Continuing Saga …

Shorts sessions, but still progress.

Yesterday I installed the sytrene strip window backers to provide a positive surface for the windows to engage. One of the benefits of having the model produced in acrylic is the ability to glue styrene to it with acrylic adhesive. Sets up very fast.

From the back the backers are pretty obvious, but interior views will be limited and I'm not adding interiors to the upper floors.

From the front you can see the small reveal. The lip has to be wide enough to provide a gluing surface and narrow enough so it doesn't extend past the fine window frames.

Today was lovely out with the winds subsiding and above 60 degrees so  I was able to prime the laser cut windows with Tamiya Fine White primer. I try to not shoot solvent-based paints in the house. I will recoat with gloss white acrylic with the airbrush next session.

Design work continues on the Hopper "Early Sunday Morning" project. I'm starting to draw the details, some of which will be 3D prints (corbels and other details), and others that will fabricated old school (large store windows with framing).

I finished the window painting and starting building all of them. To do the finish painting with the airbrushed gloss white, I first removed all the fillers so the paint would also get on the sides of all the frames and mulions. If you don't do this now, you will have to touchup paint all the edges later.

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This windows are a schosh too tall. I'm putting the blame on having the windows cut by one vendor (Rail Scale Models) and the walls another (Twin Whistle Signs and Models). The window drawings were taken from the same opening drawing as the walls, so in the drawing stage they were the same size. Since the laser cut has a kerf (material removed corresponding to the cutter's width) even though it's smaller than a mechanical saw, if the windows were cut from the same drawing they should be a tad smaller than the opening. But being cut on two machines by two different vendors adds a new variable. It depends on what side of the cutting line the software is directing the laser to cut. It also could be slight errors in scaling the windows from the walls, but I test the fit the drawings before sending them for current so I'm confident my scaling was not the cause.

However, too long is much more correctable than too short. I had to remove about 1/64" from the frames for a nice fit. If I didn't remove it, the windows buckled when test fitting them. Need a really sharp blade to do this. I buy my #11 blades in 100 blade packs so I'm not afraid to change them out the minute the cutting force starts rising.

The windows are cut out of self-stick RC board which faciliates attaching glazing and laminating without any mess. I'm using 0.005" clear styrene for glazing. In the past I've used 0.015", but that a little too thick for this application. The thin styrene doesn't sit as optically flat as the thicker material, but it's passable.

After assembling, I test fit each window. These windows will be fastened permanently after all the wall assembly and painting is completed.

I have about six more rectangular windows to assemble and then the 12 curved top front windows to build. My corrected trim pieces are in the mail from Twin Whistle so I'll be deeply into assembly when they arrive.

On March 9, (next Thursday) I'm getting my first cataract removed in my right eye, and two weeks after that, my left. My right eye doesn't read well and doesn't do close work. I have a blind spot in the center of the macula as a result of having crossed eyes as a baby, causing my brain to shut off that 1mm spot so I didn't experience double vision. They're doing the bad eye first to make sure I tolerate the procedure well before touching my good eye. Incidentally, my ophthalmologist son figured this out when he was doing his residency training at U of M's Kellogg Eye Center. Up till then, they just called it a "weak optic nerve." It wasn't picked up until I was 8 and that was too late to correct it. Today, infants are checked for eye tracking conditions and can be fixed before the brain does anything permanent.

I'm telling you all that since I don't know what to expect after surgery and how soon I would be back in the shop. Perhaps anyone who reads the Saga would like to share their cataract surgery experiences with me?

@Trainman2001 The CEO had hers done last year and a complete knee replacement this past Monday.

Her surgery went fine, 2 weeks apart. Just continue to use the eye drops they tell you to use. BTW, the lens rests in a different pocket than the eye itself so they are not cutting into your eyeball exactly.  One caution, you will get options for single, bi and multi-focal lenses. My wife elected the single adjustment, meaning she needs to wear reading glasses. I just had my bi-focals changed - that was an easy fix.  If you don't like the lens implant that is a much different challenge. We both would stick with single correction, but there are certainly others who love their multi-focals.

Really like what you are doing with the building. It will be interesting to "see" if you "see" any things you want to change as a result of your improved vision.  Best ... Jeff 

I had both cataracts removed, two weeks apart about 4 years ago.  I had forgotten about the choice of lenses until I read Jeff’s reply.  I picked the single lens and wear bifocals.  I’m okay without the glasses for distance, but wear the glasses because they make it a little better.  I tried just keeping glasses in my pocket, but would rather wear them all the time.  I did have a problem where the lenses appeared to cloud over a year later.  The doctor shot each with a laser a number of locations, and I haven’t had a problem since.
That is interesting the parts cut on two different machines don’t quite match.  I guess that is precise

I had cataract surgery on both eyes in 2013.  I opted for lenses that corrected my astigmatism. After wearing glasses all the time for 60 years I only need readers now. I have had no problems. Recovery was really quick.

