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The Shipyard build

edited December 2011 in HO Scale Builds
Hello All,

This will be my first post on this forum, so bare with me... it'll be short to start with. I've started the Shipyard build and it looks to be a fantastic challenge for me, now that I've decided on a water front scene on my layout, it'll fit in perfectly. Well you've all probably seen the white box, if not here it is (ie practice post):
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That was pretty painless (...I hope, won't know 'til I hit the post button ...) compared to the RR-Line forum (where you'll also find this build). Question ... are there limits to the number of pic's in a post .....?

That's it for now, progress pic's to come.

testing, testing .... 1 2 3

'til Next
Paul
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Comments

  • Ok .... had a funny feeling there'd be a hitch ... it seems the pic is atached, but not visible.... any ideas....?

  • it is visible to everybody right off and you on your second visit to the thread... wierd little forum thing. Post as many pics as you like. We love pics and i am really looking forward to seeing what you do with this kit Paul!
  • edited December 2011
    Yep, pic is fine and as you say "a simple procedure".

    I'll second Brett and say post as many pics as you like, we love to see the progress.

    Please bear in mind though to keep the pics under 200kb, that makes the page quicker to load for everyone and doesnt eat up the resources.

    Looking forward to following along with you.

    Karl.A
  • Im looking forward to this Paul.

    Keep posting lots of pics.
  • Hello All,

    Before I start off, here's a few pic's from the FSMR Expo'11, Brett and the crew with the Shipyard diorama:

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    Now it's off to re-size the pic's of distressing and staining the strip wood for the Shipyard walls.

    'til Next,
    Paul
  • Hello All,

    Moving right along (ie waiting for the football games to start...), I'll begin with pic's of how the strip wood was treated for the main shipyard building walls. (helps also to have the opportunity to attend one of Brett's and gangs clinics...).

    Started off using a wire brush to stress the wood (somehow forgot to take a pic of brush...), and then applying Rembrant chalk power (408.3) with a light wash of alcohol:
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    Progress with the strip wood (drying):
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    The complete batch, slightly elevated to assist drying:
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    The walls consist of three pieces; a base card-stock piece, a bottom card-stock piece with groves for aligning the strip-wood joints and finally a scribed sheet of wood for the upper floor walls (scribed so you have the choice of having the sheathing visible between the vertical slats, if you want a really stressed structure). The upper floor scribed wall section is washed lightly with PS Roof Brown.
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    The wall sections:
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    The bottom wall section pieces glued together and weighted (upper floor wall shifted but not glued). A thing to note with gluing the wall pieces together, use a stick to keep the edges flush with the outer edge of the main card-stock piece (all four edges). It is possible to butt the top scribed wall piece with lower card-stock piece which results in a gap at the top (around 1/32nd or so) of the wall section, so butt to the outside (top) edge.

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    Next up will be applying the treated strip wood.

    'til Next,
    Paul

  • having fun following along....
  • I love step by step documented builds like this Paul. Keep the pics coming.
  • I'll second what Wes said. Well documented step by step threads take some extra time & effort and it's much appreciated, Paul. You're off to a nice start and I'm looking forward to your next update.

    Thanks for those pictures from the Expo, too. New and different angles of the demo models are always cool to see! I bet you'll be glad you have them for an additional reference as you progress through the build.
  • Hello All,

    Thanks Brett, Wes and Bill, comments are always appreciated. I find posting a build thread almost as fun as the building itself and taking pic's of the build may show a glaring mistake that might be over-looked.

    I've managed to assemble the main walls of the Shipyard, starting with the knot-holes and moving onto the tools I've used during the boarding process.

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    The completed bottom portion of the main building sides (staining as per kit instructions, Rembrandt 408.3 and a couple of shades of grey).

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    The top portion of the sides:

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    Note: next time I'll try to keep the glue spill-out on the back of the pieces
    that will be trimmed to a minimum, it seemed cutting out the window
    and door openings used up alot of #11 blades.

    The sections completed and ready for doors and windows:

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    Now I'll be moving onto siding the dormers and
    assemblying the laser cut doors and
    windows.

    'til Next, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
    Paul
  • Fantastic work Paul. Great variation in the siding but it all blends, terrific example of the benefits of using board-by-board techniques.

    Very nice graining and texture also complimenting your precise construction.

    Karl.A
  • Right on track, Paul. Very nice.

    When you cut out the window & door openings, were you cutting them out on your glass cutting board or on the self healing mat? I may be stating the obvious, but cutting on glass can dull blades in a hurry.
  • Happy New Year and all the best in 2012 to all.

