Large Scale Windows and Doors
Large Scale Windows and Doors
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This page deals with scratch building those details that no building is complete without - windows and doors. Double Hung Windows - a detailled construction article by Saskatoon Railroad Modeller Jim Banner. Electronic publication has allowed this article to go into much greater detail than would be possible in print. It is hoped that this greater detail will encourage neophytes and experienced modellers alike to try a hand at scratch building their own windows. In the smaller scales, my favourite source of cheap windows for scratch building is cheap kits. You find a kit with the right kind of windows and chuck the rest of the parts into the junk box. In large scale, there are no cheap kits. So in desperation, and with one hand firmly on my wallet, I developed a method of making my own windows. The windows I like to build are called double hung windows. Click here for photo. These windows were used for many years in all kinds of quality construction, from houses to apartment buildings to stations to office buildings. I am not sure when they were first used but they probably predated railroads. Double hung windows died out in the 50's as cheaper, more weather tight windows came into use. They are called double hung because each has an upper section and a lower section which are hung or mounted separately. In their least expensive form, the top sections are fixed in place and the bottom sections slide up and down. You can prop open such a window to let air blow in, provided there is a breeze and provided there is another open window to let the air blow out. In their best form, both upper and lower sections slide up and down and are counter balanced by weights hidden inside the window jambs. With this arrangement, you can open the top section down and the bottom section up to set up a chimney effect - hot air from near the ceiling escapes out the top opening and in doing so sucks cool air in through the bottom opening. This marvellous cooling effect that works on even the calmest of days seems to have been forgotten by modern architects who seem to think cool air comes only out of ductwork.
And I need a breeze - but a breeze there is not When it's cooled outside - but it won't come in I wish I had "double hungs" agin. Now let's get down to building windows. I will go through it step by step, with a diagram for each step. When you look at my diagrams, your first thought may well be "Jim, my boy, you really do need to learn to draw". That is as may be, but what I have tried to show here is that some things are critical to your success and some are not. Where you see corners that do not match in my diagrams it is because they are corners that do not have to match. But let us continue...  Figure 1 Figure 2Now there are only four pieces to add in this step so it should not be too hard to do. Cut the four pieces out of .030" flat styrene sheet. The first three pieces can be about 1/4" wide. The top piece is the only one with a critical length. It should be 1/8" less than the width of the window opening and wide enough to let you solvent weld it in place. Install it centered at the top, with 1/16" hanging down over the opening. If you have trouble estimating 1/16" then you can draw a line on the outside of the styrene using a ruler and pencil or a pair of compasses or even scratch a line using dividers or a calliper. Just mark the line 1/16" from the edge of the piece, then align your line with the edge of the window opening. Hold the piece in place, apply plastic cement to weld it and after a few seconds, let go. Voila, a piece that overhangs exactly 1/16". Does this sound like a lot of work just to put in one piece? It is when you have to read all the words, but after you have done it once, it becomes much easier and a whole lot quicker. Please bear with me. The second piece to be installed is the bottom piece of the top window frame. It is critical in width and should be 3/32" wide by long enough to overhang the window opening at each end. Install this piece about 1/3 of the way down. The best way is to measure down each side of the window opening with a ruler and make pencil marks - that way all your windows will match. Solvent weld the bottom piece in place at your marks. The third and fourth pieces are now easy to install. Butt them tightly against the bottom and top pieces - the end against the one and the side against the other. Hold in place and solvent weld. Hint - look at the wall from the other side and make sure the edges of these pieces are parallel to the edges of the window opening, in other words, check that the overlap on each piece is even from top to bottom. . Being parallel and being butted up tight are more important than the actual amounts of overlap.  Figure 3 Figure 4 Cut the spacers about 1/4" wide out of .060" flat sheet styrene. The length of the bottom spacer is critical - it should be exactly as long as the window opening is wide. Align its top edge with the bottom edge of the window opening and solvent weld in place. Align the side spacers with the sides of the window opening and solvent cement in place. Hint - if the window opening or the edges of the spacers are a little rough, file gently with a small file or emery board at this time.  Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7Toward the top of figure 8 we can see two mullions in the top window. The top window of double hung windows was often divided into multiple panes. Three was a common number. I cut mullions 1/16" wide out of .030" styrene and solvent weld them to the surface of the glazing. I often make four or five to get a couple that fit really well. Usually, I just space them by eye - if they are close enough to fool my eye today, hopefully they will be close enough to fool your eye tomorrow.  Figure 9In conclusion, I say congratulations. You have just made a window. It may well have taken a couple of hours or more (my first one did) but my guess is you will soon be able to knock one out in 15 minutes or even less. Saskatoon Railroad Modeller Scott Gibb has been known to do that, and I have come close, making 9 doll house windows in 1" scale in just over 3 hours using a similar design. Alternately you may have reached this point filled with frustration. In that case, may I point out that injection moulded Large Scale windows are available - Walthers lists them for $2 - $3 Can. or for about double that you can even get ones that slide. If scratch building windows really isn't for you, go ahead and use the store bought kind - I promise I'll never tell.
