# Build thread: N Scale American Model Builders 2 Story Farm House



## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I have started building the American Model Builders Laser Kit: Two Story Farmhouse. I thought I would start a build thread for anyone interested in the construction or other information about this kit. So far it has been a lot easier to build than my first wood kit. Although I don't think the first wood kit that I built was hard to build, this one just seems easier.

My first wood build can be found here:
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=15147


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I bought the last one they had in stock and for some reason no longer have it on their website. Here is a link to a combo pack with it in it.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/American-Model-Builders-N-Midwest-Farm-Combo-Kit-p/amb-614.htm


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I started by assembling the outer walls before it occured to me to document this kit. Hopefully I can document all of the steps other than walls. I used testors flat white and flat red on the kit. I believe that will be all of the paint I will need. After the main walls dryed, they seemed to be a little warped so I put them under some books overnight and that seemed to fix them.

Kit parts:


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Here is what the walls came out of. They are notched which makes for easy alignment. The laser cut was clean enough that it did not need any sanding on any of the parts. However, there was a tiny nub that held it to the wood.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Here are the completed outer walls:





The joints on the walls will be taken care of at a later time.

I should add that I used a square on the corners.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I skipped ahead a couple of steps and added the back steps. Hopefully this won't come back to bite me. I went ahead and did this so that I can get the proper door facing height and so that I can weather and dull coat the outer door facings. I will do some weathering on the windows before I install them in the window frames.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

The last bit of work I did tonight was installing the top of the steps and all of the window and door facings. They were all adhesive backed and were fairly forgiving during placement. The backsteps were a major pain to get installed but they came out fine. I found that when removing the window frames and such from the wood a brand new straight razor works better than a hobby knife even when new.


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## Carl (Feb 19, 2012)

Looking forward to pictures of the completed building.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Last night I finished the trim, windows and weathering. The picture is pre-weathered and the house is where it will be placed when completed.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

The trim and windows are self adhesive. I had mixed feelings about the adhesive but it seems to work well and made the construction a whole lot easier. The windows were two pieces plus frame and two pieces of glass. As you saw earlier, the frame is installed first and then you build the window and place it in the frame from the inside. It took between three and four hours to complete. It was fairly easy once I got the hang of it.

I painted the top of the windows and frames while in the wood sheet. The paint got enough of the sides of the frames to look good but I had to paint the sides of the trim after removal. I tied them in stacks with a couple of bread ties. 

I have included a picture of the instructions to show how the windows are built.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

This side is pretty heavily weathered as it will be the side against the tracks:


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I've been swamped at work and probably will be for quite some time. I was able to get a little bit of work done on the model over the last week.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I stained the front porch floor. It was rather light and glossy but that's nothing that a little weathering powder and some dullcoat couldn't fix.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I added the mountings for the front and side steps and the front posts.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

These were two pieces, the back being wooden and the front being adheasive. I applied the adheasive part and I have paited it. I have also weathered the front of the porch that goes against the bottom of the roof.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Very nice project build thread. Thanks for the step-wise details. Nicely done!

TJ


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

That is coming out great. :thumbsup:

It looks like George Washington could have slept there at one time. :thumbsup:


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Thank you all for the kind comments. I am modeling late steam era/transition era so I wanted it to be dirty as it is a track side building.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I had a little free time today so I did make a little bit of progress. I thought I took more pictures than I did but they're not on my phone for some reason. All of the railings and lattice work (I guess you call it, it's under the porch) are really fragile and felt like they were going to break while being installed.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I should add that I used my razor blade, a crocheting needle and a small screw driver to snug the parts down once in place and that I used elmers wood glue. The fancy lattice work at the top of the porch supports goes behind the supports of the porch. I glued them down without knowing this so I had to pop them loose. It's a good thing that I didn't use a ton of glue. The fancy lattice under the porch fits in notches and feels scary installing it because it is very flimsy. Once in proper alignment, it goes in pretty easily. The railings fit in little notches in the roof supports and were easy to fit into place. The railing on the end is notched on the house side. It was easy to install even with the other railings in place. You should probably install this on first unlike me. It would be a little easier to get in place. I should also say that the kit has a lot of notches in the construction to make the kit easier. If you didn't weather the kit you could probably finish it in an evening or two.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)




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## Carl (Feb 19, 2012)

Like the structure.......Very nice work....now comes the roof


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

OK.......Franklin D. Roosevelt or Harry Trumen could have slept there then. :thumbsup:

George got around a lot, but that is too early for your house.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I think I may have seen GW's ghost around there last night...