Thanks for the cataract response! I had the measurement session and have significant astigmatism in both eyes. My nearsightedness has basically disappeared as I've aged. I had terrible myopia up until my 40s when it started to reverse. My son and I discussed my implant choices. The Toric astigmtic correction lens adds significant out-of-pocket costs to the procedure. Normal lenses are fully covered by Medicare, but the fancier lenses are not. I've worn glasses since I was 8 so wearing glasses is no big deal. Further, I know I would either lose or break reading glasses with such regularity that it would drive me crazy. So I'm going with normal lenses and will wear progressive glasses to correct the astigmatism and provide near vision.

I've almost finished building all the windows and glued on the upper front pediment. The laser cut edge was not truly square. I tried to square it up with an angle plate lying on my emery-paper-attached-to-a-surface-plate rig, but didn't quite sand it long enough. I don't think the slight forward tipping of the upper part will cause any future trouble… hopefully.

I also found something else that's interesting. The window openings on the right side wall (looking at the building) are not smaller than the window frames. I decided to check the uncut frame into the openning just to make sure that my cutting amount was correct, and it fit perfectly. So maybe the window frames were not the issue. Maybe the actual opennings are the problem.

The front windows went in very nicely without any modification. I've drawn and had cut windows that appear open to add some interest. The front frames are four-layer affair with a very fine outer rim. Amazingly, the very narrow outer frame still has enough 3M contact adhesive to hold firmly.

Front bottom windows are a different design and larger than the top row. I cut long strips of the clear glazing using a digital caliper and straight edge. Then I chop off the other dimension in the Chopper with a guide clamped at the correct dimension. I then trim the overhang on the curve portion after the glazing is firmly adhered to the frame.

Two more windows to do plus the circular window to do and the windows are assembled. You can see the upper pediment in place. I wonder why I didn't draw this as part of the front piece. It was more than a year ago when I did the artwork and I don't remember what drove my decision. It may be due to the 12" X 24" sheet size restriction that Rail Scale Models has. Although that logic doesn't hold up since the rear wall has the peaked roof as an integral part.

I have to mark and install the floor ledges that will support the floor plates. Much easier to do this when it's in the flat. I also have to design and craft the front store windows and their framing. I think this too will be easier when in the flat. Once their done I can start gluing the walls together. Knowing now that the wall edges may be out of square, I will spend more time sanding the edges. I have a sanding fixture that I used to square up the edges of balsa wood sheeting that I had to edge glue to make up the skins for the big B-17 I built 12 years ago.

Myles, The windows look great in their assigned spaces!  This will be a very nice building when completed.

I have worn bifocals since I was 39.  Before that, I didn't need glasses.  I am far-sighted, but that completely reversed when I had the cataracts.  I gave up reading glasses quickly for the same reason you did.  I do switch to them when using the computer, since I have to crane my neck to see the screen when wearing bifocals.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Myles, The windows look great in their assigned spaces!  This will be a very nice building when completed.

I have worn bifocals since I was 39.  Before that, I didn't need glasses.  I am far-sighted, but that completely reversed when I had the cataracts.  I gave up reading glasses quickly for the same reason you did.  I do switch to them when using the computer, since I have to crane my neck to see the screen when wearing bifocals.

Had to start using readers a couple years ago for the electronic devices when going on the forum.  No regular glasses yet but if I have a few years left there will undoubtedly be the opportunity.

Good luck looking at the backlit screens Mark.

Since I'll be getting varilux progressives, I will probably have my implants at infinity and use the progressives to give me a gradual closer focal length especially at that crucial computer distance.

Finished all the window assembly today including the little round one. I got the building glued together and started working on the stone lintels. Before I get into any construction I thought an image of the edge sanding jig would be valuable. It's a 1 X 6 with a 1 X 4 on top forming a step. The sand paper is wrapped around the overly and is screwed down clamping the paper against the square edge. You slide the stock along the lower step and it sands a perfectly square edge.

I used this rig to square the mating corners of the two side walls which are going between the front and back walls. They weren't too bad, but after sanding they were perfect. Before doing anything else I used a surface guage to scribe the various floor lines. I also scribed the edge lines on the front and back showing the setback for the side joints and where I wanted the corner bracing stock glued. My work surface is a chunk of Corian. It was the cutout from the where the sink opening was cut into the Corian kitchen counter. Corian is great. No solvents seem to effect it and it's dead flat and smooth, pefect for a surface guage.

I cut some 1/4" square styrene stock and glued chunks on the edge joint line and one end on each of the floor lines. I decided to NOT put in floor ledges now since it effectively blocks getting subsequent floors in place. Instead, I'm going to install spacers as each floor is put into place. Styrene welds to acrylic quickly with the acrylic solvent so I just held them for a few seconds and they bonded enough to move onto the next one.

