Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Up on the rooftops


After allowing the glue to set up for a while, it was time to start working on the roof.  I used a half inch thick piece for the base of it, since that would let me set the LED lights into it very easily.

I need to be able to get at those things very easily, and I learned last year that cutting the holes a tiny bit short means the flexible foam will hold the lights in place.  The flexibility of the foam has just enough give so that I can pull the lights out of there to replace batteries and so on.


The roof is going to be fairly basic.  Most importantly, it needs to have some flat space to hold more miniatures.


By making all the elements hollow cuts down on the weight, but will provide some extra strength.


I will be using some heavy paper on the angled roof pieces to create a little texture.


In the original plans, there was supposed to be a landing pad on the army board.  The drawings had it in a separate area from the cathedral, but the changes in dimensions meant it had to go somewhere else.  For right now, that is up on the roof.


I tried to keep a squad size of ten in mind as I cut that piece.  Once again, I used a thicker piece to make sure it would be strong enough.


There will be a number of little extra pieces put on the roof for effects.  I planned to put some ribs on the top of the angled sections, so I had to keep the tops as flat as possible.


In the late afternoon, the sun actually came out, and it flooded the kitchen.  The cathedral was also flooded with light, which was very fun!


This was very fun!  It is pretty wild to see the concept of the tall thin walls opened up with windows work in miniature (and pink foam) as it did in the Middle Ages. :-)


8 comments:

  1. That's incredible. Such a great project, and it's awesome seeing it all coming together piece by piece.

    I know you've probably mentioned it before, but where do you get your pink foam from? I'm having real trouble getting hold of anything like it...

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    1. Thanks! The pink foam is from Home Depot. The super thin foam is hidden in the concrete and rebar section, so it is not easy to find. Also, I hear that in warm weather states, they don't dedicate 2 whole isles to insulation! ;-)

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  2. Awesome work James. Can't wait to see the finished product!

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    1. Thanks for the kind words! These things just get more complicated each year :-)

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  3. Looks to be a very ambitious project. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out...

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  4. I saw a bottle of Elmer's glue in an earlier pic--is that what you using to glue this foam?
    Did the quarter inch foam come in 4x8 sheet? I couldn't seem to find it here in Champaign.
    Thanks-looks really nice so far.

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    1. The foam is in an accordian shape. It is 2 x 4, with about 20 sheets. It is usually tucked far into the corner of the store by all the concrete stuff

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