Merchant's Row I, A Magnuson Kit Bash

[robert goslin]

Great progress Tom.  Warped walls are always an issue with older resin kits.
After heating, sometimes they just revert back to being warped.  The plastic has a kind of memory.
Bracing seems to be the only solution.

To paraphrase Maxwell Smart:-  A warped wall is a fools frustration.

[IWannaRetire]

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

I've had one for years, you wont regret it!  I haven't used mine for modeling, but once you get one, you will discover all kinds of uses.

[Zephyrus52246]

Great start, Tom.  I'm learning a lot about these old Magnuson kits.  I have a couple in the stash and these tips will be useful if I ever get around to them.  

Jeff

[Jerry]

Tom great start and glad you managed to get the walls straight.  A good tutorial on how it's done.

Jerry

[Rick]

Tom, you had to put a lot of effort into getting those walls straight.
But, as usual, it was all worth it.
Hope the rest of it goes together easier.
Thanks for showing us what you did.

[PRR Modeler]

Great job so far Tom. You show these old kits still have a life with the proper preparation. What brand epoxy do you use?

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Tom.....

Is this a new building for Tahope or will it go on the 3rd level? 

[ACL1504]

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

Mike, Howdy,

Thank you, much appreciate the comment.  The walls were time consuming but turn out well.

I like both plaster and resin. They each have different ways to prep and paint but I must say, I prefer the resin over the plaster. 

Still having fun.

Tom

[ACL1504]

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

I've had one for years, you wont regret it!  I haven't used mine for modeling, but once you get one, you will discover all kinds of uses.

Mark,

I'll for sure get one. I can imagine many uses and will enjoy testing it out

Not sure what part of Illinois you are from but I spent many summers at my mother's family farm in Vandalia.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Great progress Tom.  Warped walls are always an issue with older resin kits.
After heating, sometimes they just revert back to being warped.  The plastic has a kind of memory.
Bracing seems to be the only solution.

To paraphrase Maxwell Smart:-  A warped wall is a fools frustration.

Rob,

Thank you kind sir. I'm sure I'll have to brace all the rest of the cast resin walls in the other old Magnuson kits. No problem, just take more time in the build. 

I've also had to brace a few plastic walls.

This hoppy is great, we brace wood walls to prevent warping and brace cast resin walls to unwarp them.

Maxwell had a lot of great one liners.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

The walls were all epoxied together and then I washed the entire structure in the laundry sink using Simple Green. This process not only cleaned the resin it also removed the stickiness.

The sticky mold release agent made the walls look darker. They are much whiter now.

NOTE: The roof isn't glued in place.

[ACL1504]

[ACL1504]

Here is how I fixed the broken corner on the second floor top plate.

I started by carefully filing the broken piece at a 90 degree angle to the none broken piece.



The thickness of the top plate is 2 scale inches. I turned the building on it's roof and made sure it was level with the metal sqare on the bottom as shown. I took a 2X12 and fit it in the broken out section.

[ACL1504]

I then trimmed the 2X12 with the board edge on the left.



I then repeated the process using a scale 2X6 and trimmed it as I did the 2X12. I removed the 2X6 piece and using a tooth pick added a tiny bit of epoxy in the corner on top of the 2X12 and then used the point of a #11 blade to place the cut 2X6 on top of the 2X12.

[ACL1504]

When the epoxy was dry, I turned the building over and lightly sanded the edges of each side.

Top view -



Side view -