Hudson Life Building: Adding Texture
This past week was one of those feared busy weeks. I didn’t get as much work done as I wanted to complete, but what I did get done made a world of difference with how the building looks. If you have noticed in the construction photos there is some O scale rolling stock. It is side project that I have been working on for a friend, just incase you were wondering.
Construction
Now we left off with the completion of the capitals last week. This week I moved in and attacked floors 4-9 with texture.
Pilasters
Now if you did not know what a pilaster is Wikipedia describes it as a “slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile.” This is where I began.
The cores to the capitals were intentionally cut long, so I would have a starting point for the pilasters to grow from. All of the pilasters are .060x.250″ strip styrene except for the corners, which are built up of various widths of .060″ strip. If you are wondering why I didn’t make the cores for the pilasters and capitals with one piece, here is my reason why. My Chopper isn’t big enough and I could not guarantee that I would cut all of the pieces exactly the same length. So doing the little pieces across the top would ensure that all of the capitals would be level. Then all I needed to do was fill in the gap.
Pilaster detail view.
Pilaster cores after placement.
Facade
Now that the cores for the pilasters are down, I needed to add the facade. At the base of the pilasters on the prototype there is more cut stone, a few layers of brick, another layer of cut stone and then it is brick the rest of the way up.
So I began by cutting .060″ pieces of .020x.250″ strip styrene for the sides of the pilasters on the first layer. Sense I had this dimension set on my Chopper, I went ahead and cut the small brick layer and the next layer of cut stone from .020x.080″ strip. A word of advice, if you have a length of styrene being cut and you need that same length cut in the future, go ahead and cut those pieces. Just put the pieces off to the side until you will need them. This will save time and improve your construction, cause you wont need to re figure out the size to cut and they will already be the perfect length.
After the side of the first layer is glued into position, I cut the layers for the front of the pilasters from the same size of stock. Once the first layer was done I moved onto the brick layer doing the same method of gluing on the sides, then adding the front. I then repeated the same step for the third layer.
The brick up the rest of the pilaster was done basically in the same way as above. I cut the long thin strips for the sides of the pilasters and glued them into position. Then I added the front pieces of brick sheet. On the two front corners I had to cut a wider piece and wrap it around the corner. I considered wrapping brick around each pilaster instead of cutting strips for the sides, but I felt it would be too difficult to get a good fold every time. Also for reference, plastic cement would not work on the brick sheeting so I had to use CA to attach it.
Used with permission by Flickr user pinehurst19475
Paneling
After my success with my wife’s Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter on the arched windows, I decided to put this thing to the ultimate test. I designed a pattern that was similar to the one on the prototypes paneling between the windows. I selectively simplified the design because I didn’t think the machine would handle it at this size. I ran a few test cuts to get the size exact and in doing so realized the using .010″ sheet would not work very well. With a larger part I could snap it out but a piece this small, it just did not work well. So I picked up the thinest sheet styrene I could find, .005″, basically plastic paper. I ran the stuff through and it worked well.
I had it cut out 70 pieces for me, that was five more than I actually needed, but from experience I always make a few extra parts. I still had to do a little to get the waste out of the parts but nothing major. I then slapped down some cement in the openings and dropped in the pieces.
Bottom half of the building
Brick and paneling detail.
Brick and Paneling detail.
Conclusion
Like I said before, I wish I got more work done this past week, but what I did get done made a big difference. Next I will move onto the tenth floor area, I will start building it up so I can add the rest of the arch detail and move into the cornice. So next week we shall see how far I get on that.
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