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Comments
Paul
Thank goodness you are back at work - you are one of my guiding lights! Even to the extent of duplicating your copper blocks - in my case however, steel became the material at hand. My second dozen has just been fabricated. I like your additional boat and am particularly anxious to see how you seamlessly integrate the diorama in a way that allows additions and removal. I have similar aspirations.
Respectfully,
John
Marty
Thanks John and Marty, moving right along (slowly), test fitting the main dock with the foundation temporarily pinned down:
Test placing the various structures:
A bit of trimming on the area around the pit:
The main dock requires a ¼” shelf to rest on (eventually the dock will be level with the main buildings foundation.
The shelf ready for the main dock to rest on:
Next will be finishing the levelling the dock and then onto the retaining and sea walls.
‘til Next,
Paul
John
Ive been away for some time and its been a real treat to come back and see your progress. I cant wait to see the whole diorama done.
The curved front is an exceptional move to give some extra realestate and interest. Very nice.
Karl.A
Thanks Brett, John, Wes and Karl … I’m making progress (slowly) on the Shipyard, the diorama part is the most daunting task for me.
We’re also in the process of getting the house ready for sale, which means I’ve gotta clean up and pack the work shop area of the garage (so far managed to pack all my structure and rolling stock kits, coming soon will be the rest of the shop). I’ll need to figure out what I need to keep the build going during the move. The new house has a roof on it now, they should be shingling this week. A nice surprise is that the basement will have about a 8’ ceiling (or more in some areas), the original design has a steel beam running across the basement at about 6’6”, which would’ve meant the finished ceiling would have been about 6’ in that area … I’m 6’4”, not a good combo. So they dug a foot deeper and I’ll now have plenty of height in the basement. Pic’s will be coming shortly.
Back to the Shipyard:
Scratched my head a few times figuring out the height of the main dock. I first cut the temporary pilings the wrong height (and also glued them to the decking (rather than the beams (trusses?)). The following pic’s show the progression of the mistake …
I should have cut the pilings according to where the pencil is pointing (not the cross bracing). But even still the alignment was way out of wack..
I rechecked with a scrap piece of the 1” styrofoam I’m using and noticed that the length of the pilings is a bit to long, making the adjustment and cutting the pilings accordingly corrected the problem (I think this is because 1” Canadian styrofoam is exactly 1” thick ?
Gluing the test pilings in place.
While the pilings were drying, epoxied the foundation in place:
Moved on to laying the track, I’ll be using wood ties from Mt Albert Scale Lumber. I have a jig from Fast Tracks for spacing the ties, but you can easily make you own jig (or lay them by eye), or just use flex track. First, using the jig to create a strip of ties on masking tape:
Marked off where the ties will to (and also checked with the placement of the dock to see if all’s ok):
Used 2-part epoxy to glue the ties to the foam, the dowel makes it easy to mix the glue and also spread an even coating on the foam:
By the way, I use old hotel room key cards for my gluing, I have a whole stack of them from my travels over the years. It should be noted, when you give your key cards back to the hotel, all of your information (ie name, credit card #, place of residence etc) is still stored on the card. Unless you really trust the hotel and staff, it’s best to either scratch the magnetic surface (ie wreck the card) or just keep the card.
Next will be finishing off the tie(ing), test fitting the dock and then onto treating the various walls around the pit.
‘til Next,
Paul
Hope you post some pictures of the new layout space.
Jerry
Good to see your moving along.
The hotel keycard statement is not correct. (http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp). Your advice to take the card is still sound, but not for the reasons stated.
I cut my dock supports according to the template and they were fine. I would recommend epoxying the posts to the dock.
Marty
I am really enjoying seeing all your hard work coming together. Keep up the great work!
Jim
Thanks Jerry and Jim, really appreciated. Marty, who would have thunk… typical for urban legends, they sound so plausible until looked at closely (I first heard it from Dave Frary on one of Scott Masons podcasts, way back in 2009 I think). I’ll be following your advice and epoxying the posts to the dock, the ones I’ve used to check the dock height are just temporary and set with Weldbond glue.
