Trully inspirational work Ray! Thanks for posting!
I haven't had a lot of time for modeling so far this year, and what time I did have, has mostly been spent refurbishing older models. The newest structure is a through, plate girder bridge. Until now I've just had a crude temporary bridge made of wood, which has become badly warped:
I built a permanent replacement for it. My previous plate girder bridges were all made using a structural fiberglass material called G10. This time, I wanted to try making it out of Sintra. I used 6mm Sintra for the deck and sides. The interior braces were made from 1mm Sintra. The rest of the details are styrene. I got a bit lazy on this bridge and decided to leave off the rivets -- where it's located, no one can get very close to it anyway. The underside of the bridge is strengthened with three lengths of 1/2" square acrylic tube, plus three sections of extruded aluminum angle for good measure.
I sprayed it with red primer followed by gloss black. Then I weathered it with a thin, alcohol wash of gray acrylic paint. Then I used RustAll to create reddish rusty streaks. Next I used Sophisticated Finishes' "Iron" and "Rust Solution".
Two of my earliest structures on the layout were really starting to show their age. The paint was faded and worn (beyond the intentional weathering). The clear plastic used in some of the windows had yellowed, fogged, and warped. Slide cover glass used in a few places had broken or fallen out. A couple signs were faded, and both structures had minor damage caused by a raccoon. One of the buildings still had incandescent "grain of rice" bulbs, which I wanted to replace with LEDs. Here are the "before" photos:
Here are the "after" photos:
Enjoy!
Nice work Ray, as always. I love the rust effects on the bridge.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Spectacular as always! Your photos are more "lifelike" than the real world.
Ray
That rusty bridge is beautiful. Very convincing.
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Thank you for sharing again.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Recently I've been working on a new building for the town of Mineral Ridge. This will be a saloon called "The Grizzly Bar". That's a double pun -- not only the obvious "bar/bear", but also there is a piece of mining equipment called a "grizzly" consisting of a series of thick metal bars used to separate oversized rocks from the rest of the ore.
Anyway, this saloon has to fit an odd-shaped space underneath a mine tram bridge. There will be a small covered porch or patio area attached to the main building. I'm not going to post a step-by-step at this time because I plan to use this build in a magazine article. But for now I will post a few in-progress pics:
PS -- On Thursday I'm leaving for my annual Nevada/Mojave ghost town trip, so I'll be offline for a while.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Hi Ray:
Neat little structure! Like Bear said, that's the sort of place I could cozy up to. I can hardly wait to see the details emerge.
I did notice that the sloped roof drains towards the patio. You will have to come up with an eavestrough of some sort or the patrons' favourite brews are going to get somewhat diluted.
Have a great trip!
Thanks guys!
The patio will have a corrugate metal roof, I just haven't installed it yet.
I'm looking forward to watching this project take shape. Actually, I'm preparing myself to be amazed at every step. The interior looks good already.
Ray,
Nice looking little (or big) structure. It looks like it fits in with the others on the site, and fits into its location perfectly. Thank you for posting again. Even though your modeling is completely different from what I do, I find your approach and technique always inspiring.
Please keep the updates coming.
An interesting design that should prove useful for many purposes, industrial and residential. Looking forward to seeing where you take this, Ray.
BTW, I know you've discussed it before, but could you please remind us of the advantages of Sintra board and where you can get it? I like the way the wood structures I've built for my Telluride & Tincup have weathered outdoors, but I can see long term upkeep could be a problem after a few years.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Mike, I like the Sintra first of all because it is very durable outdoors. It's used extensively in the sign industry so it is intended for outdoor use. It's also very easy to work with. You can cut it with an X-acto knife, at least up to 6mm thick. (The 13mm stuff is better cut with a saw, but I rarely need it anyway.)
It's also tough, yet just soft enough that you can scribe it, emboss it, or carve it. I've been able to texture it to look like weathered wood, various types of stone, bricks, etc. It takes paint well, and you can also coat it with stuff like "ceramic stucco" acrylic paste (from an art store).
Ah yes, now I'm remembering some of what you said. Thanks for the recap. I suppose the local plastic dealer w ould have access to this stuff, as they do a lot of advertising things. Need to get me some Sintra to keep busy with this winter
Ray DunakinSintra may have a clear, peel-off vinyl coating, usually just on one side. It's hard to see if you're not really looking for it, and if you don't peel it off, the glue won't stick.
The same thing is true about blue insulation foam boards. I was helping my daughter with a CosPlay prop, and the hot wire cutter was having problems, smelling extra bad, and the sander was not working right.
Then I noticed we forgot to peel off the clear plastic film! Oops.
A little more progress on the power house...
