# new house, and the Post Office has its sign



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi, 

The builders have â€˜signed offâ€™ a new house for the hamlet of â€˜Sycamore Creekâ€™, which will be needing more when they (me!) get round to it! 

This one is a Gambrel roof house, the gambrel roof is used much more in barns, but it also looks good as a house. The plans are basically from the â€˜Aladdinâ€™ kit built catalog, and slightly modified along the way. 

All windows are scratch built first and there are styrene curtains and blanking pieces added before they are fitted, after pre painting them. The â€˜glassâ€™ is from the clear (generally pre-formed) plastic packaging, which is a very useful source of â€˜glassâ€™. The walls are made from Korroflute (plastic corrugated cardboard) sides and ends and extension with styrene card for the details and the added bay window 

I made the main roof to look like metal and the same is used on the (kitchen) extension. 

The side roofs are my usual cheap roofing felt (USA â€" tarpaper?) . 

It is photographed screwed down onto its foundation slab. 

Here are some photos of it â€" 











One, with a high viewpoint, of the front if you look carefully one of the fixing screws is visible on the dark brown strip at the bottom of the side wall. 










down a bit with the view, the small square window is by the side of where the the stairs would be. 










Opposite side, again the fixing screw is visible, they go into a couple of pieces of plastic right angled strip that is fixed to the foundation plate. 











a final view of the 'stairs side showing the extra rear extension, which I have labeled the kitchen; that has a blind instead of curtains, and a stovepipe added to the rear wall, this is made from a soft drinks plastic 'bendy' straw, doubled inside with the excess that was cut off, and a bit of it added at the top. It is a scale 3" diameter the larger plastic 'bendy' straws here in the UK scale out at 4". 


Changing the subject the signwriter (Stan Cedarleaf) has been busy after the lazy sign maker got his act together (he was decalling loco's ) and made the sign boards for the Post Office - at least in early Colorado the Post offices are opening - here in the UK they are doing the opposite and closing them! 

Nice and large to indicate the 'pride' in having been granted one by the US mail; the board is the usual plastic card edged up and the painted light blue to stand out - it certainly does that! Then the decals were added and varnished over for protection.


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## chaingun (Jan 4, 2008)

Peter, 
Just outstanding work! Well done!! 
Best, Ted


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## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

Peter, 

Great looking buildings as usual from you. I used to live in a house that had a roof like yours. Very nice!


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Peter, excellent work! Thanks for the pics and info on how and what materials you used. One I didn't see was the chimney, looks very real, what did you use?


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By jimtyp on 04/10/2008 12:54 PM 
Peter, excellent work! Thanks for the pics and info on how and what materials you used. One I didn't see was the chimney, looks very real, what did you use?

