April 13, 2013 My 1912 Swiss Chalet

I wasn't going to do a post on my latest project but it turned out so well that I decided to go ahead with it. I got into scratch building several early 20th Century Catalog Homes last November and My 1912 Swiss Chalet "California Style" Bungalow will probably be my last for a while. This is my fifth scratch built home, all turned out much better than I expected. I've been an HO model railroader for over fifty years and I had never attempted a scratch built building until last year after I bought a Laser-Art Kit #629 LaSalle House. The kit went together very nicely and got me hooked on vintage houses. I did some research for Catalog Homes on the Internet and found a great site, Antique Home Style. This post is for the 1912 Los Angeles Investment Co, Design No. 515.

The above document is a copy and paste from the Antique Home Style Site and is the starting point for my Swiss Chalet.  Below are my CAD drawings converted to HO scale.

 

I added a basement to my Chalet as my portion of the house for my model railroad layout shown below.
 

I didn't take pictures of the basic portion of the construction because I didn't plan on doing a post of this project.  The pictures below are well into the project.
 
All of the details are from Tichy with the exception of the basement windows, they are Grandt Line.
 
I used Midwest Products #4445 1/16" Board & Batten for all of the walls.
 
The second floor support logs are my wife's cooking skewers. The walls and logs are stained with my Vinegar/Steel Wool mix to give the house a mountain cabin look.
 
The "Balcony's" or second floor porches are Midwest Products #4437 1/16" thick flooring with 1/16" spacing .  I used the 1/16" thick flooring for the suspended porches to prevent warping.
 
The roof is made from lined card stock included in a Campbell #800 Shingles kit, I will glue the Campbell shingles on the card stock later.
 
I really like the Tichy Details, the "Balcony" and porch railing is #8093.


The first floor porch flooring is Midwest Products # 4434 1/32" thick with 1/16" spacing glued to the main 3/32" floor to preserve HO scale thickness.


Here I have shingled the roof and the fire place chimney is temporarily in place to fit the hole through the roof.
 
At this point I have installed all of the window curtains and the interior lighting, the roof is now glued in place.

 

The rest of the pictures are of the finished house.  As you can see I have applied JTT Styrene Pattern Sheeting #97442 Field Stone to the basement foundation, fire place and chimney with a very thin mix of flat black Floquil to accent the stones. Notice the sign hanging from the second floor porch support logs.
 

The stair railing is also from Tichy #8213.  As with all of my structures I have added a lot of figures to add to the ambiance.
 
This is the closeup of the sign mentioned above, this Swiss Chalet Mountain Home was created as a part of the Perry Family retirement life.  And the sign says it all.

I added a two story two car garage to the Chalet.  The second floor is the train room.