Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[doctorwayne]

Stein, to get the decals to wrap around corners, some sort of decal setting solution is essential. Make sure that the decal has soaked long enough in the water before applying it, then use a brush to apply some MicroSet to the front of the hood. The loco should be standing on end for this - wrap the model loosely in a clean cloth or hankerchief, then stand it in a suitably-sized drinking glass - I find a beer mug works well, as the heavy bottom keeps it from tipping. Slide the decal into place, then apply some more setting solution to the top of the decal and also to the underside, especially where you want it to bend. I generally blot the top section fairly soon into the operation, then concentrate on getting the sides to wrap around. Don't blot or otherwise touch a decal once it starts to wrinkle from the setting solution, and don't blot it at all if you're using Solvaset, as it begins to "work" almost immediately. You may have to do each side as a separate operation to ensure that the decal doesn't bend over the entire length that's sticking out past the front of the hood, as you don't want the outer end to touch the side of the hood before the rest of it is in place - in other words, work your way from the front, around the corner, and then back along the hood to the end of the decal. You don't want the end to touch the hood and dry in place while you've still got a big "bubble" of decal between it and the corner. Once you have everything in place, there may be many areas where there is air trapped under the decal or it's not adhered to the details. This is where Solvaset can be especially useful. If you're worried about damaging the decal, you can thin Solvaset with distilled water before applying it. With the surface to which you wish to apply the Solvaset laying flat, spread some on with a soft brush and let it sit. As mentioned, wrinkles will appear as it works - these will disappear as it dries. You'll need three distinct applications to do the front and both sides of the large decal, always working only on the side facing up, as Solvaset can soften decals enough that they can sag from the effect of gravity.

A couple of tips for spray painting. If at all possible, remove all window and headlight "glass". Most is just snapped into place, and even the stuff that is cemented in can often be loosened by slipping an X-Acto blade between the joined surfaces.
For spraying into "dead" areas, such as where the hood of a loco meets the cab (remove the cab if it's a separate part) or where there's any inside corner, try lowering the air pressure when you paint these areas and direct the spray along the corner rather than spraying straight into it. This should result in better coverage in these difficult-to-paint areas.

Wayne

[steinjr]

Stein, to get the decals to wrap around corners, some sort of decal setting solution is essential. Make sure that the decal has soaked long enough in the water before applying it, then use a brush to apply some MicroSet to the front of the hood. The loco should be standing on end for this - wrap the model loosely in a clean cloth or hankerchief, then stand it in a suitably-sized drinking glass - I find a beer mug works well, as the heavy bottom keeps it from tipping. Slide the decal into place, then apply some more setting solution to the top of the decal and also to the underside, especially where you want it to bend.

I generally blot the top section fairly soon into the operation, then concentrate on getting the sides to wrap around. Don't blot or otherwise touch a decal once it starts to wrinkle from the setting solution, and don't blot it at all if you're using Solvaset, as it begins to "work" almost immediately.

Just to be certain that I don't get mixed up - by "setting solution" you mean a solvent (e.g. Microsol), not something like Microset, right ?

You may have to do each side as a separate operation to ensure that the decal doesn't bend over the entire length that's sticking out past the front of the hood, as you don't want the outer end to touch the side of the hood before the rest of it is in place - in other words, work your way from the front, around the corner, and then back along the hood to the end of the decal. You don't want the end to touch the hood and dry in place while you've still got a big "bubble" of decal between it and the corner.

Once you have everything in place, there may be many areas where there is air trapped under the decal or it's not adhered to the details. This is where Solvaset can be especially useful. If you're worried about damaging the decal, you can thin Solvaset with distilled water before applying it. With the surface to which you wish to apply the Solvaset laying flat, spread some on with a soft brush and let it sit. As mentioned, wrinkles will appear as it works - these will disappear as it dries. You'll need three distinct applications to do the front and both sides of the large decal, always working only on the side facing up, as Solvaset can soften decals enough that they can sag from the effect of gravity.

Aha - loosen the decal the back of the decal where it needs to bend by the bend to make it pliable, then work your way backwards from the front down along the side. After putting the engine on it's side, so the side you work on is upwards.

