This article follows my successes - and failures (some of them spectacular) - during the process of scratch-building a model of my Aunt Estelle's house in Annapolis, Maryland.  The advice I give herein is garnered from the fun times I had during this adventure.

For this project we will build Aunt Estelle's House; the PDF plan package is $9.95 as of this writing (May 30, 2021).

Let me state, for the record, that I used basswood products from Northeastern Scale Lumber , window and door castings from Tichy Train Group, shingles from Rail Scale Models, and standing-seam roofing from Builders In Scale because they all had the specific items I needed for this particular model; I have not received any sort of consideration for these choices, or for mentioning them in these pages.

Okay, down to brass tacks:

There comes a time when you will find that there are no kits for the structure you wish to model.  For me, that time was when I wanted to model the house I grew up in - an unique structure built in what is called the "Annapolis vernacular Federal style" in 1913.  Through a fortuitous set of circumstances, I happen to have one of the original blueprints of the house.  I went to a website called Scale Model Plans and they were open to creating a new plan of the house since it was, in their words, "historically significant and would compliment a wide variety of layouts".  The result of this effort is Plan 1335, Aunt Estelle's House.  (Hat's off to Tom Carson of SMP.)

Since the house was built in 1913 and is still standing, this model will look right at home on any layout from the early 20th century to today.

Okay, let's start at the very beginning: you need to decide on what structure you want to build.  You can get detailed printable plans from Scale Model Plans, for all manner of structures, and you can find scale-drawn plans in the model press (Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, etc.).  MR has a CD collection of back issues, most of which include plans for lineside structures from the bygone days of railroading, as well as for residential and commercial structures.  And, of course, you can design your own structure.

Next, decide on and gather the materials for your structure.   For the substrate (the base material) I tried 1/16" balsa - it was too thin and split too easily; then I tried 1/8" basswood - it was too thick and waaay too hard to cut.  Finally, I found the perfect wood - 3 /64" basswood: it's just the right thickness and stiffness to serve as the substrate for the walls and roof.  You will also need material for corner bracing: I used 1/4" x 3/8" and 1/8" x 3/8 balsa.

Next, you'll need the following tools and materials (this list doesn't include the building materials, which are listed on the nect page):

• cutting mat
• hobby knife with LOTS of sharp blades - I use an X-acto #2 handle with X-acto #2 blades and a #1 handle with #11 blades
• Razor saw and miniature miter box
• single-edged razor blades
• straightedges (I used a scale rule and a cork-backed steel ruler)
• Logan 2000 push-style mat cutter or X-Acto X7747 foam board cutter for cutting mitered edges (optional - I use the Logan 2000)
• White (Elmer's Glue-All) or yellow (Elmer's carpenter's glue) glue
• ACC ("super glue") for adhering doors and windows to walls
• plastic cement for securing glazing to windows and doors
• toothpicks for applying glue

All the wood was sourced from Northeastern Scale Lumber.   Here is the list of what you'll need:

Each part of the house is either numbered or lettered.  Cut out all the pattern pieces and set them aside.   Next, prepare your substrate (the balsa or basswood to which you will glue the cut-out pieces) by spraying it with an adhesive such as Elmer's Craft Bond.  Now position the cut-out pattern pieces on the prepared substrate, lining up the bottom of each piece with a factory edge of the substrate; this guarantees that the bottom edges of the walls will sit square on a surface and the structure won't "wobble".

VERY IMPORTANT: Do NOT align any of the pattern pieces in a corner of the substrate; this will make cutting a miter in the outside edge impossible.  I made the mistake of placing pieces 1 and 7 in corners, and I ended up wasting wood and having to redo both pieces so that the left and right edges were away from a square edge of the substrate so that I could miter both edges of each piece.

Wall pattern pieces printed on cardstock	Wall pattern pieces glued to substrate DO NOT glue pattern pieces in corners of the substrate (see text)

Weight the glued-down pieces with some heavy books or a toolbox or something to help prevent the substrate from warping. Allow two hours for the glue to dry.

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Created Sunday, May 30, 2021

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