Home Depot - a Lockdown Cakebox

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 28/03/2021 at 09:49, MAP66 said:

Well you got there Keith and managed to push your first scratch build over the line. Looks like you enjoyed the process as well, as did I following your endeavours. With your newly acquired skills, I hope you don’t keep us all in suspense for too long, before you reveal your next "adventure".

Wishing you the very best of luck with Home Depot in CBC.

Thank you - I must admit I am looking forward to getting going after Easter, although with something different next time.  I’m still working out the details, but I’ll see how far I get.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
Edit for text only as photos no longer available

[MAP66]

7 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Thank you - I must admit I am looking forward to getting going after Easter, although with something different this time:

 

 

I’m still working out the details, but we’ll see how far this one gets...

The plot thickens, are you embarking on a layout or putting up some extra shelves in the kitchen? 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 29/03/2021 at 22:41, MAP66 said:

The plot thickens, are you embarking on a layout or putting up some extra shelves in the kitchen? 

Not sure - either could be used for cakeboxes.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Warning!   This morning I finished eating my way through another rather large packet of cereal bought a while back on discount (and as they’re Rice Krispies they’re sound fitted!) - and even though my Cakebox model is now finished, I couldn’t bring myself to put this big box of quality card into the recycling:

 

Another one wasn’t in the plans…

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
Edit for text only as photos no longer available

[Keith Addenbrooke]

With the game in overtime, I’ve had another go at the Train Order board, after constructive feedback from a Professional Railroader on the American and Canadian Forum, who correctly noted that my first try wasn’t quite right.  This time I’ve used some thinner white card which I could cut in a single sheet, making it easier to model the more sophisticated shape required (Train Order Boards are different from signals):

 

 

 

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to redo the “final” photos I’ve already taken in daylight as it’s Easter weekend now: I had some unexpected spare time today as a video we’ve recorded for Easter is still processing, but at least I know I was able to make an improvement.

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
Reinstate photos

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Writing 200 words and choosing just three photos for a submission has proved more difficult than I thought it would, but it’s the same for everyone of course.  Here’s the photo that came fourth when I was choosing:

 

 

(The one I’m submitting shows the shingle pattern on the roof better, but less of the rear loading dock).  I also need to find a home for Home, as the window where it is at the moment catches the sun - but I do want to keep it.  I started preliminary work on my next project today.  That’ll be another story, but I think I can say I really have completed this one now.  Thanks to all once more.  Take care and stay safe, Keith.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Keith Addenbrooke]

My post-Easter break is drawing to close as the Summer Term here starts tomorrow.  With my Cakebox entry now submitted, I'm breaking cover and explaining what my next project and the pile of wood is actually for (29th March post above): A Narrow Gauge Misadventure - a first layout in H0e.  I'm still trying to get that elusive layout built - I'll see how I get on with this one!  Keith.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

 

...I thought I’d post this here as I’ve noted the encouragement to stay connected with the Cakebox modelling Forum.  It probably won’t be another cakebox model, but coffee stirrers seem to be an effective way of modelling wooden structures - for one very obvious reason - and a lot cheaper than kits, so I thought I’d give it a go.  (The idea seems to be: build an inner structure of card, with an outer layer of wooden ‘planks’).

As for card modelling, it seems the same techniques used for Home Depot can be used elsewhere - this photo is from my Narrow Gauge thread:

 

 

...and the layout is progressing too (the dip in the weather has just meant a pause as I need to do some painting outside).  Stay safe and enjoy modelling, Keith.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
(Add: technique for coffee stirrers modelling)

[southern42]

That seems a good idea, buying a pack of stirrers.  The stirrers should all be roughly the same width, length and thickness, whereas my little lot, collected over many years are anything but!  Although , this has had its advantages too - when you do want something wider, longer, or thinner - even the banana shaped ones can come in handy, though I expect you will have some of them, anyway!

