Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

Thanks mate, much appreciated !

Cheers, Gary.

 

This weekend I decided to go down the route of kit bashing a few pieces together and build the two tanks that sit behind the shipping container seen back in post #410.

I already have the tanks (which are shown in thread #407), I just need to detail them...

First up I tried heating and bending 2mm Evergreen styrene rod to form up feed pipes for the tanks. This was not going to well so I found an old coat hanger cut it up, bent it as required, then cut to length. (no photo). A larger hole had to be drilled in the top of the tanks for these coat hanger pipes to feed into.

Where these pipes meet the ground, I needed to connect these together, so I trawled through the Walthers Piping Kit and found the required parts. I took two valves and drilled a 2mm hole right through them.

These simply slid onto the wiring feed pipe with a very tight fit. One of these valves had the left fitting removed.

As these two tanks are separate, I had to join them and this was down with a length of mesh walkway (from the left overs box). Having the walkway secured to the top allowed me to join up the pipe fittings at the base. I used a couple of collars/flanges and cut a short length of pipe that comes in the piping kit.

Whilst this was curing, I got to work on the ladder and ladder cage.

The ladder was cut longer than what I needed and I glued the cage rings on. I gave these about 15-20 minutes curing time before adding a few lengths of Evergreen styrene strip (#8202) HO scale 2" x 2".

As this was curing, I cut two pieces of Evergreen styrene tube approximately 6mm long. The rib that runs across the top of the tanks had a section removed from the centre so I could fix these two tubes in place. To the top of these pipes I added two valve wheels.

I trimmed up the ladder and glued this to the tank side. From the spares box I took an off cut of mesh walkway and secured this in place on top of the tanks, leading towards the ladder location. A smaller section of walkway and two scale brackets, I made a small step/landing, below the base of the ladder.

Hand rails were then sourced, trimmed down in length and fitted around the mesh walkways.

So far the model looks like this...

Detail pic of the ladder landing...

Top of tanks detail...

Now I just have to connect a few pipe fitting sections together and run the pipe towards the produce centre. After this is done, I'll give it a coat of paint or two and ample weathering.

More pics coming soon.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Added the extra walkway to the bottom of the model. Work, health and safety applies and we just can't have the workers stepping over an exposed pipe !

I was ready to paint the model and my airbrush is giving me grief. I do have another airbrush, a bottle feed, yet I don't know where it is...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Last night I decided to bite the bullet and purchase another airbrush. Less than 24 hours later and at a whopping cost of $42.00 (including delivery), the air brush is/has already been used to spray the tanks. Thanks Amazon !

I chose 'Aluminium' from the SMS range of paints. If you haven't used SMS paints, they are excellent, but I will say they are airbrush ready only, not brush-able. I did want a slightly darker colour, say a little more towards the greyish side, but my local hobby store didn't have that in stock. The paint has a metallic finish which is what I was after and I'm sure with a little weathering, it won't look too bad.

Here is what it looks like after a splash of colour...

The pipe in front of the tanks will fit into the fitting closest to the bottle of paint. You can also see the end has a small elbow and plate which will allow the pipe to disappear into the wall.

Here you can see I didn't paint the wall brackets (cleats) on the rear so that they will glue directly onto the building (rear).

Now for some weathering. I think I'll start on the pipe extension first and work my way back to the tanks.

Cheers, Gary.

 

New additions for when I'm exhibiting !

I had multiple stickers printed up...

Close up of a sticker...

I designed the logo in Windows Paint and they turned out better than what I thought they would !

And two coffee cups...

I also have two t-shirts with the logo on the top left breast with the layout name under it, but these are still wrapped in plastic !

Cheers, Gary.

 

I have weathered the twin tanks using powders and isopropyl alcohol...

Overall view of the tanks in position on the layout...

Lower step and piping...

Well weathered roof tank tops...

Cheers, Gary.

 

The rear corner between the ferrous processing plant and the existing layout always needed something in there. It is far too small for a container yard, so I gave the area some thought....

The idea is to put in a dead end street, like this image below...

The only difference will be no chain link fence, having that replaced by concrete barriers instead. This aerial view is roughly the same shape as what I want to model and gives a good idea of the landscape around the track and dead end road...

This street view gives a nice representation of the road and industry, although I'll be modelling a small precast concrete shed in low relief.

I set about with a small hobby saw and spatula and removed the existing scenery. This corner had been soiled and grassed up previously. A sheet of 5mm foam core was cut to shape and glued down to the baseboard...

I have cut and scribed a piece of 1mm card as the hard stand (concrete) and scratch built the industrial building. This building is a little more modern than the previous buildings on the layout as it has a gable roof. The concrete barriers show where the road will end.

To the right of the road, an extra low relief flat roof industry will be built. This will feature a few additions to make it pop from the edge of the layout.

This is as far as I have gotten so far. More to follow.

Cheers, Gary.

 

I'm hoping so to Gormo !

Cheers, Gary.

