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A place to experiment

68K views 251 replies 69 participants last post by  knoath05 
#1 ·
Those of you who've seen photos of my track attempt will know that there's very little room on the table for much more than the track itself. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to try my hand at other things, specifically buildings. This is the beginning of a wooden garage that will not grace the track, but will become part of a separate but related diorama.

The building itself is a hybrid based a little bit on this weatherboard garage (which frequently houses a Porsche Cayenne)


And a bit on this corrugated iron one


First job is working out the size of the garage if it were full size. The first picture is just big enough to get a car through the door and still be able to exit the vehicle. But, you'll note, it's not long enough to get a 4WD in and close the door. I want my garage to be single bay but big enough to be able to park any of my slot cars in. Looking on the slot car shelf, the longest car I had (at the time) was the Pioneer Mustang. Not really a huge car. But, as I do have a 1:32 scale F100 I figured if I can house this in the garage, most 1:32 cars will fit no problem. Another thing I kept in mind when designing the garage was the size of materials. The classic measurement that continuously turns up is the 8' x 4' sheet (2440 x 1220 mm for we youngsters
)

With this measurement in mind I went about making a template out of cardboard.

The door opening is scaled from 8' x 8'. The side wall height is also 8'. Length of the edge on the gable is, you guessed it, 8' to allow for the size of corrugated iron.

Having made two sides and two ends, I taped them together and thought I'd test the size against both the truck and a scale person.

The size seems believable. So it's onward.

The template was disassembled and adjusted slightly. A small window added to the end wall (2' x 3' or 600 x 900mm) and another of the same size added to the side wall together with a personal access door.

The frame is being cut in spruce. 5 x 6mm for top of frame and 5 x 5mm for uprights.


Test fitting pieces for back wall frame.

From here the lengths cut for the frame are stained to give them the old wood look.

I stained all the pieces before gluing them together. Gluing prior to staining is likely to cause patches of pale wood as the glue usually repels stain. To colour the wood I have used artists acrylics making a mix of 2 parts raw umber, 1 part ultramarine blue and 1 part black. Because I wanted this to be a clear stain rather than an opaque paint I added an equal quantity of clear glaze medium to the paint. The paint is applied with a brush, left to penetrate for a short while and then wiped back with a soft cloth. The two pale pieces of wood in the lower right of the photo are unstained.

When dry I was quite happy with the colour of the wood, but I still didn't think it looked old. So, I attacked the stained wood with knife and scraped it haphazardly to roughen the outline a bit. In some instances I also scraped the wood with a saw blade to roughen it further.

Any pale wood that was bared from the scraping was touched up with a bit more stain mix. In the photo above the two pieces of wood on the right are stained but not scraped. The four to the left have been fully 'aged'.

Once dry the frame walls can be assembled. Frames for the individual walls were glued together using PVA glue. Then the four wall frames were glued together using C23 (balsa glue) which forms a stronger bond and sets faster.

Here I must apologize. I had intended to keep the step by step images going. But I'm afraid I got a little carried away and the next thing I knew I had the frame completed.


Alas, not only were the walls completed, but I realised I had not taken any photos of the roof trusses as they were being created and assembled.

The trusses are again made with spruce and stained prior to gluing together. The battens are strips of balsa also stained with the same mix.


Closer detail of the roof frame.

The roof frame will just sit atop the wall frame and will not be glued so that it can be removed if required.

The fully assembled frame.


And from the access door side.


The frame will later be clad with weatherboards cut from balsa. And the roof will be corrugated iron made from corrugated craft cardboard. But more of that some other time.

Cheers
Embs
 
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#3 ·
great stuff, brilliant patience...staining before gluing, now that takes restraint!


can i jump forward a month or two and suggest that there is absolutely no way that you are gonna be able to leave this stuff off the track!...what about modulating a la rally p, can´t you bolt on a 50cm wide panel with the buildings on at the side of the scenery? and merge the 2 somehow....once you get going on the buildings its a slippery slope! any room for a rocket silo?
 
