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Comments
For the tipple house roof we cut 26 of the standard panels following the templates, but Brett says paint and weather 20 and I note that you, Bill, pained and weathered 23, I think!! Do we need the others later? I cannot find where.
As I have spare of the same corrugated material I decided to paint and weather the lot.
Michael
Without pictures, I'm confused as well as to how you arrived at 26.
The manual and my entry both call for the same number of pieces: 24.
Here's what I wrote: And the manual on page 40: "Take 20 of the plain rectangular pieces and the 4 just cut…"
The "4 just cut" are the special angled pieces marked 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the pictures on page 41. There are none added later, so perhaps there were extras from the cutting template.
I now realise they are not all the same length but I have not found an instruction other than, "Use Template I to cut the corrugated pieces to size" instruction 1 pg 40. If you exclude pieces 1-4, the template shows two rows of 13, a total of 26, of the standard size all 1 3/8" long. I should have measured the roof for size I guess, but nowhere in the instructions or template (I) have I located the other measurements which clearly are needed as you correctly point out.
Two base supports are glued at the top of the headframe and spaced with a piece of 1/8" stock.
The jig on the top needs to be removed when adding those pieces. I found it helpful to move the center jig up toward the top to help keep the skip rails in alignment. It's important that NO glue be added to the skip rails yet!
The two thin, flat side supports go next. To help keep the spacing equal, I used some scrap pieces of 1/16" square stripwood.
Finally, the top supports are added on top of the base supports. Make sure to look closely at template M for their correct position. They should be off center. See the pictures on page 55 for a better view. I wasn't paying attention and glued mine centered (noted by the arrow and red lines). Again, an additional piece of 1/8" square stock helped keep everything spaced properly.
Moving down to the interior, the skip cage needs to be constructed. Two side walls supports are built on the bench. I went ahead and weathered the pair before their permanent install since they're going to be in a tight spot inside the headframe.
Four side wall supports are cut from the three pieces of 3" long wood in bag 3. The pieces are installed two on top; two on the bottom:
The two side walls are added in between the wall supports and glued to the main headframe timbers using glue only on the vertical pieces.
The four floorboards are added last; two in front and two in back and the cage will look like this:
The metal skip goes in next!
I have a long way to catch having taken time out to go to the Brisbane model train show, 1000k south. Lots of layouts but very very little attention paid to quality buildings. most were obviously straight Walthers or Metcalfe (UK card) but some interesting sugar cane fields made from coil doormats.
Karl.A
The ore skip is a metal cage that would carry the ore cars up and down from the mine. On the model, it's made out of four pieces. Three things to do before assembling:
-make sure to note the top from the bottom on the side pieces (the larger triangle goes on the bottom)
-test for a tight clean fit before gluing
-make sure the side pieces are 100% flat and that a 1/16" piece of stripwood will fit inside the outside grooves:
Epoxy is used to glue the cage together. To keep things square, I assembled it in two pieces using a machinist's square (again, remember to glue the top to the top and the bottom to the bottom!)
Then to put the two halves together, I found it easiest to glue it upside down. I can't remember why exactly, but it's obvious from the picture that's how I did it! (I think the top piece is actually heavier than the bottom piece).
After the epoxy was completely dry, I weathered up the cage with some brown chalks. Then it was is glued inside the headframe. A small amount of epoxy goes on the wooden skip rails and the cage is lowered into position so that it makes good contact with the rails. I wedged some scrap pieces of wood in between the wooden side walls and the rails to hold it in position while the epoxy set up.
The cage's final position should be such that the metal rails of the cage floor line up with the wooden rails added in step 7 (bottom of page 54)
After that, the pillow block castings and the spoked wheel for the top of the headframe are prepped for installation. I colored mine with real dark brown chalk and alcohol, then dusted on some lighter browns. I let the lighter browns absorb any remaining moisture. After that, I ran my finger along the high spots and rubbed off some of the chalk which exposed the blackened metal. It gives it sort of a worn look:
The wheel and pillow blocks are added to the top of the headframe. Make sure to follow the manual closely and position them correctly using a small amount of epoxy. I put a small drop of epoxy on the bottom of the axle and added the pillow blocks. Then, using a TINY amount of epoxy on the bottom of the pillow blocks, I fastened them to the wood on the headframe (it's also a good idea to make sure the flat bottom side of each pillow block is polished up to shiny metal so that it stickes better).
The large #3NBWs are added to the top of the headframe and a tiny #2 NBW goes on the side of each skip rail:
Those same #2 NBW's are added to all of the cross braces along with a small scrap of wood at the intersection of each brace:
All that's left is adding the support legs and the headframe will be complete.
On the 4th image down pg 9, of the headframe with the skip rails. For the spacing of the side supports should it read 1/16th square rather than 1/8th square used to help keep the spacing equal?
you're correct...those spacers are 1/16". I went back and changed it. Thank you!
Dustin-
the grease is actually my attempt to cover up some epoxy that oozed out. Rather than scrape it off, I added plain old black Testor's enamel paint--the gloss stuff we'd use to paint model cars. There's some black and gray chalk mixed in to add a little texture so it looks thick and caked on. I used a really small brush and just played around making vertical lines, adding chalk, adding paint, removing some paint with thinner, back and forth etc. until it looked good. Go a little at a time and keep it subtle. It's real easy to get carried away and overdo it.
