Your First Laser Kit 07 - Basic Barn Kit - Wall Assembly

Nothing like hanging around the house on a Sunday.  Wife and oldest daughter gone and I'm on baby duty.  Luckily she's having a sleeping day!

 Cut of iced tea on the desk.  Playing the latest DVD added to my collection featuring Dean Freytag the master of styrene and steel.  Playing how-to videos while model building is great fun!

 First, let's get the backs of the doors painting.  We masked them from the black, so we'll take the Dr. Ben's Chicago Brick Red and paint them.

 We need to mask off the unpainted area.  You can see that I've already gotten some red on the back, but it blows off easily.

 With the area masked off, we'll load up the brush with red pigment.

 The inside door is probably in pretty good shape, so we'll make it dark and even.
 

Using my faithful can of Testor's Dull Coat, we'll spray a light coating to seal in the pigments.

 Here is a good example of spraying on too much.  I soaked it and the colors ran on to the tape.  Go easy on the Dull Coat!

 Now, back to the assembly instructions.  The instructions are a bit week in that they just say cut out the walls and put them together.  They do mention that the side walls go inside of the front and back walls, though this might be hard for some to understand without a drawing.

So here is what it means.  The front wall is the most likely to be seen.  The side wall attaches behind the front wall and the trim pieces will go over the joint to hide it.

 Again I tried to use a hobby knife for these parts and had to switch to a razor blade.  Take your time and make several passes at each fret.

 Use a straight edge for long pieces like these so that you don't slip and cut the boards.

 Cut out around a big piece and then cut out the smaller pieces.  Remember, your fingerprints will show up in detail shots!

 So hold the boards with a towel or rubber gloves.

 There!  All the pieces have been removed.  After reading the directions again I just realized that the door will have to be painted.  Oh well.

 Each of the boards that you cut out will have a small about of the fret remaining.  This must be sanded flat.  Also, laser cutting does not make a 90 degree angle at the cut.  It is at a slight angle.  Thus, a cut side and a flat side really don't meet perfectly.  So when I sand I try to flatten out the cut.

 You don't need to sand much, but just enough to remove any burrs.

 Normally I use a small sandpaper tool to do this, but I've lost it.  So I'll make do with the pointed edge of the sanding sponge.

 I tried to leave the front doors in to give this piece added strength, but they fell out so I'll go ahead and sand the inside of the doorway.

 When all are sanded check for dust and damage.  This is the time to repair any board that you broke with a little glue.

 Next we want to assemble the walls of the barn.  I'm going to use my hand dandy squaring jig.  It has four 90 degree sides and several magnetic fixtures that hold the parts in place.

 What we'll do is mate the two pieces in the corner, and fasten them down with the magnets so that we can glue a corner board (not included with the kit) into place.

 Going to the wood shed (no, not in trouble with the wife today for a change) I picked up a 1/4" square piece of balsa wood.  I like balsa for corners because it is cheap, easy to cut and if you make a mistake you can remove it and sand off the area.  But hey, I don't make mistakes.

 We'll dig out the Zona saw and the X-acto miter box for cutting the corner boards.  You can use a Dremel or a mini chop saw, whatever works for you.

 I measure the first cut, making it a bit short of the top and bottom.  All I want it to do is to reinforce the corners and help keep them square.

 A few hits with the saw and its done.

 Then I take the corner board that I just cut, set it aside of the stock board, and cut three more.

 There!  Four corner boards.

 I put one front and one side in the jig and locked them down with magnets.

 My jig is a little old and is not perfectly straight, so I use a toothpick to force the front wall into the back wall to make a tight connection.

 Using a little full strength Elmer's glue, I put a light coat of glue on two adjacent sides, the ones that go into the corner.

 Here you can see the corner board drying in place.

 Oops!  Left the hayloft door in.  We'll take a second and cut that out.  Sometimes I'm tired or distracted by baby duty or the TV and make mistakes.  This does take some focus.

 We press this into the corner and also lock it down with magnets.

 Glue and mount the corner board.

 The baby is about to wake up so I need to hurry....

 Both large assemblies are drying so let's see what is next.  Looks like the lean-to needs to be assembled.

 Just like the others I put two of the three pieces in the jig.

 Instead of a square, I'll just use a round toothpick for the corner support.  I like using round corner supports because they are just as strong, but don't have to be perfectly at a 90 degree angle.

We'll let that dry....and go feed the baby.

Your First Laser Kit 05 - Basic Barn Kit - Painting the Trim

Now we need to paint the trim work on the barn.

