# Building under construction



## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I had a spot on my layout that needed something.
It's location was not right for an industry since
it faced the main line. The road it was on was low
traffic so a Restaurant or store would not be right.

Came up with the idea of a small office under construction.
Honest guys, an expert framer could have build the real
thing in a 1/3 of the time it took me to cut all those studs
and other parts of the building.

It's a shame that HO 2X4s or 2X6s are not in the
hobby stores. Even so, it was a fun excursion into
the construction business.

Here are some pics showing the floor plan, the workmen
lumber stock and if you look closely you can even see the
roughed in plumbing for the break room, rest room, and
the water heater in the utility room.

Don


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## nvrr49 (Feb 11, 2014)

Nice


Kent in KC
[email protected]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

Nice work!
I bought one of those little "chopper block" jobbies from MicroMark. It uses a single edged razor blade and does a great job. Sure makes quick work out of cutting bass wood and balsa sticks, etc.


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## Model Train Structures (Oct 10, 2013)

Thanks for posting those close-ups Don. You really did a super job. I know what you mean about carpenters building a 'real' building faster. I tell myself that quite frequently when building from scratch. 

D.A.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

raleets said:


> Nice work!
> I bought one of those little "chopper block" jobbies from MicroMark. It uses a single edged razor blade and does a great job. Sure makes quick work out of cutting bass wood and balsa sticks, etc.



I have found that using a hobby knife to cut these tiny balsa
strips leaves mashed ends. So I used my razor saw to
cut the 'studs' then filed the ends to remove the fuzz.

Are you saying the 'chopper block' would have shaved
these HO 4X4s into 2X4s? The 4x4s are fragile, the
2 bys would seem to break if you breathed on them.

Don


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## nvrr49 (Feb 11, 2014)

Don't use Balsa, use Basswood. Basswood HO scale 2x4's and 4x4's cut fine with a sharpe hobby knife.


Kent in KC
[email protected]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free


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## doorman29 (Dec 15, 2013)

Great scene.


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## KAL5 (Sep 4, 2011)

Great work very nice


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Very impressive, Don. Looks real, especially the lumber scattered all over the place! LOL


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

nvrr49 said:


> Don't use Balsa, use Basswood. Basswood HO scale 2x4's and 4x4's cut fine with a sharpe hobby knife.
> 
> 
> Kent in KC
> ...


Would love to have had Basswood available. Local hobby
shop no longer stocks it. Did find, too late, that Michael's
stocks it, but only 4x4s and larger.

Thank all of you guys for your kind comments.

Don


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

At my local lumber yard in the store section I found they have an assortment of both balsa and basswood. You might try that.


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## Patrick1544 (Apr 27, 2013)

Nice setup, Don.


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