Anglia105E

Have a good vacation in the mountains David, and model building will resume around two weeks from now . . . David W.

Seven of the eight roof section panels have now been fully tiled, so there is only one remaining . . . I began to apply some strips of tiles today, and having done an accurate estimate, this large roof section will need 16 strips of tiles . . . There are still three sheets of tiles in the pack, which means that I have 33 strips available, This is more than enough to complete the roof . . . This following photo shows the bungalow model outdoors in natural daylight, taken on the patio table . . . Only one day before I leave for Cornwall, so not much model building will happen. David

That was something that always surprised me Paul, when I would allow the software to calculate the estimated print time and this would quite often come up with 10 hours, 12 hours, 20 hours plus . . . Leaving the printer running in my loft room, much of the time unattended, and even sometimes with nobody at home was a constant worry . . . The fire risk was probably the only downside of 3D printing I would say. As you say, the prices are coming down, as we all knew they would, so at some point I may take another look at getting a 3D printer. My best model to date is the O-gauge ( 1:48 ) Pannier Tank steam loco, which was a completely free download and I printed 26 parts for the assembly. Once printed, assembled and painted this produced a really nice model . . . ( see following photos ) David

Hello David G. . . . Always good to make someone happy ! Yes, I really miss that cheap 3D printer, which in spite of it's limited spec, did an excellent job. There was no fire at the time fortunately, which would have been bad for my loft room . . . The old gent who appears from time to time in my photos is Harold, and he is the best 1:43 scale figure that I have, in terms of detailed painting ( not painted by myself, I hasten to add ). The roof of the bungalow should be almost fully tiled during the next day or two, although I shall run out of tiles before completion. Once I return from my holiday trip I shall order some ridge tiles, and a further pack of the roof tiles . . . David W.

The roof trusses are much more rigid now, so the eight roof sections were taped in place and the ceiling panel, roof structure baseboard could be placed onto the lower rooms assembly . . . This showed up an obvious area that required attention. At the lower edge of the tiled roof section, where it forms the apex of the gable end at the rear of the bungalow, there was some foam board material protruding beyond the eaves . . . Harold was soon up his ladder and swiftly removed this excessive material, satisfied that the roof section was now fitting correctly . . . The chimney stack that you can see in the following test fit photos was 3D printed and painted by myself, after I had designed the chimney stack using FreeCAD software, probably around two years ago, before my 3D printer exploded in a blinding flash of blue ! . . . The chimney stack has been removed from the garage model it was intended for, as I want to use the part for this bungalow build. The length of shaped wood for the gulley was also test fitted at this stage, and I think this should work quite well . . . David

Thanks Steve . . . I didn't expect to get this far with the roof structure, before I go away on holiday in 12 days time. Your continued interest is much appreciated . . David

The remaining four roof section panels have been cut out of sheet balsa, and these do require some slight adjustment to fit precisely . . . I wasn't happy with the roof truss attachment to the roof structure baseboard, because they kept moving out of position as I was lining up the roof sections. This prompted me to secure the trusses, using PVA glue along the lower edges . . . All ten roof trusses are now PVA glued in place, and they will be allowed overnight setting. The eight roof sections will be completed once the remaining four panels have been tiled . . . David

Your comments are always well received David, and I recognise that you have more years of experience in model building than I do. I do take your point regarding the thickness and volume of material that we are working with, although in this case it is entirely due to incorrect angles on my part . . . The lower edge of each template, and also the top ridge, is a simple horizontal on flat paper, but then you have inclines and also gulleys that cannot be measured on flat paper. As each template required two attempts to get anywhere near right, I ended up using the ' pin ' method . . . One pin at each corner of the card provided me with a precise point of reference, and by simply joining the dots ( joining the pin holes ), I was able to define the exact shape. Basically, this is a 3D visualisation of the problem, and not a 2D visualisation . . . Now I get it . . . David W.

The three roof sections at the front of the bungalow have been fully tiled . . . For the next task, I positioned all of the ten roof trusses. Each truss was fixed onto the roof structure baseboard using Bostik Glue Dots, one glue dot in the centre of each truss . . . Today I was able to measure and cut out the remaining four roof section templates from thin white card. I realised that my method of measuring the length of each side of the roof sections was problematic, because each time the first attempt failed. The template did not fit onto the trusses properly, and was often out by a considerable margin . . . The problem was not the length in millimetres, but actually it was the ANGLES that were wrong. Then a new method came into my head, and this has worked much better. First I cut out a piece of card that was roughly the size of the area, and then I pinned each of four corners to the foam board trusses. Once the pins were removed, I could connect the four pin holes by drawing black lines between them . . . Cutting out the template by leaving about five millimetres just outside each of the lines allowed some margin for error. This not only worked well, but also this method was easier and quicker. Four templates were completed during the day, so these can be transferred to sheet balsa tomorrow . . . David

Those header pipes really tested your model building skills David G., . . . The alignment with the exhaust pipes adds further challenges ! Nice work on the grille trim chrome, and that was a good idea of yours to use the box art picture as a reference . . . Having built cars of this period, such as the Delahaye 135 and the Talbot Lago Record Cabriolet, neither of them American, maybe I should add this Cord 812 to my collection ? David W.

Thanks David G., . . . I have a feeling that this roof structure is going to look pretty good . . . fingers crossed ! David W.

Nice and easy to apply, although quite time consuming, and the process requires a considerable amount of patience as you have found Paul . . . ! David

Yes I agree . . . Which is why I am building the bungalow from foam board, as you can see in the W.I.P. Dioramas section. Makes a refreshing change from building cars . . . David

Today was all about applying the strips of roof tiles. These have a peel off self-adhesive backing, and they are a very nice product to work with. The wooden ' gully ' was also test fitted, and this will be glued to the roof sections, with grey emulsion paint applied afterwards. As well as this gully at the front of the bungalow, there are two more gullies at the rear of the property . . . The small roof section to the right of the front gable end was tiled first, and then the triangular section to the right of the garage was fully tiled. The larger centre front section will be tiled tomorrow hopefully, and then I can move around to the rear of the bungalow to measure and cut thin card templates for the sheet balsa roof sections . . . There are four of these, and one of them is a large complex panel, similar in shape to the front centre one. David

This is quite a different subject for you Charles, and it really works . . . No trucks or Land Rovers, and this is not an industrial building ! David