for wood posts than we do.

Thanks, Bob.

I figured it was easier than taking the piles and braces of and redoing with longer piles, and it gave a bit of variety.  The builders had a bit of mix left over from another job with some black oxide in it - hence the slightly darker colour.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Copics are a wonderful idea. I have a whole load of them here but never gotten around to using them on a build. Next project it is! Great work Mark.

Thanks, Craig.

I couldn't believe how many different shades there were.  40 different shades of grey!

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Those slates look good.  Variation without looking "funny".  You could try stippling some brighter colors of chalk/pigment (particularly blue) to get a bit more variation on individual slates.  That's worked well for me.

Thanks, Dave.

I have heard back from Northeastern Scale Lumber and they see the problem and are going to look into it and get back to me.  I mentioned that the packets have different sizes of shingles and they are going to look into that too.  I see some new ones in our local hobby shop and their packet of darker grey ones has quite a random row spacing to them whereas the packet I received a couple of months ago are very uniform in their row spacing.  I often splice sheets together when working, and to be able to do that you need sheets to have the same spacing.

I'll have a play with stippling on some chalk.

Cheers, Mark.