Davetown Boardwalk


DaveInTheHat

DaveInTheHat

Active Member
A little background on how this idea came about....
Whenever I'm building a diorama or anything else for that matter, I keep a small box on my bench to put "stuff" in. Things like leftover pieces of wood, metal, plastic, painted paper, leftover parts or anything else that I think I might use later. Once and a while I use some. When I'm finished with the project the little box gets dumped into a bigger box that I keep on a shelf with the other junk that I've been hording.

Along with this stuff I have a box of leftover kit parts and HO scale junk. Some of it I've sorted through and picked out what I can use and have it stored in empty prescription bottles. (finally found a good use for them). Then I have this other box of "stuff". It's full of things that I've found over the years. Pieces "stuff" or odd things that I think I might be able to use for something. My wife has developed a keen eye for "stuff" that she thinks I could use and usually just puts it on my workbench. Some of it is really odd that I never would probably never use. But, for the most part she leaves me with some really good "stuff" and I have used a lot of it in my dioramas.

So, I was looking for some stuff that I could use for "junk" to put behind "Tuxedo Dave's Chainsaw Sharpening" and I started wondering what I'm going to do with all this really weird "stuff". If I threw it all out I probably wouldn't even miss it. Am I the only one that does this?

Then I was at work and I found a piece of MDF 3/4" thick, about 5 inches wide and 4 feet long in the scrap bin. The idea hit me. I'm going to build a boardwalk and use up a whole mess of this weird crap that I've been saving.
I figure just about anything goes on a boardwalk. Actually, the stranger the better. I'll be able to use up a lot of the odd pieces of wood that I've been saving too.

My plan is to build the boardwalk in two, 2 foot sections to make it easier to work with. Once the base is finished I can start adding stores. Since I'm only going to be building store fronts they should be fairly quick to build. I'll be able to make these one at a time to take a little break from bigger projects. I'm looking forward to getting started on something. The first store is going to be French Fries. I have a list with about 50 ideas on it.

Here's what I've built so far....

I glued down some foam with wood glue

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I chopped at it with a utility knife and some really course sandpaper from a floor sanding belt. I tried to carve some rocks out of the foam and gave it a coat of latex paint.

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The rocks I tried to carve didn't look like rocks so I used super glue and stuck on some real rocks and added a section of black top. This will be the beginning of the boardwalk.

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A coat of thinned out Elmer's Glue and some genuine sand from the Atlantic Ocean.

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It took a couple layers of sand to get it to look right. I ended up using the glue straight from the bottle and dumping on a lot of sand and letting it sit overnight.

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I got some pieces of lattice and cut up a whole bunch of wood. I did the best I could to keep the wood that I'm going to use for the decking the same thickness.

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A quick trip through a pan of ink and alcohol got the wood a decent color of gray.

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I got the pilings laid out on a scale 10 foot square grid.

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Now I can add bracing and get the beams in place for the decking. I think that is going to be the hardest part of the whole thing. Gluing down about 1500 pieces for the deck is going to get boring.
 
Dave - I'm really looking forward to this one. I'm sure you'll make it another one of your one of a kind masterpieces.
 
When I put my workbench together in my room I went to a lot of trouble to get it real as level as possible. If only for the reason to keep xacto knives from rolling off and sticking in my leg. I'm glad I did because there isn't anything to measure off of on this diorama base to get the beam straight. I started at the back left side and got that beam straight and level on the x axis. Then did the same thing to the middle beam and kept the y axis level as I worked my way to the other end. Same process for the front. This was really difficult to keep every thing lined up and in place because the pilings are crooked and not straight in the foam base. When I moved one spot it threw another one out of place. Took some time and slow un-clamping, gluing, and re-clamping.

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After I got the first beams in place I lined up a second beam on the opposite side of the pilings. The main reason I did this was to give more surface area to glue the decking to.

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The beams came out level but since the pilings are out of whack I clamped a piece of wood across the front beam to pull it into alignment.

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I cut cross pieces all the same length and glued them in to force the middle and back sections straight. That worked out ok. So now the hard part is done.

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I added beams under the long beams in the opposite direction to add a little more stability and strength to the whole structure. Then I put in cross braces just for visual appearance.

