Sofa So Good

I wrote in a previous post that I was concerned that the conservatory on the back of the bungalow was going to look conspicuously empty unless we made some attempt to put some furniture in there.

Unknown to me Himself has had a go at knocking up a table and a couple of armchairs and I think he's done a jolly good job of it.

He tells me that he has also stuck an old Tiny Signs poster on the wall of the house to look like a picture has been hung up.

As you can see he has also built up the rather complex patio and steps around the back of the property.

There are other details which we might get around to adding to the scene.

When I have the time and inclination I might see if I can make something up to represent the owners' hot tub which sits in front of the French windows.

The question is whether we should model anyone actually using it?

So here's the state of play with the houses sitting in position.

In case you were curious I got an answer about how the decking was done and it turns out that Himself did indeed glue on each plank individually.

Get It Right Next Time

It was very heartening to receive so many hints and tips on how to make the hipped conservatory roof after my post about being baffled by working out the shape of the end triangles without an exhausting process of trial and error.

All the solutions were obvious as soon as you thought about them for a moment, but I can be rather dense about these things.

In the end, though, I retreated to my comfort zone and made a template in plain styrene which I used to make sure the triangles were fabricated to precisely the right shape.

The first attempt ended up being far too tall, and as is often the way, making the second one was much faster because you've worked out the best way of doing it, and I got this assembled in a single evening session.

There's just some gutting to add, along with the window ledges and I think the house will be ready to hand over to Himself for painting.

And that, for me anyway, will be the Oberon Woods estate done.

Phew!

Too Tall

There's good and bad news to report.

The good news is that I've proved that I can fabricate a four-sided, sloping conservatory roof.

(And damned tricky it was at times, too)

The bad news is that it has turned out to be far too tall, or steeply pitched if you prefer.

My calculations had failed to account for the overhang and the fact that the main side pieces ended up being a little bigger than I had presumed when I drew it out.

The net result is that like the Indian continent crashing into Asia and forcing the Himalayas ever upwards the ridge line of this conservatory was forced higher than it should be.

The sides should have a much less steep profile.

It's not really realistic to try to reverse engineer what I've got here so the most logical thing to do is to start again and make the pieces smaller this time.

It was only two evenings work wasted anyway.

So What Now?

I may have hit my trigonometrical limit.

I've fabricated the two main pieces of the conservatory roof but now I'm left puzzling the size and shape that I will need to make the end triangles.

The problem is that in my initial calculations I didn't account for the overlap at the front and sides - where the gutter is - and so I don't feel confident that I know precisely what the height of the roof will be, and even the smallest margin of error will may leave some ugly gaps if I try to make the end pieces based only on my calculations.

Therefore I think I shall resort to doing what I usually do, which is take the time consuming, labour intensive option.

I shall attempt the glue these two pieces into a V shape and then form a template for the end pieces before fabricating the real ones and gluing them into place.

I only hope none of my former maths teachers are reading this - oh the shame!

(By the way, if you think the two pieces in the photo look wonky and not symmetrical it's just the angle the snap was take from.)

Maths Lessons

I suspect there's not a school pupil in the land who has never sat in a maths lessons and sworn that they would never ever find a use in their adult life for algebra, trigonometry or any of the other baffling formulae you get made to learn.

That is until you come to build a conservatory with a pitched glazed roof on a model railway.

I have written on this blog before about how I have always been absolutely useless when it comes to working on angles on a model.

I usually proceed by trial and error, which can be a lengthy and frustrating way to proceed at the best of times, but when it comes to these delicate styrene fabrications I would really like to cut down on the faffing about as much as possible.

So the question I was pondering was how to make sure I make them right first time.

The answer I realised one morning as I was taking a shower (apologies if that's too much information) was good old Pythagoras's theorem.

In order to work out the size of the two main pieces, so they met neatly in the middle, all I needed to do was imagine the cross section of the roof as a right angle triangle and the piece I'm trying to make would be the hypotenuse.

QED!

Well, that's the theory at least.

Let's see what happens when I try to do it.

Offering Up

There's a little more progress with the bungalow conservatory to report this time.

