visit sierrawestscalemodels.com

Duluth Company

15681011

Comments

  • There's Jim! Nice hearing from you. Great to hear your keeping busy and I had a blast with the LineSide. It's a great little build and looks fantastic on a layout. Need these smaller projects in amongst the big ones like Essentials. We need to see some pictures of your stuff! Thanks for your take on my scenery so far. It's not the best picture but didn't want to post anything too revealing as yet until it's done. It takes a bunch of time to detail the ground work as I have it. Made a mountain of work for myself but I think the end diorama should be worth the effort...we'll see!
  • Looking great !! Like Jim said it looks so natural.
  • Thanks John. Just made an HO scale RR crossing sign with a dry transfer decal....that's some small stuff!
  • Looking terrific Ken, I'm eager to see more. Really nice scenery work.

    Karl.A
  • Very nice.
  • Thanks Alan...nice to get the moral support from the gang.

    Karl, felt I needed to get something posted so you didn't think I was loafing. I am making progress albeit slow but detailing Duluth as I am is really getting interesting and taking way longer than I originally planned. This I feel is a good thing...back to the bench...Ken
  • looks fantastic Ken, can't wait to see the finished dio.
    cheers
    Dave
  • Thanks Dave, should be wrapping this thing up in a few weeks. Lots of pictures will be forthcoming, like it or not!
  • We like !!
  • More pics the better !
  • Wow - that is a great scene- love the beat up boards at the docks and the landscaping/ barrels , wheel ruts etc, Great scene- making!
  • Karl, John..thanks for the positive on the more pictures. I like looking at pictures as well but don't want to get annoying at the same time. There will be a bunch coming as soon as I finish this thing...keep finding stuff to do!

    James, was hoping my initial "scene" was working so appreciate your comments, the dio is 15" x 9" and detailed throughout so much more to come.
  • Here are a couple of pics of an end fence section I built for the anchor end of a run down wire fence for the north end of duluth. It's a scale 4 foot high by 6 foot long. the bottom posts sections that hang down are to mount in the foam scenery base. See...I am actually moving along with this thing! more later....Kenimageimage
  • Great fence ! What do you use for glue ? You can't see any litle globs that always show up.
  • Hey John, appreciate the comment and I used just very small dabs of plain white Elmers white glue. Ken
  • Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
  • Ken,
    Your detailing is inspirational to me. I could never create such results myself - it is not within my skill set, but having work like yours to look at and attempt to duplicate is a monumental help.
    Respectfully,
    John
  • In follow-up to the one end section of my scratch built wire fence I posted, I have completed the fence at the north end of Duluth. This is the last part of the complete diorama that remains to detail. I will be adding weeds and such along the fence and the area outside the open shed will be an active work area with much going on. The steam pump from previous post will be worked on here as well as pipe storage and assembly etc...image
    wire fence made from drywall tape, strip wood, and Styrene Tee for the metal posts, and Styrene rod for the cross bracing on the end piece and corner piece.
  • Ken, that is a work of art! I just went back a few posts to refresh myself on how you put that together. Can you get in close and show how you are adding the sections one to another? Presumably that seven section fence made as one piece.
    John
  • Hi John, Thanks for your positive thoughts on the fence. I'm trying to post just enough so you guys don't think I'm loafing as the entire thing is almost done. I appreciate you asking about how I did the fence. I don't like to post too much on how I do things UNLESS someone asks as I don't want anyone to feel like I'm suggesting or pandering my methods. Anyway here goes:

    The fence material is the drywall tape as the square holes are the right size and I had some on hand. The tedious part is that the vertical strips of the tape are a bit wider than the horizontal strips so I used a #11 blade and cut each individual section down thinner, about half the original width! The good part is it came out just varied enough that it looks like real wire fencing. I found the tape is just the right stiffness that it holds its shape but can be bent and cut easily..you'll see this on the diorama. The material accepts paint and chalk really well.

    I constructed the end supports and glued the fence material to them separately as the fence needs attached on three sides and needs to look good. I was able to get the fence section right under my nose and line it up and then weight down the material after gluing. I then mounted the one end section and the corner sections to the diorama base.

    I then cut my metal fence posts from styrene "T" and used a #11 blade and made the protruding "hook" like pieces that prototypical fence posts have to anchor the wire. Painted the posts with roof brown than rusted them up. I placed those in the diorama base keeping them plumb along my line and even at the top. I then cut a single piece of the fence material to go between the two end pieces and attached to each post face with small spots of white glue.

    I'll get some good close shots when I post the completed diorama which is just around the corner. Sorry for the winded tutorial, if you have any questions let me know.image
    Here is a shot of the styrene "T" I made the fence posts with. Note the flat face of the post with the prototypical "hooks" for the fencing to attach to. I made these with the #11 blade...tedious..!image
  • Fabulous fence, Ken. Looking forward to seeing the finished dio. You do such good work. And give very good advice.

    Dave
  • Hi Dave, Thanks for the thoughts on the fence, small detail in the grand scheme of things but put them all together and they add up. Have been following your Scotia build and your making great progress and getting a good feel for the weathering and details. Keep up the good work there. I have this kit as well and look forward to getting it started and your build certainly will help. Ken
  • Ken,

    OMG. That is an unbelievable story. I am constantly in awe of how folks like you imagineer these solutions. The tape solution is enough, but then marking up the T stock is over the top. My hat is off to you sir !!!

    Respectfully,
    John

    By the way, Mark Twain said, "Bragging ain't lying".
  • Great fence !
  • Hey JohnM, the detail on the "T" stock was a bit fussy but when you add up all those little details it does make a difference, at least that's how I rationalize my doing that to something 3/64 of an inch wide!. Thanks for your comments as it's nice when folks recognize the amount of "work" that goes into those details and I was pleased with how it turned out. I'm very close to getting things wrapped up on this one and will be posting the results very soon. Thanks again!

    Hi John (shay987), thanks for the note, it looks much better with the weeds and such growing up around it. You can just see a bit in my picture at the far end, the rest will be done soon.

    Ken
  • Still detailing.....here is a pipe storage rack I made out of styrene "H" girder and bar stock. This will hold a couple different size pipes outside in the work area of Duluth. Putting the finishing touches on the fence line and work area...almost there...Kenimage
  • That looks terrific Ken, really nicely done. Particularly the finish, just enough rust to show that its been outside for a while but also well kept enough to show that it's still in daily use... nice balance.
    Oh, and the quality of construction is superb.

    Karl..A
  • Karl! there you are....nice hearing from you and thanks for the comments on the rack. Having a blast with the detailing. Meant to tell you you cracked me up with the Clint Eastwood sound bite...I've seen about all his movies..great stuff. Speaking of racks...no I'm not going to say it! here's one I made for an oil/kerosene/? barrel....also for the work area...image
  • The barrel stand look really good. I see one of the legs look shiny, what did you use to get that effect?
Sign In or Register to comment.