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Ever evolvin dio. ft. 'THE INDESTRUCTIBLE TREE' as ft. on youtube.


Badder

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Not much progress over the past day or two. But I have added the interior partition wall and one of the floors. The floor is made from two squares of balsa wood, with their grains running at 90 degrees to each other, making the floor stiff. The floor will only be part visible through the partially open door,[and hardly visible through the windows, but I will make it as realistic as I can.

Nncr7X3.jpg

 

 

More bad design by MiniArt is visible above... firstly the partition wall with the door in it... The doorway is placed higher than the floor, so there is a step up to the adjoining room which has a higher floor.... but you can see that the holes for the floor beams above the archway are actually placed even higher... so if the floor sat on those beams the floor would be raised higher than the bottom of the doorway. And why didn't they make the internal partion wall the same length as the outer walls?

TFL

Badder

 

 

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23 hours ago, Badder said:

More bad design by MiniArt is visible above... firstly the partition wall with the door in it... The doorway is placed higher than the floor, so there is a step up to the adjoining room which has a higher floor.... but you can see that the holes for the floor beams above the archway are actually placed even higher... so if the floor sat on those beams the floor would be raised higher than the bottom of the doorway. And why didn't they make the internal partion wall the same length as the outer walls?

 

 

That's disappointing. Maybe the easiest way to deal with it is to shorten the door (at the bottom - add a step maybe).

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2 hours ago, Ratch said:

That's disappointing. Maybe the easiest way to deal with it is to shorten the door (at the bottom - add a step maybe).

Hi Ratch,

I added the floor to the other room, setting it at the height suggested by the beams and the demarcation line between the wall plaster and bare bricks. Raising the bottom of the door to suit would mean too large a step and too low a door-height for my liking, so I've gone for making a couple of steps. Altough having said that, they won't be seen unless someone sticks an endoscope through the front door.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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It almost looks like the beams should go on top of the floor.  I think sometimes that the model designers never get out into the field, as it were, and build there own creations.  Its rampant in the industry I'm afraid.  Most kit have a thing or three wrong.  But I've seen you figure it out before, I like the stair idea...

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9 hours ago, RichO said:

It almost looks like the beams should go on top of the floor.  I think sometimes that the model designers never get out into the field, as it were, and build there own creations.  Its rampant in the industry I'm afraid.  Most kit have a thing or three wrong.  But I've seen you figure it out before, I like the stair idea...

I have to say again that all the MiniArt buildings I've made, or have in the stash suffer from some silly errors. MiniArt must know of them but have never corrected them. I guess they were originally too small a company to re-design the tooling.

Yes, the position of floor beams do appear to be too high, but I've located the floor at that height nevertheless as it will be enclosed and hidden.

I'm not sure what the builders of the 'Where's Joe' diorama did with their floor, but their building was left open at the rear... I will go and have a look.

 

And on that note, today I will be casting the rear wall for my building. I will have to cast several parts which will need to be butchered and joined to achieve this.

Rearguards,

Badder

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Here's the building from the rear in the otherwise excellent 'Where's Joe?' diorama. I have to say that I personally don't like the 'cut-away'. I don't like cut-aways generally speaking, either in buildings or vehicles, but that's just my opinion. To me, their building looks like a doll's house.

 

As you can see, the floor above the arch IS placed upon the suggested sites for the floor beams, but they've gotten round the problem of the step down to the next room by blocking in the doorway and having a solid wall. This also overcomes the problem of the door being fouled by the front door when both are open.

I also note that they've extended the partition wall to match the length of the outer walls. I don't know what they did to their roof section as their roof beams fit neatly between the walls, whereas mine don't. I had to remove the far left roof beam as it was fouling the side wall.

I won't be building the extra floor for the attic as, again, it won't be visible at all.

 

 

010.%20Winter%20Dio.jpg

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

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5 hours ago, Major_Error said:

Any way, @Bladder, it is one happy family in there!

