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Comments
The instructions are well laid out for placing these strips, except that for the third strip (ie the second row) a single piece is called for, and the maximum length specified of 1.5" is not long enough for this span. No big deal, I just added a second piece, being sure to offset the joins from the first row. Here are the strips in place and the roof attached.
The capping pieces for the peaks are then fitted - a little tricky, but we got there - and some final weathering added. I'm considering adding some "flashing" along the joint with the wall, with a coloured glue mix as I've seen in some other logs.
A special laser cut jig is provided for cutting the rafters to length, with the correct angle on the inboard end (where they attach to the walls). This is a really neat addition that should make cutting the rafters fool-proof. I don't know why, but somewhere along the way I must have made an error in the placement of my roof, as all of my rafters were considerably too long. I ended up adjusting their lengths individually prior to final placement and the end result seems to be okay. I still have no idea where I went wrong.
And finally, here is an overview of the wall at this stage.
I still have to add the awnings and place the signs before completing this wall.
Grant
After cutting them free from the carrier sheet and folding along the score lines, I followed the instructions and added a little chalk powder in the creases. I used Rembrandt 343.5 for this as it seemed to be the closest match to the base colour. Attaching the awnings was fairly straightforward. The signs were then trimmed a little and glued in position.
And that completes the Rear Wall. On to the Left Wall next....
Grant
Wall Construction – Wall Details (Left Wall)
Details for the Left Wall commence with attaching the Dormer to the wall and adding the floor joists under the Dormer. This is done in the same way as for the Rear Wall just completed.
The next item to add is the Sawdust Collector. This is a cast metal item that was cleaned up with a combination of #11 blade, file and brass brush mounted in my Proxxon rotary tool.
Here’s what it looks like after clean-up.
It was then blackened using Jax Pewter Black and buffed with a felt wheel in the rotary tool.
It was mounted to the wall with epoxy darkened with a little black paint to represent tar and pitch, allowing a small amount to ooze out around the joint. Once dry, a wooden brace was added between the Sawdust Collector and the wall.
Next, the landing is constructed using the provided template.
Rather than cutting directly onto the template, I used scraps of wood to set the length of a stop on my Chopper in order to ensure pieces were identical in length and cut square.
Once cut, I placed some double-sided tape over the template and glued the parts together over the template, using a straight edge to ensure that it was square. Once dry, some nail holes were added and the piece removed from the template.
The landing is then attached to the main wall and the Dormer door wall. Two braces are cut to length and angle using the template as a guide, and attached to the landing and the wall.
That completes the Left Wall (for now). Here is an overview of this wall to date.
Next, we move on to the Right Wall…
Details for the Right Wall commence with the large awning for the Loading Dock. A laser cut card piece forms the substrate, which is painted on the underside and has tarpaper applied to the topside. The preparation for this is the same as previously described. There are four support struts, again in laser cut card, which are also painted and the two outer supports also have siding and trim applied. I got a bit carried away with the process and forgot to take many in-progress pictures. Here is the back of the almost completed awning.
And a shot to show the siding and trim applied to the end pieces.
The top of the awning then has the streaking effect applied as previously described.
The awning is then attached to the wall using the cleverly designed location markers. An elbow vent is also provided as a metal casting. This was prepared and blackened as previously described and glued in place with some epoxy coloured with a little black paint. The paint/glue is dulled with a little grey chalk and some dull cote once the glue is dry to take off some of the shine. Here is the completed (for now) wall.
The next step will be to join the walls together and add the roof, before adding the two remaining dormers that were prepared earlier.
With the walls complete, they were assembled – in pairs initially – with the aid of my magnetic gluing jig and some small clamps.
The two sections were then glued together as a single structure. Here are a few shots going around the building.
Two braces are added to the base, to make the structure more rigid and to help keep everything square. A view block is also added by means of a piece of black card cut to fit.