    Thanks Karl, always good to know I'm heading in the right direction. As for cutting the window openings Bill, I believe I was cutting the openings on the self-healing mat, a bit to slippery on the glass surface, but your right on the glass dulling the blades. When I'm finished with the walls, I'll post a pic of the scrap wood, window backins and dull blades, quite the collection is building up.

    Moving on with the build, over the holidays I managed to get through most of the doors and windows, here's how its all going:

    The collection of main building walls and dormers:

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    Close up of the dormers with the flashing attached (black pieces):

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    Now, for the doors and windows, here's the (adhesive backed) laser cut sheet which holds all of them:

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    Pieces for one of the loading dock doors:

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    The collection of doors, assemled one at the top right:

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    Treating the door inside pieces with Rembrandt 408.3 & Alcohol:

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    Treating the door frames, first A & 408.3, and then peeling paint with PS Reefer White:

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    The assembled doors ready for inserting into the walls:

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    Next, I'll be moving on to the windows, now that I've a bit of practice with the much larger doors.

    One thing I have noticed while checking the walls, the corner trim is 3/32" sq., while the thickness of the walls appear to be about 1/8" (at the bottom). Will this require bevelling of the inside end walls, in order for the corner trim to fit without a gap ....?

    'til Next,
    Paul

  • edited January 2012
    slightly bevel the mating edges of the front and rear wall... (thanks for pionting this out Paul)

    Doors are looking awesome!
  • Hello All,

    Moving along (....and the Pats are up 35-7 at the half.... go Pats.... and the 49er's are no Saints .....),

    I'm onto the windows for the main structure walls. I really enjoyed putting these windows together, just need a pair of tweezers, Exacto blade, strip wood and patience. The treatment is basically the same as the doors so I'll just show the pic's:

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    For the windows, a light coat of Testors Dull Coat, and then back to the 408.3 Rembrandt for dusting (fogging) the glass.

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    The two pieces of strip wood are used to align the mylar to the frames, just need to remember to keep the backing on the back side... and if you catch it in time it's easy to correct (lesson well learned)..... ((((Pat's now up 42-7 ....))))).

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    Final assembly fo the windows:

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    Insertion in the walls, the frames around the windows will come later after the corner trim has been applied:

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    Here's a pic of the work bench... the walls are under the bus bar weights, the dormers are coming together (between the bus bars), the bench is a mess and it's almost time to clean up (but I think I'll wait til the walls are done... ). The pictures on the wall are pic's of Brett's Shipyard from the Expo last Nov., they really come in handy as a reality check.

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    Next will be the dormer windows, they're a bit smaller so I may need to bring out the opti-visor.... back to the ball game .... and how many touchdowns can a tight end (Gronkowski) get in one game....(for the off-shore modelers, the Pat's are the New England Partiots, American NFL football team, and well .... the Broncos should have stayed home...Denver... but it's now time for another Coors Light....Sam Adams is just a bit to strong (heavy) for me these days.....).

    'til Next,
    Paul

  • edited January 2012
    windows look terrific... glad you are enjoying the build! (nothing better than modeling, beer, and football!!!!)
  • I just love bench pictures Paul. Alaways interesting to see what everyone else is using.
  • I'll probably wind up smacking my own forehead for not seeing the obvious, but what is the build directly in front of Brett in the photo above?
  • edited January 2012
    Mike, I'm guessing you mean this picture...

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    The camera angle really throws off the size perspective which is why it was hard to tell.

    Karl.A
  • Great work on those doors and windows Paul. The wood tones are perfect and the peeling paint effect really came out very well indeed, excellent result.

    Karl.A

    My bench doesnt look that clean and organised even AFTER I've tidied it up!!!!
  • It all looks great Paul! Looks like someone is having a lot of fun with a kit that didn't come in a yellow box ha ha. I don't even bother cleaning up the work bench anymore!
    The Giants beat the big bad Packers......hmmmm.

    KO
  • Hello All,

    Another Sunday, and another round of football games ... go Pat's.... Thanks Brett, Wes, Karl and Kevin for the comments, always welcome. Kevin, I thought of painting the box yellow ... but I think I've changed my mind ... it'll be green.

