P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[cn nutbar]

Hello biL---Since you joined Big Blue,I have been following your threads on a regular basis.To me,your skills and passion for model railroading have become obvious and in all honesty,you like so many other members of Big Blue have provided inspiration and a desire to pursue my own goals in this wonderful hobby.Whether you complete your Gern facility or not is not important---just keep participating---you are a valued member of the Big Blue family

[Gary S]

I second Mister Nutbar's motion. biL, you have been an inspiration!

And, oh man, :oops: I sure hope I didn't cause any friction with my "you better hurry" comments. You know I am just playing along, and hoping to provide encouragement if it is needed.

And as Ralph and Richard said, past practice has not required a contest entry to be completely finished - so, biL, you're good to go, no matter what you get done! But... er... I'm kinda thinking... that if you put in 16 hours a day for the next twenty-nine days, you just might make it!

[tomustang]

I've been following this thread at the beginning and still amazed with the progress

[P5se Camelback]

Fabricating the Shadow-Box Interior

The term “Shadow-Box” may be a misnomer in this case … it’s really a “Partial Interior.” Unless I put a light inside at some point (not very unlikely,) about all that will be visible in the deepening shadows of this interior will be no more than the first dozen centimeters or so.

So we begin …

A piece of Evergreen Plastics 0.040” thick 0.060” V-Groove sheet styrene was first cut to the desired width and length. Measurements were then taken to determine where relief cuts were needed to clear interior wall bracing/reinforcing that had been installed earlier as well as the service door thresholds. The first photo shows the “nibbler” that I chose to use to cut the corner notches necessary to clear the vertical corner reinforcements.



The next photo zooms in on “the nibble” …



… and then the result of “the nibble.”

The floor must sit at the same level as the service door thresholds, so some under-floor supports were needed. They were solvent welded to the bottom of the floor, making certain that all corners were at right angles



The nibbled corners are at the building’s front end wall and because of that fact, under-floor supports need to be relieved to clear the corner gussets.





Care was taken to insure that this pair of supports would be “square.” Measurements were made, lines drawn … all is ready to spread a couple applications of solvent in a narrow “line” to insure a good weld that is square.



And here … the results of careful measurements and “fixtured” solvent welding … :mrgreen:



So now the time has come to have some fun! Not that it hasn’t been fun to this point – it has! But that was all fabrication and assembly. Now it’s time dabble in decoration! The floor was taken out to the (very hot) garage and sprayed with two very light coats of Krylon satin finish “Pebble,” a rattle-can paint. I wanted flat finish but no such luck in the color I wanted.

I didn’t get a photo of just the paint because I was too excited to try out an india ink wash, never having attempted that process before. I was sure I had some of the 50% alcohol that I’ve seen recommended for this method of coloration, or even some 70% alcohol, but all I could find was some Humco Completely Denatured, Formula 19, 190 proof alcohol (“contains ingredients which render the product wholly unfit for beverage purposes –x– Danger –x– Flammable Liquid”.) hock:

Undaunted, I poured some into an empty baby food jar my daughter had left here, and first added several drops of Pelikan Sepia Ink, stirred it and using a flat artist’s brush, floated a wet coat of the solution on the surface. The alcohol dried quickly. So I then added some Pelikan Black ink to the solution, floated on another very wet coat of solution with the flat artist’s brush, but this time, as it was quickly drying, I used a disposable Flux brush to do an almost-dry-brush blending of the Black wash over the Sepia wash. The resulting representation of a well-used shipping department floor didn’t look too bad …

In fact, I really liked the way it looked, and feeling pretty good about my first attempt at an india ink wash, I couldn’t resist trying it out …



But the hour was growing late, the rack magnet was pulling on me and I knew I must finish this first so I could photograph it and move on. So I gave the floor a test fit. (It had been test fit long before, but this was almost like a “dress rehearsal” …



(Since uploading all of these photos to Photobucket, I noticed that the partition wall which had only been tacked in place had come untacked … no biggy … it will be welded in shortly!)

Just before turning out the light last night and admitting myself to the “Horizontal Clinic,’ I spun the building around and looked at it from the expected viewing angle and thought to myself …

… Yeah … That dog will hunt!

:mrgreen:

[Ralph]

I think your effect with the ink wash worked out very well! Looks like an old wooden floor to me! I always admire modelers who add interior details (something I don't often do but always like seeing). Nice work!
Ralph

[Drew]

Very nice work!
That is some fine "scratch-bashing"!

[MasonJar]

You realize of course that now you WILL have to light it just to show off that floor, if nothing else...!

Andrew

[Steve]

Excellent craftsmanship!

I don't think I would have made it through the shingling job (even if my eyes would let me see what I was doing)

Keep up the great work.......it is so interesting to see it unfold

[Gary S]

RIGHT-ON biL!!!! More, more, I want to see more!

The floor looks really good, the ink wash turned out great. Glad to see some progress! And I agree that now you made need to add interior lights to show off your handi-work.

[ocalicreek]

Excellent washes! A simple technique that pays off!

Galen

[jim currie]

Bil fine looking floor, and i must admit i never thought of using a nibbler on stryeen.
jim

[steinjr]

Looking great!

Grin,
Stein

[P5se Camelback]

The deadline looms! And so we soldier on …

Memories of the shingling exercise of Sumpter250 Pete on his Challenge Boathouse have been haunting my dreams of late, disturbing my sleep! O.K., I made that up, it’s the Yeungling Porter that I consume while working on my structure that has been waking me up at 4:15 in the morning, but it sounded good!

The roof ridge needs to be closed off to the weather and that will mean individual shingles, cut and applied by hand! Campbell does not produce shingles for this purpose … I checked. So the neatly folded Kraft paper bags stored in the pantry (for when I need a paper bag) were reviewed for a color match, or at least something that came close in color and weight to the Campbell shingle roll..



A suitable width was then measured off and several strips of material were sliced from the Kraft paper bag.



The next step was to cut proper lengths of shingles (isn’t that right, Pete?)



I cut shingles until my eyes hurt, piling them up on a small 5”x5” glass sheet …


… and then moved on to tuck pointing.

I believe it was the Good DoctorWayne who once mentioned on this forum something about using spackle to portray the mortar between the bricks and having always used some funky latex paint proceedure with marginally acceptable results, I decided to give it a shot. The steps in this photo progression show my tuck pointing method.

… start by dampening the walls, spreading a thin sheet of water on the surface with a damp disposable foam brush, then smear a small amount of vinyl spackle on the wall …




The excess spackle is removed with a damp foam disposable brush dragged repeatedly over the surface until just “the right amount” of spackle remains …



… if you remove too much, repeat the process from step number one.


… like I realized I would have to do here.

… and now, I must return to soldiering on …

I’m beginning to get freaked out by how much is left to be done! What a foolish dreamer I was to think I had any kind of likelihood of completing the entire GERN facility within the Challenge timeframe! That is proof-positive that I had been gone from the hobby for twenty years and was clueless as to the amount of time it takes to do things, especially if you actually have a for-real life going on in the background!

[Steamtrains]

For stuff like that...You have to put "real life" on the back burner, and "soldier" on..!!

[Gary S]

The mortar looks great. I'll have to try that technique when the time comes.

As for real life, I'm with Gus. Sometimes you just gotta shove all that stuff aside!