First step for me, was to pick a wall, and cut out from the page. Next was to cut out the window and door openings.
Cut the "white doors" detail from another page, and leave a quarter inch border around the top and both sides, so that there is something to glue to the wall, behind the opening.
Doors are now glued to the inside of the wall, creating an inset. Now I will begin adding the detail layers, which includes the grey header, raised boards, and hinges. Again, don't forget to color the exposed edges before you glue.
Window inset it put together- my preferred method is to remove the side pieces, and glue them to 1/8 inch balsa stock, then reattach.
A picture of the wall after both the window and door insets are in place.
Next wall: Openings cut out for the double, arched windows, as well as the lower door and window openings. I also removed the "Rudy Co." sign, up top, to create another inset. I just forgot to cut it out, before I took this picture. Remember to color the exposed edges, after you cut out all the openings.
Now for the real fun! Starting with this first, main layer, then all of the small, detail parts that can be added, to create depth.
My preferred method of making door and window insets: you have to use 2 copies, to make one inset, using this method. First, cut out the entire window piece, as it is, on the page. Separate the top arch piece. Take a second print of the window, and cut the sides and bottom. Glue these side and bottom pieces to 1/8 inch balsa stick.
Glue the balsa stick to the sides and bottom. I then set a piece of sanding paper on my table, and form the tops of the side pieces, so that they follow the same contour of the arch piece. Glue the arch piece on. Final step is to cut out the top-most detail, which are the pieces under the window assemblies.
The completed windows with the last detail glued in place.
Now for some exterior details. I took 2 copies of this white latice-work, and cut out the vertical pieces on one, and the horizontal pieces on the other. Glued the vertical pieces on first, then the horizontal pieces.
Some brickwork, and window ledges. My best friend for cutting out anything with a curve, is the plastic french curve you see.
.010" clear styrene windows
I spent some time "shoring up" the inside of my building. I keep lots of balsa sticks and pieces around, for just this. At one point, I used a metal square, and put some angle supports in, to holding the sides at 90 degree angles. On the right half of the building, you can see the interior "box" secured to the inside wall. I ended up using some packing tape to hold it together, while gluing it in place.
Building walls are now glued together.
Here is picture looking inside, from the top. Any place I could, I added an extra 2 layers of card stock, just to thicken the wall pieces. My technique is to take the wall section, which consists of a long side, attached to a short side. I then make a border using balsa stick. After that, I cut out the card stock pieces to add layers to the walls. Then the balsa angle pieces get glued in. Finally, I glue the wall together to make the main building section.
We have a building! Unfortunately, I forgot to take any progress pictures of the interior detail. Essentially, you take the interior piece, make the score lines, and cut from the card stock. Make all the folds to form a box, and in my case, I used some packing tape to hold it together. There are also detail pieces you can cut out for the walls, i.e. calendar and posters. There is also a counter, as you can see.
Next is the exterior entrance/ exit/ stairwell. On the print, this comes as one combined piece, with the door and vertical trim pieces, connected to the outer portions of the stairwell. I tried doing it all in one piece, but ended up with a mangled mess. So, the solution for me, was to cut the individual pieces out, and glue it all together. The door detail is actually 3 layers, giving really nice depth.
Door piece glued in place.
Now to add some balsa reinforcement, as well as a couple more layers of card stock, to stiffen up everything.
Now it is time to glue the stairwell and door, to the exterior of the building. I use a gel CA glue. Using my handy little gluing jig, magnets hold the pieces tight together, while drying.
Once the stairwell is glued to the side of the building, I then added the roof pieces. One section for the main stairwell roof, and then second smaller piece, at the top of the landing.
Notice the pitch of the top piece.
Front shot. As a side note: if you have not noticed, I love to use balsa reinforcement on everything. What I did not take a picture of, is the 1/8" balsa sticks I have glued under the roof, to help keep the roof pieces straight.
A view of the underside of the stairwell.
This was a little tricky, as the water tower "body" graphic is actually longer than you need. So, I cut out the internal supports (used one in the top and one in the bottom,) and wrapped the graphic around, to know how long to cut it.
The roof piece worked out very nice, just make your score lines on the underside. After making all of the score lines, I took an extra graphic of the roof, cut out the individual "pie" sections, and glued it to the underside, so there was no white card stock showing.
Note the metal strapping and "buckles." Straps are tricky to get on straight, the entire way around. In the end, it is hardly noticeable.
Just a dry fit on the roof- still need the pieces of "lumber" to which the tower sets on, as well as the wood platform. I am going to fabricate a ladder of basswood, which will be stained with India Ink.
To make the "Rudy Co." sign, I used a piece of balsa, for the core.
Sign is cut out, and I took a yellow colored pencil to color the exposed, inner, lower section of the sign.Top and bottom caps are glued on, and finally the main sign is pre-wrapped, using a piece of foam, and round pencil, then glued to the balsa core.
Last is the the super think grey trim, that wraps around the top and bottom.
The sign mounting brackets were a little tricky. It took me a couple attempts, until I had parts that looked okay. To cut these intricate pieces out, I really had to work on the skill of holding the razor handle completely vertical, as you started and stopped the cuts. I glued the brackets using good ole Elmer's white glue. That stuff is really a fantastic adhesive, in my humble opinion!
Next, I installed the lower awnings. I went ahead and made the interior for this building- in the interest of being honest, it was a huge pain in the rear-end, for a mediocre modeler, such as myself. Cutting, handling and gluing polystyrene is another skill-set in itself. Without adding some lighting, the pay-off is not really there, and I did not add lighting.
This was the last part to mount to the building. I used basswood support beams under the tank base- India ink was used to weather these beams. The ladder was made of basswood as well, again, weathered with India ink.
Just in case anybody ever took a flashlight, and looked up under the top of the water tank, I went and glued some strip wood graphics. This was done, earlier on, when I was first assembling the top of the tank.
