You
are looking at a section of the front wall panel of the engine
shop.This section contains 2 window openings about the same size.
The tongue depressor/stir stiks are arranged in a board and batten
fashion over a foamboard base.As you can see no attempt has been made
to be neat or precise.This is one of the great advantages in
constructing barn type structures ,you don't have to be too fussy,which
fits my style perfectly.(thank God it is not a Victorian dollhouse).
After I have built the complete structure in foamboard,floor,walls
,joists and roof etc.. and I am happy with the fit,I break it all down
into sections and begin sheathing the walls,in this case a board and
batten exterior and a cardboard and batten interior.You can leave a
little extra wood around the door and window openings,later to be
sanded when fitting the doors and windows to the panel.
When
designing your structure consideration must be given to access for
maintenance ,which usually means being able to break it down into
sections.Also you have to have a rough idea of where the furniture will
go and of course doors and windows.
After you have your plan ,you
can now begin to cut in the doors and windows using a #11 Xacto,
cutting in at 90%.A straight 90% cut will ensure proper fit of the
windows and doors.Save all your cutouts,number them,identify which side
is up and set them aside to be used as future templates.
Now you
can begin sheathing the exterior walls.For this wall I used 16mm X 1mm
thick tongue depressors and 6mm X 1mm thick stir stiks.
On the
exterior side of each board and batten ,I paint on the bare wood ,very
thin coats(1 or 2) of Jo Sonja waterbased acrylic paint.The color I
like is Nimbus Grey with a touch of Raw Umber in it.Add lots of
distilled water until you get a consistency of 5 percent milk.With a
old soft bristle brush,paint on the mixture and let it soak into the
wood until you get a nice transparent grey color.At this time you will
have to decide just how old you want your building to look .In my case
aviation hadn't been around too long by 1925, so I can't make the
structure look too old.Let some of the wood pattern and color tones
show through the watery grey acrylic.There will be a certain amount of
loss through warpage but this is normal and smaller pieces can always
be used elsewhere.The reason I paint the boards now is to avoid any
ugly glue marks on the wood.Before painting your boards to not attempt
to sand or finish them in any way as we want to retain the rough sawn
look.When the watery mix is painted on, this will increase the
roughness even more, which for our purposes is a good thing. to be
cont............
