Sand House part five.

An O Scale Sand House.
A follow-along, step-by-step scratch building project.
Part Five; where it all starts to come together.

Use a piece of foam-core (wood, cardboard or plastic
will do the trick) to dam up the open end. Add a tiny
drop of soap to some water, mix in the putty or plaster,
apply with a small trowel, tongue depressor, whatever.
Don't put too much on the boards, use wax paper if
needed. Scrape off residue if need be. Set aside to dry.

It soon became apparent that a base was needed as the tower is not attached to
the building except for a delivery pipe. I used 1/32" aircraft plywood and glued the
sand bin down once satisfied with its location. I also decided that the building would

You can also have it rest on stones or wood posts or a combination of all these.
The two brass brads sticking through the floor will help in securing the tower. The
hole you can see between some of the piers is for insertion of a light through a
blackened brass tube. My next step was to glue some backyard soil to the base
before installing the house. Don't forget, it's almost impossible to do it afterwards.
Don't scenic where the front step or tower will be.

Additional details added to the house
now include a floor so a light doesn't
shine under the house, ends of rafters
under the roof overhang, a smoke
stack that came with the kit, you
could use one from Grandt Line or

fashion one from a piece of tubing or such. My choice would have been one coming out
of the wall then elbowing up. The opening into the sand bin has been framed with some
leftover timber and I made a step for the door from left over boards.

List of materials needed for tower, more or less.

Purpose	Name/Code	Quantity	Notes
NBWs 7/8" Square	Grandt Line # 62	At least 40. (one sprue +)	Use whatever you have on hand.
Main Tower Posts 1/4 x 1/8” (6 x 12s)	NOE 4046	At least 15"	Use slightly thicker timbers if you want.
Platform Floorboards 1/4 x 1/16” (3 x 12s)	NOE 4026	About 15"
Horizontal braces and for topmost platform. 3 x 9s	NOE 185	About 15"
Bottom cross braces 2 x 6s	NOE 126	About 6"

Timbers used for the tower and the
NBWs. The small piece in the bottom
right is a template for the rafter
ends;18 are needed.

Use ruler as a guide for dimensions and scale.
The width between the tower posts will depend on
the diameter of the tank you built. We will use
7/16 or 1/2" Evergreen Scale Models tubing. The
tall posts are a scale 21' tall (5 1/4"), the braces

at the bottom are 6' or 1 1/2", beveled 45 degrees at the top. Since I took the pictures I
added two additional short braces at the bottom of each post, see picture # 4 above.
The bottom brace is 3/4" from the bottom, the middle brace is 2 3/4" and the bottom of
the top brace is 3 1/2". When dry turn over and glue the next three braces.

Cross braces, platforms and NBWs added (all 34
of them) If you don't want to drill all these holes
you could use the sharp tip of pencil to simulate
the bolt heads or nail holes instead. Yet to be
added are the four bottom braces and the top
platform braces, see below.

HOME >>>>>

Mix about 1/2 water and 1/2 white glue and paint small
areas of dry filler with it. Sprinkle sand onto it. When all is
covered add more sand to give it a natural look. Add a bit
of alcohol to the mix and apply with an eyedropper. Add
more sand on top then shake out the excess when dry.
Note the shovel embedded in it. It will be painted later.

9 /17/ '05

look better if it rested on posts and piers. The
concrete piers were cast in Durham's from an
original I made from modeling clay. As soon as I
had cast four or five satisfactory pieces I made a
mold of those so that I could cast several at once. I
needed a whole bunch for my Skail Lumber sawmill.