P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[P5se Camelback]

Next we turn our attention to the loading docks. We’ll utilize what came with the Walthers “Water Street Freight Terminal” kit for starters and make it fit our new situation. Since only one long side of this structure will be visible to operators/visitors, and the other building included in this kit is to be a separate structure, The Administration Building, let’s splice the two long docks together. A couple of careful surfacing passes with a wide flat file will ensure that both ends have flat, square mating surfaces.

Once again, I “painted” on several coats of Plastruct “Plastic Weld®” (or lacquer thinner) to soften the mating surfaces for joining them together. With both “top sides” laying flat on a piece of wax paper, I slid them together, keeping them aligned using a metal straight edge, holding them together with gentle pressure. After holding the two pieces together for about a minute, I gently released my pressure and left the two pieces sit, undisturbed for an hour or so and then the piece was set aside on a piece of glass to harden on the flattest surface I could find.

While I waited, I checked out the postings of all my new friends on Big Blue.

After the joint hardened, the grooves between the boards were scribed through to make the joint disappear.





The next area to be addressed Loading Dock-wise is the area between Packaged Goods Shipping and the Main Production Building. This is where a full-width platform sits between the two buildings. When the two structures are located on the layout, there will be a roof over this platform.

Since there are not enough loading dock materials from the kit to put this platform together, measurements were taken and a piece of 0.040” styrene sheet was cut and squared up from which to fabricate the platform. I wanted it to be a wooden platform, an extension across the rear of the building of the loading dock. Board widths were “ticked off” and, using a combi-square and the back of a #16 Xacto® blade, I made several (4 or 5) light passes along the square, scoring a line. They don’t have to be deep – we’re not cutting through – just enough to score a line.






Then, holding the blade at 90° to the score and tilted at about 65° or 70°, I dragged the blade towards me, making a “V”-groove along the score.


Voilá … Wood planking on the platform!