G'day All,
A few days ago I posted information about a new downloadable and printable paper & card(stock) kit for a modern factory building from Scalescenes, a U.K. firm. they describe it as as following:
This very flexible modular kit can easily be built as a flat, low relief or full relief structure and has everything you need to create a realistic lineside industrial scene including:

Rolling doors that can be placed as required
Fully detailed interior with optional overhead crane
Optional graffiti, choice of blue or white cladding
Selection of warning and editable business signs
Realistic floor, office and loading docks

The actual web page is at:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.scalescenes.com/products/T00">http://www.scalescenes.com/products/T00</a><!-- m --> ... l-Building
Once paid for and downloaded you can print the kit as many times as you want.

I raised awareness of the kit in the thread:
New Downloadable Factory Kit from Scalescenes
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5013">viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5013</a><!-- l -->

I have just printed off my download of the N SCALE version and sprayed the printed sheets with a `satin' finish acrylic varnish type spray. I plan to begin construction in the next few days. I will be building it as low relief, two bays wide structure to be placed against the layout edge to take advantage of the interior detailing.
I will be posting my progress and I am inviting anyone else who is building the kit to add their input also, no matter what scale they are working in. We can all learn from each others experience.

Regards, Andrew G.
My Model Railway blog: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/">http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/</a><!-- m -->

Andrew,
This single track TTRAK looks interesting.Is it a common thing in Australia?.Enjoyed your blog and put it in my favorites folder.

The fellow that does Scalescenes is a contributor at the RMWeb.co.uk site, which I cannot log into for some arcane reason (I don't think I've been banned).

G'day Catt,
Single track T-TRAK is only just starting off in Australia with 'John of Western Australia' (as referred to in my Blog) and myself the only known modellers with constructed modules, although I know of others who are planning to try it out. Single track is particularly attractive for modelling Australian railways as most of our rail network, both interstate and intra-state is single track. Plus there were a large number of single track branch lines lacing the country-side.
Thank-you for the compliments on the Blog I hope to up date it soon as I have been laid low for 5 months with a fungal form of pneumonia plus my rheumatoid arthritis that keeps me a bit slower than normal.
Regards, Andrew G.
My Model Railway blog: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/">http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/</a><!-- m -->

G’day All,
I have spent some time working on the Scalescenes kit and already made some errors due to my changes to the structure to make it double the normal width. The fact that the error will be on the track side of the building’s layout front side location will mean that it will be out of view 99% of the time. Future builds will hopefully avoid the error and even benefit from it.
Basic methods, materials, etc:
The printed paper parts used either on their own or stuck onto various thickness of card (light, medium, heavy). For N scale Scalescenes recommends:
Light: approx. 80gsm
Medium: approx. 200gsm
Heavy: approx 1mm thick.

For my build I am using the following materials as available at my local newsagent in rural Australia:
Light: 100gsm paper/card
Medium: `6 sheet' card
Heavy: `10 sheet' card

After printing off the paper sheets I sprayed them with three coats of a spray can acrylic satin finish `varnish’ that dries clear, not yellowish.

For gluing the paper onto the card I use a plain `Glue Stick’ as the comparatively dry glue does not soak into the paper and threaten to make the inks run. It also allows a small amount of adjustment time.
For gluing cut out components together I normally use a fast drying yellow PVA type glue that is sold here in Australia by Bostik as “MDF glue”. Large gluing areas excepted, this is normally applied using the points of toothpicks or bamboo meat skewers.

After sticking all the various components onto their appropriate sheets of cardboard and letting the glue dry for an hour or two I began work with cutting out the UPPER SECTIONS of what would become the rail side wall. Each wall has an inside and out side component stuck onto the THICK card. As with all kits, reading the instructions twice and examining the parts twice before assembly pays dividends in both the short and long term. These components have a definite TOP and BOTTOM arrangement that needs to be noted.

[attachment=9476]

The blue coloured sheet is the outer wall and the grey coloured sheet is the inner wall.
I figured out that butt joining the two wall sections would not be a good idea and that somehow staggering the joints would be a good idea, however I cut up one of the outer walls as follows:

[attachment=9475]

This has left two joins on the outer wall that have to be covered with some form of ducting or down pipe (which will be even trickier when you find out in later posts where I cut the door openings out! A better move would have been to cut one of the inner walls in half or one-third/two-thirds to create the staggered joint. The outer wall joint would have been in the center of the outer wall and where the two downward sloping rooves meet, justifying a down pipe to cover the join. A more adventurous method that avoids the join between the two walls sections would be to cut out the wall sections in their paper sheet form and stick them down adjacent to each other directly on a piece of card.

[attachment=9474]

The grey inner walls have three darker grey horizontal bands. These mark out where the `girts' go. The girts are the horizontal beams that the metal sheeting of the walls is attached to (I assume). They are carefully cut out and following the instructions I ran down the side of each one with a grey felt tip pen to cover over the white card edges. I only had a darker grey on hand, if I had been able to raid the kid's collection I may have been able to find a lighter grey to enable a lower edge in shadow and upper edge in light effect for the girts. I got the glue on the girts by carefully pulling them through the top of the glue stick while gently holding them down with the forefinger of the other hand.

