Beginning Scratchbuilding
Working in wood
Over the series of links that follow you will see the
various steps to scratchbuilding a model in wood. We start off we a
set of scale drawings. Plans are available in books, magazines,
online and from a variety of sources. You can also draw your
own. What you want is to get them, or convert them to the scale that
you are building in.
The next step is to take your siding and prepare it to
become a wall. In the case of this mill, I had to join two pieces of
board and batten siding together to create a piece wide enough to make the
walls. This was done by simply gluing two edges together with white
glue (regular Elmer's White glue...NOT Elmer's School glue. School
glue is designed to wash out of kids clothes and will let go in areas of
high humidity). Remember to always check the surface to make sure
that the siding will match up at the joint.
Next, we turn the siding over and draw out the basic shape
of the wall. Step 1. Always be sure and double check every measurement for size before
cutting. "Measure twice, cut once!" Step
2. Using a steel ruler and a sharp #11 blade in our Exacto
knife, we cut out the wall. Don't try to cut all the way through the
wood in one stroke. This if VERY important. Make many shallow
cuts instead. This is done for many reasons but mainly it is almost
impossible to cut through the wood in a single pass. It will also be
very hard to keep such a deep cut straight AND it's dangerous. By
making several light passes with the knife you can hear it cutting the
fibers of the wood. Always work on a self healing mat or a thick
piece of glass. You don't want a work surface that will also end up
with a line scored in it from the cut. A score in the work surface
can grab a blade's point on a future cut and force the blade to follow it
instead of where you want it to go. Step
3
The next step is to measure and draw the window and door
openings on the back of the siding. Step
4. You will want to make sure that windows line up and are
evenly spaced. Note in Step 5 that we've drawn a line to keep the windows evenly spaced from the top of
the wall. You will also notice that the lower windows line up with
the uppers. This isn't completely necessary in some cases but it
does help to keep the building looking realistic. In Step
6 you will see that we are beginning to cut out the openings for
the windows. To keep the knife from cutting past the opening we
drill a hole in each of the four corners of the window. This give
the knife blade a place to start and stop. For shaped siding you
always work from the smooth, back side. After cutting out the
windows and doors your wall will look like this...Step
7.
Now we are ready to paint. When working with wood
you want to try and do as much as you can while the model is what we call
"In the flat". This simply means that the walls are laying
flat on the work surface. We do this because scale wood will warp
very easily. By having the wood flat, we can add a small weight to
the wood to hold it flat while it dries. Most modelers use acrylic
paints of various types but for painting wood pieces on a model I really
like the acrylics that come in a tube. Step
8 This type of paint is thicker and meant for an artist to
use on a painting instead of the thinner craft paints. The thicker
paint is easier to dry brush and with it's lower water content it's less
likely to wrap the wood. While this is good for the siding it's
usually too thick for painting the windows and castings without
thinning. For these I use acrylic craft paints like
Ceramacoat. They come in a large variety of colors and they are
cheap. Most hobby and craft stores have them and they are usually on
sale for less than $1 a bottle around 'Mom' oriented holidays.
For many buildings, especially in the western USA, they
would simply mix materials native to the area with linseed oil. In
many cases you end up with red or brown iron oxide and linseed oil
creating a paint that was brushed on. To simulate this color and a
older building, I dry brush the color onto the wall. Step
9 I'm not worried about an even coat. In fact, I want
some of the wood to show through. Dry brushing is where you dip just
the tip of the brush into the paint and wipe off any excess on a
towel. You want very little paint on the brush so that when you
apply it to the model the brush appears to be dry and in need of
paint. For weathering, you want very little paint at all on the
brush. For painting siding like this you can dip the brush into the
paint and work on the model without wiping off the brush. Start at
the top with the majority of the paint and as the brush gets drier, move
to the bottom of the wall. Since gravity will pull water and such
down the bottom of the walls it will always stay wetter, longer than the
top will. This is harder on the paint and thus causes it to wear off
faster.
Once the wall has paint on it I sit a couple of small
weights on it to hold it flat. Don't use anything too heavy since it
might leave a mark in the wood. I use things like a bottle of glue,
the tube of paint, my Exacto knife and so on. Just use something
there on the workbench that will hold the piece flat.
After this has dried completely we are ready to
begin weathering the model. I start off with a coat of stain made
from India ink and alcohol (a teaspoon or so of stain to a pint jar of
rubbing alcohol). This stain is widely used by modelers
and should be used on almost every surface of your model railroad.
The purpose of this stain is that the rubbing alcohol will flash off
leaving a light stain of the ink. This had enough time to settle
into all the little cracks and crevasses and it creates the illusion of
shadow. I again weight down the wood and let it dry
completely.
You can follow this step with just about any form of
weathering you like. You can airbrush it (just remember that you are
introducing more wet material to the wood so let it dry out under some
weights). You can use pastel chalks, the newer Bragdon weathering
powders (I like these since they don't blow off like the pastels do),
regular dirt (use the same dirt that you are using on the ground of the
town this building will be placed). This is used around the bottom
edge of the building to show where rain has kicked up the dirt around the
building.
One of the most recent things I've used has been
Prismacolor colored pencils. This is a really nice weathering tool
since it comes in a wide variety of colors, it's easy to put on the model
and they blend well. Straight from the pencil to the model works
well but soaking the pencil in regular white vinegar for 30 to 60 seconds
will soften the lead of the pencil and make it even easier to get color on
the model. This is really helpful around delicate surfaces. Step
10 By using a few colors that are close to the Red Iron
Oxide that I painted the building I was able to vary the shade of a few
boards in a few places. I was also able to create stains and shadows
with darker browns and blacks. I was also able to add a few
highlights to areas with a few shades of gray. Step
11
Any time that you are working with wood it is going to
warp. Earlier we talked about allowing the wood to dry with weights
on it but even with that step the chances are that it's still going to
warp some. To help hold the walls straight and to add some reinforcement
to the structure, we will glue some wood to the back or inside edge of the
wall. Since a wall's warp could be strong enough to warp the reinforcing
piece, we will actually make a L shaped piece out of scrap wood Step
12. This means that the warp of the wall will have to not
only work against two pieces of wood but, by making it into an L shape, it
will also have to work against apposing wood grain Step
13. For long reinforcement I use wooden coffee stirring
sticks. This can be found by the box at restaurant supply
stores. A large box is around $2. The cuts don't have to be
perfect when making these. Just as long as they fit on the wall
without over lapping. Note in picture on Step 13 that I'm clamping
this down while it dries with two clothespins that have been turned around
backwards. This allows for a longer, flatter jaw to the clamp.
Once the pieces are in place I usually run some extra glue around all of
the seams of the wood just to help hold the joint. Since this
portion of the model won't be seen (Because we're going to put a floor in
it) you don't have to worry about glue marks here. If you are going
to put lighting into the building, paint the inside of the walls flat
black at this point. The light will cause the wood to look like it's
glowing if you don't.
Our next step is to glue in some window glass. For this
you can use just about anything clear. For contest models, or
anything that will sit in the foreground, I like to use real glass.
For this I cut down microscope slip covers. You can cut the glass by
using a diamond scribe that you can get from Micro-Mark. You can
also use clear styrene as well. While glass is best because you get
a true reflection, the styrene is easier to work with and less likely to
cut you. Evergreen Scale Models makes a clear .010" that works
well for window glazing. You can cut it to shape easier than the
real glass and it's also possible to make small trimming cuts to get it to
shape that you can't do with glass.
With either material, the process to put it in the window
is the same. We start off with ordinary floor wax. I use
Future Step 14. This dries
perfectly clear and is self leveling. Take your piece of window
glazing and clean off any finger prints with a rag. Using a pair of
tweezers, Step 15 set the window
glazing in place in the frame Step 16.
Dip a toothpick into the Future and get enough to get a ball of it on the
end of the toothpick. Place the drop on a corner of the window frame
and glazing Step 17. Capillary
action will draw the Future around the window. Do this to at least
two corners of the window but sometimes all four will be needed.
This will take some time to set up and dry. Depending on the
humidity and temperature it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1
hour.
Once the windows are in and dry you can start assembling
the walls. I use a assembly tray from Micro-Mark Step
18. These are nice since you can have true 90 degree corners
and magnets to hold the walls in place while they dry. A tip to
placing the magnets is to lay one corner on the plate and one on the wall
and roll the magnet down until it is flush on the plate and wall.
The reason for this is because it is VERY hard to make small adjustments
to the magnets once they are flush.
Glue up two walls to create a L shape. Once the
walls are in place and the magnets are where you want them to be, add a
piece of scrap that has a true 90 degree edge. Glue this flush into
the corner. This will add strength to the building and help keep the
walls true. You can see one of these supports on the previous
photo. Do the same thing with the opposite walls. In this case
that is difficult because one side only has a couple of small walls.
After creating the first L, I added the next long wall and allowed it to
dry Step 19. I then
added some pieces of wood across the width of the building to help hold it
in place. Next, I added the upper walls and clamped them in place
with two small Quick-Grip clamps. I also added a strip of wood
across the peak of the roof to not only hold it in place but to have
something to glue the roof to Step 20.
If you are planning to put lighting or a interior into the building all of
the supports that we put in will have to be done differently. In
those cases I often use the floor itself as a support. A building
with more than one story can be supported by each floor easily. You
can also create truss work to hold the top of the walls in place if
needed. If you can see into the corner you will also have to go
without the corner braces as well. Again, the floor should be enough
to keep the walls true.
At this point the main portion of the building has been
assembled. Step 21, Step
22, and Step 23
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