Bar Mills Seckler's Cold Storage Background Flat for the A&S

Started by ReadingBob, December 26, 2019, 02:19:11 PM

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ReadingBob

Time to get moving on my next project.  This one's for the Atlantic and Southern Railroad.  It's the Bar Mills Seckler's Cold Storage Background Flat. 

It comes well packed in a sturdy box.


Some of the walls are a pressed fiberboard type material.  There's also some Masonite pieces included.  I'll get into what those are for in a little bit.


Here are the instructions and another large Masonite piece.  This one doesn't look like Masonite because it's got a sticky surface on one side covered with a peel away sheet of wax like paper (think 3M Transfer Tape).


There are several bags of assorted goodies which include castings, strip wood, laser cut clapboard walls, etc.  Also some roofing materials.


I started by removing the windows from their sprues using a sprue cutter (definitely a tool worth having on the workbench).  Some folks prefer to paint the windows while still attached to sprues because they're easier to handle that way.  I just prefer to do remove them prior to painting.  No wrong way here.  Either works.   ;)


Even though the sprue cutter is a flush cut type tool I still prefer to clean up the edges with a swipe or two of an emery board.


More in a moment... ;)


Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

ReadingBob

The windows had just a small amount of flash in a few of the openings.  I used one of these pointing sanding stick type things I picked up at Hobby Lobby (Tom also gave me a few) to clean them up.  Gently scraping them with the edge of a #11 X-Acto blade works too.


I'm jumping ahead a bit on this one and cutting out some of the parts that make the subassemblies that get added after the walls have been put together.  I decided to do this so I could prime and paint the subassemblies at the same time I did the rest of the windows and the castings.  The parts that are on the micro fiber board carriers are easy to remove with a single edged razor blade.


Again, the old emery board comes in handy for smoothing out the edges where I cut them from the carrier.


A little folding and gluing was done to construct the first unit, basically a box with some vents on the front, and now it's time to add some of the details.  In this case the detail is a peel and stick type thing too.  Peel off the backing and stick the part in place.


And we have our first of several subassemblies ready to paint.  :D


The vent that runs up the wall in the center of the building has some 'bands' that get glued into place.  These are a rather tiny but not too difficult to glue into place if you have a decent set of tweezers to hold them with.


More in a moment... ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

ReadingBob

Quote from: PRR Modeler on December 26, 2019, 02:22:45 PM
What a neat looking building.  I'll be following.

Thanks for following along Curt!  Tom has this one slated for the 'uppers' so it'll be at eye level in the background. 
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

GPdemayo

Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

ReadingBob

More subassemblies prior to painting.  The water tank supports.  I actually made a mistake on the first one I finished that's in the photo.  The two pieces that are glued over the center of the X, upper and lower, are both the same part if you go by the instructions.  I didn't notice it when I did the first one but they are slightly different sizes.  I had the larger one on top and the smaller one on the bottom.  I carefully removed them and swapped them and they look better now.  ::)


It was around this point, while I was gluing the plates to the second support, that I realized the two parts were not identical.


Next up was the fire escapes.  There are three of them and they were fairly simple to assemble.  Just fold the ends and front up (after gluing a support piece underneath) and glue the edges together.


I used anything I had handy on the workbench to hold them in place while the glue set.  :P


This was my first 'what the heck' moment.  There are three metal chimney castings and three small metal vent pipes include in the kit each of which has base that's angled to go on a roof with a pitch.  All the roofs for this structure are flat.  Looking the photo's I can see where the three chimneys each have the small vent pipe coming out of them.  ???


So, I took them out to the workbench in the garage and use a cutoff wheel in the old Dremel to cut the base of each chimney square to it'd sit on the flat roof and then I cut the base of the vent pipes.  I then drilled a hole into the top of the chimney so I could glue the vent pipe into the hole.  In the process of drilling the hole in one of the chimneys I got a tad too aggressive that the casting shattered.  It just so happened I had a smaller version of a casting with a chimney/vent sitting on the workbench so I'll use that in place of the one I broke.  ::)


More in a moment.... ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

ReadingBob

I mentioned earlier the large sheet of Masonite had a peel and stick surface.