[attachment=9473]

[attachment=9472]

In `real time' I have gone a bit further than this but writing up the post takes almost more time than building the kit! I hope to get back in a few days time. Questions and feedback most welcome.
Regards, Andrew G.
Always learning, from both wins and losses.
My Model Railway blog: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/">http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/</a><!-- m -->

G'day All,
After reviewing my progress so far and some lessons I have learnt I have decided to put the build on hold for a week or two until I have built a module for my test of concept modular industrial switching layout to make sure I have the correct dimensions. I am also going to re-start the build with using some of the lessons that I have learnt so far. Some of those lesson have not been posted yet but they will be revealed when I recommence the thread. This is not to say that kit has problems, it is just my application that requires some careful thought.
Fortunately I will not have to print out the entire kit again as I learnt a technique from somewhere on the web that allow you to print individual components.
1. Open the pdf file containing the Scalescenes kit.

2. Find the page which contains the component your want to print.

3. In the top right hand corner of the window are three dialogue boxes. From left to right they are 'Minimize', 'Restore Down', and 'Close'. Click on 'Restore down'.

4. Using the '+' or '-' buttons on the image zoom command bring the image up to 100%.

5. By moving the right and bottom margins of the window and using the scroll controls on the right hand side and bottom of the window you can work away until only the component that you want to print is visible in the window.

6. Open the Print dialog box. Click on `Current View'. The preview box should show only the component(s) that you have isolated.

7. Set 'Page Scaling' to 'NONE'.

8. Click on 'OK' to print.

If I've communicated the directions properly only the desired component should be printed.
This is someone else's idea that I have picked up, and its a really good one!!!

Regards, Andrew G.
Always learning, from both wins and losses.
My Model Railway blog: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/">http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/</a><!-- m -->

AND JUST AFTER I FINISH ALL THAT WRITING I FIND THE BETTER MOUSETRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For a really easy way to print individual components go to:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19336">http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Fo ... =6&t=19336</a><!-- m -->

Regards,
Andrew G.

G'day All,
As a way of getting started back on this thread I thought I would post a picture of the two glues that I use. This is how they appear on the Australian shop shelves. Overall they do a good job.
As I wrote earlier in this thread:
For gluing the paper onto the card I use a plain `Glue Stick’ as the comparatively dry glue does not soak into the paper and threaten to make the inks run. It also allows a small amount of adjustment time.
For gluing cut out components together I normally use a fast drying yellow PVA type glue that is sold here in Australia by Bostik as “MDF glue”. Large gluing areas excepted, this is normally applied using the points of toothpicks or bamboo meat skewers.
[attachment=10047]
Plus, an image of the start of the new structure that I will introduce after I finish outlining how far I got with the first version of this Scalescenes kit.
[attachment=10046]
With the kids back at school next week and some other factors making life more `normal' I hope to be writing again soon.
Regards, Andrew G.

G’day All,
I will attempt to briefly outline the rest of this build up to the point where I decided where I would start again.
The photo below shows one of the lower wall sections cut out and the brick pattern about to be stuck onto it.
[attachment=10170]
The next photo shows the two lower wall sections attached to the upper wall section. Here you can see how I staggered the upper and lower sections so that I did not have a join running the full height of the wall. As I wrote before I got the arrangement the wrong way around. If I had left the two upper sections as they were and cut one of the lower sections in half to create the `stagger’ I would have been able to run a down pipe over the join and had the joins in the lower walls covered by some loading platforms.
[attachment=10169]
At this stage I skipped over assembling the internal frame until I was sure I had this wall all together as I wanted it.
Here I have cut out the door openings as per the instructions (Steps 16 & 17), and this is my first major gripe with the instructions. Unless you have a really sharp knife, trying to cut neatly through the two layers of cardboard on the upper wall is a real pain and very difficult to do neatly. On the new build I have done careful planning and measurement and cut the openings before assembling the walls.
[attachment=10167]
This is the inside of the wall and you can see the ragged edges. I have also done Step 18, assembled and glued into place the door supports on each side of the door opening on the inner side of the wall.
[attachment=10166]
Here you can see how I fitted a cover strip from the extra metal siding patches on the print out. The colour was not a good match, but at least the extra material is there to use for patching up gaps. I also fitted the safety striping as per the instructions (Step 19) and then realised that there would be a platform in front of this for the railcars and it was not a road vehicle entrance! Still you do get to see how they fit on.
[attachment=10165]
One more post to go on this first build!

