United Corn Growers

[2-8-2]

United Corn Growers is a cooperative owned by more than 900 farmer producers in the nation’s Grain Belt region, including: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and others.

The region combines excellent work ethics, good transportation, a strong agricultural infrastructure, diversified crop and livestock enterprises, and progressive farming practices to create a spirit of cooperation and partnering.

We provide quality farm inputs to our member patrons. Farm supplies include feed, seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and petroleum.

The Project

Anyone who models the pre-1960's era can appreciate wooden grain elevators, which once littered the North American landscape. The vast majority of these structures are gone now, having gave way to concrete facilities. If anyone is interested, please feel free to use the above image on your own wooden grain elevator project. This way, these magnificent structures can continue to live on, if only in miniature. Perhaps UCG can represent what once was, and be a multi-layout, multi-scale, feature across dozens of landscapes.

Personally, I will be using the Branchline Trains Laser Art wooden structure for my own build. I'll be sure to post progress pics here! Maybe we can have another GERN-like phenomenon.

[2-8-2]

I started building the structure earlier this week, here is the progress thus far:

Step 1: Assemble the outer shell.
For that aged wood look, I first spray painted the pieces while still in the parts tree with some 99 cent Wal-Mart gray primer. The backside was painted flat black. With the paint still tacky, I sandwiched the parts between 2 sheets of wax paper, then pressed them flat under pressure of some heavy books overnight. By morning, the pieces were flat and dry.

Here, I have used tape to help hold the assembly together while applying the glue. I've used rubber bands to hold the whole thing together and to keep the corners square.



Step 2: Trim details
I applied the topcoat of white to the trim pieces using some tough Krylon spray paint. Everything lined up nicely because the shell dried nice and square. Gaps in the trim at the corners were filled with spackle and sanded smooth.



Step 3: Final paint and weathering
After the spackle dried, the entire shell got a light dusting of the Krylon spray paint. After it dried, I began sanding to remove some of the top layer of paint to let the gray undercoat show through in places. The end result gives the appearance of weathered wood.



Step 4: The details
Here I have glued the roof pieces on and applied the windows. Some of the trim had to be custom cut to allow the loading shed to be mounted flush against the back of the building. In the background, you can see the office building has been set aside to dry.



Step 5: Foundation
With the foundation stuck firmly in place (the kit uses 3M sticky backing), I masked the area off with tape and painted it a brick color, which was a mixture of Oxide Red, black, and gray. Once the paint dried, I spackled over everything and then removed just enough spackle, leaving some between the bricks. This was the first time I've used this method, and it turned out rather well I think.

[nachoman]

looks great!

[doctorwayne]

Lookin' good, Tony.

Wayne

[mooreway]

Love the brick work.. Your project is turning out nice...

[Ralph]

I like it! Nicely done! Those old elevators had a lot of character.
Ralph

[2-8-2]

Almost done!

The structure itself is finished, as far as everything that came in the kit goes. I still need to make a custom decal for it.

[viperman]

Nice!

[2-8-2]

Done!

[LynnB]

Building came out great and nicely weathered. I like the way the attached shed's roof dips a bit giving to some realism. How did you get the morter lines to look so good?

[2-8-2]

Thanks!

For the foundation, I first painted all the pieces a brick color (Oxide Red w/ Black mixture.) Then I painted random bricks a few other colors, which isn't easy in N scale, lemme tell ya!

After the paint dried, I smashed and smeared some spackle over the whole thing, working it into the cracks between the bricks. Then I just scraped off the excess with a toothpick while it was still wet. After that, I used the old fashioned spit and rub method to smooth it out.