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Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
Posts: 3,683
Threads: 118
Joined: Jan 2009
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
Posts: 3,683
Threads: 118
Joined: Jan 2009
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
Posts: 3,683
Threads: 118
Joined: Jan 2009
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
Posts: 3,683
Threads: 118
Joined: Jan 2009
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
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Get photos Gary. I love the crooked track. My guess is the warehouse no longer ships by rail. In the first shot after the maps for it, down to the left in the picture for the spur track, the rail joiner plate (?) has been removed or is missing.
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The trouble with all of the factories today is that they all look the same - large, functional boxes.
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MountainMan Wrote:The trouble with all of the factories today is that they all look the same - large, functional boxes.
Yes, and therefor they are mostly ignored by us. They are simply to trivial. But if you look around since 1970 you can not ignore this kind of buildings. They are everywhere.
That is the reason why I picked them as the main theme for my layout. The next surprise pops up when you have a closer look. They are not all the same. There are thousands of details you can model to get "your" building.
Another aspect is the simplicity of the base structure. As you wrote they are boxes. You can build the base structure quite simple and than concentrate on the details. If you use card stock as I do it is a very cost efficient kind of models.
I felt in love with boxes
Reinhard
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I'm with you Reinhard. This is a great industry to model. Even though many of the "box buildings" look the same, fact is, they are unique in some respects... the trim at the top of the building, the trim color, the weathering, the vents and pipes and downspouts, the electrical boxes and conduits, the doors, windows, various appurtenaces, and the canopy over the dock where the covered hoppers go in the building.
I think with more unique models like a coal mine or something, because the structure is unique and interesting in and of itself, the little details may be forgotten or ignored. But with the boxes, because the structure is simple, we can look for every detail to add to it for interest.
Because of the ready availability of Walther's kits, many layouts end up with the same exact buildings as ten thousand other layouts. But building a structure from scratch, while just being a so-called "box," actually results in a very one-of-a-kind model as far as the hobby goes.
On that note, I will most likely model the railroad side of this industry on my own layout once I get to that point.
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
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There is another aspect on "boxes".
Those boxes have two hidden challenges I did not see really mastered on a model
1. Plain walls with only little extras. They have a base color between white and some kind of gray. But it is not realistic to paint then with one color. There are lots of shades. The gray concrete wall in this thread show the imprint of older loading docks that have been closed. They are clearly visible but they are are only a shadow in the color no relief. An indian ink wash might be a starting point followed by some powder but who did that successful?
2. The buildings have huge amount of roof space. The explanation of the prototype was provided in another thread. But how to do that? I painted them gray. That is not the solution. I did print out some image files and glued them to the roof space, somewhat better but still far away from the prototype.
We have concentrated our skills over a along time to optimize brick walls and roof shingle. We are very successful to do that. We have also mastered small sheds with a roof similar to the "boxes". Today we try to escape from that problem with fresh white painted walls and invisible roofs because the "boxes" are used as background buildings.
Therefor are box buildings so easy and so complicated at the same time.
Reinhard
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The real beauty of those box buildings one could knock out several walls for different structures at a time and add the specific details as he/she builds the individual structure.
Larry
Engineman
Summerset Ry
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