Sutyagin house

[Bruce Mack]

Nikolai Sutyagin built this in Arkhangelsk, Russia in 1992. It was a work of passion. I caught the spark, making a stick-built model in 2016-18. I lugged it to the Minnesota State Fair, and dragged it back, storing it in the shop. I rolled it to the far pasture in mid-May to be reclaimed by rain. It looks much better there. I had more fun with this than with my more traditional builds.

 

[Berta]

I love this!

 

[Bruce Mack]

I love this!

Thank you! The structure is thin slices of construction lumber applied to the underlying frame. I had no plan. The slices stiffened the structure. I estimate it weighed ~25 pounds or less, completed. To age it, I used Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty to which I applied all kinds of tints. I tried to avoid warping by protecting the wood with a water-resistant coating of something (? epoxy). This did its job, also preventing the water putty from adhering in areas (photo #4).
The windows in the tower were cut with a Fein oscillating tool that I bought for $50 at Woodcraft with a Harbor Freight trade-in. Everything about this was improvised, including the rain that fell before the final photos. My wife wanted a picture of me. I was lucky because it is the only one that shows scale.