Main Building at Banke's Bakelite Finished (1/35)

After a long construction period the contractor (me) has finally finished work on the main building at the 1:35 scale bakelite factory in Nystrup. Not because it's been difficult or boring, but because I work on several models simultanously.

The main building at Banke's Bakelite is now finished. My next task is to glue it solidly to the module and blend it into the surrounding ground work.

While waiting for decals for my Opel Blitz bus, I took the opportunity to work on the factory. The main parts of the model are laser cut from MDF and card board by a friend of mine. Interior and roof was cut from foam board in 4 and 6 mm. thickness. Some of the work has been the subject of an earlier blog post.

Previously I had fitted light to the ground floor rooms and I did the same to the single first floor room. I then painted the interior walls on the first floor light grey and made a removable floor. That allows me access to the ground floor lights if they should need any attention in the future.

Installing light above the first floor in the factory building.

Testing if everything works. The difference in light levels is caused by the temporary lack of a rear wall on the upper floor. I'm glad to see that there are no 'light leaks' in the building (not counting the missing rear wall, of course).

I built the roof from two sandwiched layers of foam board covered with self adhesive surgical tape. The tape is my preferred method of modelling tar paper. The tape is slightly 'furry' and when painted retains a nicely textured surface.

Foam board roof with wooden edging fitted to the building.

Surgical tape covering the roof. Pencil marks helped me to position the strips of tape with a minimum of regularity.

After having painted the building I cut a rear wall to enable the model to be closed up and hold the removable interior in place. The rear wall is only kept in place by its tight fit and is easily removed to allow the interior to slide out of the building. Wires from the lights are run under the module surface inside the building. The wires are arranged to allow the lights to be switched on and off in all three rooms independently.

A view across Nystrup Gravel's track towards Banke's Bakelite. Now work on getting the building fit into the surrounding ground work can begin

A full view of the factory module. Despite the work involved in the factory building it is only a back ground feature. Although with a module width of only 40 cm. the term 'back ground' is open to debate.

Building the model has taught me that buildings in 1:35 scale are quite large. I have only built a small segment of the prototype building and even then the model has tested my work area's size. Any future building just a little larger will have to built on the work bench in the shed, where I usually work on lawn mower, bikes and other 1:1 scale real world items.