I pre-treated the joint edges with acrylic solvent and wiped it all down with a damp paper towel to kills the static. I had also slightly beveled the inside gluing edges to help the glue draw into the joint and make it easier for the glue applicator to track into the joint. I then taped the joint together, held it against a square corner and applied the solvent.

I glued the opposite corners together show here being positioned for gluing the remaining two corners.

After about 1/2 hour I pulled the tape and took this pic. While the joints seem finished in a few minutes, they don't reach full strength in at least 24 hours and shouldn't be handled too much or loaded until they're fully cured. The plastic rod sticking up in the foreground was a piece of filler I added. My scribed line was a few thousandths too wide and the corner block was not in contact with the side wall. The filler closed the gap and added joint strength.

I was a little concerned that maybe, just maybe the model was too big for its intended space even though I took this into consideration during the design phase. I printed out a full size front view to test that fit. It fits nicely and I will have to lose the parkng lot. That's okay, there's just a walkway on either side of the real building. Of course there is also a parking lot in the rear. That drawing will do double duty for making the scratch-built window framing. It won't be too tall either as the floor height is similar to the Woodbourne Gallery next door.

With the walls curing I started painting the stone lintels that are a unique architectural feature. I was just about to airbrush them medium gray, which is the color I used on my color rendering and decided to recheck my references. I logged into Google Earth on my iPhone and zoomed in on the Hardware House on street view and found this.

Not only are they cut stone, but they're all different shades. So now I had a real craft project and it will definitely add to the building's allure.

I'm using tube acrylics mixed on a pallet. I was hoping to get some texture using the heavier paint, but I may have to build it up with some acrylic Matte Medium too. This took about 20 minutes to do. Not too bad and actually a bit fun.

This is what I got done today. I'll do more on Monday. All the parts are already cut from the laser cut fret. They're held in place by a bit of masking tape on the back. That's why running over the top and bottom cut lines with paint doesn't matter. The only lines that matter are the inter-part engraved lines. I need six of each type so I'm halfway done.

We had some wild weather today. As is often the case, Louisville proper seems to escape from some kinds of weather more than surrounding areas. Southern Indiana always gets clobbered. I have a theory that Flloyd's Knobs, a ridge that runs across the Ohio River west of the city, has an effect on storms as they move in from the west. I may be wrong, but one of the reasons why UPS chose to have its world headquarters here was due to Sanderson Field (Muhammed Ali International Airport) had the least closures due to weather of any major airfield.

So everyone have a safe weekend.

More progress on the "Early Sunday Morning" project. Got the trim done, the interior partitions placed, roof capping tiles, and the front window framing. All that's left are the doors and windows. Had to rearrange the rear windows to conform to the apartment placement and the access hall and stair well. Due to the building's length (22") the trim and friezes will have to be printed in sections like I did with the Hardware House. I'm also going to print the roofing capping tiles. This will be a whole lot easier than resin casting them one at a time as I did with the Woodbourne Gallery. None of the windows have mullions.

That’s a lot of work you accomplished.  Thank you for showing and describing various jigs and tools you make for certain applications.  Very worthwhile taking the time to make these.  Those stone lintels are very interesting, adding to the uniqueness of the building!  

Thanks Mark!

My rendering extension, Podium, liccense ran out and I'm exploring alternatives that are free. I found one, but it's not as slick as Podium and does not have the fabulous library of fully detailed 3D objects and materials that really enhance a rendering, but it's free. I did this rendering with it. It took a very long time and I'm not that impressed. It's $80 to renew my license and I'm afraid I will have to bite that bullet. Since I didn't put in any glazing there are no reflections in the doors or windows. I found a barber pole in SU's 3D Warehouse which I then modified to more reflect the Hopper version. There's not much left to do on this drawing before I can develop the cutting plans. The simplicity of this model could lend itself to a kit, unlike the other often very complex models that I've produced.

Back to the Hardware House.

I seemed to have misread my own drawings. I mistakenly thought that the top printed cornice sat in front of the upper brick courses. But my print was too thick to sit proud of the surface so I cut off the top 3 rows of bricks. I did this using a straight edge and a carbide router.

I straightened the cut and sanded it smooth. I also put a backing strip to help align the joint.

And here's how it now fits.

I did a terrific job on this! AND IT'S TOTALLY WRONG!!! The three rows of bricks that I removed were not WRONG. The curved trim comes in UNDER the top cornice, not adjacent to it.

So I have two choices, leave my mistake and just live with it, Or put the three rows back. I can put them back since Alan cut extra 1/8" acrylic parts with engraved bricks. Leaving the mistake does one bad thing: the round window would no longer be centered. I'm going to put the strips back. The error stems from me exploding an earlier verison of the front where the cornice was not on top of the wall, but attached to the front. Oh well...

