NEB&W Guide to Green Island, NY - House at 43 Paine Street

Last Update: 2009-07-09

Paine Street Houses Table of Contents
Green Island Table of Contents
Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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Prototype

• This is a 1-1/2 story Gothic Revival house (the steep roof pitch, oriel-type bay window), although the double arched window was taken from the contemporary Italianate (both c. 1840-1870). I measure it at 23 feet wide on the Sanborn.
  • [Sanborn map, c. 1901.]
  • [Broadside view of the front, c. 1990.]
  • [Broadside view of this front, March '09. By this time, it had been covered with vinyl siding.]
  • [South side c. June '09.]
  • [North side, c. 1990 shows in the photo of no. 45. (Note the half windows on the second floor. A key characteristic of Gothic structures is that the roof is so steep, it is extended down part-way into the second floor.)]
  • [North side c. June '09.]
  We are modeling this house, which is why I'm giving this house its own full page.

• Here is a photo of another example of a Gothic Revival house, from Cohoes, NY, as of June '09. I'm posting it here because I like the color scheme - two tone green of a different shade than our railroad buildings, and with a touch of pink for highlights. I intend to paint the model in this scheme instead of the gray one as found on no. 43 Paine for two reasons - we don't know the actual scheme c. 1950 and the house to the left is going to be painted gray with white trim.
  • [Gothic Revival house from Cohoes c. 2009. (This example is a bit closer to a "true" Gothic Revival, including gingerbread bargeboards and front porch.)]

Rear Views

• Didn't have a rear photo of each individual building until recently.
  • [Another view, c. 1973. Photo by Tony Steele.]
  • [Backs from no. 43 north c. 1978.]
  • [Rear c. June '09]

The Model

• The first step is making a mock-up, especially since we condensed these a bit to fit better on the layout.
  • [Mockups of the four chosen buildings, all a tad condensed, as of May '09.]

• The walls are cut out of Evergreen clapboard siding. There are different ways to cut openings in this type of siding, but often I take an Xacto knife and twirl it so it acts like a drill. Once the wall is pierced, I use the knife to carve away segments in "crescent moon" pieces until I get close to the line, then file away the rest.
  • [Cutting openings in the front wall, June '09. The bay window opening is purposely shown partially cut out to demonstrate this technique.]

• Making a bay window is the trickiest part of this model. I stole three pieces from the Walthers Merchants Row building, which has an octagonal turret on the corner. Using the pieces in this fashion winds up with a gap at the top, since the angle is different where the bay meets the new wall. I sacrificed one more piece of the bay for the top trim, glued it on both sides, and glued the whole assemble on a piece of blank styrene to hold everything in aligment. (When trimmed back, this blank styrene will become the roof of the bay.)
  • [The bay window assembly, glued and allowed to dry overnight.]
  • [The bay window assembly, starting to trim away the excess roof. (The added pieces of trim also had to sanded back to get a precise fit.)]

• The assembled front wall. The door is being made from an O scale window. The bottom of the bay will be cut back level with the bottom of the wall.
  • [Photo c. June '09.]

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