Laser-Art Structures DuBois Store

[Oldguy]

Time for a new adventure.  I bought this some time ago as DuBois is a family name.  So, finally decided to give it a go.
Jan built this in N-scale, mine is HO.  When I first opened the box, I thought something is missing.  Big box.  Not a lot of stuff.  A single piece of tissue paper for something.  Can't be padding.

Anyway, a bunch of lap siding with windows pre-cut out.  Some plain sheets of stuff and a lot of peel-and-stick odds and ends.  Oh look rolled roofing and thick plastic sheets for shingles?  Loos like brick.  No.  They are shingles.

Hmmm, first floor is split and must be spliced to fit.  Me no likey.  But it's understandable why it was done this way.  I'll just need to be careful how this is going to work.

[Oldguy]

Instructions are very basic.    Pretty build the whole building on one page.  I'll admit it took me awhile to figure out what two slabs of material were for as they weren't shown in any of the parts diagrams.  But process of elimination determined what they were for. And they did include decent finished  drawings.  So there is that.

One thing about this peel-and-stick kit - there is no strip wood.  No bracing required.  So first up after figuring out where everything went. was to dig out my 1/8" square strip wood and glue in bracing. 


One nice thing about the interwebs, I found several photos of the original building.  I already decided that I'll need to add some bracing under the first floor.  The photos reveal that there were two steps up, so that nails that down.  I do have sometime to decide whether I want to add the original front canopy.  The instructions did mention that it had a rail siding which is why there is a sliding door on one side.  And a photo shows another side with a hard canopy as well.  The kit has the version with a cloth awning.

[GPdemayo]

Good looking structure Bob.....I'll be looking in. 

[John B]

I've always liked the looks of DuBois Store. Looking great so far.  Do you get the interior kit also?

[Janbouli]

Really looking forward to seeing this built in H0, I used the shingles on my N-scale one , I don't think I would do it again , there are a lot of much nicer shingles to be had.

[Oldguy]

John, yes I did.  Not sure how the round tables are going to work out as they look way too crowded.  I'll be tackling it while waiting for glue/paint to dry.

Jan, I have decide to replace the kit shingles with black 3 tab shingles.  Mainly based upon your experience.

[Oldguy]

I went ahead and added the nail holes on this one as I am planning on using some greenish weathering powder for the walls.  Test looks good.

I measured out where interior bracing will go.  It got a bit complicated as the front section has large windows and a ceiling so the side walls are off limits.  Then there is a back wall for the front section, that has to be considered.  Hopefully I got 'er done,  Time will tell how well I did.

Then there is the matter of the two piece base.  They show that the provided self-adhesive splice plates must be orientated lengthwise and it can't intrude into the scribed floor area as a wall goes along the width.  Why they provide such as long piece is a mystery.  One could almost use some front window knock-out pieces for this.  Since I am adding underfloor bracing (both floor pieces were really warped), I put the splice plates on the underneath side.

I like to miter the 1/8" underfloor bracing as it can be made to look like concrete.  I don't cut miters anymore.  I use my Ultimation sander.  Just adjust the miter gauge to 45 degrees and sand away.  With the only two clean edges (no bump outs) placed in my squaring jig, I added the bracing and weighed them down with machinists blocks.

I'll have to wait and see on how much of the provided pee-n-stick trim that will be used, but the windows and shutters look good.  Unfortunately, the five left most shutters had some adhesive attached to them when they went into the lase and they didn't get a full depth lase.  These might just get used in the shut position.  I have blasted both peel-n-stick trim/window/door slabs with primer and will see how they take paint later.  The wood material has a great grain for some applications, but not when trying to replicate a metal facade or close grained trim.

[tom.boyd.125]

Bob,
Always liked the look of that kit.
Will follow along...
Tommy

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob:

Looks like you are off to A good start.

Karl

[Oldguy]

Been playing around with colors and think I'll stay as the box.

Looking to the wall assembly, I noticed that there is no way that the first floor front wall (all windows) would be able to easily glue to the left side wall.  The left wall is 1/16" material and the front is even thinner.  The standard 1/8" stick is too thick and there will be a set of shelves on the left wall, part of which straddles a window.  To figure out the thickness of a stiffener for the left front corner, I need to build that display shelf.  And if I am going to build that one. I might as well build all of them.

The shelves have three parts: a back, a fret of "merchandise", and the visible shelving pieces.  The backs, shelves, and tops of the counters were sprayed white.  The "merchandise" was painted using a variety of acrylic paints.  Then it was a matter of gluing it all together.


They don't look half bad.  Now with the left wall unit built, I found some dimensional lumber to act as a brace and a glue edge.

[Oldguy]

Exterior walls have been painted a light green, along with the trim painted a dark green.

First up is cutting out the windows.  The laser didn't go all the way through the wood and didn't even touch the self adhesive backing.  I tried using an xacto, but that didn't cut much.  So I brought in the heavy equipment and used a new rail nipper, sprue cutter, and a chisel blade.  There were casualties, but these can be used on the back and sides. 


My procedure work okay, but then I ran into the curved window and frame.  I hand to cut these out from the carrier sheet and cut away to form the half circle.  Here on the back side one can see no laser cuts on the back.  The brown marks are from something else and do not reflect a laser cut.

The kit does include acetate for glazing and the peel and stick window backs are extremely fragile, so I found it a lot easier to place the main window part in place, remove the adhesive back, add it's glazing, add the lower sash, remove it's adhesive back, add it's glazing, then run a thin bead of PVA glue to hold it all in place.  This aids corralling the tiny broken side pieces.

Then I'll need to find away to get the window casings free from the carrier sheet.  But that'll be for the weekend.

[Jerry]

Good start Bob.  Looking forward to the progress shots.


Jerry

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob:

off to a good start. I'll be following along.

Karl

[Oldguy]

This thing is kicking my butt.  As noted before, the windows, doors, and trim bits are printed on a grainy wood adhesive back product.  The laser didn't even hit the adhesive backing.  As a result I had to use a pair of new rail nippers, sprue cutters, and an X-Acto chisel blade to get groups of parts off and then trim them to size.  Most parts come off okay, but door trim pieces wind up breaking across the grain. 


Windows generally fit, but there are some places where the opening is a bit wide.  They show window types A through E but have window styles to H.  Guess they figure by this time you know what to do.  It was a matter of laying a wall section flat on it's exterior, lay in the upper sash, add the upper glass, add the lower sash that already had it's glass attached. and add Canopy glue to hold everything together.  This required the used of 1-2-3 blocks to keep the walls flat until the glue dried. 


There are three doors (all same size) and wouldn't you know it, the precut wall openings were all different.  One was perfect, one was to short, and one was too short and too wide.  Sounds a bit like Goldilocks and the three doors.  I did find that I needed to add some backing spanning the door opening to aid in getting the doors flush.

I should note that the laser cut window material was a bit wonky.  Apparently, the laser was hot as the cut was wide, causing some pieces not to cover the window opening completely.

All windows and doors have been added and respective trim pieces cut out and trimmed.  Then it was a matter of painting all of the exposed cut edges in preparation of getting installed.

After awhile, I wanted to se how the cafe chairs would go together.  Also made of adhesive wood sheet.  I got 2 sheets containing 24 chairs.  Sheez.  Talk about fiddly.  I may see about making a jig for assembly.  And notice the chair seat is too deep, so each will have to be trimmed.  And oh, the laser did cut through these either, so each piece has to be cut out.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Good progress, Bob.

It sounds like you may as well be scratch-building.

Cheers, Mark.