Another pair of braces are added level with the top of the side walls, and then the ridge beam is glued in place.
The roof substrate underside and edges are painted first, and the roof card is then glued in place. At this point the two right wall Dormers are also glued in place.
Joists are then added to the underside of the Dormers as previously done for other dormers.
The Shingles strips had a preliminary preparation way back at the start under “advance preparations” when they were given a light spray of AK11008 Grimy Grey (my substitute for Floquil Earth).
The shingle strips are now cut from the sheets and individually treated with chalk and alcohol. The basic procedure from the instruction manual is to scrape some raw umber chalk (Rembrandt 408.3) over the strip, then blot with a soft round brush dipped in alcohol. A little white chalk is immediately scraped on top, and the same brush used to blot and blend most of it in.
Once all these strips had been so treated and were dry, a stiffer, dry brush was used to blot some grey chalk (Rembrandt 408.9) randomly on top. This gives a nice, aged appearance with some natural variations between strips. Some leftover solid scraps from the carrier sheet were also saved and treated in the same way as these get used for part of the shingling process.
Now for the clever part of the roof design.
The lines visible on the roof card are actually strips that peel away to reveal adhesive beneath. We begin by measuring and cutting a plain strip (from the scrap), and then lifting the first row of adhesive and placing the strip. This additional strip, lifts the first row of shingles off the roof in a very prototypical way. The first row of shingles is then measured, cut, and glued on top of this row. I forgot to take a picture of the first step, but here is the first row of shingles in place.
After this first row, strips of shingle are simply measured, cut and placed by simply revealing the next row of adhesive. The protective paper on the row above acts as a guide to but the shingle layers against. The strips of shingles are also provided with an even number of whole and half shingles on the ends, so it is easy to alternate rows such that the rows of shingles are staggered.
Here is the second row in place.
And the third row.
And here is the first three rows in place across the entire side of that roof.
I could be at this for a while yet…
The structure really looks great now it is all together and all that terrific initial work is paying off well in the results so far.
Walls, windows, signage and dormers all came together beautifully.
The roof is going to look superb also judging by the pics of the coloured shingles all waiting and ready to be installed.
The engineering of the process and the construction design by Brett makes this a masterpiece of a kit to build.
You are showing this off so very well and your results are something you should be very proud of.
I can't wait to see the finished roof, great start so far.
It does take a little practice and playing around at first use, but you appear to have mastered it now.
Very well done.
Jerry
Or are you still shingling ?
Karl - no, I haven’t quit, but things have been on hold for a few weeks. I was off doing a Furniture Design course for a couple of weeks (in support of my other hobby of woodwork/furniture making), and a couple of instances of “life” getting in the way. I’ll be back to shingling tomorrow.
I finally got back to the modelling bench today and was able to progress with roof shingling. The first task was to insert two odd-shaped pieces around both of the Dormers, underneath where the flashing will go.
The Dormer roofs were then installed.
Then the flashing was installed on both Dormer roofs where they meet the main roof. These were simply cut from paper templates and painted/chalked as previously done for the Dormer side walls.
Shingles were then placed from the roof edge to the Dormer roof, overlapping the flashing.
These were continued up to the 10th row, just shy of the peak of the flashing, and the side of the Dormer Roof was shingled in the same way.
The whole process was repeated at the other end with the opposite Dormer. Next will be to complete the shingling between the Dormers up to the same level.
Applying shingles is a little bit like tying ratlines on a three-masted sailing ship – it seems to take forever, but eventually we’ll get there….
Grant
Once past the dormers, it is plain sailing up to the cupola.
The cupola is constructed in much the same way as the main building - a laser cut substrate with weathered boards and end trim attached, and then windows with peeling paint. Some additional trim is added to the base to lift it off the main roof a little to assist with placing the flashing.
Flashing is then added and the shingling up to the ridge line is completed. The final row is comprised of a special set of smaller shingles.
Now to turn to the opposite side of the roof.....