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Scratch-built card and styrene structures (based on real buildings around London Bridge)


grahame
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A fresh pot of tea made and more cutting and gluing styrene. I had insufficient of the larger upright size beams so I've had to adjust the design as I went along. And now I've just about exhausted the other beams and discovering that some appeared slightly different in profile. Nonetheless I've got it this far (with a squirt of grey primer to tie it together) and hope that it will suffice for a steel beam framed structure despite not being neat and fully square.

 

It's also far from finished. I'm planning to add some first floor flooring and some cast concrete stairs up to it. But for now it's time for a rest and another cuppa to recover;

 

DSC_9767red.jpg.9745197b24a0a51079ca69148cb69710.jpg

 

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3 minutes ago, grahame said:

A fresh pot of tea made and more cutting and gluing styrene. I had insufficient of the larger upright size beams so I've had to adjust the design as I went along. And now I've just about exhausted the other beams and discovering that some appeared slightly different in profile. Nonetheless I've got it this far (with a squirt of grey primer to tie it together) and hope that it will suffice for a steel beam framed structure despite not being neat and fully square.

 

It's also far from finished. I'm planning to add some first floor flooring and some cast concrete stairs up to it. But for now it's time for a rest and another cuppa to recover;

 

DSC_9767red.jpg.9745197b24a0a51079ca69148cb69710.jpg

 

 

And now for the scaffolding...…..?

That'll be interesting!!

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15 minutes ago, KNP said:

 

And now for the scaffolding...…..?

That'll be interesting!!

 

Luckily there's no scaffolding in any of the dozens and dozens of pics of steel framed building sites on-line. Just the very occasional ladder, cherry picker or crane. I guess they build up from each floor level infilling the wall panels once the frame has been fabricated off-site and erected on-site.

 

 

 

 

 

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I've knocked up some first floor flooring and the cast concrete stairs up to it. They need painting and fixing in place but they seem to look okay and hopefully will add some appropriate detail to the under construction building:

 

DSC_9769red.jpg.a3fd38dad552da91970950bd406ba862.jpg

 

 

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I've been advised to add bracing diagonals. I had initially thought that all would require diagonals to provide rigidity and was planning on including many, but when I looked at on-line pics it seemed that many steel framed buildings had none or very few.

 

examples.jpg.1823b91b4b3eb8eb1b33921465fbd614.jpg

 

However, it's easy enough to add a few which is what I have now done. But now I'm completely out of styrene 'I' beams so that's it:

 

DSC_9770red.jpg.e7b72c2595c36622e4e5d370cc76719b.jpg

 

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Here it is, roughly in the correct location with the other buildings. It's far from complete but I like to take a few snaps during the build as a way of documenting it and to post up here. And I've found it a blinking tricky subject to photograph:

 

DSC_9779red.jpg.15ecf8dfded04bb5fc88541faebab1aa.jpg

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I've been considering how I'm going to tackle the scenics and make the steel framed edifice look like it's part of a building site especially bearing in mind its restricted and enclosed location. I've been looking at steel framed construction building sites on-line (many seem to be from the US) but none seem to be from the 1970s/80s in the UK so I'm rather in a quandary as to how to proceed. Consequently I've taken a few tentative steps but there is lots to do.

 

Here I've given the surround some dirt/earth colour and simply placed my pre-made props in rough position. There's a portacabin (the excellent Knightwing kit) for the rear of the site where it will be somewhat hidden and an etched skip, but I shan't bother with including one of the fork lift trucks I have. However, I'd like to have a small section underway on the brick infill for perhaps just a little of the ground floor.

 

Perhaps I need to get on with something else and hope for some inspirations elsewhere. 

 

DSC_9786red.jpg.52c60c3f64c69583ba43ba05751cc7b2.jpg

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20 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

This is 1950s, not sure how much things would have changed by the 70s.

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/a5BJotWP2mp85YeK8

 

That's an interesting photo, although it's a concrete framed building rather than steel framed one. But right below it on that link was this one of a steel framed building site in a restricted site (although looks to be in the US but might not be) with pedestrians strolling by almost in between the workers. And again there doesn't seem to be many, if any, diagonal cross bracing beams. 

 

https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/846-02793360

 

And in the same series is this one which is in Pimlico, London with the site fenced off and cobbled streets. Again, a dearth of diagonal cross bracing:

 

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/construction-work-at-churchill-gardens-in-pimlico-london-news-photo/464412347

 

Great pics. Thanks for the link.

 

 

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Having had a steel-framed building built for me a few years back...it varies. One major factor will be the wind that the building is exposed to. Blockwork will not be sufficient to firm up a steel frame in a windy location. Concrete floors (or not in our case) are also a factor in the structural design calculations.

The other factor is keeping the frame square during the rest of the construction. It may be that the diagonals can be removed just before completion of the shell but need to be there until then.

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1 hour ago, grahame said:

I've been considering how I'm going to tackle the scenics and make the steel framed edifice look like it's part of a building site especially bearing in mind its restricted and enclosed location. I've been looking at steel framed construction building sites on-line (many seem to be from the US) but none seem to be from the 1970s/80s in the UK so I'm rather in a quandary as to how to proceed. Consequently I've taken a few tentative steps but there is lots to do.

 

Here I've given the surround some dirt/earth colour and simply placed my pre-made props in rough position. There's a portacabin (the excellent Knightwing kit) for the rear of the site where it will be somewhat hidden and an etched skip, but I shan't bother with including one of the fork lift trucks I have. However, I'd like to have a small section underway on the brick infill for perhaps just a little of the ground floor.

 

Perhaps I need to get on with something else and hope for some inspirations elsewhere. 

 

DSC_9786red.jpg.52c60c3f64c69583ba43ba05751cc7b2.jpg

 

Not sure that a mixer of that size is going to be much use on this site! All concrete would be delivered as ready-mix and pumped into place.

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On 27/05/2020 at 16:27, grahame said:

 

Luckily there's no scaffolding in any of the dozens and dozens of pics of steel framed building sites on-line. Just the very occasional ladder, cherry picker or crane. I guess they build up from each floor level infilling the wall panels once the frame has been fabricated off-site and erected on-site.

 

 

So that nobody can fall too far (or drop a spanner on a colleague's head), the alternative to scaffolding is nets. Not too sure if you could find a net with fine enough mesh thread to look right in 2mm scale.

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47 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Not sure that a mixer of that size is going to be much use on this site! All concrete would be delivered as ready-mix and pumped into place.

 

I was thinking that the cement mixer is not for the foundation concrete, which has already been delivered and laid, but for knocking up mortar for the brick/block infill.

 

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There will be re-bar mesh for the floors and I would assume shuttering ply to support the concrete while it's poured and setting or the floor maybe Bison Beams. Would acrow props have been in use to support the shuttering, during your period? Also a couple of ladders for access to the floor already constructed. How about a tower crane? A few stacks of bricks and concrete blocks for the walls.

Just a few items off the top of my head, building sites to be passed without taking a great deal of notice. Oh and the obligatory builder wolf whistling and some pretty girl walking past.

 

 

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36 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

There will be re-bar mesh for the floors and I would assume shuttering ply to support the concrete while it's poured and setting or the floor maybe Bison Beams. Would acrow props have been in use to support the shuttering, during your period? Also a couple of ladders for access to the floor already constructed. How about a tower crane? A few stacks of bricks and concrete blocks for the walls.

Just a few items off the top of my head, building sites to be passed without taking a great deal of notice. Oh and the obligatory builder wolf whistling and some pretty girl walking past.

 

 

 

It's difficult to know what equipment was around and the building techniques in the late 70s and 80s. At work I was issued with a white hard hat for visiting sites but always managed to avoid it so don't have much experience.

 

The Pacer portacabin is okay period wise; portacabins were first introduced in the early 60s and the pacer (the Knightwing kit) dates from the 70s. Ladders were in use, generally wooden, many sites show them in place. The Pimplico site pic (I posted a link to earlier) has a particularly scarry one on the far left. 

 

There certainly would have been re-bar mesh panels used for the footings/floor raft. I'm not sure about the higher level floors; were precast concrete panels craned into place or were they cast in place?

 

Presumably the prepared steel beams were craned and bolted in place hence no scaffolding. A crane would be nice but finding a decent enough one from the period might be tricky.

 

 

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Bison beams are precast, prestressed concrete sort of a longer concrete sleeper. I have seen them with concrete blocks between them and concreted over and I have also seen them butted together and concrete poured over them. Hopefully a builder of the period might look in and shed some light on the subject.

 

 

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1 hour ago, cornish trains jez said:

 

 

Blimey! That's a building and a half!!

 

 

 

Yes, an impressive model, and there appears to be another on the right edge of the pic. The prototype pic shows it under construction (which is how it's being modelled) but I was wondering if it is a multistorey car park - if so it's amazingly tall.

 

 

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