I had to modify the front window sill pieces. I had added reinforcement to the 3D prints so they wouldn't warp, but this added stock now interfered with assembling the model. Again, I had two choices: modify the parts or remove the small brick walls in the front of the model. Removing those walls decreses stuctural integrity, so I modified the front sills.

This image shows the new, trimmed contour.

And here's how it sits on the model.

I've said it before an I will repeat it. It's one thing to make a nice, authentic-looking SketchUp drawing. It's another thing to make SU drawings 3D printable. And it's a third thing to have all these things fit together in the real world. I have enormous respect for the fellows that design and produce plastic models that fit together perfectly.

The last thing was finish up the painting of the front lintels and seeing how they looked on the model. They look really nice. I needed that after a day of screwing up. Randomizing the colors has the effect I was looking for. I was particularly happy how the top lintels lined up wth each other and the window holes. Of course they should have since they were created by the same drawing.

I'm still waiting for the recut parts from Twin Whistle. Should be here soon. Cataract surgery for right eye is tomorrow. So no modeling after than for a bit. I have no idea how long that "bit" will be.

The lintels do look nice!

Telling of your mistakes always makes me feel better about mine.  It’s the description of how you decide what to do to recover from the mistakes that help also.

I don’t recall restrictions on what I did after cataract surgeries.  All I remember is I could see much better as soon as the first one was completed.  I wish you well on yours!

Thanks Mark for the input.

If you consider me a great model maker, I have to correct you. I am basically a good model maker with great skills at recovering from screw ups. Today I undid all the damage I did yesterday and got a bonus for my effort. I was not happy with the out-of-square appearance of the upper front portions relating to the rest of the wall. In my attempts to remove the plastic backing strip the entire piece broke away from the lower wall. This presented an opportunity to really square that edge on my edge sander and reglue it correclty. Silver lining!

I cut the required amount of bricks off on of the space 1/8" acrylic pieces, trued it up and glued it to the top of the wall. I also lightly sanded the new edge so it would be dead flat to accept the extension strip. To further enhance the splice joint I again added a piece of styrene as a backer. This time I used a wider piece.

I glued the cut piece onto the upper part first before gluing it to the main wall and clamped it in my vise until the glue set a bit.

Incidentally, cutting acrylic (like most plastics) on a scroll saw is tricky. The frictional heat of the blade remelts the material in the saw kerf and the piece you're cutting is re-welded back to the main part. You have to break it off... carefully. The first time I did this with one of the scrap pieces, the cut off piece—which I wanted—broke in half rather than seprating. I lowered the saw speed and tried it again. This time I was able to break off the piece I wanted without breaking it. I then had to so some significant sanding off this ragged edge. I started that process with the big belt sander and finished by hand.

I taped the upper section to the lower after sanding a slight chamfer to the back-non-brick edge so the glue bottom would track nicely, and glued it back to the lower wall.

I ended up with a nice clean glue line and it's totally dead flat from base to top now that I corrected that un-square edge.

I neglected to have the front and side window sills laser cut so I crafted them out of styrene. For the fronts I used my tried-and-true individual brick method. I glued the .020" X 060" bricks to a piece of 0.040" X 0.060" strip stock, and then glued this strip cut to length to the building. I initially thought to just glue the bricks directly on the wall under the windows, but this proved to be unmanageable very quickly. I used my Chopper with the stop adjusted to give me the 5-brick length. I glued five bricks to one end of a piece of stock, did this on another piece of stock while the first was setting up, then turned end-for-end and did five bricks there and finished up putting bricks on the end of the other piece. Then I cut them off to length. This way I wasn't fussing with bricks that hadn't quite set up.

These bricks were cut for those chimney projects completed a few years ago. In those days, I would build the chimney out of individual bricks and then resin cast them. Now I just print them.

Here's one sill glued in place.

And here's the front will all the sills in place. Notice, based on the reflection of the overhead lighting, you can sse that the upper and lower parts are nicely in line.

The side windows don't have brick or stone multi-part sills. They have a single piece. This was much easier and much faster to build.

Why am I gluing on these parts now. Being styrene, they glue nicely with the acrylic solvent and it's easier to install them when I have nice clean raw acrylic. If I waited until the wall was painted and mortared, it would be much harder to glue these on with solvent cement. It's different with the stone lintels I did yesterday. They have 3M contact adhesive backing and will go nicely over the painted walls. I'm constantly building and re-building  the model in my head to see what has to go one before or after what. And I'm quickly reaching the point where work will stop until I get the parts from Twin Whistle.

Yesterday I did a fun lathe project. We have a copper garden feature… a double pinwheel thingy that spins with pretty colored vans when the wind blows. With the high winds we've experienced lately, the support tubing separated near the bottom leaving just a small intersecting sleeve to connect the two. It was too short and the post fell aprat again. I machined a brass transition sleeve out of brass that provides more material on both mating tubing parts. It will now be good for a few more years.

