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Messages - nycjeff

#346
Hi Bob, what a nice job on all of the framing work. It's all looking great.    Jeff
#347
Kit Building / Re: Sierra West Twin Mills Kit
December 12, 2020, 04:17:31 PM
Hello Karl, I'm with Rusty, there sure are a lot of sub-assemblies to this kit and it will be great to see them all come together.   Jeff
#348
Kit Building / Re: Campbell's #411 Schrock Meat Company
December 12, 2020, 04:15:55 PM
Quote from: mark dalrymple on December 11, 2020, 12:53:50 PM
Looking great, Jeff.

This is one of my favourite offerings from Campbell, and one that is in my stash.  I agree - their drawings are some of the best in the business.  You could easily build a 1:1 scale structure using them.  I would think that when buying direct from Campbells the kits would be fairly fresh, and so not too brittle.  I'll be watching your progress.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, thanks for looking in. Working on this kit is a pleasure using the well explained instructions and the excellent drawings. You'll have fun when you build this one. I haven't had any problems with the wood being brittle.

Quote from: PRR Modeler on December 11, 2020, 05:22:41 PM
Nice job so far.

Thank you Curt, the slaughterhouse is only the main sub-assembly and it is bigger than a lot of kits that I have built. There are 4 more sub-assemblies that adjoin the main structure. I'm looking forward to them all.

Quote from: NEMMRRC on December 12, 2020, 08:42:28 AM
Wow. Very nice.


That's a lot of building to fit inside a small box.


Jaime

Hi Jaime, you're right, it is a large building that comes out of a small box. It is due to having to glue sometimes three wall pieces together to form a finished wall, but it is going together nicely to this point. Thanks for the kind words.
#349
Kit Building / Re: Campbell's #411 Schrock Meat Company
December 11, 2020, 12:38:38 PM
Continuing on...



Here all of the Slaughterhouse walls have been assembled and braced. You can see that I marked all of the wall sections with their correct number. I did this before starting because there are a lot of pieces and I wanted to make sure that I had everything I needed.



I used rattle can dark grey primer on both sides of the assembled and braced walls. You can  see the first dry brush coat of antique gold on the lower right section. You can also see the doors and windows painted with light avocado craft paint and the corner bracing material. Some small trim pieces for around the freight doors and for support beams for the front canopy have also been painted. The instructions are very good in telling you what to do next. I didn't mention before that I sorted out all of the different sizes of strip-wood into bundles that I labeled with the correct part number. I have found this to be very helpful and recommend this to everyone. It takes away a lot of confusion once you start building.



The front and back walls have been dry brushed with first the antique gold and then a cocoa bean color. I used this color combination on another kit in the past and I think it gives a nice natural wood color result.



Doors and windows have been added. You can see the strip-wood trim around the door openings. I sponged on some of the cocoa bean color to the door and window castings and the wood trim pieces for an aged paint look.



The rear and right side walls have been glued together. I have added the acetate for the window glass and used brown construction paper for the window shades. The unpainted strip-wood is to support the second floor cardstock floor. I deviated from the instructions here because of my extra bracing. The instructions show the floor supports glued directly onto the wall sections. I thought the extra bracing more important, so I did it this way. You can also see the corner trim pieces on the rear wall.



The front and left side walls are shown here. The two horizontal wood pieces on the front are the supports for the front canopy. To this point, I am very pleased with how the kit is coming along. I can see that having done a few laser cut wood kits and also some scratch-building has helped me be better prepared for this kit. The well done instructions and the excellent drawings help a lot. You just have to take your time and consult each before taking the next step. That's it for now, more later.
#350
Kit Building / Campbell's #411 Schrock Meat Company
December 11, 2020, 12:03:41 PM
This is my first Campbell's kit build. In doing my research on Campbell's kits I noticed a lot of negative comments, such as they are 40 to 50 years old, they are just a bag of sticks and that they were not much more than a scratch-built kit. I have done a few smaller scratch-built structures on my layout, so none of this scared me off. So, here we go...



Here is the box that the kit came in. I was impressed with Campbell's service. I received the kit less than a week after ordering. They included a nice sanding stick with my order. Free stuff is always good. I also ordered extra hanging sides of beef.



