P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[Herc Driver]

This is practically a tutorial on "how to build with styrene" and I'm liking it! Great work - and keep posting the "work in progress" shots.

[P5se Camelback]

While waiting for the next ten rows of Campbell’s Profile Shingles to dry on the roof of Packaged Product Shipping, I thought I’d add a couple “faux toes” of the next building to be addressed on the property of the Lehighton, Penna. GERN facility.

As this is to be a sizeable manufacturing plant, it will have its own Power Generation capabilities and that will happen in this next building. The walls came from Walthers’ Champion Packing. (Remember … I have raided a number of different kits for walls, windows, doors, and all sorts of detail parts.) The subject of this initial image is what I consider to be a major part of the secret to square corners on my structures. It is a block of Plexiglas® that came from a scrap piece of 1” sheet. I chucked it up on the bed of the vertical mill and milled all the edges, chamfering the corners (so they don’t get glued in as part of the model.) It’s an invaluable tool!


A steel square is used in conjunction with the Plexiglas® inside corner block to insure that that the corners are square!


This last image in the current posting illustrates the first step in making the joints between two pieces of plastic (styrene) disappear. I have mentioned this before, but the initial task in making joints disappear is to soften the two mating surfaces. This is easily done with Plastruct Plastic Weld or Toluol (lacquer thinner … a less expensive alternative.) I have tried Plastruct’s "Bondene" and Tenax 7R but although they are both excellent solvents and each has it proper application … this is not it … they both evaporate too quickly and will only frustrate your efforts to soften the mating surfaces.

Two, maybe three applications of the solvent floated onto the surfaces to be joined together should do the trick, making them appropriately soft. One more generous application and then quickly mate the two pieces with a medium amount of pressure. In a second or four, I sometimes run another application along the inside of the joint, maintaining the pressure between the two pieces. If done properly, a small amount of soft styrene oozes out the edge. This is what is desired. When totally cured (hard) the joint can be scraped, or lines scribed through (as on brickwork) but the end result is … the joint disappears!

This close-up shows the result of this first step, if you look very closely.


If I can get a better close-up, I’ll post it with the next steps in “Making Joints Disappear.”

[MasonJar]

bIL,

Looks great! That plexi-block certainly looks useful. Would it get welded in if solvent got on it?

Looking forward to your "joint" tutorial!

Andrew

[P5se Camelback]

... That plexi-block certainly looks useful. Would it get welded in if solvent got on it? ...

Not really, because the chamfers keep it away from the "solvent-ized" joint. It once came close to getting stuck to some parts on the work surface when I knocked over the brand new bottle of Platic Weld, while moving quickly to put the lid on it while holding two walls togteher with pressure ... my third hand is clumsy!

... Looking forward to your "joint" tutorial!

I almost made that joke when I was writing that post and then thought better of it. I did grow up in the '60's, and I don't remember a lot of the later part of the '60's, but I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Besides, with this C.O.P.D. and having oxygen around, I had to give up smoking ... period! 8-)

[Gary S]

Thanks for the tips and techniques. Always helpful to see how others do stuff, even just seeing the various tools and such laying around the table is good.

On the Plastruct solvent, how are the fumes? In the past, I used Ambroid ProWeld, a liquid solvent, and the fumes were bad. In my little closed up workroom, I just couldn't use the stuff - and have been using the regular Testor's model cement ever since.

These contests are great in that It is interesting to compare the various personalities and methods. For example, in my estimation, biL is very uncompromising on the construction of the buildings, corners must be exactly square, joints must be perfect, etc, and I can appreciate that. For me, I throw the stuff together and figure I can hide it with paint! It is great to see the various philosophies and techniques, and we all gain from it, and our modeling skills get better too. Thank you biL!

And great work on the structures!

[P5se Camelback]

... Looking forward to your "joint" tutorial!
Andrew

Actually, Andrew ... My instructor in Sophomore year for a class called "Developing and Giving a Presentation - ID201" in the Industrial Design Department at Philadelphia College of Art wanted to know what each of us students knew about the art of giving a presentation, and so the first assignment was to give a presentation, free-choice of topic.

