Stoumont Sanitarium - 3
So I finish off the other two porches with only minor issues - I decide that the posts re twice as thick as they should be - but, oh well, it makes the build easier. None of them came out perfectly, but once I'm done coating the sides, etc. you'll never notice the mistakes. (If you do I'll eliminate you and bury you in my back yard garden.) Anyway, having no plan I stare at the completed building (above) and decide to do the part smack dab in the middle. So I meassure across the width to remind myself the five inches I came up with from my origional guestimate. Then I go back to my reference picture and copy it to my clip board on my computer, then I paste it into MS PowerPoint ( yeah Microsoft!). There I make five 1-inch square squares and stack them side by side. I then crop, and then resize the part of the picture I need until it is five inches across on my slide. I print this out.
In essence I've made a template. So I trim down the template, and hollow out the windows which is the feature I'm really after.
I then lay the template on the face of my building ( notice the peak of my roof is higher than that of the template, maybe next time I'll *start* with the template.... no matter - see aforementioned 'bury you in garden' comment) and trace the windows onto my foam board (note I moved the template slightly so the trace lines stand out. I 'X' out the windows because it makes me feel special - it also reminds me which part I'll cutting out, but enough about my special needs).
I then CAREFULLY use a FRESH exacto blade to plunge through the foam board. A SHARP blade makes this easy as cake ( can also turn your hand *into* cake... ) and take your time. Below you only see the level 1 of the building. Notice how I make sure my window cuts are between the floor layers of my foam board. By *pure chance* my template lined up *perfectly* with my second and third floor layers - I don't know what I did to deserve this luck, but I shall take it. The edges of the cuts are rough, and I will clean these up later when I 'side' my building ( yes, I still have no idea with what or how I am going to do that - but I'll make it look neat when I 'm done...).
The test. Note, I checked this out BEFORE making the actual cut - note the one long line across the second floor level to make sure I was not cutting into the side of the second floor - again - by pure magic my template fit perfectly. I stick a fellow into the shot for scale and perspective - I think it's looking good! Railing will go in here tomorrow.
I put the third level on and - wait a minute! It doesn't line up perfectly! WHat the heck? Ohhhhh... that's the side of the beveled roof - that is going to get cut out anyway - so I'm still good! I double check, and indeed the third floor lines up perfectly with bottom edge of the window - works for me!
It's starting to shape up - next comes railings and I start figuring out how to handle the windows etc. tomorrow.
