105 The Navajo Mining Railway - Depot Walls Go Together

It's Saturday night and I'm trying to finish the depot this weekend.  Let's complete the main body assembly.

The two partial assemblies are thoroughly dry from this morning gluing.  I check them for 90 degree alignment, and we're good.

I put the 1-2-3 blocks aside.  The are very heavy and if they are knocked over, could damage the fragile model.

I glue the assembly together after carefully pre-fitting it to make sure it goes together.  Once glued, I move the 1-2-3 blocks back on to the workspace to hold the walls in place.  We leave these to dry for several hours while I go to my daughter's basketball game (she shot a two pointer, drew some fouls and general was awesome at defense.)

At this point you'll see me test fitting and test fitting.  I drop a roof section on and see that some sanding will need to be done.

The assembly is dry, so let's test fit it on the foundation and see what it will look like.  First, I need to add the corner boards.

Its been about four hours, but I'm still very careful with the depot.  I check the fit of each corner board, then carefully glue them into place.

Once they are glued in place, I check the fit of the model on a flat surface to see how level it is.  The model seems to be fairly level.

I take the model to the foundation.

CRAP CRAP CRAP!  The depot is larger than the foundation!  How the heck did that happen!  Some how I managed to incorrectly measure both the length and the width of the foundation.  The roof sections fit, so the depot is the correct size.  I just incorrectly measured.  The fact is I do this fairly frequently, and is a common mistake for me.  Mostly this is because I tend to work in 15 minute intervals and then am interrupted by something at home.  This breaks my train of concentration and causes me to make errors.  Well, that and I'm relatively stupid.

The mark of a good model railroader is not his ability to build, but his ability to correct mistakes.  The foundation is too small, so if you are going to make a mistake, too small is the best way to screw up.

Using the model, I draw the proper outline of the foundation.  We'll rebuild it.  Make it stronger, better, faster.

Getting out Dr. Ben's Baby Rebuilding Blocks, I start making a new outer foundation.  One brick at a time, I glue them together with Elmer's Glue.

I'm having to work with thinner and smaller bricks now due to the smaller work space.  I use these pinch pliers to cut the bricks quickly and cleanly.

Ok, we've rebuilt the foundation to meet the proper spec.  It is level and looks good.  Only a 15 minute error correction, so not bad.

The test fit looks good.  There are a few tiny areas of gap around the base, but we'll fix that with the floor we'll add later.

From the front, we look good as well.

You can see some of the slight gaps.  Some sanding of the base, and a tweak here and there will fix it.

I test fit the roof again, and see how the depot looks.  I like it.  We make mistakes.  Just happens.  The trick is not to get hung up about it.  Fix it if you can, start over if you have to, but do it quick and move on.

Have a good evening.  Tomorrow, we'll get a roof and floor.  Then we'll have to go to the hobby shop for scenery materials on Monday.