Here's the other side...kind of a lousy picture that I snapped with my phone:
I made sure to keep that laser cut portion facing to the outside when attaching it to the headframe because it's more visible. As hard as I tried, I was still slightly off in completing the cut. But the laser cut portion will remain precise yielding a perfect seam. The less than perfect (hand cut) side is somewhat hidden when faced to the interior.
The same applies to the small braces: have the laser cut end face the outside.
The #3 NBW's are added in the locations spelled out on the template:
And here's my finished headframe
The Hoist House is next up. The wall frames are laser cut for you to speed things along. Use care and sand the tabs gently so that you don't delaminate the microplywood. The frames are colored with a little raw umber and alcohol.
There is an interior and exterior to the walls. The interior sides show the framing details. This side should face DOWN on your work surface when it comes time to add the siding:
There's a quick clarification to point out on the peaked walls. There is only a single 2x4 for the header on these walls making it pretty tight when adding the siding. I chose to split the difference of the 2x4 so that both the top and bottom row of siding have something to grab onto. If you favor one over the other, the siding that covers the peak needs the header more than the bottom siding because the bottom has fire blocks in the wall while the peak does not.
I used a piece of tape in order to better see the middle of the 2x4 header and then placed the stripwood guide:
The "U" shaped overhang marker is placed around the bottom of the wall and then a second stripwood guide is positioned against the marker and butted up against the top guide.
This gives the perfect amount of overhang required to create the corner trap out of the siding. We'll get into that and the rest of the hoist house siding next time.
I'm looking forward to seeing your work on the hoist house, such an incredibly detailed part of the kit.
Karl.A
Thanks for the kind review. The headframe is so well designed that it was a pleasure to build.
Martin-
I'd been working ahead and taking pictures all along the way. As you can probably tell, we're full tilt into ski season, so my updates are getting spaced farther and farther apart! That being said, here comes a pretty good sized update...
The siding on the hoist house uses the same coloring procedure as the shack on the tipple: Ceramcoat "Barn Red" with raw sienna (243.3) chalk (detailed on pg 5 of this thread).
One thing that's very common with old wooden structures is that paint doesn't peel or fade as dramatically or as quickly in the areas directly under the roof overhangs. See how almost pristine the red is at the top of the walls?
This effect occurs even on unpainted structures. This example is color enhanced and extreme, but clearly illustrates what I'm talking about:
In order to try to replicate this look, I blotted on additional "Barn Red" at the top of the walls using a sponge (the one I used came from the packaging from some computer parts. It had small tight pores, which helped the paint look "flecked" or peeled).
The sponge had almost NO paint on it--sort of like dry brushing. Then I dabbed it on the top edges.
The "new" paint looked a little too uniform. So to break up that line, I masked off a few boards here and there, blotted on a bit more red and further extended the paint down in those places.
I also added water stains and mild rot at the bottoms of the walls with a some A&I and even small amounts of dark chalks. Here's the end result:
Finally, to tie everything together, I dry brushed all the walls with light coats of brown tan and gray followed by an application of dark brown and black enamel paints heavily thinned with mineral spirits to the bottom boards. That combination seemed to wick up the boards better than alcohol and added a little more rot and water stains at the bottom of the boards and under the windows.
The walls are completed by adding the window frames, glass and sashes. The process is fully detailed in the manual on page 60. You can tell the pieces with adhesive by the pure white backing. Those sides, obviously, do not get colored.
I used alcohol and the 408.5 chalk, but also added shadows and distressed areas with some darker 408.3.
After spraying the "glass" material with Dull Cote, I gave it a film of light tan chalk. Then, using one of the frames as a guide, I scribed in some cracks and missing panes with an Exacto. Those areas were hit with a little more chalk to help them pop a bit. Finally the panes of glass were cut to size and assembled per the instructions.
With all the glass in place, the windows are completed by adding a frame to the outside of the wall. (These are the self-stick pieces) I tried to position them so that there was an equal amount of the lip showing from the inside. Next, the inside frame is glued in place with CA, followed by the lower sash.
There are only three doors on this building. I gave mine a cool look of built-up grime in lower recessed areas. I added really dark chalk and mineral spirit to the areas in shadow and where dirt would collect.
After the mineral spirits dried, I rubbed my finger around in a circular motion to remove some of the chalk--mostly from the center of the 4 recesses on each door. Then the outer piece of the door was placed on top.
I repeated the process for the man door with the transom window above.
With all the windows installed and the doors completed, here's where I'm at with the hoist house:
Excellent update. I really like your research and how you adapted the red coloring to the walls – outstanding outcome.
Now you've introduced a new technique to me. Chalk and mineral spirits. Looks like 408.2 or black. What is the rationale for using the mineral spirits? Another outstanding result.
Seems like every time I read something on this forum, I learn something!
David U
Using mineral spirits was just an experiment that I tried.
I was losing all the tiny detail in some of the pieces. Like the fine lines on these doors:
So I started over and removed all the chalk/alcohol and colored the door with enamel and mineral spirits thinned WAY down. I liked the result and wondered how the spirits and chalk would work. It has a longer drying time allowing you to work with it. Also, the chalk doesn't build up like with alcohol. Sometimes, like in this case, I didn't want a large build up of texture. Using spirits will do that for you.
I just got back to looking at this.
May I say an exceptional job my friend.
Jerry