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After all the glue dried I used sanding block with 100 grit paper across the top to knock off any excess glue and smooth out any high spots.
Next is the decking. I haven't decided if I'm going to go with a 90 degree pattern, a 45 degree, or something else. I'll have to sleep on that.
 
marriedshades said:
The sand may be big for sand on a beach. but it works as a gravel beach like you got in the pacific northwest.
Click to expand...

That got me to thinking and it seems that there are defined sizes for sand, gravel, etc.

If the article is correct, "Sand" ranges from 1/16 mm to 2 mm, "Gravel" from 2 mm to 64 mm.

If we take the sand range and multiply by 87 we get ~5.5 mm to 174 mm.

So, yes, much of the sand may well fall in the "Gravel" range.

What colors are these gravel beaches?
 
Wonder what they use to make the extra fine grit on wet or dry paint sanding paper, can get that down to #2000. Wrong color unfortunately(unless you're modelling the black sand of the west coast beaches of New Zealand)
 
tootnkumin said:
Wonder what they use to make the extra fine grit on wet or dry paint sanding paper, can get that down to #2000. Wrong color unfortunately(unless you're modelling the black sand of the west coast beaches of New Zealand)
Click to expand...

Aluminum Oxide is one common material.
 
I decided to make the boards 90 degrees at the transition from the blacktop because it just didn't look right at 45 degrees. I'll have to do some work in this area to make it level. The rest of the boards are at 45 degrees. I was going to go with the "V" pattern, but I thought it might look way off center after I add the store fronts.

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I did about 2" of boards at a time. It seemed like it took a really long time to lay all the boards down.

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I used big toenail clippers that have a straight cut to trim the ends of the boards. The overall structure is super strong now. The boards are pretty flat too. I'm happy with the way it's turning out so far.

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I decided to add a railing along the edge of the boardwalk since it's kinda high. I drew out a template in Illustrator and printed it out. Then laid wax paper over it. I glued the top rail to the template with Elmer's glue. Then glued the posts. Once they were dry I trimmed any that were too long and glued on the bottom plate. Once that dried I touched all the connections with a drop of super glue. Then added the top and center rails.

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It isn't glued in place yet. I might give it a wash of white paint to make it stand out a little better.

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I'm speechless as to how good that looks! The real sand looks good I think, no need for "scale" sand. Can't wait to follow the progress and see the finished product!
 
I added more blacktop to build it up to the level of the boardwalk. I added sand to the mix this time. It gave it a bit of a rough texture. I like how it came out. The sand makes it much harder to sand after it dries.

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I found a picture of a No Parking stencil through a Google search. I sized it so the letters are 1/2" tall x 1 1/2" wide and printed it out. I drew straight lines with a pen to make it easier to line up. Then I covered it with a strip of heavy packing tape. The tape keeps the paper from ripping when I cut the really close parts where the letters are not connected and it keeps the paint from soaking into the paper.

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It took about 15 minutes to cut it out. I did it freehand, so it isn't perfect and it doesn't really matter. Letters painted on asphalt are pretty rough anyway.

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Taped it in place and used some foam packing material that I saved and dabbed a couple layers of paint down. The important part is to press hard enough to get the paint through and do it fast enough that it doesn't bleed under the stencil.

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I like to pull the stencil off right away because if there is any bleed the stencil will stick to the paint. It worked ok. There's a couple spots that I can clean up after it dries for a few days.

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I did a wash of "Vintage White" on the railings. After that dries I'll go over it with a wire brush and knock some of it off. I think it looks better with a touch of color on it. Without the contrast it blended into the boardwalk too much.

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I wanted to make access to the beach. Since the boardwalk is so high steps seemed like the way to go. I used and index card and made a little mock up.

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I wasn't sure what I was going to make the steps out of. I was thinking about using plastic for the stringers and wood for the steps. When I got the mail some credit card company was kind enough to send me this nice piece of coated card stock.

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I used my crafty pinking shears to cut the stringers and just cut some strips the right width for the tread. I glued the stingers to a piece of wax paper with school glue, chopped up the treads longer than I needed, then glued them in place.

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That worked.

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I built a little landing one step down from the boardwalk. I built this in place starting by installing the poles and then working from there.

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I put a base in for the bottom of the stairs. I had to build up the sand to make a little bit of a level walkway. The stairs got a quick coat of spray can primer and then a coat of Folk Art Barnwood.

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I put more pilings in for the handrail, then built them in place.

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The base is finished except for a little touch up on the paint and a few glue spots. I might add some seaweed or a little bit of tall grass later on.

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