DPM Kit Assembly

[MasonJar]

The front and back of the DPM buildings generally have the brick texture one the front and sides, whereas the side walls of the buildings do not. This is so you can put the side walls between the front and back to complete the building. To accomplish this, you have to "adjust" the ends of the side wall so they are square.

However, I got the thinkin' (that's my first mistake) that since I have to sand the walls square, why not mitre all corners, and not worry about how the brick detail "wrap-around" lines up?

Has anybody taken this approach with mitre-ing (sp?) all the corners?

Advice, suggestions, comments please!

Thanks.

Andrew

 

[rockislandmike]

I haven't, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Keep in mind, though, that this will make the building narrower than what is indicated on the packaging (probably not a big deal, but just something to keep in mind).

Let me know how it turns out; I rather like their stuff, I just posted a photo the other day of a facility I constructed, the first part of which was using DPM #103.

 

[belg]

I would also be careful with the roof alignment, any pins or holes designed to line up now will have to be altered.

 

[Bikerdad]

I wouldn't recommend it for two reasons:

1) you'll have to remove a fair amount of material, which will result in "resizing" your building.

2) miters are notoriously difficult to do well. Long edge miters, which is what you'll be dealing with, are even more difficult, especially if you don't have the right tooling. Do you have a 45 degree chamfer router bit? If so, you have the easiest tooling, although the thought of routing small plastic bits gives my full complement of digits the willies....

Doing miters means that you'll have to even more precisely machine 8 edges, rather than simply squaring 4. More than twice as much work for ????

 

[60103]

The DPM people did a clinic at the convention. They noted that the buildings are all designed the same way so that (I think) the front wall goes all the way across and the back wall fits in between so that you can hold it all together with an elastic band.
They also mentioned that in a lot of towns an expensive, imported brick would be used on the front of the building while cheaper, common, local brick would be used on concealed sides and the back.

 

[MasonJar]

Good points all... thank you.

Since this is my first, I guess I will follow the instructions and see how it works out!

Bikerdad - I do have a router, but your point about 8 mitred edges vs 4 squared is understood.

David - there is a really good example of a building in my town that has the expensive brick front, and field stone side walls. I'll have to get a picture up sometime.

Andrew

 

[60103]

Andrew: there is a building in Brampton where the fancy brick is continued 15 feet or so down the side where there is an alley, then it changes. You could show the changes with a different paint colour.