Make Your Own Template

I believe that every kit, no matter how simple or of what materials it is made, can be a "craftsman kit"*.  I have taken that approach with just about every structure I've built recently, and much of the rolling stock too.  By that I mean any kit can be built with care and consideration of what would make the structure more interesting.  Often additions or modifications can me made to make the structure unique, or materials can be used that improve the level of detail or help sell the realism of the structure. 

Craftsman kits are often known for their reputation of being essentially a box of sticks and detail castings with thorough instruction books and many drawings and templates over which complex assemblies are constructed.  Whereas laser cut or plastic kits have done much of that work for you, stick-by-stick construction is a hallmark of craftsman kits.  For me this is part of the enjoyment of constructing such a kit and brings a sense of satisfaction for having built it myself.

In the case of the Suydam Union Ice Company, there is a sense that this is what might be called a "proto-craftsman kit".  Not "proto" as in "prototypical", but "proto" as in "protozoa" or that more simple kit that came before the evolution of the craftsman kit into Campbell, Fine Scale Miniatures and others.  The elements of a more modern craftsman kit are there - die cut walls, stripwood, templates, detail parts - but some of the materials are still crude by comparison.  

The cardboard widget provided to space the cooling tower baffles is really a weak point in the kit.  In one sense it is brilliant in its design; bent and wedged into place, then held by similar bent cardboard under tension.  And the instructions say that further bracing can be added.  In another sense it is literally weak; more like shirt cardboard, it is prone to warping out of shape.  A cursory search of previously built kits of this structure reveal it to be a problem area on nearly all of them.

But, just like I was unsatisfied to leave the baffles as provided and sheathed them in printed wood texture, then added styrene shapes as bracing, so too I couldn't leave the spacer as is.  Though it won't be seen unless a viewer peers down through the gaps in the baffles, I decided to make my spacer from wood.  It will be painted to resemble metal so it will match the styrene braces.  Assembly will be a little trickier, but in the end I hope to have a structural component that will be a feature of this structure for years to come.

The template is simply a pencil drawing on a sheet of paper, onto which a strip of Daiso transfer tape has been applied.  The cross members are laid on, then the verticals are attached with a dot of yellow glue at each connection point.  The whole shebang is weighted to keep the assembly straight while the glue sets.  A chisel blade allows the brace to be removed and the tape is tacky enough for the second frame.

*I don't mean every wood wall would be riddled with "nail holes", curling and lifting clapboards, rotting foundations and rusting corrugated metal.  Fine if you like that, but it is not for every structure even if you're going for that fire-trap, run-down look.