I hadn't figured out that one on my own. Thank you!

A couple of tips for spray painting. If at all possible, remove all window and headlight "glass". Most is just snapped into place, and even the stuff that is cemented in can often be loosened by slipping an X-Acto blade between the joined surfaces.

For spraying into "dead" areas, such as where the hood of a loco meets the cab (remove the cab if it's a separate part) or where there's any inside corner, try lowering the air pressure when you paint these areas and direct the spray along the corner rather than spraying straight into it. This should result in better coverage in these difficult-to-paint areas.

Thank you for that advice as well - it will come in handy. Hopefully the next engine I am doing will have windows I can get at and a hood I can take off. I did not dare apply enough force to the windows or the hood of my 44-tonner to get the windows out or the hood off - I broke off one tab trying and decided to back off a little.

Then again - it is made of some kind of plastic - it can always be glued back together again if I break off bits trying to disassemble it, I guess ....

I probably should have done like Josh - planned for a layout with 8-9 engines of the same type - by the third engine I would probably have known pretty what worked and what didn't work with that model :-)

Oh well - I'll wait until tomorrow night to do the zebra stripes - have spent 14 hours working today, and will be watching the kids all day tomorrow - wife is going to a class all day Saturday.

Smile,
Stein

[doctorwayne]

Just to be certain that I don't get mixed up - by "setting solution" you mean a solvent (e.g. Microsol), not something like Microset, right ?

I would use Microset, as it "softens decals and improves adhesion". I don't use Microsol, so I don't know if it would be appropriate or not. Don't use Solvalset for this step, as it is too aggressive. All you want is to soften the decal so that it bends around the corner, rather than breaks, so apply it only to the area where you want the bend to occur. Once the decal has formed itself around the corner and is lying flat on the side of the hood, you can proceed as usual.

Wayne

[steinjr]

Well, I got a little model railroading done this weekend. Got the zebra stripes on the 44-tonner, following the advice I received in this thread. It worked like a charm to do the front first and just dab a little Microset on the underside where the decal was supposed to curve around the corner.

This is what it looks like now:



I know that I still need a little retouching with a small brush, and then a coat of dullcote or something like that, before weathering. But at least my engine now bears a least a passing resemblance to an Omaha Road switcher, if you view it from three feet away

I also sprayed another coat of yellow on the second switcher (a GE 70-tonner), and put together the little 25 ton RR crane I was planning to use for my municipal barge terminal track:



Smile,
Stein

[steinjr]

Gah, slow going model railroading-wise lately! Only thing I have accomplished during the last week was to put together the walls of the conveyor house on top of my grain elevator. Need to paint it before I glue in the windows, and the roof.

Finally got restarted on a couple of other projects again tonight:
- Cut away foam where I am going to put my little corner of the Mississippi river for the Minneapolis municipal barge terminal

- Dullcoated my GE 44-tonner, so I can start experimenting with weathering it this weekend.

- Disassembled my GE 70-tonner (took the cab off, pried the glass out), in preparation for painting.
On the 70-tonner I might do a different paint scheme than the paint scheme I used for the 44-tonner.
Maybe do the engine in all black, except for zebra stripes on the front and rear.

Oh well, maybe I'll get a little more done this weekend.

Smile,
Stein

[steinjr]

Still slow progress on my model railroad.

I have disassembled and stripped down (again) my GE 70-tonner - I didn't do a thorough enough paint stripping job the first time, so it was still possible to faintly see the text "Southern Pacific" from the original paint job through three layers of yellow layer on the new paint job

I also started on a conveyor house for my elevator - here is the rear end of the elevator:


Start on conveyor house, front wall made by splicing together front and rear wall from Walther's ADM kit, rear wall made from sheet styrene:


I hope to pick up some two part Noch epoxy for the Mississippi at my municipal barge terminal on my way back from work tomorrow.

Smile,
Stein

[Trucklover]

I like what you did with the ADM Silos and conveyor housing

[steinjr]

I like what you did with the ADM Silos and conveyor housing

Thanks, Josh. I kept looking at that elevator, and it still looked way too small.

