Building Delabarre Tap & Die by South River Modelworks Pt.1

South River Modelworks Delabarre Tap & Die kit is my next big kit. Since I am building it for someone else I don't feel like I am stepping away from my quest to finish all started projects. I have done quite a bit of work on it. The pictures show just masonry part of it. I have painted all wood walls, but stopped short of adding windows. This mix of plaster and wood may require some adjustments. I have built the largest dock/platform as well. The nice part about this kit is that it has no castings. I needed a little break from all the detail parts and it is not that the castings are missing. According to Bob VanGelder himself he did it on purpose as a statement.
As far as the construction of the masonry walls, I intended to follow the instructions, but then I realized how hard it would have been to align the walls with all different heights, separate sections and gaps. The base I was supposed to build would have helped somewhat, but I wasn't going to take a risk. It is very hard to unglue the plaster if something goes wrong. Therefore, I glued two front sections together, added foam core to the bottom to match the height of the side walls. Then I glued a piece of balsa wood between the sections of the back wall to match the length of the front wall. As a result I had to deal with only four walls which were also of the same height. That was much better. I had to modify the base as well though, but it is just a foam. After the structure is built it will be mounted on a larger base and filled with foam and scenery.