 

8-D

 

You're not the first to call me 'Bladder' Mayor Egor, I expect it's the fault of predictive text?

I'm sure they ARE happy, although one particular scene looks a bit ooo-er missus, to me.

 

Rearguards,

Badder.

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I've rushed on ahead and fixed the new side walls in place. Lining them up was made a lot simpler thanks to the graph paper base which I had glued to the bottom of the main building. The joins between the new and old walls are fairly good, but as always I will be scraping them back in places, re-filling and re-carving to obliterate what would otherwise be a vertical line in the stonework.

 

Here's a shot of the wall with the window in it:

qS2i5go.jpg

 

Interior shot: note the 'step' in the doorway between both rooms.

O3gUIxd.jpg

 

I may or may not face these walls with balsa wood. The upright piece of balsa is actually just a stencil I made for copying the position of the window and transferring it to the opposite wall which was lacking one. I will be extending the partition wall a few centimetres and will block off the front and rear of the building with a dividing wall.

FlZFiQS.jpg

 

The observant amongst you (that'll be all of you then - it's a prerequisite of model-making) will notice that I've carved out a window aperture in the 'blank' wall to match the ones opposite and beside it. I intend to make a cast of the window surround and inset it into this hole. It will require some very precise and neat carving to get a good result.

 

Continuing with the window theme, this window (and others to follow) will require me to scratch window frames as I will have used all the spares from the two kits.

An alternative would be to block some of the windows with shutters. Handily, two sets of shutters come with this Ardennes kit but are not used in its construction. (they are 'extras' on one of MiniArt's generic detailing sprues) and I think I have a set of shutters left over from the Ruined Village House kit as well .

 

TFL

Badder

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On ‎11‎.‎03‎.‎2017 at 17:11, Badder said:

You're not the first to call me 'Bladder' Mayor Egor, I expect it's the fault of predictive text?

I'm sure they ARE happy, although one particular scene looks a bit ooo-er missus, to me.

 

Rearguards,

Badder.

 

Wow...

Sorry about that!

Norwegian speller and a swinging tube!

 

8-)

 

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So, I took a mould of the wall with the window in it, sectioned off the window and made a cast of said window. I then cut around the cast to tidy it up, leaving just the brickwork of the window surround. I had planned to cut a recess around the window aperture in the wall, to a accept the brickwork, but then realised that there would be no need, IF I could sand the cast down thin enough and stick it directly to the wall. I was happily sanding away at the back of the cast, but when it was about 2mm thick it snapped in a couple  of places.

Never mind, I could glue the pieces back together and continue sanding?

Nah... I stuck the whole thing in position then sanded it down to the required thickness. Okay, I'd lost all of the brickwork detail, but I could re-carve that no problem. Having said all of that, this is going to be one of those windows with shutters.

 

So here's the newly formed window sans brick detailing.

KtFuiIM.jpg

 

Yes I know that the left hand side of the window surround is slightly wider than the right, but that's down to incomplete tidying-up by me. I'm thinking that this a viable method for producing windows in otherwise 'blank' walls and I shall be using it to make the rear wall windows.

 

Also today, I've been working on the fit of the rear roof to the side walls and the existing roof. This was a long process, requiring a lot of dry-fitting, some sanding, filling, and tiny re-adjustments , but I think I've got it about as good as it's going to be.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

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Progress stalled over the past few day s because I've had a few problems casting parts for the rear wall of the building: that being warping of the plaster during drying. After two failed attempts I came to the conclusion that this was down to the thickness of the plaster pourings being affected differently under varying climatic conditions. Whereas several thin pourings have dried straight and true in the past when the central heating was on, they do not now, when it is not. This seems to me to be contrary to logic. But whatever, thicker pourings have dried without warping. That at least, seems logical.

