FOS - Frank Lava Gunsmith

[ACL1504]

Bob,

Moving right along on this one and it looks fantastic. Can't wait to see how you light the structure.

It will be some time before I get to mine. I have many layout projects to get upgraded and fixed.

I look forward to seeing this baby up close when you :get er done".

Tom

[ReadingBob]

Bob,

Moving right along on this one and it looks fantastic. Can't wait to see how you light the structure.

It will be some time before I get to mine. I have many layout projects to get upgraded and fixed.

I look forward to seeing this baby up close when you :get er done".

Tom

Thanks, Tom! This one took me longer than planned. Partly because of vacations/trips and partly because a general lack of motivation. I finally got back to it and it's time to update the thread! 

[ReadingBob]

Back at it! 

Once the backing is removed from the 3M Transfer tape the cardstock roof has a sticky surface. To align the rolled roofing material I start at the lower edge. I place the rolled roofing material upside down on my workbench and then position the cardstock over it. I allow a little overhand on the side and bottom. The overhang gets folded down to hide the cardstock.



For the second row of rolled roofing material I put the cardstock right side up and apply the second course. Slightly overlapping the first course. This particular cardstock piece is for the roof top access so it's narrow.



Once I have a few courses of rolled roofing attached to the cardstock I trim the overhang with a pair of scissors (or an X-Acto and steel ruler).



I hit the roof with a few different shades of Pan Pastel (mostly greys and browns) and then followed up dry brushing the roof with a craft store acrylic (Ivory White). It's easy to overdue the white so the brush has to have most of the paint removed and a very light touch is in order.



The 3D printed chimney that comes with this kit has and angled base. The roof it does on is basically flat. So, the choices are to cut a hole in the roof and push the chimney thru the hole or to fix the chimney, so the base is not angled. I opted for the latter.



I used a razor saw and miter box to trim the angled edge from the chimney.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

I almost got the chimney to stand up straight.  A little filing finished the job.



Here's the underside of the structure. I'm only going to add lighting the main part of the building. My justification for the extensions of both sides not being lit is there's nobody in them and the lights are off.   I removed, from the base of the main structure, so sections that went across. There were other parts inside this piece, so the opening wasn't exactly square and even. I needed access from the bottom, and they interfered with things.



I make up my lighting circuits on the fly. Originally, I was thinking of one circuit with one Current Limiter and three LED's. Two LED's for the top floor and one for the bottom floor. But, the more I thought about laying out the copper tape, the more I realized that it would be easier to simply have two separate circuits. Each with one Current Limiter and two LED's. The copper tape was laid out the same for both. I also have a piece to attach these to that will act as a bus. the only trick here was to make sure the copper tape, at the end each circuit, lined up with the copper tape on the bus.



The only hard thing about using the copper tape is getting it separated from the backing. I use a razor blade to start to peel it from the backing. 



You just need to press the tape in place. The sticky side will hold it.



Here I'm just double checking that the tape lines up with the bus.



More in a moment...  

[ReadingBob]

I know, in my head, how I want the current to flow but it never hurts to mark things with a red and black sharpie. 



Coming in from the positive (red) side, I drilled holes for the Current Limiter.



Then I drilled holes for the two LED's. I just eyeballed where I wanted them to go. One towards the front of the build and one towards the rear of the building.



Everywhere I was planning of soldering things I applied flux.  This includes the Current Limiters, LED's and the copper tape.



I applied solder to the legs of the Current Limiter, LED's and wires. This makes soldering them to the copper tape a little bit easier when the time comes.



I push the legs of the Current Limiter (or LED) through the holes I drilled, keeping in mind the flow of the current. Current Limiters and LED's have a positive and negative leg. You can see I marked the positive leg with a red sharpie to remind myself which is which. After I push them all the way thru, I bend the legs at 90 degree angle.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

The legs are long so, after I bend them, I trim off the excess with an old pair of rail nippers.



Then I pull the Current Limiter or LED down so the piece of the legs that I bent are flush with the copper tape and solder them in place.



Here's a critical step. After they've been solder in place I remove the copper tape between the holes I drilled. If you fail to do this with the LED's they simply won't light up. If you fail to do this with the Current Limiter but not the LED's the LED's will light up, spectacularly, for a brief second and then never again.  Ask me how I know. 



A quick test of one of the circuits prove it works!



I soldered the two circuits to the bus, top floor and bottom floor, added a piece to the side to keep them square and then, using double sided foam tape, attached the entire thing to the back wall of the structure.



Not as obvious that the inside is lit up when it's light in the room but it is.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

Here are the final pictures. The gun sign was a bit finicky to add and I added it last because there's a high probably it will get knocked off if bumped. There's not a lot holding the pistol in place nor the little sign hanging off the barrel of the pistol.









All in all, this is a neat kit with a lot of great details. 

Thanks for following along!!!

[Mark Dalrymple]

Great work on the gunsmith shop, Bob!

It looks fantastic.  Great tutorial as well.

Cheers, Mark.

[deemery]

Bob, on that last photo looking through the bottom, you have brass straps running along the walls, and then the light strips running perpendicular to the walls (and parallel to the ground.)  So I think what you did was (1) install a piece with 2 brass strips along the walls, (2) then attach and solder the light strips to these wall-mounted strips.  Is that correct?

And how would you do it if you wanted to put a 2nd story floor?  I'm presuming you'd do this in order of (1) bus strips running from base to 2nd story ceiling.  (2) install 2nd story light strips.  (3) install the 2nd story floor (with any furniture, etc, attached to it).  (4). then install the 1st story light strips.  

dave

[GPdemayo]

Great work Bob, look forward to seeing all the details up close.....

[Rick]

Outstanding!
Thanks for all the  pictures and all the SBS's.

[PRR Modeler]

Outstanding Bob. Great to see you posting in this section again.

[Jerry]

Bob as usual outstanding work.  And a wonderful tutorial.

Jerry

[Zephyrus52246]

Another great build, Bob.  I can see where the pistol and sign would not have a lot of surface contact.  Smart to leave it until the end.  

Jeff

[ACL1504]

Bob,

Fantastic job on the build and the SBS process. This is another masterpiece.

Thanks for sharing the build.

Tom