Having made some of the roof pieces as patterns I felt OK to start cutting the 2mm plastic sheet. All the edges had to be chamfered to ensure an accurate no-gap- fit with the mating part. But how was I going to hold 2 parts accurately to glue them together? I came up with a very simple solution. Pins at the correct distances into a piece of 5mm foam board. Here's a plan view.
Here's an end view showing the South end.
I mentioned chamfering in the first picture and here I am demonstrating that. I used my very new Dremel cordless tool - an excellent buy - with an angular routing bit. I practiced on some scrap first as it's easy to apply too much pressure without moving the tool and cutting a nice deep groove - not the objective! A very steady hand held at a constant angle with a nice slow but continuous movement to cut the chamfer. It took a number of passes to get it right. In the end it was a lot quicker than trying to file it as every piece of the roof had to have this done.
The start of the North end fitted to the South end. I didn't have a piece of 2mm plastic long enough to make the West side in one piece, but as the join would be hidden by the tiles, it was not a problem. A strengthening piece was glued under the joint.
A trial fit of the first part of the West side apex. Hmm, not too good. What's wrong? I checked everything and found that I had mismeasured the aperture for the second storey by 5mm. Even with continual checking it's easy for this to happen. So I had to add 5mm pieces on the south side of the aperture and cut the North side with a circular saw bit in the Dremel tool. A very steady hand (and nerve!) needed.
Here's the start of the second storey room using the same method I've used on all the structures so far. The outer walls are Plastruct "concrete" to give the rendered surface needed for the West side. This will be painted in the correct colour in due course. The East side will be covered in slate tiles, produced to the correct size by York Modelmaking for me.
Here's a trial fit on the main floor. I later found out that small pieces had to be fitted on the bottom of each edge where it sits on the bottom walls to raise it to the correct height.
Just the first trial fit of the roof to the main floor. Hard to judge at this stage if I've got everything correct.
The final part of the main roof waiting to be fitted. Getting all those angles correct was very tasking.
Adding the side pieces around the edges on the West side of the upper storey.
Starting to look like the real thing. West Side.
East (road) side. The second storey roof is just a temporary pattern.
An underside view of the roof on the West (platform) side showing the correct planking fitted. This was measured and fitted all the way around, as per the prototype. OK Mike, who is going to see THAT!! We thought you had learnt about unseen details after the signal cabin. But it was there and I am trying to make it as accurately as possible! And when my micro video camera pulls into the station, it may be seen. It's also part of the structure that makes it all fit together.
What's this?! Heddon Hall puling 4 PECO coaches around an oval on my desk! This is the CWRailways 3D Hunslet body on a KATO chassis and put together and painted by Chris Clark, in the UK. Chris wan't too happy with the lining, but at normal viewing distance it looks just fine and I'm very pleased with his work - better than I could have produced. It's very happy pulling the 4 coaches at a very slow crawl around the PECO setrack with 9" radius curves.I added 8 wagons at first with the coaches but that was too much.
Here's a close up of Heddon Hall. But Mike, Heddon Hall wasn't even made in 1930! I know, but this is supposed to be fun and I needed something L&B to pull some stock as the Heljan MWs are still about a year away and my Backwoods MW kit isn't going to see the light of day until at least the basic layout is done, if then.
Windows are made for the upper storey and are currently being painted. The roof fits perfectly onto the main floor. That was always a major concern as until I got to that point I wouldn't know how accurate my measuring had been. Some measurements had to be down to 0.1mm (windows).
Well that's the roof so far. Keep checking back for the next part.