Given my "slightly different" sense of humor, and my loss of patience with getting small burn holes in my shirts at parties, I chose to do a presentation on "How to Roll a Proper Joint." I drew up a complete set of huge drawings starting with how to hold and roll the papers, etc., and then at the end I passed out Rolling Papers and Oregano. [ ... this was 1970!]

I got an "A"

EDIT: I caught a misspelled word that my OCD personality would not allow me to leave unfixed!

[P5se Camelback]

Packaged Goods Shipping, Continued

Now on to shingling the other side of the roof ...




First dampening the next half-inch or so with water and then spreading some Titebond yellow carpenter's glue with a disposable brush, about five rows were applied at a time before allowing some drying time before proceeding ...


Finally ... ready for ridge shingles ...


And now to chose the closest color match for the ridge shingles. All of a sudden, I realize that I'm going to find out first hand how much eye strain, potential for frustration and the eventual glassing over of the eyes that Sumpter250 must have realized in building his boat house. Geez ... I'm starting to itch all over ... what are the symptoms of shingles, anyway?

Edit: Added one more photo.

[cn nutbar]

Hello biL---your "how to"tutorial is as outstanding as the finished product :hey: ---very helpful for all the wannabee modellers like myself --- looking forward to the next lesson

[scubadude]

... Looking forward to your "joint" tutorial!
Andrew

Actually, Andrew ... My instructor in Sophomore year for a claass called "Developing and Giving a Presentation - ID201" in the Industrial Design Department at Philadelphia College of Art wanted to know what each of us students knew about the art of giving a presentation, and so the first assignment was to give a presentation, free-choice topic.

Given my "slightly different" sense of humor, and my loss of patience with getting small burn holes in my shirts at parties, I chose to do a presentation on "How to Roll a Proper Joint." I drew up a complete set of huge drawings starting with how to hold and roll the papers, etc., and then at the end I passed out Rolling Papers and Oregano.

I got an "A"

[cn nutbar]

Hello biL---maybe if you had used the "real stuff",you might have gotten an A++ 8-)

[P5se Camelback]

Kit-Scratching a Corrugated Metal Roof

“Packaged Goods Shipping” has a large entry door on the end that will face the layout edge. Just as loading dock employees are afforded shelter from the weather, so should those who work in close proximity to that door be afforded some protection. So …

Amongst the many small parts included in the Superior Bakery and Weekly Herald structures which volunteered their walls to this project, were a number of clunky corrugated metal roofs. The tops of these roofs present a decent representation of corrugated metal (although not quite as nice as the Campbell corrugated siding material) but the clunky solid sides molded under that decent approximation totally blow the whole look of the part, as is obvious here …


So, careful use of a very fine-toothed “deep” razor saw and a little surgery with my little “former edge file” chisel/scraper yielded a useable part with which to fabricate the needed roof. So off we go, affixing the ledger board first, but initially just tacking if into place in two small spots so as to be able to adjust the angle of the board to the desired slope of the roof. Here we see the discarded pieces of the roof (to the dollar store clear plastic parts/scrap box) plus the tacked-on ledger board and the pieces that will be the rest of the framework …


… and then adjusting the angle of the ledger board …


… followed by the application of the sides of the roof framing …


… and a test fit of the fascia …


Next, we test fit the roof supports to insure we have the angles correct …


As was visible to those of you who are observant and notice small details, in the previous photo there were some pencil marks which locate the points measured out for the drilling of #78 holes for NBW castings (the roof must be attached to the wall somehow, right?) So … we next drill the holes for the NBW castings …


We now have holes drilled and NBW castings at the ready …


So … using tweezers and an Optivisor, we place the NBW casting in the pre-drilled holes with the long tails protruding from the rear of the ledger board extensions and apply solvent to the back side.


