As so often happens with my modelling, I was going along on a project and suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to do something different. I realised that Queensbridge was never going to be finished if I didn't actually work on it. So I went and had a look to see if I could find a suitable project. I decided to start on the fiddleyard end with one of the two buildings. In the back corner will be a pub. I have some ideas, but this is the only structure I don't yet have a prototype for. So the obvious solution was to start work on the other building at that end. This is a small brick warehouse based on a building in Limehouse. Last summer I started work on one of the other buildings using a plywood core with Slaters brick sheet attached to it. This may work for some people, but I didn't find it successful. Windows are always where I seem to have trouble. So for this new building I decided on an all-styrene approach. Previously I have had difficulties fitting etched windows to brick sheet. The problem is always the arch. I love the look of arched brick windows, but they're problematic to make. I've finally settled on a solution that will work, make the windows to fit out of styrene strip. It's not done, but so far it's working.
So to actually build the structure, I started with a rectangle of brick sheet cut to the correct size. When I photographed the building I used the measure app on my iPhone to estimate the height of the building. From that I made the width to fit the space and the proportions looked good. I marked out the approximate locations of the openings on the sheet, then set about making arches. I figured it would be easier to make the openings fit the arches than the other way around. I took a strip of brick sheet, two full bricks wide, and cut two thirds of the way through between each brick. This made the strip curve and allowed me to further curve it to fit the desired shape. I looked around for a small round object to use as a guide, so they would all be consistent, and settled on the cap for my bottle of flux. I cut the arches to 16 bricks long, curved them, and glued them to 0.010" sheet. Once cured I cut out the arches and trimmed the backing sheet. I left extra material above the arch for attachment, but the other three sides match the arch.
Using the arches to guide the width and a photo to guide the height, I cut out 11 windows and 1 doorway. I also cut out a section in the middle for the three freight doors. There were inevitably gaps around the arches, and these have been filled in with putty. I then used 0.030" strip to block around the window openings, and then attached a sheet of 0.040" styrene to the back of the wall. Once the windows had been opened out again, the wall was mostly done. The two side walls are of similar construction, brick sheet on plain styrene. The windows are the next step, and that will be a separate story.