Getting Started

It took a long time to get to the point of beginning to assemble the three models. Started many years ago, the project was interrupted in 2008 for a neurosurgery adventure. Before that happened, the main obstacle to progress was figuring out the geometry of the roof. Google's satellite images helped get us back on track, and then Friend J, studying architecture, galloped to the rescue with his expertise.

In the earlier vision, it was all going to be handcut. This fantasy was dashed fairly quickly upon counting the number and range of sizes of the windows. Again, a wonderful resource came to the rescue: custom laser cutting by SDK Miniatures. Working from our drawings and measurements, SDK laser cut the sides, windows, doors and roof planes. By last summer, we had a almost-complete set of pieces, and dry-fit a pilot house.

The pilot house got dressed (well, enough to test techniques and materials) and assembled, and various corrections made, including adding specs for forgotten pieces, like the back porch!.

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The roof is just resting on this version, and there's no landscaping, because it's all a conceptual sketch, more than an assembled project. Only part of the roof is shingled, as the roof is large (as these things go) and the shingling is particularly tedious--it didn't seem worth wasting the materials after the approach was validated. Plus, thinking ahead to doing three complete roofs later was daunting.

 Devising a way to construct the sunroom was a particular triumph.

SDK then did another complete cut, incorporating all the revisions from the pilot house experience.We checked and double-checked those pieces, now known as the penultimate run. With one or two final-final adjustments, SDK cut three full sets of custom components. I packed those up, with tools and materials, and have the project along on our summer odyssey. Now to begin!