I have put a few building kits together…that look ok (small two story buildings and the new river mine building)…But I am having some trouble with wall and roof aligments on a few walther’s kits , I was hoping for a few tricks of the trade before I jump into more advance kits this winter…
Dear West Penn: I have assembled dozens of Walthers kits but I have found that some of them are not that well engineered. But by filing and filling and being patient you can assembly a good looking kit. The company does fill a need for structures and industries, so I recommend their kits.
Ferroequinologist >>>totally agree… I was wondering if folks we using some small claps or wood blocks to keep the walls plum or maybe a small piece of rod… I seem to have trouble in the short wall sections…
I keep a supply of 3/16 square balsa wood strips handy. I get these at craft stores like A.C. Moore or Michaels. I use them on the inside of corner joints on plastic structures. I attach them with CA. They help hold the joint together, and they prevent light from leaking through the joint if I illuminate the building.
If you paint the insides of your structures, make sure you mask off the edges where the pieces must be glued together. (I sometimes paint the insides, particularly if the kit is thin plastic. It helps prevent that “Chernobyl Valley Railroad” look when you light the interior of a building and it glows throught he walls.) Even when painting the outside walls, be aware of the mating surfaces and avoid them. If you sand the joints, either to smooth them or to remove paint, do so with a block so that the surfaces will be flat all the way across. Good corner joints with styrene walls require clean, flat mating surfaces.
OK I’ll admit to being a “newbie” but why would you not want to paint the area where the walls come together?
Good Question!
You do not want to ‘paint’ the area where you use the glue. A glue to paint joint will not be very strong. I always use a small set of files/sandpaper to clean up the mating areas where I will be gluing. I also use 1/8" or 1/4" Plastruct styrene to re-enforce the corners(and to increase the ‘glue area’). I have found that many of the large ‘flat’ plastic structure kits could stand some extra internal bracing.
Jim
Makes sense…appreciate the reply. Y’all have a great day.
Thanks for the hint… I had a real problem with my last walthers kit (Heating and cooling building) … I had a lot of interlocking walls …On one wall I had three joints … So when it was time to raise the wall i had a lot of bowing and I had to try to match the second floor joints…
It’s a common problem we’ve all run into. I’ve had the best luck using metal 90 degree angles and keeping the walls tight against them until the glue dries. MicroMark sells some…pricey but very useful. If you go to the progress photos section of my site here:
http://www.lancemindheim.com/progress_photos.htm
and scroll down to Sept. 6 you’ll see how I used the angles. Sometime it’s handy to use painters tape to hold things in shape until the glue dries.
Lance
Lance … I am having one of those (why didn’t i think of that ) moments [:)] …Your Pic is a great example …thanks for the hint…
Lance … I am having one of those (why didn’t i think of that ) moments [:)] …Your Pic is a great example …thanks for the hint…
There are several angles in that photo. The ones that are the biggest help are the Micro Mark angle plates. Here’s the link.
http://www.micromark.com/ANGLE-PLATES-1-and-2-and-3-SET-OF-3,7183.html
I’d start with the 2" ones. For plastic I now use lacquer paint thinner since it’s cheaper and you can getter a larger layer on quicker. Pour some thinner into a metal cup. Take a 1/4" brush and coat both wall surfaces where they will meet. You don’t want it dripping wet or running down the wall. Join the wall sections and pull them tightly against the angle. They will probably be pretty dry in ten or fifteen minutes. Lay wax paper on your work surface so if you have some leakage you don’t bond your walls to the work bench. Not that I’ve ever done that…
Lance
Visit Miami’s Downtown Spur at www.lancemindheim.com
Lance is right: lacquer thinner will give you a much stronger (and more permanent) joint than ca. Since it softens the plastic at the joint, it’s more likely to give you a tight fit, too.
While I sometimes use machinist’s blocks to hold things in place, many of my structures are built to be deliberately “not square”. The kitbashed Walthers building below is an example:
Because the nearby tracks are parallel to neither the front of the layout nor to the wall/backdrop, the structure is slightly tapered, as evidenced by this view from the normally-unseen end:
Because of its length, I used .060" sheet styrene to construct the unseen sides and added some interior partitions to help brace the roof and long walls:
Another trapezoidal structure, this mostly scratchbuilt station was built from .060" sheet styrene, with doors and windows modified from those included with the previously shown structure:
Again, .060" sheet styrene was used as bracing in the form of interior partitions:
The roof is similarly-braced, and I used the cut-outs from the windows, stacked, to he
Very nice Wayne. I really like your grain elevator that you posted a week or so ago.
Lance
I have a lot of Walthers kits to build but I have built many from other manufacturers, some quite labor intensive to get them to fit. I glue a sheet of 120 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper to a 3/4" thick flat piece of MDF or other smooth flat surface. This makes a nice flat straight sanding surface that will handle allmost any bulding kit wall section. I ‘run’ the bottom of every wall section over this to make sure it is flat and straight. I also do this will all of the veritcal corners (that don’t have any corner brick or stone detail on the end) and also the tops of the walls where they meet the roof. If the top is where the angle of the roof slope meets the roof, I sand it at the same angle. This method has made most of my assembly go quite fast and easy with very little misfits. This also removes any sprue ‘bumps’ that didn’t get trimmed all the way with the sprue cutters.
I also use 2" and 3" machinists blocks on the inside corners to make sure I have a square corner. I ususally don’t paint until I have the main walls assembled and then spray with a primer. This method has resulted in very rewarding models.
In a word, most kits need to be ‘trimmed’ or adjusted to make them fit as they should. Some kits like the RDA models require extensive work to make them fit, but they are worth the effort. Their kits are unlike most on the market.
Here are a couple of methods I use. First up are Lego Blocks. I make a 90 deg. corner section to help keep the walls in alignment when gluing. Just build it up as high as you may need it to support the wall.
Next I took a piece of aluminum flashing material, and scribed 1 inch squares on it. this was glued to a board, and then magnets were purchased from a toll discount shop, to hold the pieces together while gluing. These along with a metal square help keep everything aligned. For the inside walls I like to use a triangle square to help with it also.