So I put together a group of 2x4 silos to put on the other side of the head house as well:



Now it looks like this looking down along the track:


It makes the whole corner more crowded, maybe too crowded:


But it might be worth it to get the elevator to look bigger - those things were big. And the milling district in Minneapolis was pretty crowded - with tracks squeezed in wherever they could fit.

Hmmm - wonder if I should just change the International Harvester warehouse in the back to be part of the elevator/mill complex ? If so, the elevator/mill complex would have three tracks - two in front of the elevator, one along the back.

Mmmm - I really like the way Dr Wayne's GERN plant looks, too - with the main curving between the buildings and the overpasses from the main factory to the smaller original factory.

Maybe I should go for something like this (potential changes in red) ?



Well, anyways - I have to make sure to hit my local paint store before 1pm, so I can get what I need to start on the river scene - normal stores close at 1 pm on Saturdays over here, and stay closed on Sundays. Nicer for the people who work there, but less convenient when you discover you are out of something on Sunday morning. Oh well.

Grin,
Stein

[cnw1961]

Hey, that is looking good. You turned the Walthers elevator into a really impressive structure. You are right, when it comes to elevators, bigger is better .

[Trucklover]

Stein i like the addition of the 8 silos on the other side of the main structure

[Bigsteel]

very nice silos man ,the bigger the better. and i've never seen your plan before,thats cool too.--josh

[Ralph]

I'll add my admiration of the large grain elevator. Looks like Minneapolis to me!

Ralph

[LynnB]

Grain elevators look right at home, the size of them are perfect for the area.

[steinjr]

Thanks for the thumbs-up, guys!

I also looked some more at prototype pictures from one of my favorite websites - the visual resources collection of the Minnesota Historical Society (http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/).

I could have lived with the original elevator (which looked like it had a head house and 16 silos in a 2x8 configuration). The Calumet Elevator Company had one that had just 10 silos in a 2x5 configuration in this 1910 photo: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=75754 - just one more row of silos than the basic configuration of the Walther's ADM set.

But I'll go with the bigger elevator. Got the new silos and the headhouse drying after the soap wash now, so I can give em a coat of primer today.

Grin,
Stein

[steinjr]

Got a little more work on the layout done today.

I finally grabbed some AIM powders and put a little light gray, grimy black and light rust on the GE 44-tonner. It is not exactly a work of art, but I had to get over my mental resistance to dirtying up a perfectly good locomotive somehow



Got a second coat of dark yellow (Tamiya Canary Yellow) on the GE 70-tonner - will have to let that rest a few days before masking and doing the cab, roof, sill, walkways, roofs etc in dark green (Tamiya IJN Green).

Since I added 8 more silos to my elevator, I now was one conveyor house short. So I made one from scratch (except from the roof panels, which I had lying around from the original ADM elevator conveyor house.

I always seem to struggle with getting windows in the right place and getting them the right size. So this time I decided to do it so simple that even I could get the window location and window size right.

I clamped the front wall of the new conveyor house (cut from 0.060" plain styrene) to the outside of the old conveyor house:



And then just sprayed the inside wall of the old conveyor house with grey primer, so the window openings for the new conveyor house was clearly marked in grey on the new piece. After the primer had dried, I drilled starting holes inside the window opening , inserted a micromark "nibbler" and cut out to the edges of the gray (primed) area:



After that, it was just a matter of grabbing some thin "metal siding" styrene, glue it to the two sides of the conveyor house that will be visible, cut to size, open up the window openings through the "metal siding" from the inside, add the roof from the original ADM elevator kit conveyor house and put it on top of the now primed and dry new group of silos - kitbashed conveyor house on top of the silos on the right, scratchbuilt conveyor house on top of the silos on the left:



Well, time to call it quits for the weekend. I never seem to get as much done as I had hoped for - but it is not a race, so I guess I'll just potter along at my own speed here.

Next week - maybe I finally can get some epoxy for the water on my river barge terminal - my local paint store didn't have any ....

Btw - this is what the river looks like in an aerial photo - the area I model is the water along the straight dock on the left:



Any suggestion about what color would look good here ? Dark grey ? Dark green ? Flat black ? Something else ?

Smile,
Stein