4Grounds Stoic Arms day 3

Welcome to day 3.

So on to the second floor. It starts off with another box build that goes together nicely, but does need holding while the glue dries.
This photo shows you what not to do! Do not use a band in the middle, even with the bands on each end it pulls it out of shape. Also the piece between the doors has no connectors so it moved and glued in the wrong place! I just about realized what was going on before the glue dried and had to pull it apart, re-glue it and put it back together. This time with no band in the middle.

I said in my last blog that I had an idea for the doors. Well the plan was to glue the walls together and then put the door frame in and then glue it to the base with the door in place. The above pictures show what I mean the below picture show the result. 

 It worked really well but does need a bit of forward planning which throws the instructions out a little, but as long as you don't get confused as to which bits you have done you should be ok.  

 

It was while I was putting in the rest of walls I came across the first problem, which with a build of this size and complexity is pretty good. The connector on the bottom left of this piece is in the wrong place, or the hole it goes in on the floor is (depends on your perspective I guess). It's not a real problem as it glues to the back of another piece that did fit properly, all I done as you can see in the next picture is cut the connector off.

 

I glued it in place and held it there with the ever reliable pegs. The stairs are the same as the others and go together nicely. The supports in the second picture are in 2 parts that glue back to back and then to the wall. Its a nice touch as they are both a different design and cover the the big joins at the end of the wall.

  The frame work goes on as normal and needs to be held in place while it dries. All fitting nicely so far...

 

The second part of the second floor is built separately and then glued onto the first bit, this had me a bit worried, as the fit would have to be perfect if it was going to fit along the whole piece. After more frame work came the push, glue, insert and repeat retinue I have come to know well.

 

And some more , and then some more...

 This is the whole second floor together, I glued the 2 parts together but couldn't use my door trick here as the 2 parts were built separate, but don't worry I have another idea.

 

As you can see I was worrying over nothing the fit was perfect, the support frame on the first floor was exactly where it was meant to be. You have to take the roof off the first floor balcony to get it to fit, but that's why the instructions tell you not to glue that part.

 

The roof and the bay windows go in as before and work well. I didn't follow the instructions here to the letter but glued the left roof on, glued the supports to the window then glued that structure in place and then added the last bit of the wall. I done the same in the second picture but started from the right. Still all fitting nicely.

 

The balcony goes on in 4 parts and fits like the rest of the kit so far, well enough not to need holding or support while the glue is drying.

 

The interior of the second part is the same as before. I will say that as they are cut from thinner wood they have a tendency to fall out as you try and take one out. Again this is not a major issue as its fairly obvious where they go. In went the windows and the remaining doors (of which none broke this time, I'll show you what I done in the next photo). The windows did have the same problem of the bottom corner getting damaged, the only thing I can suggest at this point is to be as careful as possible... The roof that sits on top to second building part of this floor is a real easy build, roof panels go into 2 triangle pieces and a pieces goes on the end that you can see. The bar that goes across the top is another story. The roof that sits above the ground floor kitchen has the wrong number in the instructions, but its the right picture? I went with the number and not the picture, which was the wrong thing to do! I had to remove the bar from this part which was hard, but I guess that will teach me not glue it so well. It did crack a little in the middle, which I was not happy about, but  I cleaned it up and used tight bands to hold it in place while the glue dried on the right roof! Its not noticeable unless you look really closely.

To get the doors to fit when I couldn't glue the frame first I simply bevelled off the corners opposite the whole. This gave it enough room for it fit tightly but not snap. This is much quicker and does not require the forward planning of my other idea, so will do it this way from now on.






That's day 3 and almost there. The frames are looking empty and still excited to see this thing finished. Hopefully only one more day...

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again for day 4 real soon.

4Grounds Stoic Arms day 2

So day 2, I finished off the ground floor except the windows, so that was the roof and the stairs. Just like everything else they went together really well.

On to the second floor, pretty much more of the same and so far all the parts are coming out nicely and the fit is tight enough that its hold together while the glue dries. 

 

The pegs came in really handy and the walls fit well enough that the pegs didn't move anything out of place.

 

Pegs, pegs and more pegs. The stairs are put together the same as the ground floor and don't need support while the glue dries.

 

I still had the same problems as before with door frames, some are such a tight fit that they snap when you push them in. I fixed this by gluing the small broken piece in the corner and then glue the other bit and push it in. Not perfect but the door opens and closes, which is a bonus.

 

One set of the double doors went in fine, the second set snapped, I fixed this the same way as the other door.

 

The frame work on the first floor does not have the base to glue onto like the ground floor so you have eye ball it. Its not much of a problem as the parts match identically, I did have to take one side off as when I pegged it, it moved. It came apart easy and went back together again with no problems, just had to keep checking as it was drying that it had not slipped again. Also as the first picture shows the frame works hangs over the edge, so best to let it dry with a box underneath so it doesn't push up.

 

More frames, they go together nicely and had to use the bands it hold it tight at the bottom. The second picture shows how much glue I used and where I put, this is about all it needs and I certainly wouldn't cover the whole thing.

 

The coloured sections in the frame are the same as the ground floor, the first picture shows the sheet they come on. So a lot more of the same push, glue, insert and repeat, a lot more!

