The center vertical and horizontal support timber (above) was added to the bunker. Close examination reveals the heads of the tiny brads where they are driven through the face of one timber into the end of the other. A corner cutting tool (below) was used to cut the door and window openings. Mounted in a drill press, it was thrust downward into the fiberboard to “nibble” away the excess material. Dental plaster (bottom) was applied to the screen with a putty knife to a depth of ³/₈″. An upper ridge of about ¹/₄″ thick was added around the top edge to be carved into stones. Beauty isn’t the goal, but the plaster must be thick enough to carve. The flat space in the middle is where the tipple framing will be located.
tal plaster base instead. Rather than laying individual stones, a wood frame was constructed out of ¹/₄″ plywood with plastic window screen material stapled to its exterior. The overall size of the plywood structure was reduced to allow for the plaster that would be applied to the screen. I used a putty knife and “buttered” the dental plaster to the screen until it was about ³/₈″ thick all around. I tried to keep the plaster surface at a uniform thickness and as smooth as possible. When dry and hard, the smoothest face was set against the rip fence of my shop band- saw, and I carefully pushed through the blade, working as slow as possible and vacuuming up the dust with a shop vac. When one side was complet- ed, the opposite side was cut next and then both the ends. The, “block of plaster,” was taken to the workbench and horizontal scribe lines were carefully made in the plas- ter to use as guides for the stones. Car- bide tipped tools, along with several dental explorers, were used to carve the individual stones.
Interlocking
stone joints were made at the corners. The stones extended above the top sur- face of the wooden foundation box to serve as edging along the front and back faces. The timber framing for the base of the bins would rest just a slight distance in from these edging stones. When the carving was completed, the stones were first sprayed with Krylon Almond colored satin finish paint. Folk Art acrylic craft paints were used to further color the stones to match the location of the colors of the surround- ing mountains.
I like building structures that incor- porate a strong interior support, usual- ly made from untempered fiberboard, for the walls.
It’s not that I think
they’re going to fall in, but because I’m afraid of destroying them as I work at them on the bench. The inner support is a ¹⁄₈″ thick fiberboard material that I’ve been using for several years to scratchbuild structures. The Cadrail drawings were used as templates to cut the fiberboard for the front, back and end walls of the ore bunker. The initial cuts were made with a 10″ table saw but the openings for the three were made with a hobby knife. Then the pieces were glued together with yellow carpenter’s glue.
The stripwood for the bunker was brushed with Outhouse stain from Tim- berline Scenery Company.
different color than the usual alcohol and black shoe dye stain that I usually use on timber structures. Stripwood was then glued horizontally to the fiber- board inner support. When dry, the ex- cess material covering the openings for
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 77 It’s a little
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