By Noel Widdifield LSOL.com Managing Editor

Author  Bio Part III - Some of the final steps need to complete the Roundhouse -- Exterior Shed

Exterior Shed:

I next began to build the exterior shed to house the auxiliary steam generator. I cut out two pieces of the 1/2" basswood to form the concrete floor for the shed.

• I cut posts from the 1/2" X 1/2" basswood and cut the roof from Plastruct corrugated styrene.

  
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• I put a thin strip of Plastruct concrete block around the two pieces of basswood and painted it with aged concrete paint.

• I fastened the posts and crossbeams in place and glued the roof to the side of the building using White Lightning.

  
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After gluing some roof ventilators from Westport Model Works to the front roof  and using the same technique I had used on the front lower roof, I cut out a cardboard pattern for the three upper roof sections. I needed three separate roof sections because of the size of the roundhouse and my desire to have access to that part of the building with removable roofs. I cut out the three roof sections from the 1/4" birch plywood using my 8" table saw, painted the underside a dark gray and began to fasten the 3M No 2 Aluminum Oxide sandpaper to the roof sections.

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After gluing all of the sandpaper in place, I sprayed the roof sections with the grimy black and weathered it with primer gray, earth and rust.

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The next challenge was getting the birch plywood to not warp after all of the sandpaper, glue and paint were applied. I laid the roof sections in place and weighted them down with the nearest power tools.

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I left them in place for a month while I left the snowy Northland for a vacation in sunny Florida. When I returned to the snow in early March, the roof sections were fairly straight.

I cut six smoke ventilators from 1" balsa and trimmed them to the desired shape so they would stand vertically from the roof.

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Then I cut the smoke deflectors from .060" styrene sheet and 1/16" X 1/16" styrene

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and glued them to the top of the ventilators. I painted the ventilators flat black

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and glued them in place on the roof by using White Lightning.

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I did the ventilator construction in my workshop

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Most of the construction to this point had been done in the layout room with the roundhouse in place.

Next Project:

Now all I need to do is to ballast the tracks and put the interior offices and shops and tools in place. 

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I found equipment available from S.E LTD, so I ordered a few pieces to determine the quality and then purchased all I needed for the roundhouse. This allows me to have a machine shop, bathrooms and offices inside the roundhouse.

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The hoggers were especially excited about the indoor bathrooms. I am still working on the interior and will soon start the ballast. Perhaps there is one more article to be written on ballasting and interior finishing.

Great Coverage

Great detailed coverage of the project. Should allow other to figure out how to build their own.

Rick Henderson - 12/08/2010 - 17:02

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