 

Remember I said the door frames were thin? as you can see they snap, it snapped as I was putting in the part that holds the door, so had to clean it up and I used the bit that holds the door to glue it back together. I'm not really happy with the way they keep breaking, so  I have a plan for the next door that has to go in but will take some pictures as I do it and explain my plan them.

 

The roof goes on in parts and simply pushes on. One was a bit fiddly as it had to be put in the back and pushed into place, but the photos about this bit were very clear and it worked. Even the inside of the roof is detailed, the panels are the same as coloured sections in between the frames, just a bit thicker, simply push them out, bit of glue and peg in place.

The windows are really well detailed and thin! they are attached to the sheet in the bottom corner and no matter how gently I took them out about 25% were damaged. Its not really a big problem as when you put them in the holes you can't really see the damage. These are the only parts so far that I used the knife to remove from the frame. I pushed them out as far as I dared and then used the knife to cut the corner out. Out of the whole kit this is the only part I'm bit disappointed with.

So after 2 days the ground and first floor are done. Still really impressed with it, and all the doors still open and close. 

Not sure when I'll get chance to do more as I have to work, boo! But someone has to do it I guess.

So day 3 to follow...

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon. 

4Ground Stoic Arms day 1...

So as I mentioned earlier I got the Stoic Arms from 4Ground, when the package arrived 2 thoughts instantly ran through my head: 1, this is gonna be awesome, and 2, this is gonna be royal pain.

 

As Fred is demonstrating the box it comes in is massive! It's also really heavy, I must admit I was a bit put off when I ordered it that it was excluded from the spend £40 get free shipping offer, but now I can see why.

So I got off to a really good start when I couldn't open the box! For some reason I got it into my head that it was a flip open box. I cut along the sides and the front and then spent a lot longer than I should have trying to flip it open. So after sometime proving people right that I shouldn't be allowed out on my own I cut along the back, and what do you know, it opened!

So what's in the box?

14 pages!!! of coloured A4 instructions, no writing just lots and lots of pictures. It would be helpful here and there to have a bit of written explanation, but if can follow them I'm sure all of you who have no issues with opening boxes will be fine. The pegs and elastics bands are a really nice addition, as we don't have them old style pegs and I can't find the big box of bands we have somewhere... 

You also get 2 big bags full of laser cut wood.     

 

So PVA at the ready I opened the 1st bag. It really is a simple case of look at the instructions and pop out the parts, which come out really easily and cleanly, a quick dry fit and start gluing. As I mentioned in my last blog PVA takes a while to dry, which can be a little frustrating but wasn't ready to break out the superglue. This where the bands and pegs come in handy, they do great job of holding it all tight together while you can carry on and do the next bit.

 

 So far so good, I was going to use the Lego you can see in the back ground to hold things straight while the glue dried. As I found out you really don't need to, the building is wonky! so trying to keep it  straight really doesn't help! And the bits fit together so well they don't need holding. 

 

You build up the inside and then glue it to base that holds the frame. The trick I have found here is use glue sparingly, I put bit more on the base and spread it out making sure the edges were covered, then I put a little bit on each top part of the frame and on the larger bits in the middle and pushed the inside in. The pegs do their thing and hold it while it dries, again the fit was perfect, just give it time to dry.

 

The doors open and close, but you have to be really careful taking frame (part DR1) out of the sheet as the top is really thin. The way you put the door in is a bit of a sod, you have to glue the bottom frame down put the door in at an angle, glue the top frame and hold it on top of the door and push it in place. When it works, it works really well, but one of the frames was such a tight fit at the top it snapped as I was pushing it in. The way around this was to glue half the frame in and then put the other half in with the door.

Onward and upwards, the stairs are made out of 11 separate parts that go together really easily and the tightness of the fit holds it together while you put the steps in. Yes they are meant to be wonky.

Being an Inn it has a bar, which is nicely detailed with units and shelves, it even has a shelf under the bar!

 

I managed to get the double doors to open and close, sorry for the inconsistency with photos as I was using my phone and it could not make up its mind if it wanted flash or not (plus I should really check the photos at the time), but when its done I'll get some proper lights on it and take some good pictures.

 

Next up is the kitchen complete with fire and oven. Its the basic build the inside, then build the frame and glue them together, use the pegs to hold it and it's all good. Again the perfect fit makes it go together easily. So far this nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

 

The pictures show how you get colour in between the frames, each coloured section is on a thin bit wood that you pop out and glue in place, simple but somewhat time consuming. But you get into a rhythm, push, clean (if needed, which in most cases it was not), glue, insert and repeat. 

The lean too supports are 2 halves that need to be glued together and pegged while they dry. The instructions show you to do this first and then glue it to the base and add the roof, this where I got a bit clever. I glued it all in place and then pegged it, I done it this way to ensure the supports were straight and it all fitted. It worked so I'll take that as a win.

So left on the ground floor I have some free standing stairs and a small roof for the kitchen. I would have liked to have finished it (the ground floor, not the whole thing!) but its really not fun anymore, so best leave it for now. But all in all I feel its a great start to what is so far a great kit. 

That's it for now, more to follow, I can see it taking 3 or 4 days in all, but we shall see.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.