Punch out a circle of paper, cut out a thin piece of pie. Bring the edges together with a slight over lap and you’ll have a low steeple cap. Pointed at the top and circular.
Thanks John. I was getting around to that approach. Makes sense and easy. Cheerio!
Any cone shape can be made by taking a piece of pie out of a full circle. a little bit of simple math to determine height and outside diameter. sorry do not have the equations on the tip of my tounge right now. anyway you can use trial and error cutting out circles in paper, cutting a line to the center, then roll it up to the desired diameter. once you see how it works and you have a good flat pattern you can then cut styrene or brass material and glue or solder to hold shape. probably for the size you will be making .005 thk. brass stock will work fine. one other thing. when you find your desired shape, mark your material and trim the pie out allowing a little bit for the type of joint you desire…
that’s all there is to it.
Al P.
Looks great! Tremendous amount of character.
Spent the day working on details, including some weathering of the shacks. A lot of it is still work in progress (pail, spitoon, likker jug, the tin chimney, etc.). Added some firewood, and started on some extra roof details.
For the lower shack, I’m thinking of adding a water tank on the roof, covered with rusted corrugated metal roofing. I’ve also made the hole for the crooked tin chimney:
And on the upper shack, I’m planning to add a brick chimney:
I still need to build the wooden water tank for the roof. The plan is to put planking around that bit of pvc pipe. And of course the chimney needs to be painted.
WDYT? Is the water tank over the top (literally in this case)?
Superbowl time now 
No! The water tank looks fine to me!
Um somehow I missed some updates holy crap this is a cool build Dennis will be proud of you. This is a grade a choice cliff hanger.
No the water tank is not over the top. Details is what sets this stuff apart. I would even consider a fill pipe from a creek somewhere and an overflow. A constant steady flow of water in and out. Like some just ran some pipe that was laying around over to the tank a wire wrapped wood pipe perhaps. My .02
Wow! Very nice work!
Thanks guys.
Devon: a fill pipe was definitely on my list. Thanks for your $.02!
Verynice.
I haven’t been in Pleasanton since I went to the g scale show at the fairgrounds!
Doug Arnold said:
Verynice.
I haven’t been in Pleasanton since I went to the g scale show at the fairgrounds!
“G scale show”? When was this? I’ve been to “Great Train Shows” at the Alameda County Fairgrounds before but never a G scale show. Last time I went was a couple of years ago and there was very little to see/buy in the way of G scale.
that g scale show was about 10-14 years ago! I have a feeling that was probably the only g scale show because even though it was a good show attendance was not great. We enjoyed it’s!
I took a little time after work this week to finish the roofs on both shacks, minus the water tank on the lower shack. Still need to build that tank and pipe it up. I wanted to make sure I had enough time this weekend to perch these on their final spot.
For the upper shack, I painted the chimney and added rusted corrugated metal sheeting as a ridge top on the roof. Then added some rust/tar staining that will hopefully still be visible when this gets weathered outside…
And this is how the crooked chimney came out on the lower shack:
Time’s awasting!
Jim
Looking really nice, doing a great job in the weathering
Dennis
Those are some good looking worn out shacks. I like the shingled roof, the stairs, decking and the chimneys.
Thanks guys! I’ve been enjoying learning a bunch of stuff: building peaked roofs, stairs, board/batten, clapboard, sandpaper roof, etc. Lots of fun to learn something new…
The shacks have come together quite nicely. I like all the little details including the brick chimney, bent chimney, firewood and water tank.
Is it done yet?
Welcome aboard!