Pages

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Vintage Cardboard 2-Story House #3

Today's featured house is rather an odd duck. It is no doubt a part of the rest of the series and shares a common trait of two-piece construction with the rest of the buildings: one-piece wall with one-piece chimney. BUT, as you'll notice by the photos the roof-to-wall design leaves much to be desired which leads me to believe this set was meant for the budget-conscious buyer and once the design was committed to, the buildings were made and there was no effort to correct the gaff.

At first I thought this was the wrong roof for the walls but that roof is cut in all the right places for it to have fit on anything else, UNLESS there is another house in the set which I don't have!! The house measures 4" (10.2cm) W x 3 1/4" (8.3cm) D (taking into account the out-thrust roof line. The 'normal' roof line is only 2 3/8" - 6cm) x 3 1/4" (8.3cm) H. Enjoy! Bettina & Fritz Berg :)


Here are a couple of shots of the unaltered structure

Look closely at the the wall below. The second-story wall has a flap at either end which, if the roof fit correctly would look like walls on the finished model.


The roof simply would not fold down good enough to snuggle up to the end walls because that cut-out middle part of the roof had too much 'spring' in it and lifted the whole roof up.



I made four heavy cardboard braces and glued them beneath the roof. here you can plainly see the flaps on the second story.


The roof fits BUT either the fold in the roof is placed too high OR that portion of the roof is meant to be angled downward, allowing a gap between it and the side walls.












The next option is to trim the brace and allow the middle portion of the roof to dip at an angle. What do you guys think?

IF in fact this was the correct roof for this house it is a very awkward piece of design work on the part of the manufacturer.


As much as possible, the scans presented in this series are unedited, allowing you the reader to color enhance, crop, and do whatever you'd like in the building of the kit.



6 comments:

  1. Doing a "test roof" to get the spacings right , then transfering them to the one with the graphics would get you close to where you needed to be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The test roof is a good idea Paul, but then I think printing a replacement in color on heavy cardstock is best and just put the original roof off to the side somewhere. The middle portion of the roof, the one which now looks horizontal, will have to be shortened for it to look right and I don't want to cut into the original.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very Good Job From Your Frau Gemahlin (y)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good post but I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Appreciate it! Vintage Oaks Custom Home Builder

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When this was posted back in 2013 all I had was a few loose buildings that all appeared to be from the same set as none of them are marked as to manufacturer. Since then I did acquire a boxed set. That being said, I would now have to dig it out and re-do the entire series which I'm afraid is a project for another day.

      Delete