pictures credited to M.P. McILwaine and Al Paterson collections

The WX tower of Welland, Ontario from Brewer Railroad Plans is outstanding. To sit down at the bench with a bona-fide set of plans is the way to go. So much time and fretting has been eliminated with just these plans. As a note about materials, we found Mt. Albert Scale Lumber to be the best Canadian source for lumber. We purchased two "offcuts and overruns" boxes and had surprisingly had 90% of the wood on hand. 10% is real easy to make due in scratch building

Using my trusty calipers I loosely assembled the first wall. By loosely I mean no glue - just eying it all up. Having resisted, I gave in and tried canopy glue on this project. I must credit Mr. Mason for this as I have heard him say it a million times before. The nail that drove it home was the fact that canopy glue sports some weather proofing. And since this baby is going outside, I am going to try it.

Once satisfied with the layout we started applying the canopy glue. Using the brass weights, the parts were held flat to the table. Again eying up the build for improvements or structural sturdiness. We used some maple from under the bench, we saved it for a build like this.

We show just one wall here. We did the same to the opposite wall on the bench, opting to make the remaining two sides while standing up.

In another effort to increase structural integrity we added a second run of maple along the top and bottom of the frames. After letting it all cure for the night we signed off to entertain the wife (-=...

The NWSL Chopper 2 is a necessity in a project like this. Making the exact length each time is difficult without it. As you can see we did a lot of work the first day. 

We boarded up the full width of the wall, opting to cut the windows out after it was dry. Raw wood sure looks good to me. I really could build this without a drop of paint, but the plan calls for the colors light green and white. I am stubborn and see a different palette of a dark green and cream.

 We painted the wall before we cut the windows out. Shown here is a built section of tower. However each wall was done the same. A good coat of inkahol was followed by watered down acrylics. Watering down the acrylics allows the ink to bleed through better. It is the variation in color we want at this point. We will be adding more layers to the siding later. Call this the primer ...