    Now back to the build ... the dormer wall nail holes, roughly a straight line with the help of the triangle:
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    Stressing and staining the dormer corner trim (Rembrandt 408.3), basically the same as was done on the main walls:
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    Moving onto the dormer windows, very similar to the main wall upper floor windows but a lot smaller. Treatment is also the same (A and R408.3, R704.9). Here's the window parts for 4 windows (acetate glass not shown):
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    The assembled panes and glass (backing still on the acetate) and the right window partly open:
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    Front of the window panes, ready for a test fitting:
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    The test fit, the gap is due to poor cutting and filing on my part, I ran into difficulties cutting out the openings due to the glue bleed out during gluing the slats on. Next time, I'll try to minimize the glue (bleed out) around the windows.
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    One of the wall dormers has a door, treatment and assembly is similar to the windows:

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    The door will need hinges, handles and knobs .... these are provided on one of the laser cut sheets and they are realllllly small, luckily there's plenty of them in case a few go flying off during installation (with tweezers). Amazingly the adhesive backing stays on when you remove the piece from the sheet, although it takes a bit of practice (at least I do) to keep track of which side is the back. Once the piece is lightly held in the tweezers with the backing removed, installation is straight forward.

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    A pic to show the state of affairs on the work bench (with yours truly)... Kevin... it's almost time for a clean up, but I think I'll wait for the completion of the walls...

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    That's it for now, next will be the completion of the dormers ... but first, the game (Pat's and Ravens, NFL's AFC Championship) along with a couple of those Mountain brewed cool ones.

    'til Next,
    Paul
  • Great continued progress, Paul. Windows and doors with the peeling paint are especially effective. Those peel n stick elements are nice, aren't they? They speed things up and really look good.

    One minor thing I'd point out is to be careful so your nail holes don't get too heavy. I'm not sure what you're using currently, but you may want to look into getting some felting needles. The point is really fine and I think you'll like the result. You can find them at a fabric store for a couple bucks.

    I have to laugh when you mention "it's time for a clean up" on the workbench. I know it's time to clean the bench when I can't find a tool and I'm debating what would be easier: clean up or go to the hardware store and buy I new one!

    Very nice photography, too!
  • Wow Paul

    Your bench is 10 times tidier than mine. My lovely lady calls it a chaotic mess i call it organised chaos.:)
  • edited January 2012
    Hello All,

    Wes, if my workbench were in the house (rather than the garage), my wife would have me cleaning it daily... Bill, I'm using a thin steel rod filed to a point for the nail holes, the holes may appear rather large now, but I still have a trick that I'm experimenting with that should shrink the size (pic's to follow).

    Onto the build,... the scrap pile continues to grow... they'll probably come in handy making wood piles and debris on the diorama.

    Paulimage

    Window installation in the dormers:

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    The dormers have a floor which is painted with Floquil Roof Brown.

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    A view of the dormer sides with the flashing attached:

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    Onto preparing the corner trim for the main walls (R408.3 and A), double sided tape was used to hold the bag closed after cutting open:

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    The main walls with nail holes ready for the corner trim, doors and windows:

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    My next post will be installing the windows and doors in the main walls and attaching the corner trim. Just finished the Shipyard sign and am very pleased with the result...pic's to follow:

    'til Next,
    Paul
  • went and checked on the server and these files are not there - can you upload them again... really want to see them!!
  • Hmm... must have been the glitch I had while posting, the pic's all disappeared from the Attach a file list.... will go back and edit the post...



  • I hope that worked .... now back to stirring the bean Chili ....

    Paul
  • Hello All,

    Adding the corner trim, pretty straight forward, I used a strip wood spacer to keep things true:
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    While test fitting the walls after attaching the corner trim a slight bevel was needed to allow the corners to fit, not really a problem:
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    The upper floor windows:
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    The main building doors, there's a blank piece of laser cut stock that fits the door frame and makes it easy to recess the doors the correct amount (forgot to take a pic).
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    And the collection of pieces making up the main building walls move towards completion...
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    Now onto a daunting task, applying the Shipyard sign to the rear wall piece. I've no experience with stenciling so decided to practice with a test run on a piece of scrap siding I had lying around. First, treated the siding similar to the main walls, let dry and then went at it with PS Reefer White and a stiff brush, repeated light layers of paint (almost like dry brushing except your blotting rather than brushing).
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    Now, onto the real thing:
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    Seemed to have come through without a hitch, now onto dulling the sign with R403.8 and then applying white chalk with a small brush to get the paint running down the wall effect:
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    Will the walls ever end.... a lot of detail goes into these walls, really hoping they're still noticeable when the diorama is finished. Next will be the details on the store front; doors, windows and a new technique (at least it is for me) for the store signs.

    'til Next,
    ...enjoy the game... go Pat's and I hope it's not a repeat of '08.
    Paul

  • edited February 2012
    The stenciling turned out great Paul, nice clean sharp edges and then aged really well, nice work.

    The walls also are looking great, that extra dimension in the siding really looks good and adds some depth to the walls.

    Looking forward to more.

    Karl.A
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