With my cataract hiatus, I will definitely have time to wait for Allen's parts to arrive. I will give you an update on my surgery when I'm able.

I will accept that you have great skills at recovering from screwups!  You also have a workshop with a wide assortment of tools that you know how to use!  

Thanks Mark! I am sometimes amazed at the tooling I've collected. It happens so gradually, but then one day you turn around and you have a shop of a master craftsman that would cost a fortunre to duplicate. I think at least one of my grandsons would love to have it.

Cataract surgery went well. My eyeball feels a little tender, but much less sore than I would have thought. The eye is still dilated and not clear, but boy… my son sure was right… the whites are brilliant. What my other eye is seeing is a light dirty yellow. It will change my white balancing of all my images since I'm seeing them probably way too yellow. That's added to the warm cast from my warm white LED shop lights.

The surgery was so fast and uneventful that I'm actually looking forward to doing my good eye. That's the one that's really affected by its cataract. I'm also looking forward to the blurryness to subside and get a chance to see just how well this thing works.

Also, the Versed (plus other) drugs that they administered in a tablet under my tongue certainly worked nicely. Took a couple of hours to wear off.

Myles, I’m glad the surgery went well for you!

The surgery (so far) went quite well. My vision in the "new" eye is very interesting. For example, I find that it was not the white balance on my iPone's camera that was off, it was the white balance of my eyes that is off. I found out that the "green" stained glass window in our master bath is actually a blue stained glass window. And the warm white halogens in the same room are completely white. I do see the right edge of the implant which my son says is possible since the implant is actually a smaller diameter than the natural, albeit yellowing, lens. And I see a bright horizontal spike on both sides of bright lights which I'm thinking is going to go away.

I have the followup today at 2:00 and I will find out answers to my questions. No pain whatsoever unless I look at a bright light as my iris tries to adjust. I had the same effect when they were dilated during the pre-op eye exam so it's nothing to do with the new lens. The dilation drops take a long time to fully disapate. I also watched a video on the actual surgery and saw that they inject a lot of fluid into the anterior space to keep the cornea fully shaped and that fluid is also why your immediate vision sucks for a few days. Meanwhile, the new eye is seeing much better than my exisitng glasses prescription. My astigmatism seems to be much less with the implant and I will definitely need a new refraction. Son says they wait for a while before doing final refraction since things keep adjusting.

That's today's medical report.

Glad to hear everything went well, Myles.

Myles, I’m glad the surgery went well.  I can recall my mum saying her experience was similar to yours.  White seemed much brighter.

I knew I had a problem when things got blurry over a period of only a few months. Also, lights looked like a starburst.  A traffic light for instance had 3 large points 120 degrees apart and 3 smaller points of light exactly in between each of the larger ones.  It reminded me of vector diagrams we used at the power company.  Other lights like the moon had 3 arcs of light outside the moon 120 degrees apart.  My vision changed from far sighted to near sighted in a year.  After the first eye was done, my vision was back to the way it was before the cataracts formed.  

Myles,  Glad all went well for your first eye. I had both my eyes done last November. The worst part of the procedure's was the drops before and after the surgeries. After surgery on the first eye colors became much better with no discomfort at all. After the second eye was done my distance vision was improved but I still will need cheaters for reading, computer and close work.  I'm sure all will go well after surgery on you second eye.

Mark,  I had same problem as you with distance vision and the starburst anomaly. Surgery corrected these problems, and I will need reading glasses as I related to Myles above.

Follow up showed no problems. I'm going to have to live with the bad glasses refraction due to the waiting period before doing the final refraction. I'm still gobsmacked about the changes in color fidelity. I really looks like I have a yellow filter over my non-fixed eye. I've even found that my transition lenses in my glasses have a yellow cast adding to the overall color shift. That yellow was masked by the overall yellow in my vision. I went downstairs and turned on all the overhead lights over the layout and Boy did those colors pop. Here I thought my iPhone camera had a permanent white balance problem. Little did I know. Now I can't wait to get the other eye done so they'll both be on the same wavelength… literally.

👍

The repaired parts arrived from Twin Whistle. When I tried the laser cut floors they were out of square, or so it would seem. Then I measured the two side wall lengths and they were not equal. Then I checked my SketchUp master drawing and they were equal. Then I checked my CorelDraw laser cutting plan and guess what? The side wall with the two windows was 0.31" longer than the wall with the multiple windows. How the heck did that happen???!?!!!. When I drew the one wall, I simply cut and pasted it for the other walls since they should be the same. So how did it end up being over a quarter inch longer? I don't know and I'm not happy. The walls are glued in pretty tight and I risk doing a lot of damage trying to break the joint so I can cut the long wall down to proper size. You can tell the error by looking at the building, so I may just adjust the floors so they fit. I've corrected the walls in CorelDraw so if I ever make another one of these it will be correct. I really hate when this happens. At least the overlay pieces for the front brick work are now cut out of the proper thickness stock and I will get working on that as soon as I'm allowed to start doing serious work with the eye surgery. It looks like 10 days is the magic number.

