Sunday 4 June 2017

Bricks! Adapting Linka for 15mm - Part 2: assembly

For my test structures I've built a couple of small sheds, the sort you might find on an industrial site as plant rooms or small storage buildings.  One has a pitched roof, the other will be a flat felt roof.  I've decided to use some of my sheet styrene/plasticard Flemish pantiles for the pitched roof, this will be lighter and more durable than trying to construct a roof from Linka tile sections.

Assembled test buildings
Unfortunately the doorway has ended up slightly wonky on the pitched roof building.  I realised afterwards that I should have glued the roof apex section and the doorway together first.  The door tile cracked in half when I was removing the door itself and unfortunately when glued together it wasn't quite straight!  Gluing it to the apex section would have ensured it was straight before I added the side walls.

The 2-section side walls are assembled by placing the sections brick-side down on a non-stick surface such as a polythene pocket file, this ensures the dry flat and straight.  I just use PVA glue, slightly thinned with water and painted onto all the edges of the connecting lugs with an old paintbrush.

Flemish pantile plasticard is great stuff! It is easily cut to size, although the normal "bend-and-snap" approach needs to be adjusted slightly due to the 3D texture.  As you can see, I started on the roof when the painting of the buildings was already underway.

Roof sections cut to size

 I've added a piece of styrene tube to form the ridge and provide a stronger join along the top.

Assembled roof
Internal bracing will strengthen the roof and ensure it keeps the correct roof angle/shape.

Interior of roof showing bracing panels

 In part 3 I'll start the painting.

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