Winter is surely dragging on. As much as I have a fascination and love for bridges, just like winter, I'm getting a little burnt out on building them now.
Time to change things up. I decided to take on a building scratch build. I've always had an admiration for prairie grain elevators. I always enjoyed the Caboose and Roundhouse wooden kits of the 70s but never did a scratch build. I figured a grain elevator would be easier than the other building I want to model. It will probably be 5 times easier than my ore transfer tipple and a good place to start brushing up on some scratch building skills.
I found a grain elevator on page 208 in the Walthers 2016 catalog, scaled it out and cut out railroad board templates.
I built a quarter inch base out of oven bake clay, miter framed it with cardstock from Hobby Lobby, I thought looked like cement.
I traced the templates on to Basswood siding stock and cut them out with a number 11 exacto blade. I plunge cut the holes for the windows. I used pet screen to make my own windows.
I installed Basswood board stock to complete sectional framing for the structure.
I put the sections together one at a time. As you can see on the member closest to the front of the picture, I left the framing members back enough so the corners would line up correctly.
Here is after I put the corners in and sanded them so everything ended up flush.
There's a few more details left to do with the doors and the grates on the shed floor and then I will be ready for paint. I will bring it back to the top of the page when I get to that point.
Thanks for looking. Track Fiddler
PS. Judy sure gave me a funny look when she saw me working on the glass table again...... you are going to clean up your mess every night aren't you? She asked
Unfortunately, the pics aren't visible. I'd def want to see 'em.
Even though grain isn't a large part of VA's rail industry, I thought to model the large Walthers one. It turns out that there's a few grain elevators in my area to replicate. Of course they're far smaller than those in the mid-west.
Nice job TF ! Pictures work me.
Mike.
My You Tube
Track fiddler I've always had an admiration for prairie grain elevators.
Have you ever seen this very well produced film, TF?
I like the style of editing and story-telling done with this film.
That is an excellent looking model, TF!
Something to be truly proud of
Thanks for showing us, Ed
Came out nice, is that N scale?
You may have convinced me to try something like that. Not that it looks easy to do, but because it looks so neat!
Thanks for sharing. Keep the pictures coming!
Simon
Wow, that is quite an impressive build.
.
Thank you for sharing, and please keep pictures coming.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Thanks for the compliments...... always appreciated.
The video was enjoyed Ed. It was kind of ironic he said we call it the Beacon. I just found the glue on picture 5 (Beacon Quick Set)... zoom in on the yellow tube. It is the best, fastest, quick set glue I've ever used on wood.... I'm a lifer with this glue. You have about 20 seconds to get your wood in place and it flashes.
It kind of made me wonder when this guy tells people what he does for a living..... I hand push boxcars down the railroad tracks to get them in front of my Mill and fill them up with grain. After I fill them I push them out of the way and push another box car up to my mill.
Yeah right! people probably say..... The darndest thing I ever saw.
I'm glad I'm in N scale Uncle Butch. If I had to model all the detail on the inside of the building in Ed's video, I would not be back to the top of the page for another 10 years.
Mel... Yes I am going to do an old wood look. Old painted wood that looks like it needed a paint job 20 years ago. One of my friends in my Railroad Club said this is very hard to do and gave me some pointers. I hope it works. I am in the process of working on it now.
Thanks. TF
RR_Mel Mel
Try this, It was well recommended from a member of my Railroad Club.
He told me to paint things like this. You only paint with the boards, never against the boards and skip boards sporadically. Don't doubt it for a minute.
Disco Duck working hard, referred to me.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Nice work on the prarie skyscraper, TF. Good ol' scratchbuilding.
That film was made in 1981. The only music was the birds chirping. Well, that stationary engine makes a kind of music too.
Dan
It was nice the Bear stoped by and added a little humor to the thread. Unlike the hilarious Diner last night things were getting a little dry around here...... Thanks Bear.
I stayed up late last night and worked on my paint technique. I was told on larger model scales you can use masking tape taped along the direction of the boards. A small-scale like N, it's just better to take a small brush and hand paint sporadically the direction of the boards. Unfortunately I lost my picture after I applied the India ink. I had it. My phone ate it, as I said I hate computers. I do have a practice sample for reference with a rusty Tin Roof sample.
I was told this technique was foolproof. After the India ink wash you can go back and paint more of the color where you feel needed and scrape with an exacto blade where you feel you need less and then put more India ink wash on, one drop India ink in a bottle cap of alcohol.
It turned out okay. I added powder gray chalk to make it look more old. I think I will get better at it the next time around. You can take 20 people and every result would be different but no weathered barn look is the same anyway.
Good-looking results!
Wayne
I agree! what was the first layer? It almost looks like a green in the picture.
But after thinking about it, you could use a shade of red, if you wanted the elevator to look like the original paint was a red, like in the video.
I built Walthers' Cornerstone grain elevator. There's an old, abandoned one in a nearby town.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
lightly sand the structure and the color will vary within the boards themselves.
- Douglas
Good evening all
I half threw in the towel and I'm liking it. I'm working 3 days a week instead of 5-6 and planning on keeping it that way. Now I finally have time for more modeling and liking that too.
Thanks for the compliment Wayne and others Marlon nice modeling, I like it! Mike, the color is Crocodile mixed 50/50 with Ash and watered down so it don't fill in the board joints.
