P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[P5se Camelback]

The second building in what will become the Lehighton, Pennsylvania GERN Industrial Campus is the Engineering/Product Development Building. It will be, for the most part, constructed as intended by the kit manufacturer, except for the roof, and some additional architectural details. There is the possibility that I may decide to have this structure share a common wall with another structure, the Machine Shop Building, which will be treated as an exiting building and a part of the GERN real estate purchase, along with the existing multi-story stone industrial structure across the tracks of the Weissport-to-Scranton Branch of the LS&W, a real estate deal alluded to in the Lehighton Evening Leader article posted a while back.

The first image in this next installment of the photo documentary of my 2010 Summer Structure Challenge is the initial test fitting of the kit walls of both the Engineering/Product Development Building as well as the Machine Shop Building. The Machine Shop Building will be addressed in a future post. At the time of the photo, all the walls potentially involved in this project, whether it is anticipated that they will be used in the building program or not, were washed in warm soapy water, rinsed, air-dried, all mating surfaces were “trued” with a large file and the inside wall surfaces were sprayed flat black to facilitate hiding the fact that most of these structures will have no interior detailing. So, in this photo, walls are being test fit and adjustments made to insure tight-fitting joints.


This next image is a detail of the chimney cap and the rear-most wall cap. These pieces were fabricated from 0.060” x 0.125” Evergreen styrene strip and 0.060” styrene sheet. The wall caps were strips cut to the wall length minus the quoining, divided into 2’-2” segments (a dimension arrived at by dividing the length remaining after 2’-0” was divided into the total wall length, minus the corner quoining) and then chamfered on all edges and “V” dressed on the segment separation lines with the corner of a square jewelers file to represent individual concrete wall caps. The chimney caps, as well as the corner caps, were cut from the 0.060” styrene sheet to 0.200” squares and then chamfered on all top and vertical edges. A hole was drilled through the center of the chimney caps and then was “squared” off using the square jewelers file. Some final "clean-up" is still to be done ...


The styrene strips are ready for installation …


The initial wall cap is installed as well as the first corner cap, and the pieces for the other walls have been prepared for installation …


The first wall is completed … and the effect is as pleasing as had been expected!


Here is a detail of the building’s corner showing the wall cap terminating with the corner cap over the quoining …


Due to changes in the types of roof details and their respective locations, a new, tighter-fitting roof was fabricated from 0.060” styrene sheet. Roof access, as well as the usual plumbing vent pipes, etc. will be added later in the build and possibly some sort of water chilling device for rudimentary “air conditioning,” a la 1936…


All walls but the rear wall have been capped and the new roof is test fit for snugness …


This is the expected angle from which the structure will be viewed as it is currently proposed to be situated on the layout. All that remains is the cornice that will be located on top of the center of the front wall, and the roof details referred to earlier. The cornice is still in the design stages as far as its final appearance is concerned.


Of course the windows, doors, entry details and other details still need attention, but as this is one single corporate campus, all the widows and doors will be painted at once, just prior to when the build plan calls for their installation.

Wait … I’m not done yet … there’s more … comment in the next fifteen minutes and we’ll double the offer to provide, for your continued enjoyment, an even more captivating next update!

Stay tuned to this thread … there’s still more to come!

There’s the Machine Shop Building … and …

The Main Production Building … and …

The existing stone industrial building across the Weissport-Scranton Branch tracks … and …