As for the Shipyard, continue making progress (slowly amidst getting the house ready for viewing and packing). Epoxied the ties to the styrofoam and then sanded flush and distressed with wire brush and #11 knife.
How things are lining up:
Moving on to the pit’s walls, the first brick wall comes in two pieces that fit nicely together and give a great impression of a cracked and deteriorating wall. Painted Floquil Box Car red (instructions call for Floquil Signal Red but this one I don’t have, neither the LHS).
Now for the fun (messy) part. Mixed up some plaster (very thick soup consistency) and rubbed all over the walls:
Let dry for a few minutes and then wiped off excess from the surface of the bricks (dug out some plaster between various bricks with a #11 Exacto knife):
End result, now to let dry and then start applying the weathering (chalks and washes)…
Next will be the stone retaining wall over by the derrick dock.
House update…, the roofs on, the walls, doors and windows are in, the basement floor has been poured, pic’s to follow.
‘til Next,
Paul
Make sure you let us see the new house.
Jerry
Respectfully,
John
Individual ties and handlaid track also looks great, that look is just unrepeatable any other way and is so easy to do.
Excellent modeling. Thank you for sharing with us.
Karl.A
Much appreciated Jerry, John and Karl. Summer (I think) has arrived in Montreal, great day to today (Victoria Day holiday and really sunny and warm). By request, here's a couple of pic's of the house (the important parts...):
The outside without brick and siding:
The basement (app. 40'x30' L shaped room 15' wide, usable MR space...):
I did mention they raised the height of the basement a foot... I at 6'3" or so cannot reach the ceiling... (it's about 9'):
Ok, enough house stuff, here's the end result of the pit's stone wall over by the derrick dock (pitty this will be behind a dock (...I think)).
That's it for now, gotta get out and get some sun.
'til Next
Paul
JohnM
Karl.A
Dave
Don't you just love the brick wall casting? It's amazing that Brett can get the mortar lines so deep into the resin. I found that i played around getting the foundation in correct alignment and having the building sit squarely on the foundation. The foundation had racked and twisted during epoxy drying. Maybe the form collapsed under the pressure of my weights?
You are wise to watch the construction as it is being built. I would suggest toy take lots of pictures on the interiors of walls. It will help you later when you need/want to make some changes. I.e plumbing, electrical, heating and waste services. And to studs for hanging things on the walls.
I hope you can keep the build going during our fickle summer.
Regards,
Marty
Yikes … it’s been three months since my last post (although I have made a bit of progress on the Shipyard). The new house is
now finished (walk through this afternoon), moving starts tomorrow. The house build went well (Gina's 4th new house with this builder, my second), took lots (and lots) of pic's for future reference. Pic's of the new work-shop coming soon.
Thought I would post a few pic’s of the build progress
prior to going off-line (and getting the network (amongst other things… like work-bench) set up in the new house).
The retaining wall behind the dock was treated with a Floquil Grime base coat:
Random painting of stones with Floquil Foundation, Concrete and Aged Concrete:
Once dry, washes with Alcohol and Rembrandt 408.3 (vertical strokes) applied:
End result:
With the walls treated and set aside, moved onto the start of the ships hull.
Last week it was time to get ready for the move so my work bench now looks like this:
That’s it for now, many boxes and stuff to move (I’m amazed at how much “stuff” we amassed after only 14 years in this house).
'til Next (from the new house…)
Paul
The wall is looking good. Glad to see you had a little time to work on the build.
Good luck with the move. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the new house and train room.
Hey at least you still have over 6 months to finish this for the show!!
Jerry
Good luck with your move. Hope it is not as gruelling as some of mine have been.
'til next time.
Dave
The walls look very convincing. Too bad that most of it is hidden by the dock.
Marty
(envious of basement- I live in Vancouver where a million bucks doesn't even get you a tiny rat shack. My wife says if I build the Sawmill, I have to buy the family a bigger home. Yikes …)