It may not look like much but in my eye’s I knocked down a large portion of a very big wall.

Construction

This past week was a good week for construction on the Hudson Life Building.  I finished off a few little tasks on the cornice, added some strip styrene in a few unfinished areas and framed in a large portion of the windows.

Finishing the Cornice

In last weeks update, I had the cornice up to a 90% completion status.  The little bit of cornice on the back was not done and I needed to cap it all off.

To begin with I needed to add the .040″ quarter round and other strips bellow the dentil, the dentil was in-place last week.  I also had to add the same quarter round to the top as well.  After I had the cornice on the back done, I was now in the position to finish it off.

Across the top of the cornice I added a .010x .080″ strip cut into “tiles”.  I applied it to the top of the quarter round, having it over hang by .010″, I just eyeballed it the whole way around.  I left the corners for last and because they would always be visible, I wanted them to be perfect.  I just cut tiles with 45° angles to add in the corners, it took a few tries to get them all perfect.

The cap that I had just added also over hang on the back a little bit as well.  This made it easy to box in the cornice.  I added two strips of .020x .250″ styrene to build up the box.  I placed the first strip bellow the cap and then added the next strip bellow the first, thus creating a subtle “stepped” appearance.

Lastly I added a strip of .020x .156″ along the inside of the structure, this serves two purposes.  First I completed the box of the cornice and second the roof will but right in to it when I get to that point.

I still need to add a cap along the back wall, where there is no cornice but I still have a little brick structure to build on the roof that houses the elevator workings and roof access.  The cap butts into this structure so it will wait a bit.

Another Small Task

Originally I was going to begin work on the storefronts on the first floor of the building, I believe I mentioned this last week.  The tiles that I had done at the very beginning of the building on the first floor were not fully done.  The very bottom tier of block had not been added because I was debating about making it thicker that the rest.  I decided against doing that long ago, but was busy moving up the building and so it was put off.  There are a few little things like that on the building that I will touch up when I need to.  So I went ahead and added the strips of .010x .080″  to the bottom and finished it.

Then after consulting with Frank and allot of debating, I knew I had to do much more planning before I could do the store fronts.  Most of the decisions have been made and I should be starting on this task next.

Windows

I know some of you know that I am a little worried about the windows, this is not the part that worries me, it will come later.

The windows on floors four to eight are all identical to each other, the other floors each have their own unique windows.  What I basically did was a simpler version of what was done on the Dominion Buildings windows.  I had to build a frame work for the windows and on the Dominion, this had to be done on every window to some degree.  On this building some need a frame and others do not.  The five floors that I did are the most involved and so I knocked them out first.  The top floors wont require anything further as a frame goes, they still need a few small things done, but no frame.  The bottom floors have a frame but a smaller and simpler version of what I have done.

After framing in 140+ windows on the Dominion, with most requiring twelve individual parts, you could say that I have become rather efficient at making windows.  There is actually about the same amount of windows on this building as well.

The windows that I framed in each required six parts, it was eight until I realized how to the same thing with less.  In total, about 400 parts were cut for the windows, and ensuring that every opening was exact when I built the buildings frame work made doing windows a cakewalk.

I began by adding strips of .020″ square styrene around the insides of each opening.  I first did all of one side than flipped the building and did the other.  Doing it this way, although monotonous keep you efficient and lowers the risk of damaging the building from moving it around.  I would still break it up a bit for my sanity by focusing on each face of the building.  I did everything on the front, then did each side from start to finish.

After the sides were done I had to build mullions to divide the windows in half.  I built these by laminating a piece of .020x .040″ on to a .020x .080″ strip.  The .080″ strip is cut .040″ shorter than the other strip, when they are laminated the .040″ piece overhangs by .020″ on each end.  This overhang then sits on to the .020″ frame that was previously installed.  I had made up a jig from some scrap styrene that would make it easy to center each mullion that I added in.

This was a fairly easy step, but it is a very time consuming one as well, it took about nine hours to do all of the windows on these floors.  The rest of the windows will come later.

Conclusion

The building is moving along nicely, I plan to begin work on the store fronts and windows on the bottom three floors next.  After that and a few minor tasks, I should be ready to paint, I cant wait.

Here are a few photos of the Hudson with its older brother, the Dominion Trust Building.