Round houses, factories, warehouses and other similar buildings often used less expensive styles of windows to let in light and perhaps for ventilation. Large panes of glass were and still are more expensive than smaller panes, both in original cost and in replacement costs. It was therefore attractive to use a lot of small panes rather than a few large ones where cost was the primary consideration. Typically, the panes would be l' to 2' square, sometimes larger, rarely smaller. In wooden buildings, they would typically be set in wooden frames while in brick buildings, the frames would typically be welded up out of steel. In both cases, a heavier outer frame would enclose the whole window while mullions would separate the individual panes. Often the widows would be set high in the walls to protect them from vandalism (and possibly to keep the workers from being distracted). Before electric light became common, large buildings often had clerestories on their roofs to admit more natural light and ventilation. Industrial windows may be modelled using narrow strips of plastic individually glued to the front of a sheet of clear plastic to make the frame and the mullions. This is tedious, and painting is a problem unless the strips are pre-painted which in turn increases the risk of spoiling the windows with errant glue (because it tends to dissolve the paint.) An easier way, and one that passes all but the closest inspection, is to use hardware cloth to simulate both the outer frame and the mullions. Hardware cloth is a square mesh of wires (each about .025" diameter) with the wires bonded (not twisted or woven) where they cross. Both 3/8" and 1/2" mesh electrowelded, galvanised hardware cloth are usually available at the Circle Drive Co-Op in Saskatoon. Hardware cloth painted black looks like welded metal ready for glass panes. Painted any colour, it can pass for wood. In small scales, it is often necessary to clean up the galvanising with a file when using hardware cloth, but in Large Scale, this is usually not required. Installing windows in hardware cloth is easy. A large sheet of clear plastic (styrene - good, acrylic - better , or Lexan - best) can be set behind the hardware cloth mesh and the two together set in your wall. If your window is more than a few inches in both directions, you may find the mesh tries to bag out from the plastic. In this case, drill some tiny holes in the plastic and solder some wires to the back of the mesh at corresponding locations (do this before painting). Only a few wires and holes are usually required. After painting, assemble the mesh to the plastic with the wires through their holes, then bend the wires over, keeping them out of sight behind the grid wires. If the windows are only a few inches wide in one dimension, the wires are not necessary and real glass becomes an option for glazing. This includes most Large Scale industrial windows - long but not very wide. Real glass can be installed with silicone seal which sticks like crazy to glass but not so well to plastic and wood (this is actually an asset if you ever have to change a piece.) Another way to model industrial windows is to simply scribe the mullions in place, using a scribing tool and filling the grooves with paint. Of course, this works only with plastic. Yet another way, so far unproved as far as this author knows, is to use glass edging tape of the sort used in Tiffany work. This can be used around the edges of glass to create the outer frame, and across the surface in the form of "false leads" to create the mullions. Soldered over and chemically blackened it should make good looking widows - watch this space for a report on the results.
There are two major things that set church windows apart from ordinary house windows - their Gothic pointed arch shape and their use of stained glass. The shape of church windows immediately identifies the building as a church - click for photo. Stained glass is less of an identifier because it is not always used, but in lighted Large Scale buildings, it is a delight to behold. After many years experimenting with paints and coloured plastics, the author discovered the one substance that looks like stained glass and resists fading like stained glass - namely, stained glass. The translucent colours are best - they reflect colours during the day as well as transmitting them at night. If you have the skills, you can make decorative windows using the Tiffany process, but keep the themes simple. Click for photo. Otherwise, simply install coloured glass in window sized pieces - dark yellows or golds seem particularly attractive. If you are nervous about cutting glass, talk nicely to your local stained glass dealer - she should be able to help you. Stained glass is available from Artistic Touch of Glass (3010 Arlington Ave. Saskatoon (306) 955-3600.)
