In the continuing saga of the Wicked Circus Tin, we come to my decision to cover the outside of the tin with wood.

Wood by Many Names

For covering my tin, I used bass wood. My choice was based on the following facts: 1) I’m comfortable working with bass wood; 2) it’s light weight (but not as soft as balsa); and 3) I have a small ton of it stashed away (all from the Northeastern Scale Lumber Co.).

But there are numerous types of wood that will work (and at least one that won’t). In the example below, I used a variety of wood choices — everything from bass wood to matchsticks to a very thin mahogany.

Here’s a tip about very thin mahogany: it doesn’t like sticking to metal.

One source of cheap wood that works well is “Woodsies.” Sold by the bag, these are bits of hardwood (birch?) designed for craft purposes and usually found in the “kid’s crafts” section of craft stores such as Michael’s. Popsicle sticks also work.


One Glue To Bind Them
Most standard white glues (such as Elmer’s and Aleen’s) will form a bond between metal and wood, but an incredibly fragile one. Cyanoacrylate glues (CA), such as “Super Glue” and “Zap”, form a slightly stronger bond, but with a low shear strength (which is a problem for this project — more on that in the tutorial below).

Enter the Big Gun: Gorilla Glue. Because of fume inhalant concerns and just plain messiness issues, Gorilla Glue is overkill for most craft tasks. But when you need a bond that’s going to hold up to some pretty serious manhandling, it’s a great choice.

Even knowing how well Gorilla Glue works, I wasn’t convinced the bond would withstand the abuse I planned to heap upon my final project. Which is why the tin I’m using in the tutorial below may seem to start in an abused condition — it’s the tin I used to test a variety of procedures (drilling holes, hammering the embossed logo, gluing wood).

Supplies
- Altoids Tin
- Wood (Woodsies, popsicle sticks, matchsticks, etc. )
- Gorilla Glue
- Latex Gloves
- craft sticks, toothpicks, etc. for applying glue
- Saw
- Mitre/Chop Box (Optional)
- Rubber bands (for clamping)
- Wood Stain or Paint
- Sandpaper

Step 1: Prepping the Tin
Use sandpaper to remove paint and rough up the tin where the wood is to be applied.


Step 2: Prepping the Wood
There are two ways to approach this step. You can either cut the wood to the finished size (this requires a good deal of precision) or you can cut the wood into approximately 1.5″ strips and trim the strips after they’ve been applied to the tin.

For my style of work, the second option is the way to go (I deal with enough “precise” work that I avoid it whenever possible).

Step 3: Applying the Glue

Select enough of your pre-cut wood to cover approximately 1/4 of the tin. Set the rest of the wood aside.

Follow the label directions for applying the glue. Use water to moisten both the tin and the wood and then apply the glue to both surfaces. Apply it as thinly as possible (which I was not good about in this demo, ergo the “yellow foam” you’ll see in later pictures). Allow both tin and wood to sit for approximately five minutes prior to attaching them.

Also note that I’m wearing latex gloves. Gorilla Glue is not kidding when it says it will stain your skin. It will. And if you happen to have some acrylic paint on your fingers and then you get Gorilla Glue on top of that paint, you might just find yourself scrubbing your skin with sandpaper so you can be presentable at some meeting you have to attend.

Not that that ever happened to me.

Step 4: Applying the Wood
After five minutes, apply the wood to the tin. Remember, you’re covering just 1/4 of the side of the tin.

Step 5: Clamp and Dry
Use a rubber band as a “clamp”. Surprisingly, this doesn’t have to be a super-tight or heavily weighted “clamp” — make sure the rubberband is soundly snug and you’re good.

Allow ample drying time. DO IT. I know waiting is hard, but I strongly recommend about eight hours. You’re about to really test the bond you just created and if you don’t allow the glue to thoroughly dry, you’re just going to wreck your project and you’ll have to start over at Step 1.


Step 6: Trim to Fit
Remove the rubber band and then use a saw to trim the wood level with the tin (as shown in the picture).

This is the step really tests the strength of your bond (and why the low shear strength of CA glue makes it a poor choice for this project). Gorilla Glue passed the test with flying colors. Other than the thin mahogany strips (which failed numerous attempts), none of the wood pieces budged during the rigorous sawing.

This step is also the reason for only covering 1/4 of the tin at a time. The sawing should be done with the blade resting on the tin, sawing outward (which is not possible if you cover the entire tin at once).

Sawing from the outside-inward actually increases the stress on the bond (not to mention it’s much tougher to trim to the right height when you don’t have top of the tin to act as a guide) and greatly increases the odds of you ending up with an unadorned tin in your hand and little strips of wood littering the floor of your workroom.

Repeat Steps 3-6 three more times or until you’ve gone all around the edge of the in.

If desired, use the same process to cover the top of the lid. The top of the lid can be done all at once.