That is a bummer

I'm thinking boldly. I think there's a reasonable way to remove the .31" on the longer side wall. I have a router attachment for my non-flexi Dremel. Yes… I have Dremels. There are several variables that I must manage. First I need to have a very good cutting guide that will hold the cut line exactly from end to end. Second, I need a way to stabilize that building as I make the cuts. I'm going to cobble together a support fixture to keep the walls support and parallel so I can put some weight on the Dremel as it advances through the cut. Once the first cut is made, that wall will be floppy, only supported by one glued end. The fixture will hold that wall in place so I can then my the second cut at the proper distance. The last variable will be my ability to create a smooth enough cut that it will reglue to the fixed edge without too much sanding and finishing. I'll make the cuts at the back edge that will be hidden by the downspouts. If I can manaage these three factors, I should be able to remove the excess stock and reglue the building in its now-square condition.

I still need to figure out what the best Dremel speed to use to get the smoothest cut without all the melting. The solution may be higher RPMs rather than lower. Any knowhow out there?

Just did some research on routing acrylic. Seems like applying cooling water to the cut is helpful to keep it from melting and rewelding. Also feed rates need to be high enough so router doesn't spend too much time in one place. I'm using a 1/16" carbide router and that size is smaller than any referred to by the reference material. Rigidity is also important making the support structure even more critical. I'm revising my design of the structure to do the job without using some much material.

This design is less fussy and makes use of some scrap Masonite I have laying around. Probably built it in 10 minutes...

This design means the long pieces are the exact width I need without having to subtract the end piece widths. I also gives sufficient clamping surface. The fixture has to be clamped to both the table and the building.

That sounds like a good plan.  How will you apply water to cool it without getting water in the Dremel?  Set it in a sink and apply a slow stream from the spigot??

No… probably just a squeeze bottle to occasionally wet the area. But… it all may be moot. My darling wife suggested that for a building designed and bult in 1869, nothing was square anyway. She is soooooo right! With that new insight, I'm going to leave it alone and just trim to floors to fit. I've seen old homes in Bucks County, PA, and whether they were built like that or settled like that, square is not something they're known for.

Your wife is correct!  The 1888 house I grew up in and we just sold 3 years ago was ‘very interesting’ to make repairs for just that reason!

I'm pretty much done the pure design phase and now I'm going to get into the engineering phase. I'm going to spend more time on this part so I don't have my typical screwups. I re-purchased the license on Podium V. 2.6.050 to do my renderings on SketchUp. I downloaded a free version of Twilight 3D to see if it would work for me, but between the learning curve of another fairly intricate program and the missing features with the free version, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the 80 bucks for the renewal license on SketchUp. The real strength of Podium is the vast library of 3D rendering ready of materials, vegetation, furniture and lighting. They're all drop-in ready and really augment the things you can get from the SketchUp warrehouse.

Here's "Early Sunday Morning" with window glazing in place. The file transfer function on this forum degrades the details in this picture. The original shows very sharp brick and trim detail. There's a lot of file compression going on.

Just for fun I tried to make a composite image of what color looks like in my "New" eye and my "old" eye. You see why I thought the LEDs were "warm white". I you have normal white balance in your eyes, the comparison is pretty close.

For a modeler like myself who spends a lot of time mixing color, getting this fixed was definitely the right thing to do. I get my other eye done on Thursday.

That is a difference between the new eye and the old eye!  It’s good you are getting it done

Hey gang… I'm back (for a three-day special engagement since eye #2 surgery is on Thursday).

I need to make hay while the sun shines and did get some serious progress today.

Even with the re-cutting, there were still errors in the side trim pieces and this time I don't think it was my fault. I made it work!

The day started by gluing on the styrene appliqués that represent the fancy upper brick work. They're not quite symetrical, but I'm going to live with that. For the saw-tooth piece, the laser cutting was only about 1/2 way through. This meant using the #11 to cut them out and they broke away on the top curve. The acrylic solvent cement cures very quickly and in a few minutes I was able to de-clamp. After curing I sanded all the mating surfaces to prep for the upper trim.

To glue the upper trim I had to use CA. Can't glue UV Resin to Acylica any other way. I started by spraying accelerator and the using medium CA. I followed up with thick CA to fill any gaps. Lastly I had to use some Bondic for a couple of big spots. The dentil brick work was a composite of laser cut styrene done by Twin Whistle and the RC board self-stick top two layers. I had to remove one course of bricks so it would step up as I wanted it to.

