Freelance 2012

[Len Turner]

Nice work Reinhard. I'm enjoying following your progress. I should be getting started on my new layout soon

Best Regards

[faraway]

Great weather today. Shoe box harvesting is going well

[faraway]

Still harvesting shoe boxes Another structure on the left side of the three tracks forms my tiny "canyon" (it will get some details when the glue has set). I need to find an intelligent structure to be placed where the trailer is located. It should extend the building but not totally block the view on the tracks. I think about small tanks or silos etc.

[fast car]

Reinhard,

It looks very good. Never underestimate the shoebox.

Larry

[Tyson Rayles]

[faraway]

A "baby shoe box" solved the problem. The photo has been taken from my normal position sitting in front of the layout. I can see enough of the track and reach over the buildings for uncoupling.

[alcanman]

Hi Reinhard,

Your layout is looking great.

As a great fan of 'Shoeboxes' I'm pleased you've gone back to 'Modern Era' modelling


regards,

Mal

[SSWUPinSA]

Hi Reinhard,

Thanks for the comments on my thread, funny that you were one of the reasons I started all this mess!!

I am glad you back in the modern era, some may say it is boring but it depends on what you want. The reference and detail we can get on modern layouts is great, especially when i was not there to see the "old days" myself. I am all the way around the world and with Google and Bing and encouragement form you and Ed and Kurt and others, it makes it easier to achieve this!

I like the smaller shoebox you added... I have found the use of slightly lower building a great way to get the "canyon" feel without limiting your opperations and causing issues. I am doing something similar at my Inland Container plant, it also can make it look as if the track continues if you do it well enough to hide the end wall/backdrop... When you have time post a few step by steps on your super fast shoebox building....that will be great.

Thanks Callum (SSWUPinSA)

[faraway]

The making of shoe boxes is straight forward.

I use three kind of roofs
a. the roof is lower than the walls
b. the roof is on top of the walls
c. the roof is hangs over the front and real wall but the side walls are higher than the roof.

I use two kind of walls
x. the slab segments are imitated by 0.1mm styrene same size as the wall segments minus 1mm. That gives nice groves between the segments
y. the slabs are separated by vertical styrene strips.

1. Cut the four walls from 1.5mm styrene. I vary the height from 8 - 10 cm. The segments of the slabs are mostly 10 cm. That fits nice with 50' boxcars. 8 cm is an alternate size I use. The length is therefor a multiple of 10 or 8 cm.
2. Cut the loading doors into the segments. They are 1,5 cm from the bottom and 4 * 4 cm in size. 3 cm wide is an alternate size nice with 8cm slab size. Truck doors are 5,5cm high and 4 cm wide. Keep the rectangles from the doors and cut them diagonal. The triangles are perfect to support the corners of the building.
3. Glue two sides to the front. I use old computer harddisk to fix all three parts. Glue the triangles from step 2 into the corners. Of the building is no backdrop building glue the rear wall to the assembly.
4. Put the walls on a sheet of 1.5mm styrene with one perfect rectangle corner. Align the walls with the perfect corner of the styrene
a. mark the inner size of the walls on the styrene
b. mark the outer edge of the walls on the styrene
c. mark the inner edge of the side walls but add 0.5 cm for the front and real walls
5. Build roof support
a. Glue 0.25cm styrene at the top rim of all walls
b. na
c. Glue some styrene flush with the front/rear wall at the side walls
6. Glue the roof on the walls
7. Glue thin styrene strip on visible wall and roof edges (Bare cut styrene looks no so well)
8. Cut styrene rectangles from Evergreen metal sidings to be used as roll gates behind the loading gates
9. cut some 1 - 5 cm pieces from 1mm styrene strips and glue them as cables on the walls as you like
10. Cut little pieces of styrene and glue them at the end of the cables
That's it

ps. Sorry for using metric measurements but that is the way I build them...

[faraway]

...funny that you were one of the reasons I started all this mess!!....

That happens quit often in the forum. One comes up with an idea, other pick it up, improve it and add variations. That triggers again the other guys and so on. An good example how a good forum works.
e.g. The electric cables and boxes at the walls have been introduced by Kurt.

[faraway]

That structure completes this weeks white shoe box construction session. The rattle can paint job of the new shoe boxes must wait until I got new plastic primer, light gray and white paint and the sun warms the balcony. Today I could have sprayed frozen paint crystals :o

The Cornerstone Magic Pen Bakeries kit arrived today. It is designed with kitbashing in mind. It looks very good and is larger than expected. I will see how it will fit into right rear corner.

[alcanman]

Hi Reinhard,

I love your shoebox warehouses and looking forward to seeing how you use the 'Magic Pan Bakeries' kit. I also recently bought this Walthers kit for my
next project.


regards,

Mal

[sailormatlac]

Those humble buildings are so simple, but your attention to realistic details do makes the difference. My actual ISL (in the 2012 challenge) targets the mid-50's feeling, however, industries around it were also plain shoe boxes made of bricks, with almost no windows and many loading bay.

I think the problem with older era is that often we try to model what was in fact exceptionnal for the time instead of what was casual. When I look at old pictures from the early 20th century, I often see a lot of plain brick buildings with flat roofs stripped from anything related to "architecture" and multiple-doors wood sheds. Our vision of the past is somewhat warped and nostalgic. Also, we often lost sight that after WW2, a lot of simpler design buildings started to pop up everywhere. My prototype was built in and after the war, so there's no place for any kind of old time nostalgy. When modeling modern era, we don't have this bias... For this reason, I think working with Insurance Maps helps a lot because the data was gathered without cultural bias. It's plain reality: here's a tank, here's a asbestos-clad warehouse, here's a lumber pile.

Your layout and SSW's layout triggered me ealier this month to apply these concepts to transition era. I have no clue how it will turn, but one thing is sure, scratchbuilding these nameless warehouses is gonna be a lot of fun... I enjoyed bashing my Massey-Harris dealer and will probably go this way on the new layout.




BTW, I like your General Mills plant. Proportions are good compared with the cars and the perspective of progressively higher structure gives an impression of a much larger industry. And the canyon hide very well your sidings meeting the wall.

Your layout seems to be built at a very low level. What's the height?

Matt

[faraway]

Matt, thank you for the kind words. The hight is 32.5". The layout plus a high cube car fits under the window that opens like a gate to the inside. That is a nice hight to operate it sitting in my office chair.

[faraway]

Mal, that might be a use for the wall sections of the "bakery". May be I will use this structure as some kind of generic warehouse or industry but not as a dedicated bakery. It would match the white shoe boxes but has a different surface structure.

The office and the tall building and the tanks may be used freely some where else.