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Comments
Looking at your pics makes me want to go back to mine
and finish it off.
Applying everything you learned on this one will keep you
moving forward on the next one.
Looking forward to seeing what you build next.
Karl.A
Your wood shows exposure to the elements and looks rustic and "backwoods"; the corners on all the structures are nice and square; your castings are subtly colored with none SCREAMING for attention; scenery is well done and all the elements arranged in a believable manner. I think I mentioned earlier the size of the gaps in between the boards. (It's gonna get real drafty in there for your workers!) About the thickness of a business card in HO looks like a good sized gap usually.
Well done!
Now, don't change a thing. Hold on to it "as is" and use this one as a measure of where you started in the hobby.
If I could offer a suggestion (and I hope you're not offended) it would be with the roof.
Kudos for hand laying cedar shakes! That's a time consuming process and one that most people wouldn't try on their first model.
Two things to look at...
Even with a run down shake roof, there will be evidence that at one time the shingles all ran parallel. Take a look at this barn. It's clearly falling apart and nearing the end of its useful life, but you can still make out the rows:
When I draw the same lines on the roof of the Shack, it looks like this:
See how the rows kinda go in and out or parallel?
The problem with hand laying cedar shingles is that it's a 100% "free hand" process and it's easy to lose your line. The guide lines that are drawn on the subroof don't help much because each individual shingle can vary greatly in length. It's also tricky to keep the amount of "reveal" consistent. They're usually, I guess, 8" to a foot...maybe more. I think you can see some of yours are spot on while some have a reveal of a few scale inches at best.
The solution is to use a straight edge across the bottom of each row and basically ignore the lines that are usually drawn on the subroof. I constantly check the run with a metal straight edge. Sometimes I lay a strip of blue painter's tape and the line where I want the next row to begin and build up from the edge of the tape. I don't have a picture so I hope that makes sense.
The second thing is the top of the roof. There needs to be one more row of shingles, but they need to be about half the size of the shingles used for the rest of the roof. So, there should be one more row that would come down to the red line:
I did the same thing on the first roof I tried:
Here's what the "half shingle" row looks like and the final result:
Again, you've a great looking model and pulled off some pretty advanced techniques. I hope you're okay with me sharing this with you.
I'm looking forward to your next build (after you get unpacked).
Bill