For this section of the build I installed the chimneys first, after assembling them.  I painted them by dry-brushing a couple of colors over the gray primer coat.  I used a ca glue to assemble them and to fix them to the wall.  I then cut each of the pieces of the parapet into the correct length, and then held it up to its final location to judge the angle I needed to cut it at.  As you can see in the picture there was a slight gap between each one, but I was able to use Squadron white putty to cover those.  You can’t see it from the picture but I made sure to paint each of the pieces before installing them, as it would have been difficult with them already in place.

After the glue had dried (it took only a couple of minutes) I began the installation of the special molding on both the parapet and the top section of the mansard roof.  At each of the major corners I left a gap for the “spike” that would go into place.  In this picture you can also see that I began to fill in the top of the bay window with putty.

I continued contrustion of the module by clamping the first cross member and screwing it into place.  This is one of the chief advantages of using the L-girder type construction.   It allows cross members to be easily moved if the design of the layout requires it.  I used a countersink bit to pre-drill for each of the screws so that I would not splinter the lumber.

I continued this process for the rest of the crossmbembers, just using equal spacing to start with.  I have not yet figured out a track plan as I am still in the process of building some of the chief industries for this module.  My intention at the moment is to model a meat packing industial siding, showing many of the different parts of the same industy.  My intention is create a small module that would be fun to run a small switching operation on.

Note that I have put some cross bracing in place.  I did not like the way they turned out so I will be be replacing them at some point.  For now they provide the needed support and I will leave them as is until I get further along in the building process.

I decided that it was time a built a module section of a layout at home in order to have a place to display the models I have built so far.  I researched several methods of benchwork construction and decided upon the l-girder construction.  I made this decision for the excellent combination of strength, relativly low cost, and low weight.  I began construction by first gluing and then using screws to attach the boards in a L shape.  This has the effect of creating much of the strength, while at the same time providing a place to screw the crossmember s to.

I screwed the parts of the legs together, not using glue as I intend to make the removable in case I have to move the module.  I then assembled the legs onto the two main joists.  One of the most import things during the assembly process was the use of a square, to make sure that everything lined up correctly.

After the glue had dried on the roof paper I removed the tape and began by touching up all of the roof.  I then dry-brushed several layers of color on the roof panels.  I used two colors of green and then used a dark gray and a light gray which I also used on the gravel portion of the roof.

I then began to cut the various pieces of the roof to the neccesary shape, using hobby cutters to cut them slightly over sized.  I then used a hobby knife and files to fit them in the needed spots.  I used them to cover the edges of the roof panels.  I dry-brushed the colors of the chimney to represent stone.  I intend to paint the trim later.

After I finished installing all of the copper sections of the roof, I painted the top section of the roof using floquil’s roof brown.  As I did not mask the top section when spraying the contact cement, it left a little bit of texture.  My only intent was to save time when masking as it would be covered by the fine ballast.  Once the paint had dried I painted on Woodland Scenic’s Scenic Cement on to the roof.   I then held the model over a small box and sprinkled the fine ballast into the glue.

After knocking off the excess ballast I used a medicine dropper to float extra scenic cement into the areas needed for complete coverage.  I painted the white areas of the roof with a color to match the rest of the copper roofing.

After waiting for the glue to dry I dry-brushed the copper areas of the roof.  I did this by using five different colors, starting with a dark green, then a lighter green, followed by a dark grey for shadows, and then a light grey and a final very light coat of white for the highlights.  The green was only on the copper sections of the roof, the grey highlights continued onto the gravel on the roof.