An engine servicing facility for the JGL

[jglfan]

I'm back with an update, weather has been too sweet to stay in the basement, so it took a week to get what you'll see done. I laminated the Holgate and Reynolds material to the plywood. After priming with red primer, I applied orange chalk, not the atists pastel type, but rather the ones seemingly made for our hobby, I can't remember the brand name. Past experience had shown me that this type had an adhesive of some type, as it will not wipe off like the pastels do, so no need for protective coating (dull cote) which always greatly reduced the effect of the pastels. Well, since I wanted to then apply spackle for mortor, I thought I should seal the chalk anyway. Guess what? Dull Cote rmoves much of this chalk as well! So I reapplied the chalk and then applied the spackle. The result was interesting but not very visable in the photos. The spackle lifted some of the chalk, which turned the spackle orange. As I rubbed it off the brick face, the brick face was more red than orange, but the mortor was orange/white. I like the look well enough to keep, but in the future I will apply a more orange color to the wall after priming and before dusting and spackling. Here are the basement walls in place, just needing ground cover to meet the bottom edges, ready for construction of the main floors.

   

   

[jglfan]

And here are a couple shots of teh completed lagged steam pipe, thanks to Russ for his suggestion of a single I beam for support. I like the look but would gratefully hear any suggestions on how to make the scene "busier"

   

   

[jglfan]

On the other side of the powerhouse, I am working on the paved lot, sidewalk and ground cover. I have not yet attached the lot or sidewalk, so it is floating a bit. I'm not happy with the appearance, probably a coloring issue. It looked ok on my workbench, but too smooth and shiny on the layout. The upper level of the payout is quite close the ceiling lights. I think perhaps my black wash to bring out the scribed expansion joints was not thin enough, so made the concrete too gray. Perhaps drybrushing a concrete color will help, any thoughts?

   

   

[Sumpter250]

"busier"

Hmmmm, busier, OK twin catenary, supporting cross pieces under the pipe. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Perhaps drybrushing a concrete color will help, any thoughts?

Use a fine wire brush to roughen up the surface before doing the dry brushed concrete. you want barely visible "scratches". If you mask, you can vary the direction of the scratches in each square of concrete (some, side to side, and some, end to end)

[jglfan]

Thanks Pete. I did as you suggested, then applied some dull cote. I don't think it looks much different in the photos, but I assure you it does in person. I've applied some ground cover around the basement walls of the office bldg., and have given some thought to the construction of the main floors. I ordered windows from Tichy (the bldg will use 96 windows!)

Rather than use the masonite base you've seen in the pictures, which was just a mock up, but I had considered using to attach the walls to, I think I will use 1/8" styrene in 1" width to glue the bottoms of the individual walls to (once they are complete with windows and doors) The 1/8" styrene can then be fastened to the plywood basement walls to get a close to perfect vertical alignment between the two wall sections. Other strips of the 1/8" material can join the individual walls together and provide strength, kind of a lattice work base. No need to have a solid base.

I hadn't decided what to do with the front wall of the office, I wanted it fancier than the brick on the other walls. What are anyones and everyones thought on the use of "sidewalk" material? I have used this in the past for a bldg to simulate marble, see pic. Can I feasibly use it and paint it to simulate granite for the office front? There are a couple reasons this would be nice: 1) I have it on hand 2) The squares are 1/2", the windows I am using are basically 1/2" wide (actually .495) It will be easy to cut the window openings out and keep them square (14 windows along the front wall, 2 floors)

   

   

   

[Sumpter250]

Gary, the concrete looks pretty good to me!

[e-paw]

Looks good so far . You can always pile up some junk next to the inspection pit to make things more busy. old drivers, side rods, that sort of thing. As I think of it A few scale figures here and there could help to.

[ocalicreek]

Busier...my first though was ground cover. I'm all jazzed on the Silflor weeds and grass tufts and I can see a patch of weeds & wildflowers (scraggly, of course) filling the area.

Another thought is the 'former' boiler, broken down into componants, resting outside on pallets and covered in tarps, well, partially covered in order to suggest what's under there. This tells a bit of a story and suggests the passage of time into the future - they are waiting to be picked up by a forklift and loaded on a flat for sale or scrap.

The facility looks pretty neat and tidy and I'd suspect that the super wants it that way. The little section houses out in the boonies may get away with some rusty parts in the weeds, but personally I'd keep it relatively trash-free as a contrast to those other locations where it piles up. Otherwise it gets to be overplayed and fades into the background (unless, of course, that's what you're after!)

Nice work overall!

Galen

[jglfan]

Thanks for the thoughts, Pete, Steve and Galen. Some nice ideas.

