Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 5c

Some guys who go through their second childhood buy expensive sports cars or motorcycles, others buy boats, but no, not me..........I buy Legos!

I finally got a chance to use some of the Legos for detail parts as Rich has done.  I wanted to get a motor and cyclone put on top of the collectors to finish them off. 

At first they looked a little strange with all the bright colors, but with a little imagination and assembling them in an unconventional way [gluing them] I came up with something that could pass for what I was looking for.

 

After the the glue dried I sprayed them with an Oxide Red for a primer and base coat.  The second coat was Floquil's Old Silver which I didn't cover with a solid coat.  I wanted just enough silver on so that the Oxide Red would show through in areas to give it a look as if the silver was wearing thin.  I also painted the pad with a concrete color.

 

The duct work was made with sprues from old kits.  I heated them with a lighter just enough to stretch and bend them into shape so they would enter the building just under the facade.  I just glued the duct work into the square holes on the back side of the Lego. 

Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 5b

Things have slowed a little in Malvern since the last post; Chores on the home front and waiting for some parts.

I did manage to get started on the dust collection system.  I'm waiting for some parts to arrive so I can finish these and get the canopy built over the conveyor. 

I need to get a concrete pad in place, the motors placed on top, run some tubing into the building and then try to come up with some kind of a discharge chute so I can empty them into a truck.

Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 5

Along with all the new construction on the Crushmoore plant, Heavy Metal Co. is finally getting their canopy erected.

While some of the paint was drying on the Crushmoore loading shed, I turned back to Heavy Metal Co. to see about raising the canopy over the unloading platform, which is where I left off before the last ops session.

I added to one of the original sections of the upright bases on the right side so I could have a larger concrete pad where I can have fork lifts and stacks of coiled steel.  I used more Evergreen sheet stock for this that was scored with 1/2" x 1/2" grids to simulate a concrete pad.  It's kind of hard to see in the photo though.

The next thing I need to add are the two rails that the overhead crane will ride on.  It's unfortunate that Walther's never included a gantry crane with the N scale kit like they did with their HO version.  They offer one, but it's no where near the right size for this kit [or at least the one I got years ago is not].  I guess I'll need to scratch build one or kitbash one out of the so-called "N" scale kit I have.  I don't think it should be too hard.

Once I get that done I'll be able to glue this section in place.  Then I can get after the main building;  Add the roof and also cutout a section for a double garage door on the left end of the building, you can see where the two windows are missing.  This will be where the raw material will enter the building with fork lifts once it's unloaded off the railcars.

 

Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 4

This was a good weekend for me, I got quite a bit done at Malvern!

After getting the main building to a good stopping point I decided to tear into the chip loading shed.  I got it partially assembled and then painted Saturday night. Sunday after I got the chores done I found some time to get it assembled and test fit.  I still need to get the roof painted and then I'll need to add a foundation to the bottom of the base of the building,  There is no cork under the siding so I as it sits now the cars just fit under the opening! I also got some blocks of wood cut and shaped for a couple of dust/chip collectors, that will be another small thing to tie up.

While waiting for it to dry I got thinking about the conveyor I needed that will bring the logs into the plant.  I jumped on my old friend Google and started to research conveyors and came up with several ideas.

I went back down to the laboratory and started to rifle through some styrene.

I started with a strip of balsa wood for the base and then added a couple of  styrene "U" channels to each side so that I would have something to glue the sides to.  After getting the sides glued on and knowing that the unit will be sitting back away from the front edge, I thought I might be able to get away without building an actual conveyor bet.  Once it was together, I just painted the balsa wood floor with a dark gray acrylic and viola!  Instant conveyor belt!  Once I put a few logs on the belt, you'll never even see it.

I also need to make a small shed to house the power unit for the conveyor or maybe just a small power unit to sit next to it like  a small gas or diesel generator?

Now I need to look at building a small canopy over the conveyor to keep the weather out. 

Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 3

After getting the siding glued into place, I decided to use a spray bomb of Rust-Oleum to paint it with.  I found a nice neutral color called "Fossil", it looks like a sand color with a tinge of yellow.  For the windows, doors and facade I chose a chocolate brown which I thought would be a nice contrast to set things off a bit.  At this point, I'm not sure I will add trim pieces to the corners of the building or not as it might be a bit too much.