 

Hope we see the fruits of you work!  Love the conversation on Home. 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by southern42
Correct predictive text

[ManofKent]

The only thing to be wary of with coffee stirrers is plank scale - I've been guilty of planks that are over 12" wide when scaled up... 12" wide planks are rare enough in real life, but the stirrers are easy to cut down.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

56 minutes ago, ManofKent said:

The only thing to be wary of with coffee stirrers is plank scale - I've been guilty of planks that are over 12" wide when scaled up... 12" wide planks are rare enough in real life, but the stirrers are easy to cut down.

Good point - the score lines I used on parts of the passenger car to suggest planking are at about 1mm intervals (3.4” in HO scale), while the stirrers are each 5mm wide (17.1”).  
For Home Depot I spaced 1mm wide battens at approx 4mm (14”) apart along the walls, but the station was a ‘board and frame’ design rather than wooden planks.  
For a building model, stirrers could be overlapped, but with 1000 to play with and at the minimal price I’ve paid I can try a few ideas to see what looks right.

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 12/05/2021 at 14:40, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Good point - the score lines I used on parts of the passenger car to suggest planking are at about 1mm intervals (3.4” in HO scale), while the stirrers are each 5mm wide (17.1”).  
For Home Depot I spaced 1mm wide battens at approx 4mm (14”) apart along the walls, but the station was a ‘board and frame’ design rather than wooden planks.  
For a building model, stirrers could be overlapped, but with 1000 to play with and at the minimal price I’ve paid I can try a few ideas to see what looks right.

 

I’ve been experimenting (successfully) with a couple of scratchbuilt pieces of rolling stock, producing a finished version of the Combine pictured above and a simple wood-sided open freight car - which I built to see how I got on with coffee stirrer technology.  I’m now making a start on another Depot model, which I’m hoping will end up with proper wooden planking sides made from the coffee stirrers.  To help get me started, I’m also using some of the techniques I tried first with Home Depot, as I’ll be building around a card inner structure made out of cereal packet card (hence the post here).

 

I’m not sticking quite as closely to a prototype this time.   A Busch laser-cut wood-sided American Depot kit caught my eye, which is based on the White Pass and Yukon Depot at Skagway.  As I want it for my Narrow Gauge layout, the Depot at Skagway fits the bill for this scratchbuild (the WP&Y is a 3’ gauge railroad).  It’s not a typical American Depot - but of course I’ve already got one of those .  The Busch model has been narrowed front-to-back, and does not include the adjacent tourist shop.  After looking at photos and taking a Google Streetmap tour of the area to check out the prototype, I’ll be taking the same approach to fit my space.  I’ve also shortened the trackside dimensions a bit and taken out one window on each side.  This means my first stage was to draw a plan to work to using my dimensions:

 

 

 

I’ve then transferred these dimensions onto the card and cut out the windows and door panels so I can paint the edges:

 

I’ve made life a bit easier for myself this time by leaving the window frames as part of this inner structure - when I overlay the card with coffee stirrers, they should look like proper window frames.

 

I’ll probably post updates in my Narrow Gauge Layout thread when the building starts to take shape  (link in my signature below), but as the build is beginning where I left off with my cakebox scratchbuild, I thought it would be nice to start here.  Keith.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 12/05/2021 at 13:29, ManofKent said:

The only thing to be wary of with coffee stirrers is plank scale - I've been guilty of planks that are over 12" wide when scaled up... 12" wide planks are rare enough in real life, but the stirrers are easy to cut down.

I thought this might be worth sharing as well before moving on - even if this photo is perhaps the least inspiring thing being posted to RMweb today:

 

 

 

Mindful that this building has bigger windows (and a glass-fronted door to the tracks), I need at least a proper base inside.  So here are my first 40 coffee stirrers.  Even using fast acting Roket Card Glue it’s taken a while to lay the wooden floor, as each piece needed to have one rounded end cut off before it was trimmed to size.

 

This is going to be the disadvantage of working with individual pieces!  I therefore decided to live with the oversize dimensions noted by @ManofKent, as it would have taken even longer to split each plank.  On the plus side however, it does look like wood 😀.

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[ManofKent]

As an interior I don't think the slight oversize width will show, but looking like real wood will. I look forward to seeing it develop.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 06/06/2021 at 18:40, ManofKent said:

As an interior I don't think the slight oversize width will show, but looking like real wood will. I look forward to seeing it develop.