There is a lot inside the box, some of which is pictured here. I could immediately see why many called these kits scratch-built type kits. There are none of the complete laser cut wall sections with door and window openings already done for you. What is there includes many pages of drawings and templates, that were done in the 70's and 80's by a lady named Sherry Collins. I mention her name because of the very good quality of these drawings. I was a residential general contractor for many years and I saw many blueprints that were not as good as these are.



After spending a lot of time reading over the instructions I realized that by following them step by step I would achieve my best result. The first portion of the kit to be built is the Slaughterhouse section, which is the biggest sub-assembly and an entire kit in it's own right. Each wall requires several wood wall sections be glued together and the door and window openings need to be cut out. The locations are lightly stamped onto the wood wall sections and this picture shows one of them with the window openings highlighted with a pencil



The instruction say to use either masking tape or light paper on the back of the wall sections that have openings that need to be cut out. I used masking tape. My research said that in some instances the wood from these kits might be brittle with age and that the backing would help prevent the wall sections from splitting.



This picture shows the tools that I used to cut out the openings. First I used my pin vise to drill holes at each corner of the opening and then used a sharp new blade in my Exacto knife to cut out the opening while using a steel rule to guide the initial cuts. It usually took about 6 cuts for each line with extra cuts at the corners. Don't force out the wood that you will be removing. It will come out easily when the cuts are all the way through. Use the door or window as a guide and with a little filing they will fit nicely. In the upper left you can see one of the walls with the sections glued together and bracing installed. One way that I differed from the instructions was in the amount of bracing used. I like to use a lot of bracing.



Here is one of the front wall sections with the openings removed. Many complaints about these kits that I read about concerned having to do this step, instead of the openings already laser cut for you. Having done some small scratch-built structures already, this was not a problem for me and it shouldn't be for anyone. It just takes a little patience and care laying out the openings and being careful while cutting them out. More in a minute
#351
Kit Building / Re: KC's Workshop Steelton Feed and Seed
November 26, 2020, 09:04:20 AM
Quote from: Opa George on November 25, 2020, 11:36:10 AM
Jeff,
Beautiful job on that. I love the Steelton sign.  It really adds that dash of style.
--Opa George

Thank you George, the sign came with the kit and I agree that it is a nice touch.
#352
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 21, 2020, 07:06:56 AM
Quote from: jerryrbeach on November 21, 2020, 07:00:16 AM
Jeff,


The two kits really compliment each other in their location on your layout.  Any chance we could see a few more photos of the layout?

Hello Jerry, thank you. I also like the way my rural development turned out with the two kits. I have posted some pictures  in the layout tours section of the forum and I plan on  some more posts in that area. 

Quote from: postalkarl on November 21, 2020, 07:02:00 AM
Hey Jeff:

You did A beautiful job on that one. Like the kit on the left also. Looks great on the layout and I'll go along with Jerry.

Karl

Thank you Karl
#353
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 21, 2020, 06:58:49 AM
Quote from: rpdylan on November 21, 2020, 01:26:53 AM
It seems to me that the kit should just come with cardboard roof cards and shingles, strip wood and dock templates,,,, save money on the manufacture by eliminating the plastic,,,,

Hello Bob, I agree with you, but the price of the RDA kits is so reasonable it makes it easy to just not use the parts you don't want and replace them with other alternatives. If you look at all of the RDA kits you will see similarities, some stone walls and definitely the detail casting sprues  are used in different kits. All of this contributes to the low cost of the kits. If I'm not mistaken RDA kits have been around for quite a while and have had different owners. I think you just take what you get and make the kit as you see fit. Anyway, I recommend these kits.
#354
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 20, 2020, 07:32:36 PM
Quote from: PRR Modeler on November 19, 2020, 04:40:34 PM
Great looking building Jeff.

Hello Curt, thanks, I'm real happy with the way it came out

Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on November 19, 2020, 06:10:31 PM
That turned out really well.  Great work!


Jeff

Thanks Jeff. I had a lot of fun with this build
#355
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 19, 2020, 04:13:53 PM


The building has been placed onto my layout and I've started to blend in the scenery. Some of the dirt driveway is still wet.