I glued the windows, doors and facade to the building using the same Loctite glue I used to for siding.  The Rust-Oleum has a Satin finish so I will need to spray the whole building down with a nice flat finish before I can start any weathering.

For the roof I used some Wet/Dry 320 grit sandpaper and glued it down to the roof

The next thing I'll need to work on is getting all the roof and building details ready to assemble and attach.  I think some vertical storage tanks might be in order as well.

Overall I think this will work very well for a building technique.  I'm not sure if it's that much cheaper than buying a commercial kit or not.  So far not counting the plywood and my time, I've got close to $62.00 in the glue, styrene, paint, windows, doors and the Legos.  But at least I have a unique building that I can make fit to an area that have.

If you have a bunch of old building parts laying around that you can put to use, then it might be cheaper.  Unfortunately, I didn't.

Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 2

After getting the building cut to size and seeing that it will fit the location, the next job was to add the styrene corrugated siding.  Never having done this before it took a little planing to skin the building.  I adopted my woodworking skills here again and started laying out the sizes so as to optimize the four sheets I had to work with.  As I was doing this I began to wonder what would be the best glue to use for the siding?

I did some research and posted some question on the forums as to what others have used.  Rich used CA glue to stick his siding to his buildings but I hesitated about the lack of time needed to position the pieces.  Others offered ideas of using CA glue, wood glue, liquid styrene glue and water based construction adhesive.

I liked the water based construction adhesive idea the best but had hard time locating any locally, It's made by Titebond,  Green Choice Construction Adhesive.  What I came up with was a water based adhesive glue made by Loctite called "Stick'N Seal"  Basically it's a heavy adhesive caulk, similar to their PowerGrab caulking.

I applied it like contact cement, applying it to the surface of the building, then pressed the styrene to the surface and then removed so it could dry and tack up a bit.  When I reapplied the siding to the surface it attached with a strong grip, but yet it gave me enough time to position each piece.  It works like a slow setting contact cement.  

I picked up some windows and doors from Tichy Train Group and cut out holes for them to fit.  Before gluing the siding into place I used a black Sharpie marker and colored the surface where the windows would be and then glued the siding in place.

 

The corners came out pretty good for my first time but I might go back and either try to fill them or cover them with a corner bead once I get things painted.

Sounds of Construction in Malvern, part 1

With Ops session 6 behind me, I have decided to return to Malvern to continue with the scenery.

Not having completed the Heavy Metal building yet [which was my last project in Malvern], a new fire got started under my butt.  About a year or so ago I ran across a post on one of the forums that I belong to where the poster explained how he built a rather large industry on his layout using plywood then covered it with sheet styrene.  The best part of his build was the way he made use of Lego parts for the roof detail and other details on the buildings.

In my opinion he has done a wonderful job executing this build to a very believable, very large industry without a lot of expense.

Here is a link to Rich's post on The Railwire.

After seeing this it got me thinking that there was no reason I couldn't do the same thing with a decent result.  So I set forth.

Crushmoore Ind. is a Pulpwood plant that resides in Malvern, AR.  It's the largest industry in Malvern so I wanted it to be the dominating structure in town as well.  After seeing the size in Rich's post of his Asphalt and Paper plants, I knew that the "Milton A. Corp. MAC" [PikeStuff] kit that I was planning to use just wouldn't cut it any longer.

The first thing I did was to take some rough measurements in Malvern, then I used SketchUp to get a general idea of what I wanted.  After that it off to the shop to make the general build and see what I could come up.  No, I didn't do a mock up of the building first with cardboard like he did, but being a woodworker by trade, I had a good idea of what I wanted and how I wanted to build it.  This is what I came up with.

The overall size is approximately 23" long x 3" tall x  5" deep.  The head house is 3" x 3" x 5-12" tall.

Once I got it home and set in place I seen that I needed to cut off 3/4" off the backside of the structure so I had enough room to fit an unloading shed in front of it. These were taken before I removed the 3/4" off the back.

 

 

I originally planned to have the small, long setback be where the pulpwood logs would be loaded in to the factory, but after setting it into place I can see that it's too close to the tracks for my liking.  I might make this a place where I can back a tractor trailer under it so bark and scrap can be loaded into the trailer by means of a gravity or drop fill.  

I might need to make some kind of a covered loading bay for the logs against the backdrop to the left of the building now, which should fit the footprint better.