Chimney Challenge

I took a notion to get one of the most tricky jobs remaining on the house out of the way - the chimney.

What makes it challenging on this house is that it is built into the corner of the upper storey.

Usually I make the chimneys as stand-alone, four sided tubes which are glued in place on the roof as a finished unit.

This time, because of all the cut-aways that are needed I opted to build it up in situ as these series of pictures show.

It doesn't seem like the most difficult of tasks, I grant you, but for some reason I'm hopeless with cutting angles so I am please to get this job out of the way.

Second Fit

Now the roof is on I suggested Himself try it out again in position on the layout to see if it fits properly this time after I altered the profile of the roof.

As you can see the top of the pitched roof is tucked neatly under the guttering of the house next door just as it should be.

From the front you can see how this house is much narrower than the others around it and sits back from the others.

The house is far from being complete, however,

Just to challenge me further it now needs to have a conservatory added onto the back.

What fun!

Moving With The Times

Landscape gardening continues around the house at the top of the row.

Being very traditional in our construction methods it is build up with modroc and a coat of plaster on top.

The only concession to modernity is that some of the basic shape of the land here is formed by carved polystyrene blocks.

Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time will appreciate what a radical step this is!

Looking Like A House Now

The slates on the new house were as straightforward as I hoped they would be and I got the roof completed in a couple of sessions.

Now that the slates are on the shape of the upper end of the house with the gallery window is more prominent.

Particularly from the front you immediately notice the way a large slice has been taken out of it.

You can also see the way it overlaps with the neighbouring house.

Next job is to fit the ridge tiles and the guttering I think,

In The Gallery

With the pitch of the roof altered it's time to resume construction work on the house.

(It appears that Himself is finished with it for now.)

So I've decided to fabricate and install the gallery window at the back.

On this house the slating pieces are going to be relatively straightforward, expect from the one with the dormer window in it.

The tricky bit is going to be the chimney which is a tall thing which is partly built into the back corner of the upper storey, but more on that when I get to it.

Pitch Perfect

While the new house fits nicely into the gap we left for it Himself has sent it back to me with a request for some modifications.

On one side it is attached to the house next to it with the gable set at 90 degrees with the top of the roof tucked neatly under the gutter of the other property.

My design fits like a glove but I hadn't accounted for the 1mm thickness of the Wills slates sheet which would go on top - meaning it would no longer fit.

I tried to argue that we could simply lower the foundations to drop it down by the required amount but he wasn't buying it, so we agreed that I would attempt to cut down the gable ends.

Himself's eagle eye also noticed that he pitch of the roof lines of he upper and lower stories didn't match, so as well as taking a slice off the lower gables I have added a sloping sliver to the one above so they are now at the same angle.

So now everyone's happy.

A Complete Whitewash

Another of the developments to inspect on my visit to the layout a few days ago was the paint job on the house at the bottom of the row.

It's funny how they look much smaller when they're painted than in naked styrene after they've been built.

This was the house that I had too tear apart and rebuild at the back after I came across some aerial pictures and Himself spotted that I had forgotten to replace one of the window ledges, which was mildly annoying.

The row is looking very smart, and now that we are able to establish the final positions of them all the landscaping can move on apace.

Mind The Gap

I was summoned to Himself's presence at the weekend to see how the new house fitted into the gap left for it.

Fortunately my calculations had proved accurate - for once! - and it sat nicely in the intended space.

 
Some minor alterations will have to be made to the road but considering that the houses were not built in order, and that I took it upon myself to try and design this one myself , it hasn't turned out too bad.

Displacement Activity

To make use of an empty workbench, now that Himself has taken the half-built house off me, I've started work on the latest Superbarn.

I cast the parts for 118 quite a while ago at the same time as 117 but they have been stored in an old photo album to keep them flat.

The six main pieces of the bodyshell have been glued together and since this picture was taken I've also cut out the floor which can rest inside to help keep it all square.

I'm not too far behind the railway in the keeping up with the carriage building.

There is a new WHR saloon still to make, and the new observation car 152 when it appears, but the situation is not as dire as it has been in the past.

Rush Job

I know how frustrating it can be when there's one thing that's stopping you cracking on with a job so I felt an obligation to get the latest house to a stage where Himself could place it on the layout to fix all the other houses in position in the Oberon Wood scene.

During a couple of weeknight evening sessions I was able to make up the remaining walls and join them together to form the basic shell of the house.

Usually I do not add the foundation extension below the walls until I've finished off the roof but this time I've done that first so that he can see not just how big it is but also assess the height correctly.

While he's using it as a guide I'll use the time to catch up with Boston Lodge and make a start on Superbarn 118.

I already have the castings ready but they need to be cleared of flash and assembled into a carriage.

Once Himself has finished with the house I'll take it back off him and finish it off.

Garden Steps

Having spent most of spring out in his garden building steps it's only natural I suppose that now the rainy season has arrived (aka Scottish summer) Himself has been busy making some model steps.

What he's doing is landscaping around the house at the top of the row at the southern edge of the Oberon Wood scene.

He began by building up a patio at the front, rear and side, attaching it like a sort of skirt.

Because the land around the house slopes there are flights of steps up from the road and into the back garden which is what he's been working on in the photo above.

He's already to put one set in only to look closely at a photograph again and decide it should be in a different place 

Starting To Put It Together

Himself is putting the pressure on to get the basic outline of the 'missing link' house done so that he can fix the position of the ones around it.

The good news is that I've put together the walls of the 'high end'.

Turn it round the other way and you can clearly see how the long piece runs all along the back of the house and also the shelf in the roof line where the gallery window will be.

The front is split into three sections which are slightly staggered and those will be the next pieces to be made and fitted on.

Putting Down Roots

Himself has either shown great faith in my ability to make this latest house the size I said it would be or he's being rather impatient.

A communication informs me that he has begun to fix in position the row of houses on the far edge of the estate, leaving a gap near the top for the one I've just starting building.

We had a play about last weekend, trying them in the rough position and comparing to some print-outs of aerial photos.

(Isn't Google Earth wonderful?)

Now he tells me that he was happy enough with things to start gluing them in place.

So no pressure then.....

House Start

It's not been the most productive of weeks for modelling at my end of the operation but I have managed to do a little bit of work on the half and half house.

What you can see in the picture above is the main section along the rear which is the only bit which runs the full length of the building and as far as I can tell has a change in level halfway along. (Well, mine's going to anyway)

I've added on the window frame and door detail on the back and all that's missing is the window ledges which I will fix on as one of the last things to be done.

The bit above, with the window spaces marked out but not cut, is the front piece for the only two storey part of the house.

It will go in front of the section with the patio door but on the rear the upper floor will split by a gallery window which is one of the features of these very, erm, distinctive, houses in the Oberon Wood estate.

Surveying The Scene

We had a play about on the board with the Oberon Wood scene on it the other day to try and mark the positions where the most recently built houses need to be fitted.

The difficulty is that everything depends upon the house we haven't got - which is the big gap at the top right of the picture.

Now that I have finished designing it I was able to cut out a blank piece of styrene to the length of the house so we could get more of an idea where the others will fit in relation to it.

In fact one of them will have to be attached to it, which means nothing can be finalised until it is finished.

It also appears that I have lost the battle over the row of houses nearest the viewing public - Himself is adamant we need them.

Drat!