Building the A.B.H plant - Part 1

Today I wanted to make a start on one of the buildings for the layout. There is not much more I can do with regards to trackbed, laying track and installing point motors etc. Until the rest of the track arrives which be some time this week. Therefore I decided to make a start on structures.

I had a fair amount of Will's sheets that were intended for use on The Old Road, but of course that project has been scrapped for now. So I made a start on the  main A.B.H building (I believe A.B.H stands for Asphalt Baghouse (but I may be wrong!)).

Again, working with these thick sheets is a pain in the proverbial, so progress was slow. Very slow. It took about 6 hours to get the basic shell of the building complete.

Above: The parts are cut out and are seen here awaiting an attack from the sandpaper seen at the top of the photo!

Above and below: My method for cutting out windows/doors in Wills sheets is to use a circular attachment on the Dremel to rough-cut them initially. The rest is cut and tidied up with a craft knife. I absolutely hate doing window apertures, and hate glazing them even more!

Above: The finished shell of the building is seen here. The smaller extension part hasn't been glued on yet. I have tried to mitre all my joints, but I've never been very good at getting them square. This is the best I can do in the photo above!

Of course the building needs windows (EUGH!) and painting/weathering after the roof is done. Speaking of which, I will use thinner corrugated stuff (I forget who manufacturers it) for all roofs (and hopefully the rest of the building shells!). This should be arriving with my flexitrack order at the shop, although I'll probably need to buy more after that - I'm gonna need a lot of it for this layout!

And finally, a little more progress on The Jolly Sailor! Roof has not been glued, and is only held into place with blu-tac to give a general impression. Again, I will need more sheets to finish off the roof, side, and rear extensions.

So another productive day today!

Tomorrow may not be so productive, but I do want to make a start on the jetty board as it has been somewhat neglected for a few weeks.

Bonus photo: