That brickwork looks great, this will be nice.
I got my first look at how this engine house will look with a roof on it. I’m starting to like this build! I’m liking the way the colors complement one another for one thing. It’s funny but since I decided to use standing seam copper roofing, I’m seeing it everywhere I go on all sorts of buildings, although that could mostly be here in Colorado, especially in the mountains where keeping the roof on the structure in the high winds and extreme snows is important. Or maybe it’s just like getting a blue car and suddenly everyone seems to be driving a blue car!
Looks like a great build. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
It’s a beautiful work of Art.
I’ve also seen heated standing seam roofs that shuck snow, oh they were there first! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
John
That is a fine looking engine house. I like the blend of different materials. It gives the structure a unique look and feel. The copper roof just tops it all off, figuratively and literally.
That is a good looking build. I think we will give you the award for “best rendition of a standing seam copper roof on a brick and stone engine house” award. :-p
That almost a waste to park a stinky locomotive in, o want to turn it into my house.
Wow that looks really good. I like all the different materials you used.
Chris
Super job John. Your paint work is exceptional, a always and you really nailed the random stone. I just couldn’t get my ‘stuff’ together this year. Too many distractions; but it’s been fun riding along (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
I need a chimney top idea. On my way to work, I’m nearly causing accidents all over the roads because I’m looking up at chimneys. It’s astonishing how many different kinds there are. (Okay, I already know I’m crazy and it’s extremely easy to get my curiosity going. Also, I think I’m getting delirious from late night trying to finish this build.)
So then I get to work and just for the heck of it I go on the computer, like I got nothing better to do, and look for chimney tops. Immediately here’s what came up:
It’s unbelievable. You could spend a lifetime in a hobby just collecting chimney pots (that’s the exhaust pipes on the top, which I didn’t know.)
edit…I forgot to mention, the obvious choice for me is copper.
Yikes!
Beautiful work but I believe not that I shall have the courage to take up all these bricks
What a great looking building. The different materials married together look so good. Is the chimney made from the Taylor blocks or are there other spots?
Thanks Todd…that chimney, inside in the interior and outside, took up almost all the Taylor stones (and I had two sets from him), and the rest were for window sills and a door step. Pete Lassen was good enough to send me extras of the long stones so I could finish the window sills.
Jean-Gilles Durand said:
Beautiful work but I believe not that I shall have the courage to take up all these bricks
Trust me on this one, Monsieur, this had nothing to do with courage and everything to do with overestimating my abilities and drastically underestimating the amount of time involved. Oh boy.
Thanks for the kind words though.
-snip-
Trust me on this one, Monsieur, this had nothing to do with courage and everything to do with overestimating my abilities and drastically underestimating the amount of time involved. Oh boy.
-snip-
We knew we could count on you!
You’ve pulled off another great build.
John
Thanks very much, John
John,
I really like your building and especially the Tudor style brickwork. Here’s a photo of a chimney top I used in building a train depot.
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/FileSharing/user_2849/Structures/Chimney.jpg)
Doc Watson
Thanks for that Don…I’m going with copper on this particular build I think, but I bookmarked your brick chimney for a future project. You did one hell of a good job on that.
Wow John, I like that. It’s got a style that you don’t see so often on this side of the pond. I think you really done a good job of capturing that style too. I also like the slow taper of the chimney up it’s height. It’s going to make a great addition to your layout.
Wow , John that is going to be a centerpiece on your RR. looks awesome
I’m seeing the end, the end is in sight, the light at the end of the tunnel, rounding third, bottom of the ninth, coming down the homestretch…well, you get the idea.
I tackled windows! And I did my 100% most favorite most wonderful windows I’ve ever done. Which is like when I tell my daughter she’s my favorite daughter. She’s my only daughter. These are the only windows I’ve ever tried. But to be honest, I like 'em. They are like the residential home windows you can still see in Denver on houses made in the 1950s.
The glazing comes from the clear plastic tops of pastry containers from Safeway. (We have some extra oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and blueberry and chocolate muffins on hand if anyone wants to stop by…does this count against the $30?)
And the finish lumber all comes from Travis. Let me show you a picture. These little strips of wood which I’m using to make the horizontal and vertical bars that hole the window panes, I don’t know what you call them, are actually just a little under 1/8" and I don’t know how he cut them, but they are precise, each and every one. He must be a wizard to cut anything that small.
I mounted the window panes to the back, interior, of the wall and mounted framing around it, gluing them in place with my new can’t live without it adhesive Locktite Express Power Grab Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive, Instant Grab. It’s the instant grab part that is so great about this stuff. And it can be painted. I’m not joking when I say I almost quit this build and Challenge in frustration last week when I couldn’t find any kind of glue that would glue plastic to wood or glue the resin stones to pink insulation well. I thought of caulk because of Eric’s build and called Rockler’s Woodworker store for a specific product suggestion.
Then I glued the outside parts into the actual wall, then placed the horizontal bars. (Actually, it’s my second attempt at windows because first I tried the chicken wire approach and just didn’t like the result.)
And here’s what one of the finished ones looks like. I can’t tell you what a relief it was to come up with something I could actually make and which I like.
Here’s my really lame attempt to use chicken wire:
I started blending out the corners of the building, the corners of the chimney, etc etc, all using the Locktite like you see here, and I started landscaping around the engine house.
Last night I tackled the chimney top. I don’t know why but as my earlier post would indicate I’ve developed an interest in chimney caps. I decided on a top that has a screen because you don’t want racoon living rent free in the chimney.
Although in the mountains where my railroad yard is, we don’t have racoon, we have something called a Marmot, funny little friendly creatures they are, great hiking and climbing companions up in the boulder fields, but I don’t want them in the chimney either.
And since something like this seemed well beyond my needs (and ability!):
Ha Ha Ha! I decided on something a little more modest, like this:
I started with some kind of mesh plastic sheeting stuff that I don’t even know what it is, but it was free and I found it somewhere years ago and somehow it survived my get rid of stuff phase. So then I assembled a cap and have it tried out for size some on the chimney. I haven’t decided whether to paint it copper with light patina and say it is a new addition, or use the patina. I’m leaning toward copper but I won’t know until I see how it actually looks.
I’m leaving the doors for last and I will use one of the excellent methods for hinges that was suggested earlier in this challenge.
I will mention that my brilliant idea to use cigar box hinges, being so available, so sturdy, just the right size, you name it (I almost disjointed my should and broke my arm patting myself on the back for coming up with this, and, in fact, turned down a very generous offer from one of the brethren to make really nice hinges for me because I was so damn proud of my idea, THANK YOU Devon!)…all of which proved one again the axiom that there is a Grand Canyon between a brilliant idea and something that actually works. The problem? There is no way of getting the spikes in the hinges into the wood, soft as it is, of the actual model door and doorjambs. Oh well.
Here they are from my cigar smoking days, GOD how I MISS my CIGARS! Thanks a lot, medical science. I’m down to one a year out on the golf course if someone gives me one for free. It’s been two years. I preferred Joya de Nicaragua, although Macanudo would do.
That’s it for now, probably just one more update to go before the final deadline (that sounds sooooooo final).
I’ve been watching and commenting on the other Challenge builds and I’m just blown away by the creativity and level of execution of the work this year.