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I started on the roof today. As you can see there is more of the notched construction I mentioned earlier.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

The house roof and the expansion on the back went on fairly easily.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

The front porch roof was a different matter. The instructions tell you to add the mountings for the roof a few steps back. If I were to build this again, I would build the porch first. I would glue the mountings that go on the bottom of the porch roof to the roof before gluing them to the building. The porch supports then will easily glue to the roof. The reason I would do it this way as opposed to the instructions is that the slots fit very tightly and it has to be very precise. Unfortunately, they came off of the house and had to be redone but it was much easier to put together that way.

These are the supports that I am talking about:


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I also added the these tonight. They are for the steps:


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)




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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

The house is just about finished. I still need to add the steps, finish the roof and add the chimneys. The chimneys are metal and will have to be painted and the roof is more adhesive. It has added on strips to simulate the metal roofing. Hopefully I can get to this soon but I'm finished for the night.


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## Carl (Feb 19, 2012)

Nice to the see the roof on> Wood shingles would look great on that. RSLaserkits has some wood shingle available.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Carl said:


> Nice to the see the roof on> Wood shingles would look great on that. RSLaserkits has some wood shingle available.


Wood shingles would look good but the kit came with a roof for the house. I am currently working on it.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I got to work on the roof tonight. It's more of the same adhesive backed material. I'm not quite sure what the material actually is but it works pretty well. Here is the all of the roofing provided. The main roof and the expansion roof are made up of two pieces and the porch roof is the longer skinny piece. They are assembled by adding the little tiny strips which are also adhesive backed.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Here is a picture of the roof during assembly. This is both pieces to this part of roof.



These are the strips that are added to the roof. The lighter colored ones are ones that have already been removed.



After assembly, I put the roof on its' top. This made it much easier to cut the overhang of the strips. I got a much cleaner cut by cutting at an angle. Due to these being adhesive backed, you have to make a straight cut down. If you slide the blade, they, move with it.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

Here is the roofing sections after painting. I left one upside down to show that they are two pieces. They are currently under a book for the night to prevent warping from the paint. They will have to be weathered and that may possibly happen tomorrow. I didn't photograph them but there are also several strips that fold over the top point of the roof. They have also been painted and will be weathered. I also primed the chimneys so that I can paint them tomorrow too.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

The roof detail is easy to apply. It is just adhesive backed. The main roof sections were slightly too long and needed trimmed a little after applied. After the main roof sections are applied, there are three smaller strips that need to be put on evenly because they fold over and cover the split in the roof. The holes for the chimneys had to be cut in to roofing materials. There are pre-cut holes in the wooden roof under the details.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)




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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

I finished the model last night but I decided to wait until today to take pictures when there is some natural light coming in through the window. After priming, I painted the chimneys heritage brick acrylic paint. After they dried, I took some white paint and rubbed it in with my fingers. After a few minutes, I took a barely damp cu-tip and wiped the paint off of the brick leaving the paint in the crevices. I also added the steps which were adhesive. I may do some more weathering along the base of the house when I secure it to the layout. I don't have any details for the scene yet. It may be awhile until I get the scene done but whenever I do I will post pictures here.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)

For some reason the chimneys look a bit crooked in the pictures but they aren't.


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## jargonlet (Dec 21, 2011)




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## xeniachooch (Feb 7, 2014)

Very nice result, and excellent step-by-step.


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