So, I now have three casts with which to construct the major part of the rear wall. I am going to use a cast of the upper section of the front wall (including the doorway) as the basis for the ground floor section of the rear wall, and casts of the two side wall sections as the major part of the upper floor section. I will have to insert one or two windows in this upper floor section.

9r4ScX1.jpg

 

 

There will be more work required to build this wall than any previous part, because it will be entirely made up of casts which will need fitting with each other, and the side walls, and the roof. There will be a fair bit of re-carving of the details at all the joints. Finally, I will also have to support the structure internally. Oh, and I haven't forgotten the chimney. I have yet to decide whether to use the kit's brick chimney, or make my own.

 

TFL

Badder 

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As I've already stated, the construction of the rear wall of this building was going to be the hardest part of this build. With the rest of the building all fixed together square and true, it is essentially one piece, but the rear wall has to be constructed from several parts, all of which have to fit square and true to each other, and to the building.

To make things a bit easier, I decided to fix the roof in place earlier than might seem sensible. However, whilst in does restrict access to the interior, it does form another datum which I can use to square and true the rear wall.

And a baton of wood, spanning the gap between two side walls, not only forms another datum, but also increases the rigidity of the entire building, marks the level of the first floor floorboards, and forms a support and backing for the upper and lower floor sections of the rear wall.

 

The roof was 'tacked' in place with blobs of thick CA first, then fixed more fully with thin CA, then reinforced with PVA. I also glued a baton of wood underneath the roof, leaving a 10mm gap, and then filled the gap with a tube of rolled up paper soaked in CA. This forms a support for the roof, but  has some give in it, just in case there is some increase in tension during the fixing of the rear wall, or the fixing of the building to the diorama base. Hopefully, the roof won't ever crack, but if it does then maybe the paper support will keep it all held together and make it easier to repair.

 

Batton of wood CA'd and PVA'd into place at a level equal to the first floor floorboards,

dBt89xo.jpg

 

 

 

Below, Upper section of the rear wall. The ends of the wall have been chamfered at a 45 degree angle to fit the corresponding chamfers at the ends of the side walls. As you can see, I changed my mind and rather than constructing the upper section from several  casts, I used a cast of the corresponding wall from the front of the building.  I will block in and hide the doorway with an insert of stonework. And of course I will cut out the window aperture.

cXDUTIj.jpg

 

 

btw, the hand was supplied by 'Hands R Us'.

 

I will be using a second cast of this same section of wall to make the ground floor section, only I will be leaving the door in place.

TFL

Badder

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29 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

That's coming along a treat, I had mixed success using CA glue sticking mine together. 

 

If you're talking about gluing plaster of Paris parts together, then I've found thin CA is best if the fit is very good, and medium or thick if it isn't. Thin CA is also great for repairing cracks before the piece fully comes apart, or at least before the broken edges are further damaged: then use medium.

 

With my plaster roof I had to bend the thing very slightly to get a good fit.... and YES it did bend by about 1.5mm over its entire length (it's quite a thin casting)

So I fixed one end of the roof in place with first thin and then medium CA (from inside) and let that completely dry. Then i blobbed thick CA in a few spots along the other end of the roof and held the roof down in place until that dried. Then I trickled thin CA into the join (again from inside) and reinforced with medium.

 

Btw, CA doesn't really 'soak' into plaster. It joins 'rough' plaster better, what with the larger surface area that that creates. So, as I said, it's good for cracks, or sanded plaster. On smooth plaster it just forms a skin, which can be peeled off.

 

So, I have been reinforcing all the joints in my buildings with PVA.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

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Thanks for the tips, now you mention it the smoothness did form a film. I remember years ago I used humbrol glue to stick plaster building I made.

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2 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Thanks for the tips, now you mention it the smoothness did form a film. I remember years ago I used humbrol glue to stick plaster building I made.

Don't forget, I've been scraping the corners of my walls back, re-filling with plaster and re-carving the details, so the walls are also fixed together with plaster. And of course the foundations of the building will be set in plaster when fitted to the base, so really, the only things that are possibly ever going to fall apart, or off, are the minor details.