It's the 'bracing for the rear of the front wall and has to be position in the correct place on the first try.  There's no mulligan on this one.   :o


Okay, it was at this point in the construction that I realized I was missing one of the Masonite pieces.  The one that makes up the floor inside the structure.  I know I could have contacted Bar Mills and asked them to send me one and they would have but I was on vacation and on a roll so I made my own.  I had a scrape piece of Masonite in the garage that would serve the purpose.  I used the roof piece to determine the correct width (including the tab) and cut a strip using my 30+ year old Craftsman Scroll Saw.  I think that was the first time I've ever used the guide it came with.   ;D  ;D  ;D  Then I marked where the ends should be and the tabs using the walls the tabs would go into.  It was interesting to say the least but I got it done with only a minor hiccup.


The minor hiccup was I forget to factor in the freight door openings.  I should have thought of them as giant tabs.   :D  No biggie.  If I leave the doors open, or partially open.  I'll install a board by board floor over the Masonite and cover the gap.  It'll look better than a Masonite floor anyway.


There are a bunch of little triangular pieces to brace the walls.  These were a little tough to cut out.  I ended up using a chisel blade in an X-Acto handle and kind of tapped on the handle with my other hand to drive the blade thought the connecting piece.


I used some Titebond II to glue the Masonite floor, ceiling and triangles in place and tried my best to keep everything square. I also glued on the end walls.


More in a moment... ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

ReadingBob

And there you have it.  The 'non' clapboard portion of the structure.


I painted the little exposed brick patches with some cheap craft store acrylics (Georgia Clay and Charcoal mix).


Then I used some Hunterline "Cement" weather mix for the mortar.  The walls are rather porous so they just sucked it right up.  The mortar is kind of dark as a result but I found I'm kind of liked the way it looks and left it as it.


I dabbed off any of the "Cement that got on the surface of the bricks with a paper towel.


I deviated from the instructions just a little bit when I painted the walls.  The instructions call for using a thick craft store acrylic rather than the runny kind and stippling it on the surface of the walls.  I used the runny kind but alternated between dipping my brush in the paint and then into some Durhams Rock Hard Water Putty I keep on the work bench.  The paint picks up the powder and as I work on the wall the two mix together and make a nice, textured paint.


Prior to gluing the chipboard roofs in place I applied 3M Transfer tape to the top.  I know the roofing material that comes with Bar Mills kits is peel and stick but I've found that it's not as sticky as I'd like and, over time, it tends to lift up.  So I'm hoping the 3M solves that problem.


More in a moment... ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

ReadingBob

I trim the 3M Transfer tape with a pair of Friskar Mico Shear scissors I keep on the work bench or with the old X-Acto.


Last picture for today and this one will bring you up to where I'm at right now.  The roofs are glued on leaving a 1/16" overhang on the front and side.  Well....I found if I put the lower end roof on with a 1/16" overhang on the end, like the instructions show, I'd have about a 1/16" gap where it should connect to the wall (where the pencil is pointing).  So I discarded that one and made a new roof 1/16" longer than the one that came with the kit. 


That's all for now!  Thanks for following along!  :D
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

ReadingBob

Quote from: GPdemayo on December 26, 2019, 02:35:14 PM
Neat structure Bob.....I'll be looking in.  :)

Thanks Greg!  I hope this one doesn't take me as long as Avram's did.   ;D  ;D  ;D
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

ACL1504

Bob,

You know I'll be following along on this adventure. It also looks like you are off to a great start and it looks also like you are almost halfway through.

It will look good on the Summit level.

Tom ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

EricQuebec


Opa George

Fantastic start, Bob. Nice point-by-point to show where/how to watch for tricky areas. Always appreciated.  I am interested in your craft paint/water putty powder technique.
--George

Mark Dalrymple

Looking good, Bob.

I thought this kit from Bar Mills looked like a real hit.  Very nearly bought one, but have so limited space left for large structures on my layout I just couldn't make it fit.  I thought this one would sell very well.  Enjoying your progress along with all your little tips!

Cheers, Mark.

Janbouli

I love photo's, don't we all.

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