I made the ceiling for the interior. It is detailed with rafters, and will be attached with screws so that I can remove it to access the interior:
I also adding some frame detail to the inside of the front wall. This detail had to be carefully placed so it would line up with the removable interior:
These shots through the side window shows how it all comes together:
Next I started on the corrugated metal exterior. I had previously used real, galvanized, corrugated steel from Rainbow Ridge on my Assay Office building, and considered using it again on this one. But this building has more windows and also many more angles and joins, and the steel is difficult to cut or bend. So I went back to making my own corrugated metal out of .001" thick shim brass sheet. This comes in a 6" wide roll, and I cut into 4" x 6" sheets. I heat the sheets of brass with a plumber's torch to anneal them. Then I place each sheet between two pieces of the corrugated steel, and scribe the groove using a dull pencil:
I start at one end, and scribe a short section at a time until I've gone more the half the length of the piece. Then I turn it around and start scribing the other end, and meet in the middle. Next I flip it over and scribe the other side. When it's done, I trim off that piece (about 1" wide), remove it, place the remaining brass in between the steel, and start over on the next piece. Tedious, but eventually I get it all done. The pieces of corrugated brass are then sprayed with oven cleaner to wash any residue off. After rinsing with water they are set out to dry.
I glue the corrugated metal to the structure using Dynaflex 230 paintable sealant. At this time I have completed covering the exterior walls and have just started on the roof:
There is no need to apply metal to the rear walls, since they will be up against the cliff and not visible. In this photo the rear walls have been removed:
Here are a couple shots showing how it will look on the layout:
That's all for now.
I finally finished creating and installing the corrugated metal. Here's how it looks with all the metal in place:
This overhead shot shows how closely the building fits against the cliff:
Soon I can begin painting it. But first I have to do some work on the doors and windows.
Before I can go any further with the building, I need to create the interior details. These will determine the locations of smokejacks, etc. I'm starting with the largest and most important item, the generator. This will be a "good enough" model -- something that will look good when seen through the windows -- rather than a precise scale model. I'm basing it on this diesel generator I photographed at the Diamond Tunnel mine in Eureka, NV:
I began by building up the "core" shape of the engine, using layers of 6mm and 3mm Sintra:
A piece of 6mm Sintra was added at one end:
I decided that the rectangular openings on the sides were a bit too small, so I cut a little off the top and one end to make the openings larger. The rounded top of the engine was made using a section cut from a 1" styrene tube:
Then the sides were laminated with .020" styrene sheet. The styrene wrinkled slightly in a few places when the glue dried, so I filled in those spots with Squadron white putty and sanded it smooth:
Next I added the arched extension at one end of the top of the engine. I also cut and sanded the top of the engine so that one side has a flat, angled surface, as on the prototype:
The next step is adding the various shapes that protrude from the "core". I began with the piece seen in these two photos:
And that's where it stands for now. More later!
You've got a whole lotta' coolness going on there Ray. In the past it must have been plenty noisy in that prototype power house.
Thanks and regards, Peter
Thanks! Yeah, I wonder about the insulation on the interior walls -- was that just for keeping it cool in summer/warm in winter, or was it to keep the noise level bearable?
That looks like an EMD engine, but it appears to be a 5 cylinder? Didn't know they made such a thing. That had to be incredibly noisy - plus a 5 cylinder isn't naturally balanced like a 6. Even witht he exhaust piped outside - the intake is right there. One place I used to work had 3 big Detroit backup generators, two were in former loading bays and startup was linked to the doors, they would roll up as soon as the engines started, but the entire back half of the building, you had to yell to communicate when they were on.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Yeah, really weird that it only has five cylinders.
Was common to have industrial five cylinder engines. A five cyl firing order can even the power strokes throughout the crankshaft's rotation. I had the pleasure and often displeasure of turning wrenches (big wrenches too) on Clark Bros. 2 stroke piston port engines like the one in the photo. Talk about loud, an engine house with 6 of these beasts running flat out is deafening.
Regards, Peter
Thanks for the info, Peter! Very interesting.
I've made a little more progress on the diesel engine...
This part was made from a piece of 6mm Sintra mounted on a sheet of .020" thick styrene. The bolt heads were made from thin slices of hexagon rod:
The plastic "pupils" from a set of cheap googly-eyes was just the right size for the disks on the side of the engine block:
At this point I realized that I had made a mistake when I added the arch at the top of the engine. There is supposed to be an overhanging extension at the front of the engine block, with the arch on top of that. So I added the overhang, then extended the front of the arch, and cut some off the rear of the arch. Here's how it all looks so far:
There are twenty small covers, plus ten large covers, on the engine, that look sort of like cookie jar lids. I've been trying to find an easy way to make them. Here's my first attempt. I think I'm on the right track, but this one is pretty rough. I'm going to try making another one, and if it turns out good enough, I'll try making a silicone mold and casting the rest of them:
That's all for now. Enjoy!
Very nice Ray, very nice indeed. The larger rectangular covers you're modeling near the bottom of the crankcase appear similar to the crankcase covers on Clark Bros. & Ingersoll gas engines that we mechanics called "explosion doors". Later updated "explosion doors" had a typical bolt pattern with spring loaded bellows to release pressure in case of crankcase explosions.
I'm holding off on those covers for now, and doing something more fun. I started building up the thing that sticks out the front of the engine at the top. It's made of layers of Sintra with some styrene details: