Building the N Scale Architect’s “Argo Mill” This article will discuss my general experiences building this kit and include a few notes and lessons learned that are, I think, applicable to efforts with other craftsman wooden structure kits. The Mill is an old style kit. That is, there are no laser-cut parts. What you get is a lengthy instruction book, a sprue of plastic windows and doors (thank gosh!), a box o’ lumber, including numerous sheets of various styles of scribed and corrugated wood, sheets of white card stock, a sheet of foam brickwork, and many strips of scale lumber of various sizes, and finally, several sheets of clear plastic wall and roof templates (see photo 1). 

Photo 1: Here are the Argo Mill’s parts arrayed before starting work. 

The first thing to do with the kit was to inventory it, not only to ensure that all required parts were present but also to help me to understand what parts went where. The lumber’s all color-coded and the instructions name the various styles of scribing on the wood sheets, but you need to count the sheets to figure out which are which… 

The second thing I did was collect my tools. There are less of these than you might imagine; a plastic triangle (for aligning things), a scalpel (much better at slicing wood – and fingers – than a #11 blade!), a metal straight-edge (for cutting things), a pencil, a couple of disposable nail files for sanding, and a self-healing cutting mat were all I really needed. I used cyanoacrylate glue with accelerator for most assembly, with carpenter’s glue to reinforce seams on occasion. 

Photo 2: Cutting wood for the enclosed stairway. 

Building the kit was reasonably straightforward, though there were a lot of steps! The Mill was broken down into nine major structures (ten, if you count the turret), each of which was cut out and assembled in turn. The instructions were very detailed and didn’t miss a step. It’s important, unless you’re very experienced or lucky (I’m neither), to follow the instructions – the authors have built many such kits and believe me, their way works! Basically, I cut out the clear templates for a structure, traced them onto the wood or card sheets, and cut the parts out for assembly, as shown in photos 2, 3, and 4. Where a cut was “off” I either filed and trimmed the offending piece until it was usable or, if the cut was really bad, I trimmed both the offending piece and its mate until they matched. 

Photos 3 and 4: The enclosed stairway, before and after assembly. 

The only part of the instructions I didn’t follow was that they recommended painting each component as you went along; I assembled all of the structures as I went along (see photo 5) and painted everything at the end of the project, making sure to leave roofs off, etc., so I could install windows after painting. 

Photo 5: The Argo Mill, before painting. 

I was initially concerned about what would happen when I hand-painted a wooden structure with water-based paints. I needn’t have worried, as the structures are all pretty well braced and warping was minimal. A bit of washing and drybrushing added a bit of depth to the windows and walls. 

I learned some lessons with this kit I’d like to share: 

1. Cut your plastic patterns out from their back-sides; you’ll find the ink (printed on the front) stays on the patterns much better. 

2. When you have two identical patterns (e.g., two walls), use one as a pattern for the other –they’ll match, that way! 

3. Cyanoacrylate glue rules! Don’t use it on the brick basement material, though, as the glue will melt it… 

4. When cutting openings for a row of windows, carefully align one common edge (e.g., the lower one) and do all trim-work and adjustment on the other edges. This way the windows will be aligned when you’re done. 

5. The plastic pattens all have wood-grain lines on them. Align this grain with the corrugations or scribe lines on the wood sheets when tracing them, to ensure that the corrugations, etc., run the right way… 

6. If you paint after assembly of all structures, make sure you leave the roofs off! Even though the windows install from the outside, the window glass installs from the inside! 

7. Stick all of the doors and window frames to a piece of tape and paint ‘em there, then install them at building’s end. MUCH easier than trying to install them and then paint them. 

8. When assembling any of the wood lattice-works (see pictures), use the templates in the instruction book and NOT the clear plastic templates. The former are to scale; the latter are there only to help with alignment… 

9. Don’t worry too much if a structure has been trimmed until it’s not quite what the plans said it was supposed to be. In all likelihood it’ll fit into the completed set of structures just fine. If it doesn’t, shore it up with scrap wood and make sure you weather it extra well! 

10. Most important: When you get tired, quit for the evening! I found that I could only “cut wood” for an hour or two at a time, but by interspersing work on the Mill with work on other projects, things came along nicely. I generally completed a structure or so per evening, though some took longer… Working past when you get sloppy makes for bad cuts on both the wood and on your fingers… 

This kit, with its large footprint (about 10” by 7”) and numerous structures covering two ground levels, was a largish project, especially as everything had to be traced and cut out before assembly. I easily spent 60+ hours on it, though the time was well-spent and quite enjoyable, and the results worthwhile (see photo 6). 

Photo 6: The Argo Mill, after painting. The odd striping on some areas is an artifact of the photograph...

I didn’t realize until I’d started that the siding on the back of the upper level was for Nn3 ore cars, an added bonus to our Narrow-Minded Friends! The N Scale Architect makes several other kits of this sort and I expect I’m going to wind up building one or two more of them…