Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sectional Terrain: First Test Pieces

 OK, enough talking and planning - lets get started with this sectional terrain project.  There are 2.5 months to go until Historicon and I've got 60 sq ft of terrain to finish up.  Doable?  I hope so!

First up is a test build of a single 2'x4' section.  The 1x2 is cut to estimated dimensions and test fit on the 1/4 inch wide 2'x4' plywood panel.
 Rather than screw the 1x2 frame in place, I will be glueing it down and then reinforcing the corners with blocks.  Glue provides a more secure bond (when applied properly) and doesn't result in splitting the wood.
 While the glue on the 2x4 section dries, I'll fixe the foam in place on one of the 2x2 sections I built last summer.
 Ever impatient, I started to fit the foam in place on the big section.

 Here's a shot of the foam in place and you may spot my first mistake - I used a 1x2 as the center cross beam which id 3/4 inches high and my fan is 1 inch thick which means I'll have some height issues so I need to shave a piece of scrap fan down by 1/4 inch to fit.  Going forward I'll use some 1/z2 wide scrap so I don't have to worry about these issues in the future.
 A little joint compound is applied alone the edges to ensure a smooth fit.  You can also see where I've nocked on a spot for a plowed field on this board.

The 2x4 section has also had it's gaps filled.

It's good to start making progress on this project.

2 comments:

Peter Douglas said...

Miles
No rest for the wicked is there! An all nighter quiche-a-thon, then kicked off to the basement, and now up and at 'me as carpentry mam. How many shots of espresso were needed to keep your Energizer Bunny going? Did you get to sleep?
Are you looking forward to going to work as a break from your weekend?
Cheers, PD

jmilesr said...

It has been a busy weekend and ways too much coffee was consumed! It was good to get back to building terrain after a four month hiatus during Curt's "Challenge"