Last post for the first build:
To cover the edges of the two sheets of thick cardboard Scalescenes provide these edge caps (Steps 20 & 21).
[attachment=10173]

This is one of the nice detail parts on the inside of the building, what Scalescenes call the Door tops (Steps 23 to 25) and which represents the cowling that goes over the roller door mechanism and the roller door when it is rolled up. After having made up one according to the instructions you could then measure the overall dimensions of the roller door hood and make some out of styrene or wood, which might be a bit easier. I also fitted the actual doors according to the instructions, with one door completely closed and the other almost completely open.
[attachment=10172]
[attachment=10171]
At this point I got a bit frustrated with the mistakes I had already made, e.g. the arrangements of the overlaps on the major wall sections, plus ragged edges on the door and a few other things. So I decided to start over again using the experience gained in terms of both the overall building structure and the various aspects of the kit.
The first new building will simply be a three rail door structure with no inside details except for perhaps the area immediately surrounding any open doors. After that I plan to build a version that will be on the front (Viewing) edge of the switching module and will most likely have an internal siding with a capacity of two fifty foot cars and an external platform for the third car spot. This will feature the internal detailing.
Regards,
Andrew G.

Well it's onto the new build. I decided to make a large low relief warehouse with 3 freight doors.
The first major change to construction methods was only sticking the various printed paper components onto the relevant thickness of cardboard when I need them, and often gluing them onto pieces of cardboard already cut to the size required.
My first construction move was to cut out from a sheet of my HEAVY/THICK cardboard a long rectangle that matched the dimensions of three outer wall sections placed side by side and gluing down the three printed outer wall sections.
[attachment=10408]
Because the wall section was all one sheet of cardboard I have removed one of the major difficulties I had with the first attempt. I then marked out the openings for the three doors. It works out that the lower wall section (the brick one) is just about the right height for most boxcar doors on the way that I have put down my Peco code 80 track.
To cut the doorways out I first cut through along the diagonals of the openings and then along the sides and top. While it is two extra cuts per door, it makes the overall operation a lot easier and neater.
[attachment=10407]
[attachment=10406]

The next piece of THICK cardboard to cut out was for the Inner Wall. While the printed paper was not going to be stuck to the cardboard in this version, the size of the cardboard still had to match the dimensions of three inner wall sections placed side by side.
This new section was placed underneath the outer wall section and the door openings were traced onto the inner wall.
[attachment=10412]
[attachment=10413]
Then using micro-millimeter precision and a computer guided laser cutter (OH YEAH!!!!) I cut an opening in the inner wall that gave good clearance to the doorway.
[attachment=10411]
The inner wall was then glued to the back surface of the outer wall, aligning the tops and ends of both walls so that the required `step' was created to allow for attaching the lower wall section. The `blank' thick cardboard for the lower wall can be seen at the bottom of the photo below.
[attachment=10410]
Here is the lower wall with the only the brick pattern paper stuck on. Again this piece of cardboard was cut to fit three lower wall outer sections placed side by side. The white strip at the top of the lower wall was only cut away where the door openings were. As you can see the joins between the upper wall paper sections now line up with the joins between the lower wall sections, which will allow me to cover them with down-piping or other architectural details.
[attachment=10409]

To bring you up to date to where I am at this present time (in other words: "Andrew you'd better get a move on!") the following photo shows how I fixed the newly built wall onto a strip of thick balsa wood from my assortment of off-cuts and left overs to give it some rigidity. The triangular supports are the cut outs from the door openings. More bracing will appear as construction progresses.
[attachment=10415]
As we now are. I will outline the module concept on the next posting, suffice it to say at present that it has a very strong T-TRAK connection.
[attachment=10414]
Regards and thanks for following me along, Andrew G.

G'day again,
I've had some modelling time and now some computer time, but very limited at this session. Below is an update on the table-top module that I am developing for portable/storable Industrial Switching Layouts. The module is 150mm wide and 434mm long over rail ends (432mm over woodwork ends). It features 3 tracks at 33mm track centers (standard Kato Unitrack spacing) and has Kato Unitrack at each end to allow for joining the individual modules together. The height of the module wood work is 43mm as the end frame pieces are 40mm wide hardwood with a 2.5/3mm 3-ply plywood top. I had to do some patching with some balsa wood to clean up the right hand end after a slight miss measure/cut (note to self: measure twice, cut once!) It is quite likely some form of leveling/height adjustment will be put in, but the development awaits finishing this Scalescenes kit.
[attachment=10700]
This concept of module draws heavily upon T-TRAK, introduced from Japan to the rest of the world by Lee Monaco-Fitzgerald. If you want to find out more about T-TRAK I suggest that you visit my Web-BLog and follow the various links there.
The primary sites are are:
Home site of T-TRAK: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.t-trak.org/">http://www.t-trak.org/</a><!-- m -->
Home page of T-TRAK in Australia which includes access to the extensive "Australian T-TRAK-N Guidelines " which features not only metric dimensions for module construction but also hints, tips and suggestions for a variety of aspects of building modules: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://t-trak.nscale.org.au/">http://t-trak.nscale.org.au/</a><!-- m -->
I hope to get updates on the structure out soon.
Please post some feedback if you are finding this thread of posts helpful.
Regards,
Andrew G.

G'day All, I am still alive and only having opportunity and energy for off and on modelling. If you go to my new thread at:
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5632">viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5632</a><!-- l -->
you will find some of my other modelling efforts. Hopefully back to this thread soon!
Regards,
Andrew G.