I still haven’t decided how to detail the interior of my last building, so for now I’m starting on the next building. Here’s the CGI mockup I created when I designed the third and fourth buildings:
This new building will be the fourth for the town of Dos Manos. Photos of the build (so far) begin here: http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Dos_Manos.html#30 As with the previous building, the first story will be quite small, with additional rooms merely suggested by the presence of a door. The second story will be longer and extend past the rear of the first story, to rest on a shelf of rock on the cliff behind the town. The building will be made of real stone. Walls that will be hidden from view will only not actually have stone, just reinforced mortar. So far I’ve finished the basic structure of the first story. It’s a simple box shape, tapered slightly at the rear to fit into the angled space on the town site. The front has a single, large rectangular opening where doors and windows will be added later to create a typical storefront. As with my other stone buildings, I began by building a box-shaped form out of foam core art board. A large piece of 1/2" thick foam core was used as a plug to create the opening at the front of the structure. On my last trip to Nevada, I picked up a lot of thin, flat slabs of sandstone. I broke some of these up and shaped them into rough, tiny blocks using tile nippers, then carefully placed them into the form. I also added a narrow accent tile from the hardware store, to simulate a decorative cast iron beam. Next I added reinforcements – brass rods and 1/4" hardware cloth – and then poured in a mix of high strength mortar and vinyl concrete patcher. This completed the front wall of the structure. After the mortar hardened, I turned the form over so I could work on the next side of the structure, adding hardware cloth and mortar. This was repeated for each of the two remaining sides. When the last side had fully set, I carefully cut and pulled apart the form, revealing the completed structure. Here’s how it looks setting next to the existing buildings:
That’s as far as I’ve gotten. Next I’ll start building the form for the second story.