Douglas, I used your advice and sanded the whole structure with 1000 grit. I like the results, it made it more flat and realistic-looking.
Well, I finished painting the interior of the shed and got my rusty tin roofs painted and installed. I weathered the cardstock foundation I found at Hobby Lobby and simulated foundation cracks with a fine point pencil. I may erase them and use a very fine point pen, I didn't have one.
Now all that's left is the sliding shed doors, the truck ramps and tire tracks. I may replace the pet screen windows with some store-bought ones from the hobby store. Maybe not though, they only look goofy when you zoom in on them. To the naked eye they look alright I guess.
Thanks for looking. TF
PS The roofs look more gray and better in person..... something to do with the light of the camera
TF .... Your grain elevator looks fabulous. Thanks for sharing your pictures of the project.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Is anyone else having a tough time seeing TF's photos? I get an "X" symbol. TF: is there a link somewhere to see your work.
I see'em, looking great TF!
I wouldn't worry about the windows,like you said ''they look right''
But,, you lost me on the paint job. I really like the end results, followed the pics but still don,t understand just what you did.
UNCLEBUTCH....you lost me on the paint job. I really like the end results, followed the pics but still don,t understand just what you did.
The process is describe pretty-well in TF's post just above my earlier submission.
Hey y'all.... How's everybody doing tonight?
Kasskaboose, sorry you're not getting pictures on your computer. I'm definitely no authority but it sounds to me like your computer doesn't put together data from Imgur, (my picture host site).... you may have to download a program of some sort. If I could help you out and provide you with a link, I certainly would. I'm kind of a dinosaur when it comes to computers and phones.
UncleButch. I may have been a little unexplicit in describing my paint technique. If you go back to what I described as the Disco Duck paint job. I called it that because when I got halfway done I wondered what the heck I was doing. I was terrified at what I had just done to my model I worked so hard on. The thing looked like a funky wall in a disco parlor.
After that point you use alcohol with some drops of black India ink in it. Make a sample board and do tests on how much India ink per alcohol. On a darker color you're going to use more ink. On a lighter color you're going to use less but India ink goes a long way. You brush the solution over the whole thing. It makes the paint look more drab and better too.
India ink is kind of magical, it's almost impossible to screw anything up with this stuff. It just makes everything flow together and look old.
Happy modeling. TF
Track fiddler...India ink is kind of magical, it's almost impossible to screw anything up with this stuff....
The key word there is "almost"...
I wasn't pleased with this one, but I won't be re-doing it.
Isn't that funny Wayne? I don't see a darn thing wrong with it, in fact, I think your building looks GREAT.
I know where you are coming from though. We are all the biggest critics of our own work. No matter what I do, I always find at least two or three things wrong with it. I'll show my wife or tell a friend and they have no idea what on Earth I'm talking about. I know it's there and it drives me nuts.
I did learn when I was young, not to show the customer a screw-up in my remodeling work I did that only once.
We are the only ones that know our own screw-ups. If you don't tell anyone, nobody else knows
TF
Good morning
I didn't explain too much about the roof procedure.
The material is Evergreen styrene, Board and Batten. It looked close enough like a metal roof to me at the hobby store.
Paint washes work well. I get out some of our best China, put a little water in it and lean it against something so the water tips to one side. These are the colors I used. The Tamiya sky gray was the base coat
Beacon Quick Grip. This glue worked great when I was putting the styrene roof sheets on the structure. You have about 15 seconds to get it in the right position and Bang, the stuff flashes. I hold it for about another 15 seconds and it ain't going nowhere
I needed to make some ramps for this thing, so it was time to dust off the clay roller.
The clay roller only squeezes out 1/8 inch thickness max, so I need to double it up as the base for the structure is 1/4 inch.
I need to mock up a stencil for the ramp with railroad board.
I tape down wax paper, put the clay on the edge of the kitchen counter, sandwich it in the wax paper and smash it at an angle with a book.
I cut the excess off, smash it one more time with the book and then place the stencil to cut it out with a makeshift clay slicer.
Stick em in the oven at 275 degrees for 20 minutes.
I decided I did not like the masonary cardstock on this model, maybe I'll use it somewhere else. The thing is, it's already there and I still have to cut it away to make room for the ramps.
I bought some sheets of Plastruct ABS, Dressed Stone Block. I used alcohol and India ink solution again and found you have to use a lot more ink to treat plastic. I found timing is everything when you're doing plastic, you have to leave it on there long enough but not too long. My fingers are Stained black testing it out before I wiped it off with a paper towel. I said it before and I'll say it again, this stuff is incredible. I don't know what it is with India ink but it does its own thing. How do the bricks come out different colors with no effort and no paint.
Fit in the ramps.
Add Stone.
A cut with the exacto on the edge of the glass table after the glue dried for about a half hour. File, shape, Fast & Final and sand.
Next.... masonry relief joints, cement tone paint, tire tracks and sliding shed doors.
Track fiddler I may replace the pet screen windows with some store-bought ones from the hobby store. Maybe not though, they only look goofy when you zoom in on them.
Great job TF. I wouldn't worry too much about the windows unless you need a little project one day. The only thing I noticed is no grate in the floor for the trucks to dump the grain in.
Here's mine, I just found a Google photo of a grate, sized it and printed it off and glued it down. Off course in real life that Buck would never stand on a grate. But grain elevator spillage is tasty desert for a guy like him.
Great job!
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."