Inspiration

[MasonJar]

The roofs at the "top" of the picture in your link do look like doctowayne's suggestion of "composition" - i.e. gravel roofing. The darker patches look like they may be slightly lower areas that are still wet from rain (does it do that in Miami?). The dark areas are quite large and I believe they correspond with the rafters in the structure itself, not with any seams in the material used. In gravel roofing, you don't end up seeing any seams.

However, the smaller/finer pattern visible towards the bottom of the picture in your link looks like "torch-on" roofing. It is thick, tar-like rolls that are literally melted with a propane torch before being unrolled and pressed onto the roof for a permanent seal. The seams are very visible due to the melted tar being squeezed out as the rolled is pressed into place. The rolls are of a size to be handled by one person, hence the fine pattern.

Hope that helps.

Andrew

[faraway]

After you told be what it is (thank you!) I got another idea how to do it.

I got a little image from this web page http://www.cgtextures.com/. It has thousands of images. Under roofing are also the kind of roofs I was looking for. The image had to be replicated some times to get the size of about a standard page for printing later to be glued to the roof. I printed on standard copy paper with a HP Inkjet in standard mode.
That is the result of the first simple roof. It is not perfect but much better than plain light gray paint and I am not so sure if I can do it better with a brush and paint or powder.



This is the pattern for the other kind of roof you explained to me



ps. Santa Claus was late and visited me this morning (he looks like the postman) with a Florida East Coast GP40-2 from Atlas.

[Trucklover]

That Tank Car unloading facility looks pretty sweet!!

[faraway]

I found a simple looking covered hopper unloading facility while looking around in Florida with Bing.
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=nrw7yn8...vl=2&sty=b
I could collect some more information about such facilities with some help in the trains.com forum. The most simple facility attracted my attention http://reliancemixers.com/images/Railcar...Header.jpg

That space saving installation brings covered hoppers onto my layout without any extra space requirements. It is installed between two tracks and mimics a pallet unloading facility for the generic plant (shoe box building) producing some kind of plastics.

[faraway]

I have never been very satisfied with the two smaller buildings in the left background. Gary's pictures gave me new inspiration to replace them with one building better fitting into a modern industrial park. Looking at Gary's photos I did also "steal" Kurt's electric installations on the walls to have more details. However, the flash put it all into a white soup on the photo.



I did also add some palm trees. They (Pegasus Hobbies) need heavy painting as they were very shiny plastic objects out of the box. Looking at a lot of pictures I got the impression palm trees are mostly planted by man in Florida. They do not look like wild growing trees.

[Gary S]

That new building looks good. Glad my photos were of use. Everything is looking "railroady" and quite impressive. More photos please!

[cnw1961]

Reinhard, I really like your new warehouse. What did you use to make it of, styrene?

[faraway]

Reinhard, I really like your new warehouse. What did you use to make it of, styrene?

The box of all my buildings is 1 mm card board. The new one has a 2 cm wide (about an inch) ribbon made of evergreen clapboard under the roof and the electric installation is made from various evergreen rod. The roll gates in the doors are evergreen v-grove. Doors, Windows and two blue walls of the front building are from Pikestuff kits.
Most buildings have a long running wood strip 1cm * 1cm (1/2 inch) for more stability. Often a second one supports the roof. That is very cost effective. Each building costs less than $5.
That the new building from the inside

[Gary S]

Very cool! A nice way to make buildings at a low cost. Very innovative. I like the wood supports inside for strength.

Is that cardboard what we would call cardstock?

What about painting and weathering? What kind of paint? Could a sealer be sprayed on the cardboard first, then paint?

[faraway]

Very cool! A nice way to make buildings at a low cost. Very innovative. I like the wood supports inside for strength.
Is that cardboard what we would call cardstock?
What about painting and weathering? What kind of paint? Could a sealer be sprayed on the cardboard first, then paint?

Yes, it is cardboard/cardstock. My online translation ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://dict.leo.org/">http://dict.leo.org/</a><!-- m --> ) defaults to cardboard. Cardstock is described of higher quality with a high quality surface. That is the one I'm using with a dull white surface. A sheet is about 20 * 40 inch and is good for up to two buildings.

Painting is a problem. I hesitate to use my airbrush to spray that large structures in my home office. I do therefor use spray cans. But spray cans are glossy or silk. The only dull spray cans are primer in the colors white, light gray, black and brown (like boxcar brown). That is the reason why all the building have white walls and mostly light gray roofs. Advantage is the low price of a spray can compared to PollyS bottles.
I spray with the can on the balcony. That is the next problem in the winter. The paint makes problems if it is to cold or if it is freezing.

Up to now no building has been weathered. I plan to use powder. But it is easy to ruin them with to much powder. From distance the most buildings are in good shape. They are not run down. Therefore the weathering should be very light. Some buildings are still removable. I plan to try powder on one of them in the spring on the balcony.

[Gary S]

Great info, Reinhard. I'll have to find a source for cardstock and give this method a try. Maybe a Hobby Lobby or Michael's will have it.

I like using styrene, but it is just so expensive for a small sheet at the LHS. Does anyone have an on-line source for cheap sheet styrene?

[doctorwayne]

Gary, check in the Yellow Pages for styrene suppliers. You should be able to get a 4'x8' sheet of .060" styrene for under $30.00, with other thicknesses available. I find the .060" stiff enough for small structures, and thick enough that you can cut 1/2" wide strips and use them, on edge, as interior bracing in large structures. It's easy to cut using a utility knife (score and snap) and can be assembled with lacquer thinner.

Wayne

[tetters]

Gary if you are looking for card stock look no further then your local grocery store and head to the cereal isle. And buy a Jumbo box of Shreddies or Cherrios. That card board is about 1 mm thick and once you've built something with it and seal it with paint it should resist warping or buckling. I have yet to try it on large structures, however, for smaller structures it works just fine.

[faraway]

... That card board is about 1 mm thick ....

The cereal boxes, at least in Germany, are about 1/2 mm (0,02") thick. That is not thick enough for the buildings of that size. I bought 1 mm (0,04") and 1/2 mm (0,02") card stock when I started with the project. The 1/2 mm card stock is still unused as it is not stable enough.
It is no problem to get a stable structure out of thin card stock, even paper can be used if the construction is modified. The problem are the walls. You need at least 1 mm (0,04") to get very flat walls. They are large objects and look lousy if the thin material bends between the fix points.
Just my two cent

I went to the balcony to take pictures without the flash to show more details

[tetters]

... That card board is about 1 mm thick ....

The cereal boxes, at least in Germany, are about 1/2 mm (0,02") thick.

Which is why I suggested the JUMBO sized boxes. That card board is noticeably thicker then the "standard" regular sized boxes and stiffer. I've even laminated two pieces together to make it even thicker.

If you like I can go home and measure the the thickness to show you what I mean. That said, I've used a variety of thickness in a couple of different ways to get the thickness I'm looking for. In the two small scratch buildings I've done, I've used the Jumbo cereal box thickness, regular thickness and for some reason the cardboard used to pack coke cans is thinner...which I've used for drop siding.

If I may, check out my Interlocking Tower... its made out of cereal box. http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...1&start=75