As you can see, this kit lives next to my last build- the Steelton Feed building. This area on my layout used to be a forested area with some rocks and several levels. I needed some more room for my buildings so a bit of rural development was undertaken. I really enjoyed this RDA kit. Don't let some negative comments on the interweb discourage you from these kits. They are very affordable and can be made into some really nice additions to a layout with a little bit of work. That's it for this build. I'm thinking about a Campbell kit for my next build. Thanks to everyone for looking in and for their comments and compliments.
#356
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 19, 2020, 04:04:43 PM


I've added some detail casting tro the loading docks and scratchbuilt a couple of iron works type yard details. I got the idea for the storage rack from one of Steve Custer's build threads. He used his for wood storage, mine is for iron storage. The other is just some scrap pieces of styrene on some stripwood.



I made my usual thin styrene base and painted and laid down some scenery materials. The buildings have been glued down as well as the loading docks, stairs and some details.



Here you can see the wheel hoist above the second story freight door. This hoist came with the kit, but I modified it slightly and added some A-0line chain in place of the thread that came with the kit.



This is the rear view- not many details here, this side won't be seen on my layout



The left side will also not be seen when I plant the building in it's designated space.



This is a roof view. The biggest changes that I made with the kit were the roofs. I think that replacing the plastic roof panels that came with the kit with these new roofs made a big difference in the overall appearance of the finished structure. The shingles came from KC's workshop and the roll-roofing is black construction paper painted grey and then black again following the methods explained by Jason Jenson in one of his excellent video tutorials. More in a minute
#357
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 19, 2020, 03:47:18 PM
Continuing on...



Next I started on the loading docks. I chose not to use the kit supplied docks- they seemed too big and clunky. Using a deck template I built two docks- one for the front of the stone building and one for under the walkway on the side of the brick building. You can also see a small railing and the stairs for the front dock. I only recently started using a jig for my stairs, and what a difference it makes. If you don't have a stairway jig- get one, it will make your life so much easier. Always learning in this hobby.



I've started to add details to the roof and the walls. The smokestacks are drinking straws painted black and the wall/ window vents came from my stash box.



A better view of the smokestacks and the rear walls



The chimneys came with the kit. The vent stack from my stash box and a good view of the window that I covered with stripwood. I like the looks of this, it was my first time trying this detail.



You can see the 1/16 styrene rod that I glued onto the vertical wall seams here.



A view of the front walls. This view is the one that sold me on this kit. I really like the walkway connecting the two buildings. That's it for now, more in a minute.
#358
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 18, 2020, 02:09:04 PM
Quote from: MAP on November 17, 2020, 09:07:47 AM
Looking great Jeff!

Hey Mark, thank you. I've had a good time with this build.
#359
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 17, 2020, 08:46:11 AM
Quote from: ReadingBob on November 17, 2020, 06:57:29 AM
Wow.  Great progress Jeff.  Everything looks really well done.  Keep up the great work.   :)

Hello Bob, thank you the nice compliments. I have really been enjoying this RDA kit, I know that it's just a plastic kit, but it's not your typical plastic kit. I think it will be a nice addition to my layout.

Quote from: WigWag Workshop on November 17, 2020, 07:12:18 AM
Excellent coloring on the brick!




-Steven

Hey Steven, I have tried several brick wall techniques and I am most pleased with how this one came out. Thanks for the kind words.
#360
Kit Building / Re: RDA Delaney Iron Works
November 16, 2020, 07:55:48 PM
Quote from: Janbouli on November 16, 2020, 05:16:50 AM
Looking great Jeff, brick walls look especially good.
Maybe you have seen it used by John Siekirk and feel no need for it but I use plastic bags to weigh down roofs and other irregular shapes while drying . Works great and much easier then balancing jars and pieces of wood.






Hello Jan, yes I have seen John's method and every time I end up doing my balancing act with jars and pieces of wood I think about it. I just have to get off my butt and do it. Thanks for the advice.   Jeff

Quote from: PRR Modeler on November 16, 2020, 08:57:02 AM


Great modeling so far.

Hey Curt, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. I have had a lot of fun with this RDA kit and I encourage others to try them out. The stone and brick wall details are very good and with a little work they come together very well.
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