Under natural lighting from tube skylights.
Got the highway overpass and ramp roughed in!
Scenery progress. More old buildings from years ago, temporary.
Got the new rock work in. Beginning the coloring, ground cover, and ballast. I need to move my background sheet a little I think.
When Hobby Lobby cleared out their train stuff, I bought all their retaining walls they had left for cheap. I had some parts leftover from the bridge abutment so, thought I would break up this side a little with a culvert for the town's drainage system. Also, brought out some old cars from my teens that I had weathered with wood stain (which I wouldnt recommend becuase they look like they are covered in oil :).
The cardboard from my new mountain bike came in handy.
Cardboard profiles for the outer edge. Thinking of adding a chemical storage tank next to the building. Maybe out of this former caulk tube. I wonder, looks ok? Taller? No Tank?
The street was originally going to go down hill and cross the tracks on the ground. But that was too steep. So now, its going to go up over an overpass. Here is the cardboard rework.
I tried to put a radius on the transitions on the profiles and scribed the cardboard sub base to bend with the radius.
Its going to be tricky right turn onto that ramp for truck drivers in model land!
And the Interior:
The mine is a typical shaft. The Mill design very roughly follows that of the Mayflower Mill Located west of Silverton Colorado, just in flow scheme only. That mill produced lead, copper, zinc, silver, and gold. The smelting section is generic and includes a rotary roaster to convert sulfides to oxides with the SO2 going to the future acid plant (Apex Chemicals). Then there is a reverbatory and blast furnace to smelt the concentrates. Not unheard of, but not very common to have a mine mill and smelter all in one complex. Also of course, its very selectively compressed.
Side Elevations
Front Elevation
I have about finalized the plans for Chrysolite Metals (mine, mill, and smelter) which will be scratch built. Here is the plan view.
The coke and limestone receiving bins for Chrysolite Metals.
Finished the majority of the last switch. This time I built my own frog. Not real pretty but it works. My circular layout design really required me to hand lay my own turnouts but I wasn't confident I could do it. So, I chose the CVT turnouts because they are at least partially curvable if you follow the instructions and not cut all the webs. So, the track flow isnt quite as elegant as I imagined in my track plan. But I think after building a few of these kits, I could hand lay any switch now or at least modify the CVT switch to do about anything I want. Maybe on the next layout LOL.
Thanks, I appreciate that.
eric
really great work!
Good job! Looking forward to further updates.
Lone Geep
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Tightened things up a little with some plywood ribs. Still enough clearance to get the N scale layout out from underneath.
Bad engineering on my part. I should have used a full plywood X spanning the legs. Instead, most of the weight is transferred to the centers of the 1x2 rails. The 1x2 s are now sagging under the weight.
Setting the bridge abutment for the future roadway overpass. Aligned with the street center line.
Mostly done with the background plaster colors and textures. Getting ready to set the building.
Plaster work.
I like this little stainless steel spatula tool (below) you can get from science supply companies (Fisher or Cynmar). The square end is great for making the sharper edges of rocks. Small enough to make lots of little random details. Then I use an old paint brush for stippling and blending while the plaster is still wet. After the plaster sets I use the x acto knife to trim and further carve in rock like shapes.
The basement for Faraday EM is cut in. Construction of the south east side of granite peak. The profiles are glued in with adhesive caulk.
Micheal Faraday is one of my favorite scientists. Not from a well off family (you typically had to be well off to get educated and do science in those days), he educated himself and in a roundabout way, ended up working for a chemist in his laboratory. He went on to develop the theory of the electromagnetic field, diamagnetism, induction, and the laws of electrolysis. He invented the electric motor. So for this I named the company, Faraday Electric Motors.
Here we see progress on the masonry. Borrowing a little from the techniques of Bob Brendle ( "Brick Walls With Character" , Railroad Model Craftsman, Vol 69, no 2, July 2000) I did not do near as good a job as he did! After spraying the interior walls black (to absorb interior lights) then some white, the outside was airbrushed with oxide red acrylic. Then, random bricks are painted with either lightened red, and darkened red. I think doing this alone does quite a bit for the building.
Bob uses a different technique for the mortar than I did. I diluted some acrylic white with isopropyl alcohol (2-propanol) :) and dabbed it on. Mostly, the white settles into the mortar lines. Here you can see the difference between a treated and untreated wall.
After the mortar treatment everything gets a mist of cheap flat black spray paint.
So here is the main floor of Faraday EM. We have a bit of a mix of eras of tools, some belt driven, some more modern but, oh well. The green lathe and drill press in the center of the production floor is from Roco and has nice detail I think. The floor is basswood scribed with a drafting pencil and stained. The walls are cardstock spray painted flat white. The file cabinets I made out of balsa wood and scribed with the pencil. Painted with brown acrylic. The chair and desk are cardstock. Artwork stolen from the internet and printed on the printer.
The main floor consists of an entry for workers (center), a reception area (right), the forman's office (behind reception with the desk), the stair well ( in the center), the bathrooms, and of course the main shop floor. Just trying to give an illusion that there is stuff inside the building.
Yeah those bass strings have those potentially useful brass thingys on the ends ;) Of course, old guitar strings are as useful like piano wire.
And the strange blue thing is an old operational amplifier shipping package. Kind of have cool fin looking things. Anyway, junk for the basement not very visible.
Wow, this is looking really nice.
Now I find out that I should have kept some of my old bass strings
Next I will find out that cardboard can be used in the making of mountains.
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
The Basement of Faraday Electric Motor Co. I got some Bachmann workers as a gift and since, well, lets just say, they probably wont be too visible in the basement. There is an arc welder cluster of LEDs on the left corner (from modeltrainsoftware.com). There are some bass string parts, a boiler from a dowel, and a dynamo from a button battery, and a barrel and other junk. Warm white LEDs and resistors from ebay. Anyone care to identify the mysterious blue machine?