Campbell Scale Models Grain Elevator

Started by Oldguy, September 13, 2020, 08:25:57 PM

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swisstrain

Thanks for sharing the build of your grain elevator.

As much as I admire the quality of your builds, I am also enjoying your style of writing about your progress, always with a good sense of humor and self reflection.

Re: the Campbell instructions, I always make several copies of any diagrams, templates, which you can then attach to a flat surface, and don't have to worry about messing them up, not being able to access what's written on the back, and you can cut the copies into convenient pieces.  Copying also allows you to easily mirror the drawing, so that you can work with it in a way that is more suitable.  After I attach the templates to a flat surface, I usually cover them with wax paper, so that I can do direct assembly work over the template.

Nice work so far, I like the coloring of the tower.  Did you do that solely with powders?

I will keep following

Urs

Oldguy

Quote from: swisstrain on September 17, 2020, 01:33:21 PM
Thanks for sharing the build of your grain elevator.

As much as I admire the quality of your builds, I am also enjoying your style of writing about your progress, always with a good sense of humor and self reflection.

Re: the Campbell instructions, I always make several copies of any diagrams, templates, which you can then attach to a flat surface, and don't have to worry about messing them up, not being able to access what's written on the back, and you can cut the copies into convenient pieces.  Copying also allows you to easily mirror the drawing, so that you can work with it in a way that is more suitable.  After I attach the templates to a flat surface, I usually cover them with wax paper, so that I can do direct assembly work over the template.

Nice work so far, I like the coloring of the tower.  Did you do that solely with powders?

I will keep following

Urs
I haven't seen the need to build over any templates lately.  That may change.  One thing that I do when I do make copies is to add a scale, both horizontally and vertically to ensure that nothing was lost in the copying.  I should mention that I use a scanner and then either print that directly, convert it to PDF, or a jpg.  So a lot can happen.

Thanks for the comment on writing style.   It isn't for everyone.  It runs in the family.  I have a cousin who co-writes mysteries. 


Yes, the coloring is all from weathering powders over an A&I application.  It worked out on a previous build where it was all powders and chalk.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Oldguy

While I got other bits glue drying, on to the foundation.  Woo hoo they included a foundation.  I sprayed it with Tamiya gray primer and now it is time to cut them up.  They were cut about 1/4" long, so it was a simple matter of coming in a bit on the ends, draw a 45 degree angle, make the cut, and then sand true.

A moment of truth - gluing the elevator walls together.  I used a bunch of 1-2-3 blocks and clamps to try to keep everything square.  It worked.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Oldguy

Before adding the loft walls, there is a loft floor to add.  I'm pretty sure it is there for structural purposes, either way it got added.  Because I added a bunch of bracing, it has to be added before the walls.  Without the bracing, it most likely could be added later.  The side walls started out curved, so they all have a bunch of bracing.  The one below the window is the only piece indicated in the instructions as a loft floor support.  One could easily overlook drawing the guidelines and  adding these pieces.
Next is a floor and false walls for the lower portion of the elevator.  While the tall walls were flat, they have one add a floor support even with the door openings.  Easy enough.  But then several steps later, they have you make up the floor/wall assembly.  This doubles up in the floor supports.  I found that out when I went to install the floor.  I was able to remove the set on the floor and moved on.  The intent is to make up this three-sided feature so the trackside door s can be open and one sees a floor and two walls.  Because I add a bunch of bracing, this was not going to be possible, and if I hadn't it would be tricky to add the entire assembly.  I should note that if you add additional bracing, either keep it well away from the door opening or figure out where the false wall support posts are going to land an placing the bracing next to it, so that it would also hold up the false side walls.  As it was, I had to drop the walls down from the top and then, using a long small paint brush apply glue though the opposite door opening.

Here is a rather poor shot of the trackside opening.

Now for a mea culpa.  I found that one long side wall has a part, next to the door opening, that despite my best efforts, was glued in upside down.  Because there is a scale house, I can make sure that this side will go here where it will be hidden from direct viewing.



Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Jerry

Bob your moving right along nice work.


Jerry
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." A. Lincoln

postalkarl

Hey Bob:

Walls look great. Keep them thar pic flowing.

Karl

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

Oldguy

While waiting for clapboard sheets to come in, I moved on to the office.  I wanted to color it a different color, but, with the walkway skirting, there is no good way to break it up with another color.

Just like the elevator, I started off using steel wood to remove a bunch of fuzz.  First step is more edge gluing.  While that was setting up, I decided to look at the walkway.  Fairly standard stuff, except they misidentified the parts.  The instructions call for C7 parts as does on illustration.  But C7 is a siding part, not a walkway.  Another illustration sows the correct parts and how one needs to be trimmed.  The finished part is shown on the floor plan view.

