Has anyone built the JL Innovative Design Red Rock Water Tower Kit?
The instructions call for making indents on the reverse side of the tank cardstock covering to simulate rivets. In the few pictures out there of the completed model those rivets are very pronounced.
When you look at pictures of real water towers of this design the rivets aren't really noticeable unless you are looking at an extreme closeup. Instead you see the lines of the tank panels. The rivets are too small to notice.
Has anyone tried scoring the cardstock to simulate the seams like you do on the Plastruct tanks?
Rick
You might get better results for rivets and panel lines by using rivet decals. They're available from Micro Mark and also from Archer.I've used them on this scratchbuilt boxcar...
Another option would be Structures in Tichy's Parts catalogue.
They have two kits for water towers, one suited to industrial use, the other for railroad use, with an included standpipe, or for residential water storage. The latter tank comes with two choices for each of the tank's top and bottom, and three separate courses of the tank itself, which allows you to create the tank capacity best suited to your requirements.
Wayne
Thanks Wayne. I already have the JLI water tank and I won't buy another, but those decals look perfect.
Can I apply them on the cardstock while it is flat and then curve it around the tank tube?
I've used those rivet decals on only metal and plastic, but I think that you might get better results if you put the cardstock in place, then apply some paint, as the bare cardstock is likely to absorb most of the decal's water, making it very difficult to re-position the decals.
Once the rivet decals are in the proper places, apply some Solvaset, as you would with any decal. This will help to hold the decals in place, and once set, you can apply the finish coat of paint.
Some of the rivet decals (I cut them out in single or double rows) may require multiple applications of setting solution. In one case, I resorted to MEK as a setting solution...which sometimes removes some of the rivets.The Archer decals are fairly expensive, relative to those from MicroMark, but do seem to have a thinner decal, which allows easier setting of the decals.
Here's the boxcar in its finished state...
...and here's one of the five gondolas that I scratchbuilt on Tichy flat cars...
...and, as you can see, not all of the "rivets" survived the multiple applications of MEK.
Nice work. I am always impressed with the photos that you post. How much time do you put into this hobby? It takes me forever to get things done and even though I am now retired I don't have the time to devote to details like you produce.
Back to my kit, the "cardstock" is barely more than heavy paper. After I took a closer look at it I realized I couldn't score it without the risk of cutting it. I intend to use some paper to run some tests on before working on the cardstock. That will include painting it first and applying the decals. While I thought it would be easier to get the decals in place with it lying flat I am worried that paint will cause other problems if it isn't glued in place first. That will be another part of my test.
Decals are a detail I haven't tried before so this will be a complete learning experience. That isn't a problem - one of the things about this hobby that appeals to me is figuring things out and learning new skills.
Instead of paper, I used some .005" thick sheet styrene to make some storage tanks at GERN Industries. The tanks were made from heavy cardboard rings, which originally held tape.
I used ordinary white glue to cement the stacked rings together. While the glue was setting, I determined to what size the thin styrene should be cut (height and length), so that when it was wrapped around the tubes, it would also be enough for a small overlap, which would allow me to cement it together on the unseen side of the tanks.
Before adding the styrene, I used a straight-edge and a pounce wheel (available at fabric stores) to impress rows of faux rivets into the thin sheets of styrene.I used the same material to create tops for the tanks, using a draughting compass with a blade inserted where the lead would have normally been.After experimenting with a piece of paper of the same size, I cut-out a wedge, from the centre point to the edge, then overlapped it to create a shallow cone.
I then repeated that operation on the styrene, creating a shallow cone by overlapping the at the cut-out point.
Here's the results (click on the photos for a larger view)....
After painting the tanks green, I use a sheet of paper to mask-off the panels so that only the areas where there were rivets showing, then airbrushed it with some rust-coloured paint.
The horizontal tanks are plastic tubes which formerly held paper for telescript machines...no rivets needed.
Here's a better view of the pounce-wheel rivets...
Those tanks came out well also. Were they done with a pounce wheel because the rivet decals were not available when you made them?
Yeah, the rivet decals weren't, as far as I was aware, available at that time. The pounce wheel was only a couple of bucks, and worked quite well on the thin styrene.
It might also work on fairly heavy paper, too, although the .005" sheet styrene, available from Evergreen, isn't all that expensive, and I don't think pounce wheels would have increased too much in cost, either.
The main point is that there is often more than one way to achieve your goal.