 Let's get the trim piece out and take a look at it.  All of these pieces will be painted white.  Unfortunately we can't paint them like we did the wall sections.  Since the are going to be stuck on the wall & door sections you'll be able to see the sides of the boards.  When laser cutting there is a tendency for the boards to burn slightly on the sides so this has to be covered with paint.

 These parts are VERY delicate.  I started cutting with a hobby knife and switched immediately to a razor blade because of the extremely narrow cuts.  First I try to cut out main sub assemblies, and then work them down to their smallest part.

 I've cut all of the main sub assemblies out and this leaves the wood sheet empty.  This is adhesive backed wood and we'll save it just in case we screw up a part.  Just put it aside somewhere.

 Cutting out the door cross bracing is very delicate work, so take your time.

 The hayloft door looks very boring compared to the main doors, so I'm going to leave the kit plans for a minute and carve my own brace.

 There!  One nice diagonal with adhesive on the back!  Don't be afraid to change the kit if you need to.  This door would normally have a support like this.

 All of the pieces have been cut out.  Now I need to sand the sides and remove the burrs.  For some reason I can't find my fine grit sander so I'll have to go to the hobby shop and get a new one.  It is critical for this work as the parts are so tiny.

 Meanwhile, I'll go ahead and make a paint board.  I do this by taking Scotch Brand double sided tape and laying some strips out on a sheet of foam board.

The double sided tape took the pigments out of my finger prints!  After I sand a piece I'll carefully place it on the paint board and get it ready for airbrushing.

Your First Laser Kit 04 - Basic Barn Kit - Painting the Barn Outside

The black on the back is dry, so let's flip it over and start painting the outside.

 I decided that my barn needed to be the rusty red color that is popular in the rural south.  It is old, so it will be a bit faded and brownish looking.

 I use Dr. Ben's Weathering Pigments for several reasons.  Mostly because of the variety and they are in flat, round containers that are easy to handle.  This is the Railroad Weathering Set with 27 colors.

 As you can see, this is a comprehensive set.  Rather pricey, but it will last me almost forever.  Black is the only color I may reorder in about 10 years.

 Let's add a little grain to the wood first.  This is a brass bristle brush that you can buy at any harware or DIY store.

 I take the brush and rub with the grain of the wood back and forth in a scrubbing fashion.  This adds some age to the flat plywood "boards".

 Next I'll grab a firm bristle flat brush.  You want one that is durable because you are going to scrub the pigment into the wood.

 Dr. Ben's Chicago Brick looks like just the right color of red and brown.

 I always work pigments in a tray just in case I knock something over so that you can pour the pigments back in the jar.

 The effect I want is that the barn is fading and is very water worn at the bottom.  Normally any wall is darker at the top under the eave of the building and fades as it goes toward the ground.  At the ground level water and soil eat away at the boards so they are going to be gray.  We'll not paint the end of the walls.  Load up your brush with pigments (I used no water or alcohol, just pigments) and apply them to the top of a wall in a scrubbing type action.  Gradually push the pigments down and stopping about 1/8" from the bottom.

 This wall has a little darker top, some streaks on the wall, and nothing at the very bottom.

 The door is to be cut out, so I won't stain it yet.  You can see the mottled look the pigments give the boards.

 The eave of the sides of the barn is more pronounced so it would weather less and would be darker.  We'll start at the top and grind the pigments into the board.

 Next, we'll work the pigments down and fade them out toward the bottom, again leaving the bottom unpainted.

 We want to open the doors, so we need to slice them apart now.  Figure out the center board, and using a razor blade (very thin) slice through the door.

 The area under the hayloft door will get very dirty and weathered, so we won't make it too red.  Fade the rest of the barn.

 The lean-to is newer, so the paint wouldn't have weathered as much.  I made these almost solid pigment and was sure to clean out the grooves in the wood to make it look newer.

 Tap off the rest of the loose pigments into the tray and then put them back in the jar if you like.  I throw them away because sometimes they pick up moisture and the adhesive in them activates.

 Let's grab the weathered black.  Actually I probably should use a gray like a pastel gray, but Ben doesn't make a set of white to gray highlighting and board weathering pigment set.  (HINT HINT, Dr. Ben!)

 Dark is dangerous!  Use it VERY sparingly.  Notice I have a rag handy to wipe off the excess.  A little goes a very long way.

 Notice the patch of black on the side.  I remove a lot of the pigment before I touch the brush to the model.  On the bottom ends of the walls I add a very thin swipe of black to the unpigmented areas to make it look like the paint had worn off and the boards are rotting away.

 The area under the hayloft door gets a little more weathering, as do both doors since people push them shut with their dirty hands.  The front takes a lot more wear.

Finally I give it a light coat of Testor's Dullcoat and let it dry overnight.  You will notice the pigments bleed into each other a little, which is what we want.