Friday, February 27
Building my First Kit - BAZ Half Timber House #1
photos taken February 27, 2009

The bare bones of house construction is complete.

Here's a look inside.
To make the structure sturdy for gluing, I glued in bits of balsa wood.
Not only does the balsa add structural integrity,
it gives the house some needed weight.
Even though the balsa was not included in this kit,
and may not be included in other kits,
I'll continue to add it to other wood structures.

To get rid of the lines it has been suggested by other modelers
to fill the lines with some kind of filler, then sand gently.
I'll work on this concept with my next house kit.

Saturday, February 28
First Kit Complete
photos taken February 28, 2009

Yes, the house is complete!
I see that the flowers in the boxes need a bit of touching up.
The house appears to be floating off the ground.
That's because a pair of tiny wires lead from the rice-sized light
that's been duct taped inside the house and out the bottom.
Once the house is in place on the real layout,
it will light up with the other lights in other buildings.

A back view of the house.
Photos always reveal things that are wrong with the scene.
I notice in this scene that the trees need a bit of pruning at the bottom
as well as brown tree trunks.

It took four days to complete my first kit, the BAZ #1 Half Timbered House.  Building the house was more complex than the photo let on, but that only meant that I had more to learn.  The more I learn at these early stages, the more I'll be able to improvise when the time comes to scratch build my own buildings - if I go in that direction, that is.

Next on my agenda is to finish the other two BAZ houses.  After that, I hope to carve up my layout for the curved, arched stone bridge I have in mind.

2009 © Beverly Wladyka and Chris Gregors Edmonton AB Canada