The last upper piece to go on was the top cornice/corbel detail. Needed a little coaxing at the corners so it snuggled down.

Next up was a back and forth affair trying to get the corner corbels to fit properly. I initially cut some off the back of the right corbel print (looking at the model), only to realize that the extra was intentironal since the corbel doesn't sit flat on the main wall, but actually rests on the brick edge laminates, so once again, I had to pack out the part to replace what I cut off. Too much time has elapsed from the my designing decisions to the build (over a year with a turret in between).

For the side brick laminates. Again, the prints I got from Twin Whistle weren't what the drawings said. The drawings look like this:

Notice that the rectangular slots go from small to large with the small slot being the inner-most layer. The four layers stack up to give a stair-step arrangements of the brick work. What I got was 5 pieces of the 3rd level, 5 pieces of the Top Level and one piece of the 2nd level and no 4th level parts. While I could open the slots to make the next higher level, I couldn't add material to make a higher level into a lower one. I made due by making another 2nd level part out of a 3rd level and left it at a three-layer laminate instead of four. Annoying, but not a show stopper.

I glued the laminate together with Aleen's Tacky Glue and then used 3M Transfer Tape to hold the whole deal onto the model. Here, the back shows the tape with the backing sheet in place. This stuff sticks like crazy!

I needed to figure out where this part actually went on the wall by positioning the corbel part and marking the bottom-most point of the laminate on the lower wall. With the laminate in I was able to figure out just what to do with the corbels and their packing. The packing consists of a chunk of the same laminate used for the edge trim so I knew it would be the same height. I had so many extra wrong pieces I might as well put them to good use.

And here's how the corbel part fits nestled over the side trim.

I will glue the corbels and the side cornices in place tomorrow.

The lower cornice also needed packing. It's supposed to sit on the edge trim AND the main wall. Since I didn't design the part with a bump out in the middle so it fit flush. Instead I used the same laminate material and made full-length packing to back up the cornice. The part is not glued in, but will be with the 3M tape.

And just for testing I put the cornice in place. One of the joints had let go and will be fixed when I put this on tomorrow.

Took this picture looking up obliquely to see if I could match the actual street scene. Got it close.

As opposed to the real street scene.

While all this was going on, I went further on my drawing fun with Early Sunday Morning. I designed a barber shop unit based on an actual product found on the Internet. It had a nice two-view drawing that made the drawing pretty slick.

Here it is rendered with SketchUp and Podium showing how the mirror works. I got that great shair off the Podium 3D Warehouse, but it's not printable in its current form. It would require lots of rework.

And here's the shop with some of the furnishings. Unfortunately, I think this entire street scene is going to be facing away from the prime viewing spot… so I may not go nuts with interior detailing.

Asta mañana...

Myles, as always, you make it work.  That is great looking detail.  It would take a close inspection to see differences from the full size building.

Thanks Mark and others who "Liked".

Short session, but productive.

Front lower cornice is installed. Again, used 3M transfer tape to adhere the backing to the wall, then used Gel and thin CA (in that order) to attach the cornice to the backing. I first had to repair the cornice since it had fallen apart. I have two phos-bronze pins reinforcing the joint and then filled the remaining gap with some Bondic.

I then installed the two side cornices with the fancy end. One the right side (facing out of the building) the entire three-piece assembly was intact and was pretty easy to get in place. Since there was a little warp as you got to the back end, I glue the end piece and the first long section after I sprayed the joint area with accelerator. I then used Gel CA to glue in the corner and held the front half of the long conice with my fingers, aligning its top edge with the wall's top edge. I ran a bead of thin CA down the bottom edge. I then pulled the back portion straight and again applied the thin CA. When it kicked I ran a bead on the top edge where it meets the acrylic wall. The picture shows the corner thingy (I have no idea what to call it) which I will describe in a few more paragraphs.

The left side was a bit more troublesome since the long section had separated from the corner section. I again glued the corner on with Gel CA, and had to pop it off because the first try didn't seat far enough back and the corbels weren't in contact with the pilater's surface. After getting the corner in and straight I attached the long section as I did on the other side.

Now to the corner thingies… The sit at the corner of the front and side walls, but there wasn't much gluing area. I made a pad with some more surface out of some 0.040" styrene.

It still needed more support. There was a gap between the 1/4" square corner reinforcement that, if filled, would considerably increase the support.

It was a perfect fit for a piece of 1/8" thick ABS left over from the refinery project. I never throw away scrap material if it's of a size that can make something else. Here's how that filler piece looks from below.

Here's the facade almost finished. All that's left is the left side thingy. I will have to pack it out the same way and it should use the same filler piece size since I spaced those upper corner blocks based on the thickness of the attic floor plate which was supposed to be 1/but I'm 8" stock. I'm attaching these items now since they have brick work on them and I want to do the base coat on the entire building in one go. The attic plate will be notched to fit around the thingies.