Hi Jim, 
The inner stack is 10mm wide, on all faces and is made from my PVC solid foam; before assembly cut the inverted 'V'; to the angle of the roof, and include the sides, glue together and smooth off the joins, internally there are a couple of squares to keep all in order and to stiffen it. 
Near the top is the 'extra stiffening (collar or section); made from strip, and allow one brick + a bit for the position below the top, after the bricks have been added for the top - expect some cutting to get a good lie for the bricks here - this one has 4 flues which was a bit more difficult. The extra 'bit'is to allow for a tapered line of filler on top of the stiffening ring of bricks as a water deflector. Underneath it I add another strip to replicate the under support for the stiffening collar. 
Now cut a set of bricks; over here in the UK we have 20thou colored plastic (styrene) card; I use the terracotta color to provide and undercoat for the brick color. The bricks are 9.5mm long, and 4.5mm deep; that allows two across two faces, and the other face has two halves and one full one in the center. These alternate down the stack. At the bootom it can be solid as this area will be covered by mock lead falshingn 
I mark out the bricks with a pair of small screw thread draftsman's dividers one set for the depth, and another for the length. that makes things easy, and the fine measurement is easy to repeat! Cut out a small batch; then apply glue and fit then on adjusting things as you continue down the stack. I use Evo-stik, which is a latex based impact/contact adhesive, and pick up the brick with the knife point and dab them down, cut the half bricks as you go. When finished add the bricks on the stiffening collar and the row underneath (more fiddlin' will be needed on these parts as they are larger than the rest of the stack. 
Glue the stack in position when all is dry, and again leave it to dry, and use plenty of glue - it is a very useful point to grab the building, and I use it a lot; they (each building has a stack so there are plenty made now), if you can overnight add a fillet of glue all around the joint between roof and stack. The bottom of chimney to roof join is sealed with lead flashing, which goes UNDER the shingles or tiles. This is a metal roof so I added it outside, that maybe wrong bit it can stay. The lead flashing is aluminium foil, cut and glue the longer pieces on the side of the stack first, then add the side pieces (2 per side cut to lie on each side of the slope), and wrap round the bottom edge over the side piece. 
Now you can add your roof tiles/shingles or corrugated iron. Now to paint the stack, mix a color for the cement (ochre + grey) and add water to make it thin, as it has to 'flow' into the grooves left between the bricks; give it a couple of coats and quickly whisk you finger over the bricks to wipe off the excess. Now to the bricks, mix up some darker brick color and make it slightly stiff and use a bristle brush to gently add it to the bricks, ONLY on the top surface. When satisfied do it again from the top but with a darker mix which can be a bit thinner as this needs to flow into those (cement) grooves a bit. This replicates the smoke or soot deposits on the upper part. 
Finally ensure that the flues have been 'blacked in' and give the entire stack a coat of varnish for protection. 
Thats it = 1 stack done and dusted! 
On this building the roof ridge is covered with a metal ridge piece; these (+ the top of the front porch roof and the rear kitchen roof) are from aluminum strip from beer cans, the chimney neatly subdivides it into just the right length for the depth of the can! Gut the can - after giving it a thorough clean (no I don;t drink the stuff I use empty cans) take off the top & bottom, (with CARE using a slitting saw and use protective spectacles) and cut the resulting tube into a sheet: de-curl it against a straight edge, and cut it after marking with those dividers (they get used for all sorts of things!), with the back of a knife blade and finally a pair of scissors (NOT your wifes! Get your own they are now very cheap) and smooth off the edges before it attacks you, with the resulting cut finger, and glue in position.


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## Richard Weatherby (Jan 3, 2008)

Peter; 
Excellent craftsmanship!!! A picture is worth a thousand words but you wrote a thousand any way. Absolutely wonderful. Nice techniques. I generally remove the can top by using the can opener side ways.... and I do drink the stuff first. I guess, us colonist, call them "attachments" but I love the word "fixings" anyway. It seems to cover all forms of "ironmongery." If the entrance were on the side of your building, we would call it a "Dutch Colonial" style of house.


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Peter, 

Nice! And best of all it's finished, unlike my projects. 

But tell me, are you saying you "laid" those bricks course by course?! 

Anyway, koo-doze! 

joe


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## coolhand (Jan 7, 2008)

Peter 
Nice work. I wish I could get my need to do's out of the way, so I could get to the really impertant things like fifnshinf the RR.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By peter bunce on 04/10/2008 7:47 AM

 







 







 







 







  


Wow! Great work !


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By joe rusz on 04/10/2008 4:33 PM
Peter, 
Nice! And best of all it's finished, unlike my projects. 
But tell me, are you saying you "laid" those bricks course by course?! 
Anyway, koo-doze! 
joe





Hi Joe, 

YES, they are only on the stack, and it is very quick to put them on. I have a small heap of bricks, lay the glue then pick up with a sharp pointed blade the brick and is laid down; it takes longer to describe that lay the bricks. 


I am not even thinking about doing the same for a complete wall; IF I ever do that they will be scribed I think. Also they need some careful laying out to include any relieving arches over windows and such like.


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