Fig. 533
The addition of another entirely detached outhouse with wide door at one end, for a cowshed, to face the back of the main building and form the third side of a square, will give the nucleus of quite an attractive farm.
When once the plans have been drawn, a scale is plotted below to suit any size to which it is intended to build; all the dimensions shown in plan and elevation are then taken as required with dividers, read off on the scale, taken anew on a foot-rule, and transferred to the wood or cardboard.
The scale given on the figure is for quite a large house, the ground plan of the main building measuring 15 inches by 10 inches, and that of the outhouse 10 inches by 5 inches. These two buildings had best be constructed on separate bases, and need not be permanently joined; the roof of the outhouse can be carried rather further into that of the main building than is indicated by the line C H E, and the main roof alone cut carefully to the line C H E. If the main roof is made detachable, building A B C D will form a receptacle for the outhouses and the whole farm stock. The broken line surrounding A B C D and C E F G indicates the dimensions.
A house of this size is best built with a base and walls of wood obtained from some grocers' boxes.[2] If the scale be marked so that points 0, 10, 20 read 0, 7½, 15, giving a reduction to three quarters, the main building will measure 11¼ inches by 7½ inches, and may be built entirely of cardboard. If the scale be marked so that points 0, 10, 20 read 0, 5, 10, A B and A D measuring respectively 7½ inches and 5 inches, we shall have a small model that can be built of very light materials, such as stout cartridge paper on a cardboard base.
[2] An excellent and very strong material for model-building is manufactured by Messrs James Spicer and Sons Limited, under the name of Rough Cast Building Board. It has a most realistic white 'rough-cast' surface. It is obtainable in the size 18½ inches × 24 inches from Messrs Richardson and Co., Stationers, 176 Charing Cross Road.
The bay window will, of course, be made separately, and gummed into position by means of flanges. The porches may be detachable, like the outhouse; the front-door porch is built of eight pillars of stripwood, nailed and glued to a wood or cardboard base and to cross-beams above; between the pillars may be fixed a couple of seats, one on each side of the door. The back-door porch is supported by four pillars. The roofs are of cardboard. The ground-floor windows, indicated at W, may be either painted or cut out; in the latter case they may be made to open or may be fitted with celluloid window-panes; these you can beg from any amateur photographer of your acquaintance; he is sure to have plenty of 'waster' films. The doors should, of course, be made to open.
The storm windows are easily made; the sides, K L M, are cut with angle L K M = half the angle K O P, the latter being in the present instance 72°. The shape of the window roofs can be arrived at by experimenting with a paper template, but more accurately by plotting them out to scale.
Thus: draw Q' R' V' = Q R V, R' T' = R T, Q' S' and V' S" = Q S; join S' T' and S" T'; then Q' V' S" T' S' (Fig. 533) is the exact shape (leaving the flanges out of account) to which the storm-window roofs should be cut. The roofs over the front porch and the bay window, the chimney stacks, etc., are thought out and plotted in the same manner, the solving of these little problems being excellent practice, which may be turned to good account in after life.