Merchant's Row I, A Magnuson Kit Bash

[ACL1504]

The one problem I have with the Magnuson sidewalks is that they measures just over 13 scale inches high. Now my grandmother going to town to shop won't want to step up 13 inches from the street to the side walk.





I show you later how I got around not using  the sidewalk sections and filled the fronts under the stores.

Diet Pepsi time, back in a few.

[jbvb]

Walls becoming flat, then curling again as they cool sounds like the temperature didn't get quite hot enough.  Do you have a remote-reading IR thermometer?  Put a wall out the next sunny morning and see how hot it is when it flattens.  Then see if you can make it a few degrees warmer.  Maybe on a black metal surface?  You'll probably have to keep an eye on it.

[deemery]

Tom, to be safe, try the sidewalks first in Super Clean.  If something goes wrong, you're not out a core part.

And it's clear you're expected to raise the street levels to reduce the height of the sidewalks...   

dave

[ACL1504]

I started with the left corner of the structure when gluing the walls together. This, to me, was the critical corner to get correct at 90 degrees.

The two wall sections have 45 degrees angle cuts on the ends.

I used a large weight with the 90 degree corner of the weight on the inside. I then pushed the two walls together until I had a tight fit. I then carefully added more weights to the outside to hold the walls in place.



I also used a metal square to make sure it was correct prior to adding the 5 min. epoxy.

Notice the broken piece on the top plate? It apparently got broken when demolding as the broken piece wasn't in the box.

I'll cover my fix later in the thread.

[ACL1504]

Walls becoming flat, then curling again as they cool sounds like the temperature didn't get quite hot enough.  Do you have a remote-reading IR thermometer?  Put a wall out the next sunny morning and see how hot it is when it flattens.  Then see if you can make it a few degrees warmer.  Maybe on a black metal surface?  You'll probably have to keep an eye on it.

James,

I'll try that on the next Magnuson build. I'm past the warping now as the walls have been braced with brass stock.

When I did remove them from the sun, they were very hot and pliable. I don't have one of those things you mentioned.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

I used clothes pins to hold the upper corners together when the epoxy was applied.



Another trick I've learned over the years when gluing resin walls together, is to use paper where the weight is. When the epoxy is dry, it is much easier to cut the paper off vs. prying the weight off the wall.  This is just in case the epoxy runs down to the weight.



Once the epoxy was cured. I removed the weight and paper and added more epoxy to the lower portion of the wall.

[ACL1504]

I used the same method on the other end wall.



Dinner bell, back later.

[jbvb]

Remote-reading IR thermometers seem to be $15-25 except Home Despot is advertising one for $9.89. Cheaper ones are less accurate, but in modeling applications you're usually looking for a temperature difference rather than a reading accurate to 0.5 degree. I got mine maybe 20 years ago to check oven temperatures, still works.

[ACL1504]

Remote-reading IR thermometers seem to be $15-25 except Home Despot is advertising one for $9.89. Cheaper ones are less accurate, but in modeling applications you're usually looking for a temperature difference rather than a reading accurate to 0.5 degree. I got mine maybe 20 years ago to check oven temperatures, still works.

James,

I'll definitely look into one of them. I bake brass locos in the oven at 170 and it would be nice to make sure it is in fact 170.

Thanks very much for sharing.

Tom

[ACL1504]

The two end walls were epoxied and then came the rear wall section.

It fit correctly but you can see a slight leaning out on the left and bulging on the right.





Just like bowling, I need to constantly tell myself "bowling is fun" and "model building is fun"!

[deemery]

Remote reading thermometers are really useful for roasting, smoking, and grilling, too :-)

dave

[ACL1504]

The side edges of both the side wall have very small brick patterns on them. Thinking ahead of the possibility of epoxy oozing out I decided to take a safe approach to gluing the walls.

I epoxied brass stock flush to both rear ends on the back wall. As I was at it I also added a horizontal brass to keep the rear wall straight, just in case.



Stayed low here to avoid blocking the window. However, I could have taken it up all the way and covered the window black from the inside.

[ACL1504]

Remote reading thermometers are really useful for roasting, smoking, and grilling, too :-)

dave

Dave,

I'm remotely getting the idea it will be a neat new tool for me to use. 

Tom

[ACL1504]

I spread the epoxy to the inside edges of the brass stock and pressed the rear wall in place.

I had to use my long Quick Grips to hold the walls while the epoxy set.

Again, the paper protects my cutting pad.



Done for today.

[friscomike]

Wow Tom, 

You've done a terrific job assembling the walls.  Glad you were able to straighten the walls.  

You've built both, which do you prefer, plaster or resin castings?

Have fun,
mike