Doors come in a variety of shapes and forms. Slab doors, used today, are flat and uninteresting, but dead easy to model. Doors made before World War II generally consisted of thin panels or panels with reduced edges set into rails (horizontal framing pieces) and stiles (vertical framing pieces). Fitting panels was tricky - too loose, they would rattle and let in the wind; too tight, they would crack when they dried and let in the wind. They were also a nuisance to paint, but somebody must have like them because the style has returned in the form of embossed metal-clad exterior doors and panel type cupboard doors in fancy kitchens. Panel doors are easy to make. They are easiest to make if you are willing to cheat a little. Real exterior doors are set flush with the inside of the wall of the building and open inward - the storm doors which we all have in our miserable climate open outward, but are rarely panel doors. Now here comes the cheating - if you set your model exterior door flush with the outside of your building, it is not quite right and it could not open inwards, but it looks good and is easy to make. To make cheater panel doors, simply lay out the door with a ruler and pencil right on the wall. Keep in mind that exterior doors are usually 6'-8" to 7'-0" tall by 2'-8' to 3'-0" wide in houses and often larger or in pairs in commercial buildings. Also keep in mind that as a rule of thumb, the tops of doors and the tops of windows line up, and that it is convenient to have the siding work out exactly if you are applying individual siding boards. Next lay out the pattern of rails and stiles. Keep in mind three things - that the outermost stiles are always full height, that rails always butt end-on into the side of stiles, and interior stiles always butt end-on into the sides of rails. Once you have laid out this framework, apply pieces of .030" styrene to your wall over your layout, always keeping in mind what butts into what. Make the upper and lower rails and the outer stiles oversize by the width of the trim you will add later. This allows you to glue the trim to the rails and stiles, giving you visually a perfect fit of door into frame. If your panels have raised centers, you can add them with pieces of .010" styrene with square cut edges or with .030" styrene if you are willing to bevel the edges. Generally, it is easier to build without raised centers in the panels. For the rivet counters in the crowd, it is possible to set doors in at the right distance. In 1:29 scale this is about 3/16". Simply cut the door opening about 1/16" larger all around. Then cut jambs from 3/16" wide strips of .060" styrene. Glue the jambs to all four sides of the door opening. Make up the door using a piece of .060" styrene the size of the hole you cut (i.e. 1/8" bigger than your finished door.) Add the rails and stiles as explained above, including the oversized outer rails and stiles. Then trim the outer rails and stiles flush with the edges of the door. Lastly, glue the door to the back of its frame. Of course the 3/16" set back is only for 1:29 scale - you can recalculate it for your scale based on a typical set back of 5" for a 2x6 framed wall. Lastly add the trim. Start with a door sill, which is much like the window sill seen above. If you made the cheater door, you will not have to cut the notches. Then add the vertical trim, making it the same width as any window trim you may have used. Finally add the top trim. For the cheater door, just add the trim over the extended outer stiles and top rails. For the inset door, set the trim to almost but not quite cover the edges of the jambs.
Shed doors as the term is used here are any doors that are made by nailing boards together. They might be found on sheds, out houses, barns, garages, and even factories, warehouses and the freight shed portions of stations. The boards were invariably vertical. Horizontal framing and diagonal bracing were usually on the inside of the door but on large doors might be on both the inside and the outside. If modelled in the closed position, shed doors can be made by simply using a scribing tool to delineate the boards. This is most easily done if the door is a separate piece. If the building was being built on the cheap, rough boards were likely used. This detail can be added to your shed door by sanding along the boards with 50 grit sandpaper. Another detail that can be added if the building is old and in disrepair is to vary the lengths of the boards and carve splits and notches into their ends as if the bottoms were rotting off. And do not forget the hinges. Hinges can be modelled using elongated triangles of .010" styrene with their tips rounded. Apply in pairs. For even more detail, press nail holes into the styrene with an ice pick or awl or for a larger door, add bolt heads by drilling tiny holes and forcing Atlas HO track nails into them. Modelling shed doors that are open or have exterior bracing is only a little more complicated. After scribing to make the vertical boards (on both sides of an open door if both sides are visible), add horizontal boards near the top and the bottom. Remember to put the top one below the end of the curve if you plan to round the top of the door. If you are using both inside and outside and outside framing, align the frame pieces one with the other as if you were going to bolt right through. Then add diagonal braces. Diagonal braces should always have their lower ends at the hinged edges of the doors. Wood works the best under compression and diagonal braces are no exception. Your shed doors might not keep out the wind, the rain, the mice and the bugs, and that might be a problem. For closed doors, you can easily solve this problem by using an oversized piece of styrene on the inside of your wall to completely cover the door opening. You can even use this piece for attaching your closed door. If any of it shows between the door and its frame, paint it black. For open doors, you can still solve the wind/rain/bug/mouse problem by adding an oversized piece of clear plastic covering the door opening from the inside. If the building interior is not detailed you might dull coat the plastic lightly to make it less obvious. If the interior is detailed, you might visit your local framing shop and buy a small piece of non-reflecting glass as used to frame pictures. It has a fine pebbly surface and is almost invisible with no reflections to give it away. You might try some of this across your open doorways, fixing it in place with some silicone seal. And if you do try this, you might be kind enough to e-mail us and let us know how it worked.
Commercial Endorsements Names and sometimes addresses and phone numbers of various commercial establishments and various products are mentioned in this and other articles by the Saskatoon Railroad Modellers group. These are not commercial endorsements. They are simply statements of fact about the products the authors have used and where they have obtained them, put here for your convenience.
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