P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[mountaingoatgreg]

Well you at least entered....I didn't even have the time to do that...

I promise I will enter the next one!!!

I am learing a lot from your posts so don't worry about not making the deadline and keep posting the great posts

[P5se Camelback]

I wish I could ... but ...

I know in the beginning I said "Plant" and I was seeing the big main Building ... then I got into the processes performed in a manufacturing/processing facility and the once I got into the mock-ups I just got carried away! (Hey! It was more fun building little stuff out of nothing than I had had in many years ... I was having actual FUN!!!) It's not like any of that work will go to waste -- it was all good planning and what was learned will be put to good use as the different structures are completed. They just won't all be completed -- all seven buildings and three banks of different diameter silos -- by the September 7th deadline! I'm not super-human ... just an older guy who's been away from the hobby for twenty years and forgot that this was not going to be a bunch of "throw-'em together right out of the box kits" and that kit bashing and adding detail takes longer, even when you are not being exasperated by the clerical errors of some clueless, obviously unqualified government worker which is causing your life to be turned upside down and then having it all on you to prove that it is, in fact, clearly a stupid clerical error.

"Throw the bums out!"

I guess I can put off the VA and the other government agency that's being a pain in the tookus for a few more days and finish this little structure up ... I think I can get the Packaged Goods Shipping building finished on time ... and the name of the Challange is "structure" ... singular!

So ... I will soldier on, remembering ... Structure, singular, and not worry that my eyes may have been bigger than my brain back there at the beginning!

[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!

[Gary S]

Alright! Now we're cooking! Great work on all the scribing. Looks like full steam ahead for this weekend, eh?

As for the length of time required for these scratchbuild projects, it amazes me too about how involved it can all get. Through in some real world obstacles, and the progress slows to a near halt.

[e-paw]

NICE

[P5se Camelback]

You've got that right, Gary! it's going to be appendages to the wall for the whole weekend! I may take a break tomorrow at some point (waiting for paint to dry comes to mind) to go get a couple "AAA" batteries for the remote so I can lower the volume on the stereo when the cell phone rings without having to get up and go into the other room!

Other than that, I'm going to be here, sitting at the breakfast area table, measuring and cutting and filing and applying copious amounts of solvent to mating surfaces and hopefully, I'll get to paint a few things by Sunday afternoon!

[Gary S]

A hair dryer will help speed up the drying paint.

Ain't nuthin' as excruciating as waiting on paint to dry.

[scubadude]

" You've had all summer to finish that &^%$$^ train thing-a-ma-jig and if you think you're going to spend this last weekend of the summer finishing it, you've go another thing comin'...."..said my wife

[P5se Camelback]

....... That's funny!

My daughter is cheering me on ... "Keep at it Dad, I know you can finish on time if you put your mind to it and don't fritter around!"

I'm no longer married ... haven't been for thirteen years! And yes, I often wish I had someone that I love to share life with.

... But no, I'm not going there again!

Besides, I have a certain set of standards and I haven't met any women that "measure up!"

... well ... at least not any unmarried women!

(Right up at the top is ... they must be able to carry on an intelligent conversation. That one DQ's a lot of otherwise fairly attractive candidates almost immediately!)

[Gary S]

My daughter is cheering me on ... "Keep at it Dad, I know you can finish on time if you put your mind to it and don't fritter around!"

So where are the photos of the progress!!!???

[P5se Camelback]

Alas, my twenty year absence from the hobby rears its ugly head to bite me! My anger was totally focused on my stupidity, forgetting that butt joints must be reinforced! You guessed it! The beautiful splice joint that I had made and spent so much time blending and scribing board lines though was all for naught – in handling that long loading dock to fit the rear platform to it, the unreinforced splice snapped!

In an effort to minimize this set-back, it was decided to repair the splice, add the rear platform and reinforce them both all at the same time. So, the next step is the same as earlier … first checking the fit of the newly fabricated platform with the loading dock and cleaning the broken spice with a couple swipes of the file and then “painting” on several coats of Plastruct “Plastic Weld®” (or lacquer thinner) to soften the mating surfaces and proceed to join them as before.



