I think I will build the Vollmer oil refinery to my layout. One aspect I like it is takes up little real estate. The only detriment from photos I see are the rivets look too large. Anyway, I will want to add a number of oil tanks and such. I see tanks from Walthers, Kibri, Rix and Tichy in the Walthers catalog. Are there others you suggest to look at? I guess I can use styrene rods for extra piping, but how would I make the bends? And does anyone make pumps to add by the tanks? Any suggestions appreciated.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Look to Plastruct for good details. They also have a refinery kit and it includes much that is useful. They have a system that involves plastic-covered bendable metal rods, a bunch of different fittings to fit, and pumps and other items.
Walthers makes a decent loading rack, although this could be scratched easily. they also have a refinery piping kit.
Stewart has a pump station.
You can find PVC pipe caps in the plumbing supply section. 4" ones work well and just need some sanding and minor cleanup, maybe a wrap of sytrene, to work well if you want a big tank farm. Here's a pic of most of my refinery. Ask if you have a question:
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks for the leads!
Mike, are those tanks scratch built or kits?. To create steel plate look on tanks, could I scribe styrene, then wrap a PVC cap with good effect? What thickness styrene recommended? Who makes ladder materials? Any details welcome.
I ordered the Vollmer refinery kit today, which plus a couple propane cylinders will be the core of my system. Will add some tanks, for sure. Finished the Walthers loading rack yesterday (fun to build). Looking at the Plastruct kit, definitiely interesting, but would modify how things fit together.
P.S. - Mike, my son-in-law is an avid Illini, married to an Aggie :)
Paul,
The small tank that is closest in this shot was built out of the Plastruct refinery kit. I think it's also available as a separate kit and certainly as just parts from them. The blue shack is from Rix. Behind it is my Stewart pumping station, then the small tank.
This shot shows the other end of the refinery. My main splits the loading racks from the refinery proper, which is squeezed into the shoulder of a curve, protected by a bit of fascia backdropping. All the refinery towers are also constructed out of the Plastruct refinery kit. You can see the pipes, etc I described earlier. The fence is Walthers chainlink. Nothing's really hooked up right now, but I'll eventually get back to this scene and finish it off.
Finally, here's a good pic of one of my PVC tanks. It's made of two 4" PVC caps, the one's with the flat ends. I sand them down on my belt sander, the glue one on top of the other. The vent is from Cibolo Crossing. I use a strip of styrene around the middle to disguise the seam between the two ends. The stairs are from the Plastruct kit, and the "concrete" base is a circle cut from the gray plastic sheet that, again, comes with the Plastruct refinery kit.
The three tall tanks in the pic in my first post by the loading rack were made of leftover Walthers oil distributor tank rings. I may have some Grandt oil distributor tank parts in there, too, not sure. I sure wish Grandt would run that kit again, it's nicely detailed and priced right. The loading rack in the first was bashed from leftover parts from the Walthers refinery piping kits, plus some styrene bits and pieces from Plastruct refinery kit. By now you've probably decided you need that Plastruct refinery kit. Watch the Walthers sale flyer, as it regularly comes on sale. I'm currently working on my 3rd Illinois degree, wife works on staff. Sorry about the sucky sports teams.
The three tall tanks in the pic in my first post by the loading rack were made of leftover Walthers oil distributor tank rings. I may have some Grandt oil distributor tank parts in there, too, not sure. I sure wish Grandt would run that kit again, it's nicely detailed and priced right.
The loading rack in the first was bashed from leftover parts from the Walthers refinery piping kits, plus some styrene bits and pieces from Plastruct refinery kit. By now you've probably decided you need that Plastruct refinery kit. Watch the Walthers sale flyer, as it regularly comes on sale.
I'm currently working on my 3rd Illinois degree, wife works on staff. Sorry about the sucky sports teams.
Real tanks do have seems between the pieces of steel that comprise them. Rather than hide the one, it would be more realistic to scribe some more seems in the tank.
PS - That black column in the picture of the process unit looks like a blowdown stack. I know it is a model of a refinery with no actual flammable vapors, but my refinery model will include such a thing and the unit would look more prototypical if that was another process vessel.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Ericsp,
Yeah, the two big tanks were quick hacks to get something in place. In the longterm, I'll either rework them or replace entirely with better. For that center seam, the way these were made was with a sorta large radius, so there's no way to get a clean single seam that would look good without a lot more work. Fortunately, these are where you can't really see them closeup with contorting yourself a little because the backdrop blocks view from the aisle directly.
As I noted, I still have more to do with the refinery. The Plastruct kit builds a couple of round high pressure tanks, plus some other items, plus would give you plenty of material to build other items someone might have plans for. My problem is a lack of room for much more. I've given some thought to adding a photo mural of a tank farm and other structures to the backdrop, but haven't found just the right thing yet. That would expand the perception of the refinery's size.