I recently purchased two of these kits and kitbashed them. I am far from done. I basically assembled to two silos without the headhouses. My questions is about the windows on the main tower between the silos. Should I paint the inside of the window glazing black or add a view block?
What are you suggestions?
Will
I left all of the windows clear on my kitbashed version, although it's against the backdrop, so there's not much to be seen inside.
Wayne
Thanks for the kind words, Martin.
The foreground structure is Walthers Red Wing Milling kit, built with all of the kit's walls on the visible side. The back and seldom-seen right end were made from .060" sheet styrene, which I buy in 4'x8' sheets.
The roofs for all of the buildings are also from .060" sheet, as are the loading docks and much of the larger background structure. It consists of a reconfigured Walthers ADM kit, along with an Add-on Silo kit. The silos were assembled with most pieces facing the viewer, and more plain .060" styrene for the unseen sides and all of the bracing. The same material was used to construct the support structure for the main bank of silos and the substructure of the one-storey warehouse on the end. It was then sheathed with Evergreen corrugated siding, except for the roof, which was done with Campbell corrugated sheets. The large signs were done with paint and masking tape.
The horizontal storage tanks were built from plastic rolls from office machine paper, while the three vertical tanks are heavy cardboard tubes, wrapped with .010" sheet styrene that was embossed with rivets.
The entire complex is over 6' long, and generates an enormous amount of traffic for the railroad. GERN even fields some cars of their own:
Currently, GERN has almost 30 plants world-wide, and produces a wide range of products for both home and industry. Here's one of their ads:
Hi again,
I was planning an elevator for a similar narrow spot on my yet-to-be-constructed layout. I already have most of the kits you used on yours. Tonight I will download all of your pictures for future reference. Impressive work !
Martin
Québec City
Will ... You asked about view blocks in windows. I kee pa supply of black construction paper on hand for that purpose, and use it in many of my buildings. (I have also used it in windows of some passenger cars if they have no interior details. )
Wayne ... Wow, That is a great scene! I hesitate to show mine after seeing yours but here are photos anyhow.
My grain elevator is kitbashed from the Walthers ADM kit and some other building kits. The Walthers silos are in two rows, but I split them into single rows. Grain was loaded in box cars through the 1950's.
My flour mill is in another city on my layout, and I kitbashed three Walthers flour mills to build it. It receives grain by rail from my grain elevator. You can see it is build around a corner to the left in the photo.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Thanks again, Martin. If you're building it as a grain elevator, you won't need the tankcar loading facility, the one-storey warehouse or the Red Wing Milling kit. You would also not need to elevate the silos, although I think that it provides a nice change from the usual. I doubt that it would be a common situation, though.
Garry, that's an impressive-looking elevator and the kitbashed additions (New River Mining?) fit right in. The flour mill is equally well-done, too and makes a nice backdrop for your realistic-looking passenger train. Very nicely done.
Thanks Wayne .... The other buildings kitbashed into the grain elevator was from a couple of European grain elevator kits I purchased at a hobby shop having a going-out-of-business sale. I could not resist a very low price. It may have been Pola kits, but I'm not sure anymore. Walls at the far end are left over from my kitbashed flour mill and other kitbash leftovers. ... Passenger train is similar to a football special pictured in a Burlington book. Lead Pullman is a Branchline kit I assembled.
This is another GERN mill and elevator bases on the same Walthers kits.
The mill is made of two kits. The invisible backside is wood for stability only. The building in the back corner is the fourth wall of the mill kits.
The elevator has the backside used as an extension of the front. That doubles the size. The storage bins are two kits (one comes with the elevator) with the backsides added to the front resulting in the fourfold length.
Reinhard
Just a note: The size of the structure would indicate it to be a terminal, rather than an elevator,(although in reality it is) elevators are usually smaller and rural, terminals are usually large gathering areas that receive grains from outlying elevators, just a note.
GERN has nothing to do with grain elevators, other than many modellers use grain elevator kits as a starting point for their facility. Most are involved with mining and milling flux, and, in some cases, processing it for various uses.
My apologies for not responding sooner. First of all, I want to thank all of you for your suggestions and pics. Great modeling. Maybe we should start a thread on here like "Show your Grain Elevator or train station, etc." The bridge thread was very popular.
I am going to try to have mine finished sometime. Right now the weather isn't cooperating and my dad is recovering in the hospital.