I've fixed a floor in place and added the 'foundation' to bring it up to the correct height to match the rest of the house.

Just like with the previous conservatory I had to build I'm going to keep this as a separate structure until the point that it is painted and glazed before being fixed onto the side of the house.

Being at the front of the layout, and the closest of the properties to the viewing public, I reckon I may need to make a little bit of furniture to go inside it otherwise it may look suspiciously empty.

Back To Work

For reasons that would be too boring to explain it's been nearly a week since I last sat down at the modelling desk to do any work on the bungalow.

I didn't have long but I managed to knock up the other two window frames for the conservatory and attach them to the base wall and get the three bits glued together.

This bit is simple enough so far but the challenge will come with forming the glazed pitched roof, but I'll put that off for a little while longer I think.

A Start On The Conservatory

The title says it all really.

I have begun fabricating the window frames of the conservatory which goes on the back (or the front, if you're looking at the layout) of the bungalow.

I use the same method as for scratch building carriages, carefully cutting and bonding together styrene strips.

This is the front of the conservatory which includes full length double doors and will have the base wall added below later on.

Unnecessary Expense

Don't you just hate it when you end up spending money when you didn't need to?

I really doesn't do much for the old cash flow.

I'm kicking myself for prematurely investing in a batch of styrene strips thinking I'd need them to finish off the guttering on the house.

(And incidentally, I was shocked by how much this imported American product - which is very good - costs now. Could it be the 'B' word to blame?)

Anyway, no sooner had I clicked on the order than I discovered some off-cuts lurking at the bottom of my styrene store which were just enough to finish off the window ledges and the down pipes, and then Himself brought over an almost unused packet of U section strip for the gutters, so I've been able to complete the house.

The final task was to bend and fit a question mark-shaped ventilation pipe which sticks out of the roof at one end.

Over to Himself for painting and glazing now.

Here Comes The Sun (Room)

I had been concerned that the conservatory was going to be too flimsy, being fabricated out of 20 thou strip.

Since then, though, I have added on some brick courses on the bottom and a floor which has made the whole thing a lot more solid, so I was worrying over nothing.

I shall not join it together, nor glue it onto the side of the house, just yet because Himself won't thank me for that when he comes to fit the glazing and paint it.

Even so, I can pose it in position to show you what the finished effect is going to look like.

Glass Ceiling

Or more likely polycarbonate....but that pun doesn't work so well.

I've had a go at making up the roof of the conservatory, which is a very simple ladder-style piece to fabricate.

I've not glued it together yet, because it might be that Himself would find it easier to cut out the glazing pieces while it is still in bits, but this picture (with it tackled together) gives an impression of what it's going to look like.

I'm quite satisfied with the way it's looking but now, when I see how much you can see inside, whether I'm going to have to try to make some stuff to go in it?

Lean On Me

The second session on the conservatory has involved fabricating the side sections which have the sloping roof.

Again there is a large degree of guesitmation involved.

I've assumed that not only is there an inward-opening door but that there is one on each end.

With the three parts made up they have been glued together so the basic shape of the structure emerges.

For a time I did consider whether I should make these up and cast copies from resin to make the structure more rigid and stronger.

I do hope I don't regret not doing that.

Conservation

A snap decision to have a night out at the theatre by the ladies of the house meant I had an unforeseen opportunity to do a little more work on the house, so I decided I might as well have a crack at the conservatory.

This is another one of those features which is going to require a large degree of assumption, because I don't have much information to work from.

The one picture I have seen shows me that it is a modern uPVC structure and I've taken a guess that it is one of those designs where the windows go all the way to the floor all around rather than having a waist-height wall all around.

Thankfully it is quite a simple, lean-to, three-sided design with a flat sloping ceiling, rather than one of those ornate, octagonal structures.

So the first stage is to make the main section which runs along the front and which, I reckon, is comprised of a pair of sliding patio doors.

I've made this using 20 thou thick styrnene strips.

I do hope it won't prove to be too flimsy.

Much like the carriages it will rely on the glazing behind to act as a structural member and prevent it from sagging.