Aloha!

Fresh off my hard won draw against HardieBacker, I used a lot of the suggestions and guidance from that project in selecting my second. My goals are modest:

1. Gain some experience with my new foam cutting tools.
2. Fix a good-enough-scale water tower my father-in-law built that did not stand up to little hands and a cattle dog.

My plan was to replace the legs, currently held together by a wire core and “Gorilla Glue” with a structure that cold serve as both a pump house and support structure. Spindly legs are simply not going to survive on the Triple O for long!

Here’s the scope of the problem:

I had looked for the recommended blue foam, but only found massive sheets of multiple inch thickness. Previous experiments had shown that slicing foam into thinner sheets is problematic - at least for me - so I used standard foam from packing, making a little box as you see here. The plan was then to scribe in a door and a rock wall; however, as I reflected on the project, I saw no way to hide the seams. If I had to do this again, I would’ve simply stacked foam squares. Oh, well…

Instead, I fell back on the "craft sticks and construction glue error hiding technique I honed in my battle with HardieBacker. I glued them vertically, and, after cutting an angle into what will be the top, I cut a piece of roofing material to serve as, well, the roof! I glued it upside down, as I thought the underside was closer to good-enough-scale. I also framed a doorway, using a credit card and a handy PLAYMOBIL figure for size. I’ll glue it on later.

This weekend, I will Dremel away the tops of the craft sticks to match the roof line. As my hot knife skills are only slightly better than my grinder skills, I am considering actually leaving a good bit of the excess craft sticks on the bottom to hide my hotwire work. I will then mount the whole thing on a piece of - you guessed it - HardieBacker using the scribe-and-snap method I learned here. I figure that should provide a stable foundation for the tank, after I cut off its old wobbly legs. The only detail part I will add to my father-in-law’s work beyond that is a fill tube running up from the pumphouse to the tank. Four pairs of small hands, four cattle dog paws, and forgotten modeling skills make additional detail overkill.

Again, I appreciate the guidance with my last project, and I look forward to any “orders to the helm” you can provide here!

• Eric

if you take a look here: http://kormsen.info/bridges/

corners in foam are best made, like real brick walls.

Seams are easy to hide if you simply “mist” the foam with water and using a strainer, sprinkle Quickcrete hydraulic cement over the foam, building it up in thin layers by alternately sprinkling cement and misting. When you’ve done one side, you can turn it over to do the others.

I’ve done lots of structures like this and they hold up well to the elements.

Gents,

Mahalo (Thanks!) to you both. With my popsicle sticks in place and holding, this little building is too far along to backtrack. Foam is pretty easy to come by, so I will employ one or both of the techniques described on the next project. I am considering, however, mounting this little structure on a piece of foam to at least practice carving a stone pattern. We’ll see how this week(end)'s efforts go.

Aloha!
Eric

P.S. Korm, thanks for the opportunity to dust off some really rusty German!

Gents,

I should have a picture up later, but I wanted to thank you again and provide a progress update.

I planned to glue the structure to a foam block to give me an opportunity to use my scribe to melt in a “stone” foundation. Alas, my hot knife skills were not up to the task, so I simply leveled the foam to the bottom of the erstwhile popsicle sticks. After I seal it all beneath some latex paint, I will mount it directly to the HardieBacker, seal up the seams with silicon, and possibly add some trim pieces along the bottom to complete an illusion of craftsmanship and skill!

On the roof, I did saw the popsicle sticks down the roofline and sealed the edges with silicon. This will need some black paint of course. I had to figure out how to mount the tower after I cut the wobbly old legs off. I opted to use one of the old legs to provide material for shims on the downslope side of the structure and some small bits of popsicle stick on the upslope. I checked it with a level. It’ll do.

I have a bit of dowel on hand that will become the fill pipe, and I crafted and glued on a “door” to provide access to the pump house. If I get ambitious, I may make some metal loops or even just wooden footholds to provide roof access. Or the PLAYMOBIL crew can bring a ladder…After that, a bit of paint, and I suspect it’ll not look any worse!

Lots of small projects in the “rookie mistake compensation” and “skill development category” going on in parallel right now, so please excuse me if I am late in updating this!

Aloha!

Eric

All,

OK, fill pipe is in place and a door added. I need to do some touch up painting and fix the shims to keep the tank level, but, in essence this is “complete.” I liked working with foam, and, clearly, it is available without paying for shipping. I am going to see if I can employ something similar for a shed to disguise an on / off switch for a siding or other similar structures that would not need a window.

It won’t win a contest, but, as the photo shows, it is an improvement over where I started:

Aloha,

Eric

Eric;
A good job on the tank. Bottom line is if you like it then it matters not what others think.
Sandy Cots, western Oregon

Looks great! Nice job.

-Kevin.

Mahalo (Thanks)!