A Cosy Office

Over the last week or so the workbench has been host to the Port Wynnstay office building for the O9 pizza layout. This is a simple resin kit that goes together easily although I did have to flatten the sides and ends before assembly as they had warped in storage. This was achieved by submerging them in a Pyrex dish of boiling water and then removing them with tongs and laying on a glass worktop protector weighted down with weights from old OO gauge Lima diesels. 

I assembled the walls and floor of the kit using a combination of superglue and epoxy resin (but not at the same time) - the superglue to hold parts quickly as there were still some slight curves in the parts and the epoxy to strengthen from the inside and to fix the final wall in place.

For the roof I built an inner roof from mounting card and fixed the kit parts to this, making a removeable unit to allow access to the interior. As can be guessed from the angle between the two parts, the main section of the building is not yet fixed to the foundations in order to make painting a little easier when the time comes.

The chimney in the roof is a length of copper tube let into a hole drilled in the roof. I have filled around this but when painted I will add some flashing from Creme Egg wrapper. The chimney gives a clue to what might be inside and anyone peering through the windows will hopefully not be (too) disappointed by what is within... 

The version of this building on 'Shifting Sands' has an interior with a desk and modern chairs, this version is a little more old fashioned. The desk is a Highland Castings example, however it had drawers at either side so I shortened the top and made a new side from styrene. The chair is from a 7mm scale coach seat moulding, with the base and headrest cut away and narrowed. Legs nearly troubled me but in the end the legs from the card table in the Prieser Luftwaffe ground crew set were used, slightly shortened and with some styrene and wire additions. 

Finally the stove again raids the ground crew set and started life as a radio or speaker. I have made it deeper with 80 thou styrene and sat it on a scratchbuilt base. The light grey legs are snippets of Dapol railbus step mouldings. Some Evergreen tube completes the illusion, you'll not be able to see it too closely once complete but at least it is there, and I'm left wondering where I should have drawn the line!

Colin