This morning I started working on some of the graphics. There are some handbills and ads in the store windows. I scaled these and will make them into decals. I also created the signage for the nameplate. There is some writing on the transome window over the apartment entrance. I'm actually making a decal of the whole window including the part of the interior you can see. I needed to do this since it's in white lettering. I can't print white without a color laser printer or ALPs printer. I'm not buying either. But by printing the whole window on white-background decal paper, I will simulate the writing on the window. Again, the upload has eliminated a lot of detail by file compression algorithms. They're very sharp actually.

I also now how proof, that all the color I've been doing for years to make my "yellowy" LED lights more white was a complete waste of time since when I now view my iPhone pics with my new eye, the color is not yellowy.

Whoopee Goldberg, on the View yesterday, was talking about her cataract surgery done a couple of weeks ago. She was talking about how white is now white and not some shade of ivory. Seems like this is the most common good thing people talk about. Getting rid of glasses is the other, but in my case, due to astigmatism, I will still be wearing them.

Myles, your solution for the corner thingy is great.  I have no idea what those are called either.

You may have described the 3M transfer tape before, but I didn’t find it.  Is it a double sided tape that is real sticky, or can an item be pulled off and repositioned.  I bought something, not 3M, that is so sticky you can’t reposition if you get the item a little cockeyed.

Thanks Mark! Here's the 3M tape as listed on Amazon. It ain't cheap, but it does stuff that very few other things do. It's a contact adhesive. You can move it a little until you burnish or press it down. Once you do that, it doesn't go anywhere. The harder you press it, the stonger the bond.

Like the last eye, today was the last day for about 10 days that I will be working in the shop. Hopefully my left eye will go as smoothly as my right eye.

The work around for the corner thingy broke away when I was fitting the various floor plates. After checking my SU drawing again, I found that the thingy actually bonds to the attic plate and that gives it lots of solid surface and gluing area. So all of yesterday's fussing was for nought.

When we had our Andersen Replacement Windows installed two years ago, I had to pull down the valences which were left over decor from the previous owner. They were upholstered and padded, but underneath all of that was some usable plywood and lumber which I saved. I use about 6 square feet of it making the floor plates. The sytrene pieces that Twin Whistle cut were not correct and too think. I was going to substitute them with Masonite, but remembered this scrap ply and put it to good use. Becasuse of the trapasoidal shape (sort of) of the building, I hand-traced the inner profile and cut the first piece to that size. I cut way outside the lines and used the bench belt sander to bring it down to spec. Took a few iterations, but I got a nice fit of the floor plate. The ply was 3/16" and was a little too thick when sitting on the corner blocks. I relieved the corners with my other Dremel with the routing attachment and one of my 1/16" carbide routers.

I did exactly the same thing for the attic plate. I got the fit to be very close.

From the underside I put in positive stops so the plate wouldn't go any lower. I used extra pieces of acrylic chopped up and glued with acrylic adhesive. Simple and effective!

Instead of attaching to the walls, the roof trusses glue to the attic plate. The attic plate ply had a slight warp making it difficult to get the trusses to sit flat so I could epoxy them… Gluing acylic to wood requires epoxy. I simply screwed the plate down to my drawing-board-carriage-bolted-to-an-Ikea-Stool work surface that I made years ago.

I laid out a center line and the spacing on the plate and then positioned the trusses clamped to angle blocks to keep them perpendicular. At first I mounted the on the optical center of the truss center brace, but then realized that roof peak represented the center I needed and it was slightly to the left of the center brace center.

I also cut some right angle pieces out of some scrap MDF for more bracing.

I mixed up the epoxy and applied it to the trusses and the corner braces. Once it started to setup I pulled off the angle blocks to keep them from gluing onto the plate and/or the trusses. The front truss has more of the lower angle clipped to butt up against the corner thingy.

I was rewarded with the peaks being completely in line with will give a much more secure roof application.

While the epoxy was setting up I cut and finished the other two floor plates. So they're all done. This shows the fit of the 3rd floor plate.

I have to decide how to approach the front windows. Ideally they should be attached to the floor plate and the front wall bits that lie in the front, but that means permanently gluing in the floor plate which will make doing interior work much more difficult. I have over a week to build it a few ways in my head and see which one wins.

I'll give you a health update on Friday.

Thank you for the scoop on the tape.

The plywood certainly came in handy.  That’s a neat work table.

Im sure tomorrow’s eye will go well like the first

Thanks Mark...

One more thing...

Those pieces of thick sytrene won't go to waste. They're going for the roof proper and anything else I may need.

Good luck with the eye surgery, Myles.

Sir, you are such an inspiration. It take a lot of time to photo and explain, and I, for sure, appreciate it. As a newbie modeler just building my first scratch structures, this is amazing. Thank you. Can't wait to see your updates.