Stubby47's Buildings Workbench

Stubby47

Western Thunderer
Back to the Nissen hut.

On the plus side, just hand rolling the large sheet of wriggly tin has worked, the sheet held its shape whilst the glue dried. I used the elastic bands just for extra pressure on the edges.

On the negative side, I forgot to include a window, so some remedial work will be necessary.

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Stubby47

Western Thunderer
The next project is the previously mentioned 7mm static caravan.

The sides have been laser cut for me, giving a van of scale 35' x 12'. I'll use 7mm corrugated iron horizontally as the cladding, with L angle strip for the corners. The window frames & door will be plasticard ( using my Silhouette cutter). The client wants fairly basic internal details, so a couple of walls and generic shapes for the furniture should do.

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Stubby47

Western Thunderer
Now with cladding.

By a quirk of good fortune, I glued the first piece of plastic on with the wrong side outwards - this actually gives a better, slimmer profile to the ribs, so it looks less like wriggly tin.

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Stubby47

Western Thunderer
More tin foil.

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Conclusions.
  • Add the plasticard in one sheet.
  • Add the tin foil in single strips, scale width, over the whole roof circumference. Use a soft pencil to push the foil into the corrugated grooves, one groove at a time..
  • Add single pieces of tin foil, scale width & length, along the roof apex. Repeat action with pencil.
  • From the underside, push out 'fixing bolts' at regular intervals, within the scale width of each 'sheet'.


Next up is painting - I'll probably use the Halford etch primer first, then a coat of matt green.
 

Stubby47

Western Thunderer
In fact, I'm actually going to re-do this completely. The finish to the foil is fine, but I'm not happy with the extra bumps underneath. Plus, I failed to measure the length correctly, meaning I have a half width tin sheet at one end - not very prototypical.

However, the points above, plus the knowledge that the plasticard will bend and stay bent means I can do away with the laminated card and just use plastic for the frame & shell, then add the foil, using thin pva, and it should look much better.


I might even add a window.
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Nice job Stu.
Question for them wot knows better than me: Did the tin sides really go down to ground level or was there a row of bricks at the base?

Surely taking it to ground level would have encouraged rot and rust? But they were of course quick and dirty temporary buildings so perhaps that didn't matter. That said I'm half convinced in some photos that the metal stops short but grass and other dross does tend to hide the base.

Oh, new word: Quonset.
 

Stubby47

Western Thunderer
I'll sit this on a small slab of concrete, so the tin is not on the bare earth. Plus as this will be right at the front edge of the layout, there will then be no room for grass.

The plans I found didn't mention what base to use, or whether bricks were used at the base of the walls. Most had wooden end walls as they were really designed as temporary structures, so maybe they were just built to rest on the ground.

Quonset is the US version.
 
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NHY 581

Western Thunderer
I think you are on safe ground( so to speak) regarding the concrete base. I have seen brick ends as well as wooden ends so either would be fine I am sure.


Rob
 

simond

Western Thunderer
A google image search suggests tin right down to the ground is prototypical.

I recall similar buildings in a mushroom farm beyond the bottom of the garden of my childhood house - these were, I believe, corrugated asbestos cement panels, which must surely have been moulded in their curved form. I don’t recall the material of the ends, except that they drove forklifts in and out, laden with large trays of horse-doings.

It was a good earner for a teenager when the 40-footer full of manure arrived. A few days shovelling...

Best
Simon
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
From my days around Reading and and Dorset. The rebuilt and originals were either on a flat concrete base or two or three brick courses.
Nissen also built houses of the similar shape but bigger there were still some up near Yeovil when I left the UK.

View attachment 91778

Ah, the Goldcroft pair (I was born and raised in Yeovil; they're old friends). There's still a few more extant, mostly in the region of Yeovil - West Camel visible from the '303, some in Barwick and another pair at Ryme Intrinseca, Dorset (but a few in Kent, amazingly). Interesting blog on the subject here:

Nissen-Petren Houses: ‘Not obnoxious and the people would be delighted to pay an economic rent’

Adam
 
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