Reinforcing “plates” were cut and then solvent-welded into place. First on the original loading dock splice …



The next step is to measure for a couple of “double-duty” pieces. These will both stiffen a piece of flimsy 0.040” sheet styrene as well as support it at the same level as the loading dock. While we’re at it, we’ll cut a couple of supports for the building side of the loading dock. When in place, these supports will hide in front of the concrete “foundation” wall pilasters, hidden back in the shadows. The stiffener/supports under the platform will also hide in the shadows. Black paint will help these supports hide and some “concrete” paint will hide the ones under the loading dock in front of the pilasters.





And then a large splice plate for the butt-joined fabricated platform for the rear of the building …



Now we can flip it over and re-scribe the board lines through the repaired butt splice …





We are now ready to attach the loading dock ramp …



Next we’ll measure and cut the strip from which to cut the rear supports for the loading dock, which will appear as the concrete pilasters if they can be seen at all back in the shadows.



The NWSL Chopper helps cut all the needed pieces the same size ...



Now we’ll measure for the locations of the faux concrete pilasters and solvent weld them in place …



The number of sub-assemblies grows as we get closer to pulling together all the components that will become this building ...



A test fit of the rail-side loading dock before calling it a night (or an early morning)





That’s it … I’m going to catch a couple of hours of shut-eye. I’ll proof-read this and then post it tomorrow.

[Gary S]

Love the string of progress photos.

Sorry about the setback, but seems you took it in stride and found a proper solution. The build is looking great. Your construction techniques really make me think, shows me that I can do better on my builds. I am too impatient, I don't measure stuff nearly as accurately as I should, some of the pieces and parts are not straight, corners out of square, this or that not quite plumb. Getting to see your skills and your tools is a nice tutorial for me.

Back to the structure - again, looking good, and some definite progress has been made!

[P5se Camelback]

If you were as riddled with ADD as I am and able to hyper-focus, shutting out the rest of the world to accomplish a task, and as beset with OCD as I am, absolutely compelled to measure things to the thousanth (I'm getting better all the time ... I used to have to measure things to the hundred-thousanth!) your photos and descripions would be just as overly thorough ...

... your stuff, and that of so many of the other inmates here makes me concentrate even harder, because I look at what you've done and I am compelled to try harder to get better ... to "catch up," so I can get to the point where I am as good as you and Steve and Pete and Doc Wayne and Reinhard and Kurt and all the rest of you "Masters of Modeling Madness!"

When I first visted here, before I became a registered inmate, I found the model work here to be astounding ... and you know what? My opinion has not changed!!!

[Gary S]

But check this out - here is a close-up of my latest bridge project. Note that some of the timbers which extend past the bridge iteself are quite crooked! I was shocked to notice this myself after they had been glued on. Also, the scribed lines to represent the timbers are not straight or uniform.



But still, I am betting the bridge will look okay on the layout. We both have obsessions, just different - you strive for ultimate accuracy and precision, where I strive for completion. Now, not that there is anything wrong with either viewpoint. But I think we can both learn a thing or two from each other - I need to slow down and be more accurate; and you might decide that measuring things to the 1000th may be pushing it a little too far!

[P5se Camelback]

Well, people … it looks like unless I can figure out why when I apply an alcohol/India ink wash to the front of my building, I have a white washed brick building instead of a weathered brick building, I won’t be finishing my Challenge building on time!

The last thing I did last night (actually at about 3:30 this morning) was to lay two light coats of Testor’s Dull-Coat on the walls of the building and leave it to dry “overnight.” But twice now today I have laid a wash of denatured alcohol with a number of drops of black India ink in it on the front of the building and the result made my heart sink … :o hock:



I fixed the wall ... cleaned it up to its former appearance with pure alcohol on a cotton ball scrub two or three times, and then let it totally dry for an hour. I then started over from the beginning. The result was the same … very depressing! :cry:

I must be doing something wrong … but I don’t know what it is … I’m about to throw in the towel … I’m tired … and I feel beaten!

I'll continue my work towards the goal ... I'm starting in on the pairs of wooden loading dock doors -- Pairs! No Roll-ups! But unless I can figure out the cause of the Bad Alcohol/India Ink Wash, there will be no smiles in Lehighton tonight! And no finished Challenge Structure from me tomorrow!