Franksville Wisconsin N-scale modutrak module buildout

[Philip H]

LOL - I actually just used what I had on hand. Yes, a mini trowel or maybe even a piece of styrene cut with pinking shears would work. The only trowel I had was a larger 10" unit and would have been way to big. That said, you are often working in very small tight spaces where you need to spread the grout carefully. Smaller instruments definitely help.

- jamie

Go to Home Depot or Lowes, get a 2 inch plastic putty knife in the paint section.  Apply said pinking shears.  Presto!  It lasts longer then the styrene.

[lashedup]

Good suggestion Phil.

Dave you are right. We definitely need a bar or two (or "tree"). There is a space next to the Franksville depot that was a barber shop at one point. We could easily turn that into a nice little tavern with some Blatz Lite on tap.

Also, there is a house by the Caledonia depot that is also a local watering hole (although I don't know if it was in the 1950's).

- j

[lashedup]

Another update. Painted trim on Klema Store. I like the contrasting trim, it's prototypical for the period and I think I'll use it on the trim on the feed mill as well. I'll spare you guys the next update till its basically done with roof, signage and more.



Got the basic roof on the HP Hansens cinderblock building. I haven't glued the sandpaper down yet as I'm going to airbrush it a different color. Roof details and lots more need to go on that building, but it is coming along. When I paint the roof I'll also paint the HP Hansens feed mill building.



Lastly, I've started construction on the coal bins. Decided to scratch build them board by board so they look more realistic. Ran out of styrene, but they are coming along too.



I'm going to be in New York City early next week for the auto show and probably won't get much done the next few days.

[Dave Schneider]

Jamie,

What are you doing on the top edge of the cinderblock warehouse? I haven't had much luck with making those terracotta tiles that are typically used. I may punt and use metal flashiing. As for the roof, I used the SSD to scribe tarpaper edges, sprayed with texture paint, and then painted oily/grimy black. It looks pretty good and provides some relief and texture to the flat roof.

Best wishes, Dave 

[Chris333]

HEY!  That coal conveyor...  You could sell those you know (hint hint)

[wazzou]

HEY!  That coal conveyor...  You could sell those you know (hint hint)

Is that something you etched up Chris?  I could use a couple of those.

[Chris333]

No not me, but I like it 

[lashedup]

Chris, I bought it here:

http://mts.inline.net/merchant.ihtml?id=5&step=2

Model Tech Studios. They need some search engine optimizing of their site because it wasn't easy to find. It is primarily a resin kit, so it needs some clean up, but otherwise works well. There is another piece that catches the coal from the bottom of the hopper that goes with it. I need to weather it up a bit and I'm waiting on some coal products from Arizona Rock and Mineral.

- Jamie

[cv_acr]

Once it dries it will look like this:

This
is the best looking gravel lot and transistion from paved road to gravel lot I've seen. Great technique. I will definately have to remember this.

[diezmon]

speaking of grout,  if you don't want to have to deal with the spray bottle, you can also paint down a layer of glue/water, and sprinkle the grout on that way.. then I use the 'ol paper method to smooth it out.. 



Ok, done hijacking.. 

[lashedup]

You're not hijacking anything, that's the point of threads like this - to help share ideas. I thought about doing what you said but was worried that the top layer wouldn't get saturated enough to hold together and that if I tried to press it down with paper and the grout was wet at all it would stick to the paper. Obviously it must work. I like the way that turned out!

Just a quick update...

I got coal bins finished and got the initial coloring of  the styrene done:





Next I have to stake it down to the module, plant some weeds and such and then cut some foam for the coal piles and cover it with coal and coal dust (Arizona Rock and Mineral stuff). The coal gets all over the place, so the ground all around this thing is going to be a mess which should tie it all together nicely. I also weathered up the coal conveyers.

Did some other minor detailing to some of the buildings as well and get the in-ground truck scale built. More photos later.

-jamie

[lashedup]

Ok, so I got coal into the bins and that area is taking shape.

First I pinned down the coal bins with piano wire and CA. I also dusted the area underneath with black chalks and some of the Arizona Rock and Mineral coal dust. Then I cut out some pieces of foam to make the base of the coal piles:



Then I painted the foam pieces and wet everything down with matte medium.



 I sprinkled the coal over everything in that area. I have three bags of coal dust, very fine coal and fine coal from Arizona Rock and Mineral and I used a sifter to make another variation. Then I rewet everything to soak it a bit.



In the end it turned out pretty well. I need to blend a few areas, plant a few weeds (and dirty them up) and fix a few details, but I'm pretty happy so far.





Here is an overall view so far:

[sirenwerks]

Question Jamie... How does the coal get from the hopper to the bins? There's a conveniently timed article on modeling a small coal dealer by Jim Six in the latest HTBRL, showing the same dual conveyers you have where the shortie's inserted between the ties under the rails in a shallow pit. Where the conveyers used over the rails as well or are you adding a pit later or are you fudging it and I should keep quite?

[Sokramiketes]

Question Jamie... How does the coal get from the hopper to the bins? There's a conveniently timed article on modeling a small coal dealer by Jim Six in the latest HTBRL, showing the same dual conveyers you have where the shortie's inserted between the ties under the rails in a shallow pit. Where the conveyers used over the rails as well or are you adding a pit later or are you fudging it and I should keep quite?

Hopper, or gondola, a couple guys with shovels used to be able to unload cars in many small towns like this.

[lashedup]

Question Jamie... How does the coal get from the hopper to the bins? There's a conveniently timed article on modeling a small coal dealer by Jim Six in the latest HTBRL, showing the same dual conveyers you have where the shortie's inserted between the ties under the rails in a shallow pit. Where the conveyers used over the rails as well or are you adding a pit later or are you fudging it and I should keep quite?

Valid question as I had no idea that's how those could be used. I assumed that they just put it under the hopper chute and the conveyors moved it on down the line to the bins. While I could carve out underneath the tracks, I think in this case I'll just say they used it between the tracks and hopper chute. I'd like to see that article though.

Working on roofing tonight. I forgot how much "fun" these paper 3-tab shingles are to lay down...    ;D