Step 7: Apply Finish
Finish the wood as desired. Be aware, while the dried Gorilla Glue can be stained, it does not take stain the same way as wood does. So, if you get glue on your the wood, there will be variations in the color. This worked for me (I actually used glue to paint a “wear pattern” onto the wood, so that it wouldn’t be evenly stained), but if you don’t want a distressed look, either be super careful with the glue or use a paint finish.

If you’re wondering about covering the bottom edge of the tin with wood, well, yes, you can. But, and this is the “but” that kept me from doing it, the finished tin will only open as far as a 90-degree angle. If you want your tin to open fully, do not apply wood to the bottom side where the hinges are.

If you do decide to cover the bottom sides of the tin with wood, go ahead and apply the wood with the tin closed (to correctly line up the strips), but open the tin while the glue is drying — nothing like ruining a project by gluing it shut!

The next and final installment of the Wicked Circus Twin saga: When Mistakes Influence Design

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Using Strip Shingles from Laserkit

When I decided I wanted “real” shingles on my Queen Anne, I popped into the world of model railroading to borrow from their N-Scale supplies.

N-Scale is 1:160 — about 10% smaller than the “doll’s dollhouse” scale of 1/144. Not all N-scale items look well in the 1/144 world, but for shingles? N-scale works fine.

I found Laserkit — they carry tabbed, hexagon, and diamond shaped strip shingles in N-Scale.

The shingles (see pictures below) come in approximately 8″ strips and while you receive 32-square inches of shingles in a pack, they only cover 16-square inches of roof. Why? Because as you see below, you overlap the shingles, so each strip only “shows” about half of it’s width.

For the Queen Anne Painted Lady and this tutorial, I used the diamond shape. Also of note, one pack was sufficient for the Queen Anne, but you can see in the Queen Anne pictures, I did NOT shingle the flat roof over the porch. The former carpenter in the house informed me shingles are only for pitched roofs.

Supplies

1. N-Scale Strip Shingles from Laserkit
2. Roof
3. Paint (I used Polly Scale water-based paints and acrylic paints
4. Paintbrush
5. Scissors: SHARP scissors, but NOT your good scissors. These strips leave a LOT of adhesive residue on the scissors and while it can be cleaned off, you really don’t want to do this project while worrying about your scissors.

About the Shingles
In each package, you receive two types of cut-outs. The cut-outs on the left are “starter strips” (more on those in Step 3) and the actual shingles.

The shingles come in two 8″ x 2″ pieces and while you receive 32-square inches of shingles in a pack, they only cover 16-square inches of roof. Why? Because as you will see below, you overlap the shingles, so each strip only “shows” (or has a “reveal”) of about half of its width.

The shingles have an adhesive back — I always peel back a corner to discover which side has the sticky back because I really can’t tell from just looking at it. Even still, I’ve managed to paint the wrong side several times — not a problem, but it does mean you have to “paint twice”.

Step 1

Painting the Shingles.
If you’re only using one color, you can paint all the shingles at once. If you’re doing something more decorative (using contrasting colors), paint a few strips at a time… you don’t want to get near the end and have too many pink strips and not enough blue ones.

I have used both Polly Scale water-based paints and acrylics. Hands down, I found that the Polly Scale was easier to work (you have to thin the acrylics just a bit), but both work “okay.”

Be sure to allow the strips adequate drying time. If you don’t (as you’ll see below), you run the risk of damaging the strips (for example, if you didn’t get them lined up accurately the first time and need to move them).

Step 2

Separate Strips. Snip the end of the strips off to separate into separate strips.

Step 3

Starter Strip.
The “starter strip” is a plain straight edge strip you use to begin. Always start at the BOTTOM of the roof and work your way up. You can either line up the starter strip flush with the roof edge or with a slight overhang. Because the roofing pieces are fairly thick with the Queen Anne, I chose to overhang the starter strip to hide the underlying roofing material.

Step 4

First Row.
Lay the first row so that the tips of the diamonds meet the bottom of the starter strip.

Step 5

Additional Rows.
Because I was concerned with conserving materials, I cut each strip individually as I needed it to make sure I got the most out of every piece (because of the diamond shape and the requirement to line them up correctly, there is some waste on the end of each piece).

oops

This is not an actual step in the process, but rather an “oops” to demonstrate what happens when you try to move the shingles and you either 1) didn’t let the paint dry thoroughly before laying the shingles; or 2) you just had a spot of bad luck.

The shingles can be lifted and moved to SOME extent — they won’t always tear the shingles below, but it’s really best to get placement right the first time.

When this happened to me, I just continued with shingling and later went back to do a paint touch-up.

Step 6

Trim Excess.
Once you have covered an entire piece of roof, trim the excess. I found turning the piece over and cutting from the back allowed me to get the closest trim.

Again, please note, you need sharp scissors, but don’t use your best scissors. These strips leave a LOT of residue on your scissors and while it can be cleaned off, you don’t want to be shingling and worry about your scissors.

Finished Product

And that’s all there is to it. In all honesty, strip shingling is it’s a tedious humdrum process… but, the final result is well worth the temporary boredom.

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