In the interest of disposing of any rain water, a 0.625” hole was drilled in the “indication of a rain gutter” for a down spout (to be added later) and then a “proper” height adjustment was made to the front of the gutter, once again initially tacking it on, making the angle adjustment and then soaking the joint with solvent and when dry/hardened, applying some Squadron Putty to smooth out the joint in the gutter …


Ends are attached to the gutter with generous amounts of solvent applied two or three times before actual attachment to soften the mating surfaces to insure that the joint will disappear …


Because I wondered if the roof would actually look the way I initially saw it in my “mind’s eye,” I stood the building on its back wall and set the roof in place for an “Oh, Yeah! Looking Good!” photo.

[Gary S]

Very nice work and great close-up photos, biL. I haven't ever used those bolt-washer parts, but I sure need to start as they add greatly to the results. In the past, I was always a bit scared to use them because they are so teeny-tiny as compared to my fumble-fingers. But what I am seeing here is that if you can do them, so can I! :o



Anyway, nice work on the canopy, am looking forwardto more of the build - with all of the structures you have planned for this GERN facility, you better keep her in high gear for awhile to get finished!

[P5se Camelback]

... looking forward to more of the build - with all of the structures you have planned for this GERN facility, you better keep her in high gear for awhile to get finished!

I was planning on taking this step, and now seems to be the perfect opportunity since Gary brought it up ...

I must 'fess-up, here and now, and take this opportunity to be brutally honest ...

There's no way on God's Green Earth that I will come anywhere close to building all of the buildings that I had envisioned as the Lehighton GERN facility for this Challenge! My absence from the hobby for twenty years has put me in the same league as the small child whose eyes are bigger than his stomach! I had totally forgotten how long things take, especially when you are me, someone who, as my daughter’s mother used to say when we were still married, “BiL gets mired down by the minutia … he’ll spend hours looking through that goofy magnifying thing that he wears on his head, that always makes me laugh out loud when I see him wearing it, getting something perfect that no one else would even ever see!”

There are only so many hours in a day, and I’m here to tell you, there are not enough months in a week for me to be able to complete all of those buildings by the end of this Challenge! I got caught up in planning out the whole product production process and the buildings that would be necessary and I put them into the site plan. Now, that’s not to say that I won’t keep plugging … that I won’t continue to build all of those structures for my GERN Industries facility. GERN has come onto the scene and become what will be the largest buildings and largest traffic generator on my layout.

You see, despite the fact that when I first arrived at what I thought at the time was to be the track plan for the Lehigh Susquehanna and Western in one half of my living room, I was unaware of Big Blue at The-Gauge and I had never, ever heard of GERN Industries and it was not a part of my plan.

But now, thanks to a chance meeting on one of the Model Railroader forums with the good doctorwayne, where I had PM’ed him with a question about modeling technique, and he graciously answered my question and then suggested I visit here. I am now able to be a part of this great group and I am thankfull that I took doctorwayne up on his invitation. But I am no Superman … just a retired guy practicing to be a curmudgeon, who enjoys model railroading, and looks forward to building this one last model railroad.

So now because of Big Blue, the Challenge and this bunch of enjoyable guys who all share a passion for the same hobby, I must rework what is the larger town, Lehighton, Penna. on my layout, to accommodate the GERN facility and all of its large buildings. For sure, I will continue this project build to completion … just not by the end of this Challenge.

I apologize for inadvertently overstepping my ability to produce, but that is the situation.

If that disqualifies me from the Challenge, so be it. I’ll keep building and photographing and posting … and I promise I’ll have at least ONE of those buildings completed by September seventh!

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

[Ralph]

I apologize for inadvertently overstepping my ability to produce, but that is the situation.

If that disqualifies me from the Challenge, so be it. I’ll keep building and photographing and posting … and I promise I’ll have at least ONE of those buildings completed by September seventh!

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Disqualified? Posh! Certainly not! Any effort toward your entry is perfectly acceptable and welcome! We'll just look forward to your Gern complex as it develops.
Ralph

[scubadude]

One finished building is good enough for the Summer Challenge. The rules didn't say anything about bashing an entire industrial complex....