Homemade wood Mill House kit

[PNKFLOYD]

Just before my wife had her first back surgery about 9 weeks ago, the construction lead for our On30 layout decided we needed three more houses for the lumber mill area. After a short discussion, he drew up the plans and ordered the wood sheets, windows and dimensional lumber to build the three houses for less than the price of one O scale commercial kit.
Here are the pictures I took as I built the kit in my "spare" time.
The plans were highly detailed and precise as you can see from the plans. All three houses will be similar, but with different looks.

We drew the outlines of the building sides on the back of the wood siding and cut out the parts with a hobby knife.

Next, I sanded all the cut edges to get smooth mating surfaces.

And sanded the window and door openings to insure a proper fit.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Of course, I caused the wood to warp when using a light green wash on the siding. I also used an alcohol/ink wash on the inside to help unwarp the wood as it dried under weights.

The excess material from the ends was to be used for the porch roof sides. The window and door cutouts will be used for another related project.

The 3" x 3" posts were painted white as trim where the sides and ends had a flat surface to glue the pieces together with wood glue. Some pieces of wood strip were glued to the building base for added support.

A piece of heavy poster board was measured and cut into the roof, front and rear porch roofs and porch floors. Wood porch supports were trimmed to fit each porch roof.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Continuing with my construction pics.
I decided on white as the trim color and painted the windows, installed the window glass and curtains. I found the interior of some old business envelopes to have a pleasing figured pattern. The curtain shape was cut and glued inside the windows.

Near the office I worked in, an old rental house had 4 layers of green roll roofing that never laid completely flat. I painted a piece of butcher paper green and cut 3 foot x 15 foot scale strips of roofing. Glue spread to the paper edges if you want the roofing to lay flat. Weight the roofing down while drying to prevent warping.

I wanted the roofing seams to show on the house roof and both porch roofs.

The construction boss drew out a template to use for door construction. The "cross and bible" design was popular in the early 1900's and fits the time period of our mill houses.

After assembly and paint, the doors are cut out with an overhang to glue inside the door opening.

 

[Patrick]

Nice work.

As a question, On3 is O Scale on HO track (Narrow gauge)? Are the buildings just regular O scale or is there a mod there as well?

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Additional bracing was added to support the porch floors and cut pieces of dowel are glued in place as foundation pillars.

The porch roofs were glued in place. A couple pop cycle sticks provided material for a porch bench. The porch pillars will be glued in place.
Yes, the porch roof lap siding is upside down. I never claimed to be a professional carpenter.

Porch posts were installed to support the porch roof and a little weathering was sealed by a clear coat. The small back porch roof did not require post supports.

Smoke stacks were made from pieces of plastic sprues and painted.

A few final touches of light weathering finishes this house.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Nice work.

As a question, On3 is O Scale on HO track (Narrow gauge)? Are the buildings just regular O scale or is there a mod there as well?

On30 (30 inch spacing) uses HO scale track spacing. Some people say the ties of normal HO track are too small for O scale buildings and accessories. I use code 100 HO track for my projects.
I have seen On30 track for sale, but I don't know the manufacturer. This house is built to O scale dimensions.

 

[Patrick]

Thanks for the info. The building looks fantastic in the coffee shop.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Very nicely done.

 

[santafewillie]

Looking great Mikey. O scale sure allows more creativity.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Thanks for all the kind words!

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Rather than giving you several pictures of all the labor pains, here are the outhouse and tool shed I put together to go with the mill house.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

I decided that the mill house needed a dog house to go with the tool shed and outhouse.

Wow, I did not realize how close the camera was. It shows all the flaws in the model.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

I built a couple more outhouses and another tool shed in O scale.