Thank you - that’s what I’m hoping 😀. 
 

As for the outside, I’ve done a test with a small end wall section to see how it looks if I don’t split the coffee stirrers:

 

To me - and this is my subjective opinion - the oversize planks are only noticeably far too big when I focus on those bits above the door and window.  I’m going to ponder this for a couple of days to see if it bothers me enough to start splitting the planks.   The main trackside wall will be largely obscured by a canopy when viewed from the proposed operating position in the planned layout, so I may get away with it.  But I have at least three more buildings to do after this one, so I’m committing myself to a lot of extra work if I go for it.  My planks are also 20’ long (70mm in 3.5mm scale),  but the proportions look reasonable to me, which I think helps hide this anomaly - but I’ve been looking at them all afternoon, so I may be fooling myself!
 

The ‘quick win’ appears to be with the door panels.  It is actually just one piece of painted cereal packet card stuck behind the doorframe.  I deliberately tried not to be too smooth with the paint, and to me it does look as wooden as the desk:

The half-term break is now over, but I’ve managed to make enough progress over the weekend to give me a feel for what I’m doing with this one - which probably means it’s a good time to pause anyway.  Take care and stay safe, Keith.

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Having slept on it, the thought crossed my mind that I could compare my planking sample against other HO buildings I already have, not just next to a person:

 

 

Against the bricks in particular, I think the wood does look too big.  Even if I don’t incorporate these particular buildings on this layout, it equally may not make sense to rule out the possibility of using brick at all.  I should probably make a second test piece with narrower planks and see how that looks next time I do some modelling.

 

(The absence of an interior in the restaurant is very obvious at this angle, but this isn’t the normal view).

Edited April 9, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Keith Addenbrooke]

A productive day’s work and an unexpected free evening have given me some rare ‘Monday modelling time’ - enough to quickly put together a second test piece using split coffee stirrers.  Making the components was the longest part of the job, but I simplified the assembly process by cutting out the card template to fix the wood before final trimming to size:

 

 

 

Comparing the two pieces tells its own story:

 

 

It looks like I’ve given myself a lot more work to do.  I suppose it reminds me why we get three months to build a cakebox model!  A few more preparatory posts here than I’d expected, but I think I can say with more confidence now that I’ve got all the information I need.  It just remains to say thank you for reading on to this additional end point.  Take care, Keith.

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[ManofKent]

Hi Keith,

 

To my eye the spit planks look much better. I think it's worth the effort.

 

Take care,

 

Richard

 

 

[southern42]

This is coming on a treat.

The problem with choices!  If you are not sure, either way, your building could have been given many coats of paint over the years, thus filling up a lot of the gaps, and giving it an almost smooth surface, disguising any size issues you may have.

 

Compare your man's head v plank to the ticket man's (oops!) lady's head v plank at Silverton depot. I think you may be pleasantly surprised.  https://www.durangotrain.com/dsng-museum-silverton/

 

I look forward to your seeing your results.

 

Polly

Edited June 10, 2021 by southern42

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 08/06/2021 at 16:32, ManofKent said:

Hi Keith,

 

To my eye the spit planks look much better. I think it's worth the effort.

 

Take care,

 

Richard

 

 

 

On 10/06/2021 at 16:00, southern42 said:

This is coming on a treat.

The problem with choices!  If you are not sure, either way, your building could have been given many coats of paint over the years, thus filling up a lot of the gaps, and giving it an almost smooth surface, disguising any size issues you may have.

 

Compare your man's head v plank to the ticket man's (oops!) lady's head v plank at Silverton depot. I think you may be pleasantly surprised.  https://www.durangotrain.com/dsng-museum-silverton/

 

I look forward to your seeing your results.

 

Polly

Thank you - I’m happy it’s worth continuing so I can see what I can come up with.   The next stage looks like this:

 

 

I’ll be transferring further progress on this to my layout thread in the Narrow Gauge Modelling Forum (A Narrow Gauge Misadventure - a first layout in H0e).  Thanks, Keith.

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
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