 

It has been 3 months since my last layout update video, it is finally here now !



Cheers, Gary.

 

So after being up late last night editing the video in the previous post, today I worked on the 2nd building that will complete the dead end street scene.

Back in post #427, I showed the scribed and painted card for the concrete hard stand area. Well that piece was made redundant and I cut a new section, making it a little deeper, coming closer to the track, but still leaving a scale 15-18 feet between the fence line and the edge of the track (sleepers/ties).

I also have the gable roof shed 90% complete too. These following pics show what I have changed...

Before...

After...

The gable roof shed just needs the roof painted...

Overall, if you use your imagination, this is what the scene will resemble, although with a lot of fabrication bits and pieces inside the fence and an overgrown verge with dumped rubbish this side of the fence (rail side).

The low relief building has been detailed and painted/weathered accordingly.

Before...

After...

Rather than cut windows, I decided to fill the aperture in with concrete, as the windows kept being smashed by the local hooligans !

I used the same method as I had used on the Salco building, that being a thin layer of fiber paste.

Other details include the electrical switch boxes, conduits and two awnings, one over the personnel door and another wider awning over one roller door. I wish to populate this area with a couple of crates and hopefully some chairs, as this spot is where the workers enjoy the lunch break.

At the moment, I'm waiting on a thin layer of fiber paste to cure so I can work the roadway.

Cheers, Gary.

 

From those pics above, the scene has moved on a little, with grasses, weeds, litter and other bits and pieces transforming the scene into a down and dirty dead end street.

Dumped car tires, concrete jersey barriers, general litter is starting to fill the area up...

The extra low relief building flat is right at home, although the gap between the building and the track needs tarting up...

Vinylelpea (Philip) was kind to give me some of his 3D printed truck batteries, so I put a couple to good use in this scene. A pile of spent batteries has been dumped right behind one of the jersey barriers. As they say, "out of sight, out of mind...."

Thanks Philip, the batteries have come in handy for detailing this small scenic section of the layout !

When I get a chance, I need to visit the hobby shop for some Evergreen styrene so I can build more chain link fences.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Gormo.

Philip done well with the batteries ! The tyres I use are from Juwella and these are actually ceramic ! The jersey barriers you see are actually the Rx Highway Barriers which I cut down to scale 10', then touch them up with a razor saw to make them look a little tired.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you kindly Philip.

The batteries certainly fit the scene and I'll be using more over at the Ferrous Processing plant. I will say that I shared the photo I sent you and there are a few modellers in the US who are keen for your batteries !

Thank you once again !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Through the week I received two items, a Wiking motor boat from the UK and two stickers from a friend in Miami. The boat is a foreign police boat, but I will be removing the 'Polizei' from the sides. The stickers are representative of Donald Irace's layout, 'Providence & Worcester Railroad'.

Between receiving those items and now, I have scratch built more chain link fencing and a couple of gates. Two driveway gates are for Hutchinson Fabrication and the single gate is for the business across the street.

I have included a pad bolt on the gate !

To complete the scene from my previous post, the space between Ferrous Processing and Hutchinson Fabrication had been greened up. The use of three various colours of 12mm static grass was stabbed into place, followed by weeds around the base. A couple of shrubs were included as well.

The fences I made were all measured up and cut to the appropriate length.

I then installed the driveway gates to Hutchinson Fabrication, one opened out and one opened in...

After the fence and gates had cured in position, I needed to weather them up. This was done with isopropyl alcohol and weathering powders. More weathering powders were added to the concrete hardstand...

This aerial view shows off the concrete stained with rust, dirt and tyre marks, as well as a couple of pallet loads ready for dispatch...

More to follow...

 

Bothe the boat and flat bed truck received some grime too...

The boat originally had two blue siren lights on the roll over hoop. These were painted out and then using felt tip pens, they were coloured accordingly. The 'Polizei" lettering was removed with a fibre glass pen and the whole bow of the boat was rubbed back too, just to fade the blue paint.
Inside the boat I splashed around some black wash to high light areas. The trailer the boat sits on was also weathered up with powders/isopropyl and black wash.

The truck had a black wash put over the cab, cab steps, radiator and chassis. The fklat bed deck had been lightly weathered with a thin wash of isopropyl and weathering powders.

I went through my box of goodies and found a set of fabricated stairs and railing. These were painted up and a timber and metal pole support structure was made. The timber is 1mm deep balsa with a few holes drilled into it for the poles to stand upright. The poles are 0.64mm Evergreen styrene rod.

Tie down straps were made from electrical insulation tape and the buckles/ratchets are small pieces of evergreen strip. The ratchets were painted silver after applying the straps and ratchets to the truck.

The building across the street had a fence placed around it as well. This being an older building has a much more dilapidated fence with vines growing on it...

The single gate I built earlier was fixed to the building in a semi open position. IBoth the gate and fencing was duly weathered using isopropyl and weathering powders...

I still need to place more junk inside the fence line of this building. That will happen in good time !

Cheers, Gary.