 

Badder

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Work on the upper wall section is progressing. I've carved out the window aperture. I've also blocked up the doorway: re-carving the stonework so as to hide the fact that it was ever there. At least, that's the plan. Until it's been given a base coat, I can't be certain that the outline won't show. As it is, there's a dark 'glassy' outline of the doorway where the CA was used to fix the plaster insert in place.

The section has been worked further to improve its fit with the roof. A gutter will once again hide any naff bits .

I've also laid the floor in the upper rooms, using balsa wood again.

I have yet to construct the inner dividing walls.  They won't be fitted until nearing the end.

 

Pics tomorrow.

 

TFL

Badder

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Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. I have just been catching up with your ever-evolving project and it all seems to be going rather splendidly. I do like the way you solve any problems you have with the build - very inventive! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I keep thinking I must have a go at a scenic Mini Art kit at some point but I will probably build the first one just OOB. I will definitely keep this project of yours for future reference though.

Kind regards,

Stix

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13 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. I have just been catching up with your ever-evolving project and it all seems to be going rather splendidly. I do like the way you solve any problems you have with the build - very inventive! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I keep thinking I must have a go at a scenic Mini Art kit at some point but I will probably build the first one just OOB. I will definitely keep this project of yours for future reference though.

Kind regards,

Stix

Hi Stix,

I am well, thanks for asking.

If the MiniArt kits were better they wouldn't need inventiveness, so good luck with building one OOB! Having said that, I do enjoy the challenge, and as I keep saying, they do provide a source of moulds for scratching future buildings.

I'm glad you find the WIP useful,

Rearguards

Badder

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Here's the wall section with the doorway blocked in with a stonework insert. The obvious outline is caused by CA which dries with a dark glassy appearance when in contact with plaster of Paris. Also visible are some repaired cracks, some chipping and a couple of holes caused by air bubbles in the casts. Some filling may or may not be carried out.

htIf4jl.jpg

 

I've now given the wall section a coat of brown and then dusted over with plaster dust, bringing out the stonework to see how well I've hidden where the doorway was. I think I've done a pretty good job.

r3KatKl.jpg

 

I also gave the roof a rough going over with brick red to see how well the added width of tiles has been blended in. As feared, the join is fairly obvious and so it will require some more work. 

 

And finally, I extended the floors and the partition wall on the upper floor so that they reach the rear wall of the building.

Again, I used balsa wood. It's light in weight, splits in nice straight lines and bonds well with medium CA, so it's great stuff to use I haven't been too fussy with the partition wall. It's really only there to prevent light shining straight through the building from one side to the other. 

zrSH4Fp.jpg

 

I gave the entire side wall a coat of brown. As you can see, I've not yet carved the stonework pattern where the plaster section of wall meets the plastic wall. However, you can see that by scraping back the 'joint' and filling it with plaster, the area is nice and flat so the join should be invisible. The joint at the opposite end of the building hasn't been scraped back or filled yet. I also have to re-carve the brickwork around most of the windows.

TFL

Badder

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On 22/03/2017 at 11:21 AM, PlaStix said:

I keep thinking I must have a go at a scenic Mini Art kit at some point but I will probably build the first one just OOB.

I can just imagine you and Badder doing a dio together Stix,per eccellenza...Lovely job Badder :thumbsup2:....

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Lovely work on the doorway Badder - I certainly can't see any evidence of it from my side of the screen. Hope you have a great weekend!

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

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3 hours ago, Vince1159 said:

I can just imagine you and Badder doing a dio together Stix,per eccellenza...Lovely job Badder :thumbsup2:....

Hi Vince. Thank you for the thought but Badder has far more skills and talent with regards diorama's and vignettes than I do - plus a great imagination for creating the scenes. I'd be there as a make-weight rather than anything useful!

Kind regards,

Stix

 

 

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