Once the walls had a chance to dry a bit, I need to add some bracing.  But first, I need to locate the floor supports.  I don't think that I have ever had to measure anything 41/64".  I was hoping that it would also lap the edge gluing, but nope.  Even the floor will be just a bit short of the joint.  I used the tail of a micrometer to get the depth, draw a line and add the support.  I will, most likely, be off a 64th or two.

For vertical bracing, one needs to pay attention to the corner posts and keep a short distance away from them. 


Then it was going back a couple of steps and adding the sliding door track.  The provided piece was a strip of 1/32 x1/16 material.  I add a 2x10 over the edge to reflect what was done on the other sliding doors that I have built.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Oldguy

The office building is fairly straight forward, but one needs to remember the floor.  I glued one corner together and then slipped in the floor.  I colored the floor with Pan Pastel Raw Umber tint or something another. 

While that all was setting up, I moved on the elevator foundation.   This and the others were just sponged with several different grays.  and when set, The elevator was glued on.

I just couldn't wait any longer on the scale house, so I used some thicker clapboard material I had on hand.  It didn't have the exact same spacing, but close enough.  My pieces are the two horizontal pieces and the thickness is real obvious.  Since I don't throw anything potential useful, I went into my scrap box and located the carrier sheet that had the louvers from the Dabler Mill.  Perhaps some o the thinnest wood material I have seen.  I was just bout perfect to build up Campbell's 1/16" material.  I really needed to add additional bracing on these two wall sections and it wouldn't be possible without the filler material.

Tomorrow, this should have set up so that I can color these end walls and move forward.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

S&S RR

Bob


Looking good, you are making great progress.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

Oldguy

So my haste came back to bite me.  I totally forgot all about the scale house floor.  and it's made up of 8 edged glued pieces.  I also found that I was reading the plain illustrations wrong.  I thought they were a typical "slice" but some are a walk through a wall and turn around view. 


I wound up having to saw through my brace and then use a small chisel to remove bits that are in the way.  Here is where I found out about my "vision position" of a plain illustration.  I first removed the brace from the wrong end.  And yes, I'll admit it, the red is not paint.  Those mini chisels are sharp.

Once I got the four offending wall braces removed and floor braces added, I moved on to my missing window.  As I stated previously, I had it.  I added acetate, and then it was gone.  I knew I didn't have any matching windows, so I went a different route.  I decided to show it as being removed and the opening boarded up.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

PRR Modeler

I know it's frustrating but you're doing a great job.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

Oldguy

Before the scale house and exit shed can be installed, I need to build the floor.  Here are the parts that I have to work with.  First, one needs to trim the end boards to fit into the door openings.  There is a piece of wood for a scale and some bits and wire for the receiving grate.  Everything gets edged glued, so I decided to add some bottom bracing to aid in holding everything together.

I still need to weather this bit up before installing.  Once it is installed, it'll be hard to see anyway.  I could have just modeled the scale house with the doors closed and saved a ton of time.  But where is the fun in that.
I did managed to get the sides glued together on the scale house and exit shed, so these should be ready tomorrow for flooring.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Oldguy

The scale was to have consisted of a rectangular base , glued under te floor and then cut wire grates added.  There was no way that I was going to get those wires parallel, so plan B.  Unfortunately, I did grab the camera, but what I did was to draw two parallel lines 1/16" apart.  Then draw perpendicular lines according to where the grates would line up.  Then put in a small dimple at the intersections and drill a hole at each slightly bigger than the wire.Then, I cut along the long lines and cut the grate jig to length  I marked the common ends and glued each piece to the scale sides.  When that set up, I added the grate wires and painted the whole thing black.  All this for a feature that will be hard to see in the first place.  I went ahead and blackened the interiors to minimize the bracing.
Once the floors have been added, it was a simple matter of gluing the scale house and exit she to the main elevator.

The same went for the office and a walkway that will eventually attach it to the scale house.  One must do a bunch of cut and fitting as the walkway sides must be notched for the elevator foundation which is taller than the office foundation.    In the process I lost the walkway overhang of the siding.  But this can be over come.

While all this glue was drying, I moved on to the hinged doors.  As typical with most Campbell kits, they provide a heavy paper overlay for the door trim.  These could work if they were attached in a closed position, but mine will be open.  And there is material only for two sides, not four.  I'll just make my own out of 1 by material.   The other issue is that the door material is typical scribed siding.  With siding on one side only.  So, I used one side as a guide and drew scribed marks on the plain side.  After coloring, they are hard to tell apart.

Most of the roofing is metal roofing.  Oh joy.





Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Jerry

Bob your doing a fine job.  Just keep the patience going it will all work out!


Jerry
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." A. Lincoln

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