Chama Sand House

Another model by Yogi Wallace

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Building the Sand House.

The sand house at Chama Colorado, was my inspiration for this model. Changes in proportion were made so that the model would not take up a lot of room on the layout but still keep the look of the prototype.

The building is 10-3/4"L---5-3/4"W---6-3/4"H. The construction of the shell is 3/16" foam board, covered with 1/16"--X--3/4" wood strips. The furring strip's covering the cracks between the boards are heavy paper, and were put on with "super Glue".

For the construction of the shell for the building see "Using Foam Board for Building Construction."

The Sand Crib

The Sand Crib is 9-1/2"L--6"W--3"H. The side post are 3-1/2" long. The sides are made of 3/8" X 1/2" X 12", and have a groove around them every 3" to simulate rail road ties. The end of the crib is cut from the same 3/8" X 1/2" stock. The floor of the sand crib is 1/4" Plywood 5" X 10", with a 1/2" more or less, sliding under the end of the sand house.
The "sand pile" is made from a styro-foam block I had lying around, cut to the shape of a sand pile, and glued to the crib floor, after finishing and painting the crib.

I dry fit all of the pieces together before nailing and gluing. After I put the crib together, cracks in the post and wood graining are added, to make the wood look old and decaying. I use a Dremel Moto Tool to carve these details into the wood. Then I use a Burns-A-Matic torch to burn away the "fuzz" left by the Dremel tool, when carving.

Caution

With dry wood there is always the chance of a spark smoldering down in the wood that you don't see, and could start a fire if left unattended.

After burning the fuzz off, I leave the ash on and paint right over it, it acts like a filler in the wood and gives a nice finish. For a aged wood type finish. Remove the ash and apply one of the chemical aging agents .

One aging agent I've seen advertised is "Age-it EASY", available from Micro-Mark or other sources.

The Tower and Sand Hopper

The tower and hopper are 13-1/2" high, 2-3/4" wide, and 4-1/2" deep. The tower's four legs are 1/2" square stock 11" long. With cross bracing side's and back. A small platform tops off the tower.

The hopper was made from a piece of 2" X 2" wood, that was turned down to shape, on a small Dremel wood lathe. The small valve at the base of the tower was turned on the Dremel lathe also.
The piping is 1/8" aluminum brazing rod. I use the brazing rod for piping on a lot of the models I make,as it is easy to bend and cut, and it is available in different size's.

The hose's are hollow filler cord used to fill the spaces between conductor's in electrical cable. A piece of steel wire was pushed into the end of the hose for a nozzle.
The valve on the hose nozzle was made by pushing a "T" pin through the hose and cutting off one side of the "T" pin to make a handle and cut the pointed end flush with the hose. Put a spot of super glue to keep it in place.

The ladder is made from 1/4" hardware cloth, the stuff they use for the floor of rabbit pens. By cutting out every other wire it make's the ladder rung's 1/2" apart.> I normally us 1/2" hardware cloth for ladder's, but the tower legs are to narrow for the 1/2" ladder's.

There are a lot of thing's you can use for hose and piping. It doesn't matter where you work, you will find the trash bin a source for all kind of building materials.

A few words of caution about using the Dremel type tools.

Make sure you wear eye protection. No loose clothing. A work apron is a must in every work shop. It will give some protection if your tool gets out of control. Make sure your work piece is secure, if you must hold the piece in your hand to work on it, use extra care. Consider wearing gloves.

For those new user's of Dremel type tools.

The following things have happened to me, the tool bit catching in the work piece, and jumping out of the work cutting a finger. Clothing caught in the tool bit, and winding half of my shirt in the bit before I could turn off the tool (No apron on). (I have done the same dumb trick with a electric drill.) This shows even when you use tools all the time, you still have to be careful, because you can get careless. If your tired, and trying to hurry and get things done. Then

"It's time to Quit."

If you have comments or suggestion's, E-mail me.YOGI

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