#5 ·
Beautiful!

One suggestion if you are not on top of it already & that is that the corregated piece in the middle of your average card board is a nealy spot on stand in for corregated metal!! Just peel the facing paper off, paint it and weather it!


Cut in strips and it maks a nice clay tile roof as well!!
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi Embs

Could this be your "weatherboard garage (which frequently houses a Porsche Cayenne)"

Great job on the framing - almost a shame to cover it up with cladding.

Looking forward to seeing more as you progress.
Cheers
 
#14 ·
You have the patience of a saint to actually build a Frame building and then putting siding on it!
Most of us would rely on a print of siding on foam board sides.
Kudos to you!

Cheers!
 
#15 ·
Thanks gents.

At the moment the plan is to clad the whole frame, but that may change along the way. You will be able to see inside, which is one of the reasons why I built a full frame, rather than just gluing weatherboards to the cardboard template. Inside will be left raw wood. Outside of cladding will get some paint treatment.

QUOTE Could this be your "weatherboard garage (which frequently houses a Porsche Cayenne)"
No Scoot. Definitely not mine. If it were the Porsche Cayenne would be sold in very short order and a properly fun car would take its place. That garage and Cayenne belong to one of the local chiropractors. Says a lot about the prices they charge.

Not sure about rocket silos Sig. Might have to make room for some grain silos though.

Bleep, the truck was a first attempt at dry weathering with pastel/chalks. Still needs a few touches, like the wheels and one spot that I missed when prepping. It was a test piece that I got a little impatient on. Sandblasted the darned thing to get the gloss off and went a wee bit too far in places.

QUOTE That figure looks pretty 'armless to me.
Photo obviously taken before the bottle of red was opened. After that she was also a little legless.

Cheers boys
Embs
 
#18 ·
Fortunately I already have two colorbond sheds. Well... One garage, one slot room/spare room. It's the cottage that's more likely to need attention. Not sure C23 would be enough to hold it together though.

Gloveman, you're correct with the water tank assumption. Just need tops on them and a lick of paint. And need to finish building the tank stand. But won't need that until after the guttering is fitted to the shed.

Started cladding yesterday. Will post pics when I'm not stuck on dial up.


Cheers folks
Embs
 
#20 ·
Thanks Mark. Wasn't sure myself until I tried.

Cladding is a bit more frustrating. I've got most of one wall done. It's not the actual doing, but the constant struggle with glue. C23 is good, cos it goes off quick, but it's not the most user friend tube of goo known to man. Strings and blobs everywhere. Hopefully I'll be able to clean the little excesses up ok.

The lot will get a coat of clear matte to seal it before I apply any paint treatment. One thing I definitely don't want is a freshly painted finish.
 
#21 ·
Embs, I found that when painting the balsa (with water based paints) you won't need to matt coat it... the paint seems to soak in nicely to leave a textured finish.

I have used the balsa glue and had the same dramas as you... not great stuff. The good old PVA is great when working at pace with the weatherboards. A small bead here and there is plenty.

Love your work.
Love this shed!
 
#22 ·
The balsa has been sealed, Dick. I mixed some acrylic sealant in with the stain when coating the balsa, something that I didn't add to the stain on the spruce. There's a range of media made for the girly folk art scene that I have found quite useful.

Some more pictures now that I'm back to normal bandwidth with a new modem.


The first wall mostly clad.


The inside view. This is the important one. It will be seen just like this. The outside will get some paint.



Behind the fence. Shots taken for size comparison. The paling fence is obviously made from eucalypt slabs.

So far so good, but much more to go.

Cheers
Embs
 
#26 · (Edited by Moderator)
This is the second spooky thing to happen to me this week. I chipped a TVR 12 speed and moments later, I was asked if a wanted a couple of spare ones.

Last weekend, I started building a shed in my garden ...... I nearly fell of my chair as it looks just like this one except the roof pitch is a little lower and it's 32 times bigger.

It is such a great model that I am now using it as a reference to build my shed
 
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