I got the windows I ordered today (for the office bldg) and I'm psyched to get started. I had cut full size walls out of paper for the purpose of laying out window locations and getting a count for how many I would need. The Tichy windows I bought are just under 1/2" wide (.495) and I decided to space them apart by 1/2". Cutting openings for so many windows (96) and ensuring they line up perfectly both horizontally and vertically has always been a pain. Particularly with masonry walls, as there is no trim as on wood structures. On the Quinn Ball Bearing plant, as some may remember, I had a friend with a hobby type table saw cut spacers from plexiglass for me to use as spacers between and above and below the windows. These were edge glued together (therefore lacking much strength) and when complete, brick sheet was laminated to them, and the window openings cut out from behind afterwards. I will use this same technique for the office bldg. Instead of cutting plexi, I will use styrene strip. The 1/2" spacing between windows, and the .495 window width, allow me to use two strips of .020 x .250 styrene between and above and below the windows. Using the paper wall mockups, I determined the length and quantity of strips needed and cut them on my Chopper. The first photo below shows the bags full of pcs of each length. From left to right: Full height one story, above the windows for 1 story, below the eindows for 1 story, above the window for 2 story, below the window for 2 story, the pile on the bottom is the full length 2 story, and one of the Tichy windows rests on the pile. Kind of like making a kit!

   

[jglfan]

I mentioned the full size paper walls I made for placement of the windows, here is a pic of one, when I edge glue the styrene strips together, I may just do so over the paper.

   

I had talked before about the front wall of the office. I don't want it to be brick and I mentioned using the sidewalk material I had used on another bldg., to simulate a marble block front. I am attaching a pic of the paper wall for the front, with grid lines drawn on to show the size of the "granite" blocks. I had cut a few pcs of construction paper to the size of the windows and taped them in place to show how they will appear. The entrance doors in the middle will be recessed into the front. Despite not finding any photos of bldgs with this type block I am inclined to proceed with it. I will need suitable mouldings to enhance the appearance of the walls, can anyone tell me of a supplier of such items?

   

[jglfan]

While I had been waiting for the windows to arrive, I was working on the power substation. I built and painted teh bldg itself, and built a platform along the siding. I need to make a ramp, then paint all the platforms, and build the chain link fence around the area with the xformers, which need to be redone. But I like the scene more each time I make another step towards completion. Thanks to all who have contributed ideas along the way!

   

[doctorwayne]

I had talked before about the front wall of the office. I don't want it to be brick and I mentioned using the sidewalk material I had used on another bldg., to simulate a marble block front. I am attaching a pic of the paper wall for the front, with grid lines drawn on to show the size of the "granite" blocks. I had cut a few pcs of construction paper to the size of the windows and taped them in place to show how they will appear. The entrance doors in the middle will be recessed into the front. Despite not finding any photos of bldgs with this type block I am inclined to proceed with it. I will need suitable mouldings to enhance the appearance of the walls, can anyone tell me of a supplier of such items?

Gary, I'd suggest placing the "stone" blocks so that the bottom of the windows line-up with the mortar lines, if that's possible. If they won't do this for the entire facade, align the ones on the ground floor.
Here's a building with a similar (sorta) style of blocks - on this one, I believe that they're limestone, and they appear to be a bit larger, but the effect is the same.


For mouldings, Evergreen strips in various sizes can be useful as accent "dividers" between storeys, and they're also available in half-round and quarter-round shapes. I used mostly plain strips, some layered, to give Dunnville station some "relief" (the mortar lines, though, barely show) :


I really like the colouring you've attained on those concrete blocks, and I agree: the whole scene is really starting to come together.

Wayne

[jglfan]

Thanks Wayne. I'm startting the front wall today. I did one wall over the weekend. The first pic shows the subwall of styrene .020x.250 strip laminated to the brick sheet. It doesn't look like much, but getting the windows lined up accurately horizontally and vertically was very easy. I laid in two windows to show how nicely they fit in the openings. The next two pics show the wall sitting in place on the foundation, the Holgate and Reynolds vinyl material is very easy to cut out the windows, I did use a steel straightedge rather than attempt to use the styrene strip to guide my knife. Happy to say that the window openings in the brick sheet are all a nice snug fit. I'm making the front wall today so I can trim this wall to the exact length, then will build the remaining walls and paint.

   

   

   

[jglfan]

I cut the windows and main entryway out of the front wall, it will be lowered so that the window heights match the other wall. It's just sitting in place. I have one of the back walls on the workbench now, waiting for the cement I use to laminate the vivyl material to the styrene to cure. Not much else to say at this point.

   

[jglfan]

I've painted all the walls except teh front wall, and have installed the windows and glass in one wall. Here it is sitting in place, and a couple other pics showing the next wall and a small problem I'm having getting the two wall sections alighned. Not a big deal, nead some trimming, it was hard to get accurate measurements as I cannot physcially get my head where it needs to be to see! I took the last pic here primarily to see what was happening. It seems my concrete sill ( not sure what the proper term for this is) is too ling and prevented the long wall from going back that last .020, and when I forced it it broke the glue joint on the sill. A little trimming should resolve the problem. But I've had it today!

1st pic, long wall sitting in place
   

2nd pic, from down by the ash pit. note the big window over the double track passing beneath the bldg. That will be the Presidents meeting room. I'm thinking of having a permanent platform, my vocabulary is failing me, you know the platforms window washers use on tall bldgs, that move up and down. Jeez. But I'm seeing blackened walls from exhaust, but a very clean window, maybe washed daily. I also want the roof removable so I can place my camera there and set views down the tracks.
   

Here's an ugly picture! You can see the concrete sill is too long, the wall with the door can't go back far enough because of it, and when I pulled it (from the other side, this pic was taken from the opposite peninsula, several feet away, can't reach from there) it broke the glue joint on the sill. The sill hides the joint between the upper and lower wall sections.