Bar Mills Babcock Boiler build

[nycjeff]

My next build will be Babcock Boiler by Bar Mills. This is my first Bar mills kit. I liked the look of this kit with it's roof details and side assemblies. After looking at the build thread that Karl (postalkarl) did, with his usual exceptional results, I decided to get the kit. Bar Mills proved to be very easy to order from and I received the kit within 10 days of my order. Upon opening the kit I also discovered a 240 grit sanding stick with the kit itself. Free stuff is always nice. So let's get started



The obligatory picture of the box and the free sanding stick.



The box contents. I really have to clean up my workbench one of these days



I spread out the laser cut pieces, the stripwood and the roof card.



I cleaned up minimal flash on the door and window castings with small files- you can see one in the picture. I think I bought the small files at Harbor Freight, which is a tool supply house type store down here in the Phoenix area. The prices at this store are very reasonable and they have many small sized items that apply to our hobby very well.



I added bracing per the instruction with the included stripwood and then weighted the walls down while the glue set. The weights are my ballast material containers which I got at Michael's.



The braced walls. I always add additional bracing, especially at the roof peaks for both structural integrity and additional glueing surface for the roof cards. That's it for now more later

[WigWag Workshop]

Oh Sweet! Looking forward to seeing this build, I have this on my next purchase list.


-Steven

[PRR Modeler]

I will definitely following this build.

[nycjeff]

Thank you Steven and Curt for looking in. Steven, as I mentioned, for more information about this kit check out postalkarl's build thread from earlier this year.



Here I've taped the wood walls to a piece of cardboard for preparation to painting with rattle can dark grey



After painting the back side of the wall dark grey, the front side was also painted. To this point in building wood kits I have first stained the wood walls with AI solution, but this time per Bar Mills instructions I painted both sides of the walls with dark grey paint.



Here are the craft paints that I am going to use for this kit. The light avocado will be for the trim and the antique gold and cocoa bean are for the wood walls



The walls have been dry brushed with the antique gold and two have also been dry brushed with the cocoa bean. I was really pleased with the result of these two colors. They produce, in my opinion, a very realistic wood color. You can also see the door and window castings painted with the avocado color



All of the wood walls have now been painted with the wood colors. The wall color is different than that achieved with the AI solution and dry brushing, this technique of pre painting with grey and then dry brushing produces a newer looking wall. The other way gives a peeled paint effect. Not all buildings need painting in the real world, so it is nice to have buildings on the layout in different stages of appearance.



Doors and windows have been installed, corner trim glued on and trim installed around the large door openings. The trim color on the freight door outer layer gives a very nice effect. Signs have also been attached to the walls. I spread glue on the backside of the signs and after positioning them on the wall, gently use my fingernail to press them onto the wood siding. That's now more later

[PRR Modeler]

Nice selection of color and signage Jeff.

[GPdemayo]

Great start Jeff.....I'll be looking in. 

[nycjeff]

Hello Curt, thanks for looking in. As I said, I'm pleased with the wood wall color. The signage is included with the kit and I must say that I'm impressed with this Bar Mills kit to this point.  And thank you Greg for looking in.



Another view of the walls. This one gives a better look at the wall color. I dry brushed some antique gold on the doors and windows. The small window frames on the large door look nice- I was afraid that I would damage the laser cut wood for these, but they cut away from the card easily. I stole the different color idea from Karl on the outer layer of the large door, they give a real nice look. Thanks Karl



View of the right side and rear after wall assembly, the rear wall is blank because of the large rear side addition. The vertical slots in the right side wall are for the small side building assembly. A nice touch with the Bar Mills rafter tail wood piece and it fit easily into the pre-cut slots at the top of the wall but I did have to trim the ends because of the added bracing on my side wall gable ends. It will be easy to insert the cut-off rafter tail into the end slots later.



View of the left side and front after wall assembly. The holes in the walls are part of the kit- they are for the canopy supports above the doors and the lower ones are for the loading dock.



This is the rear building addition, you can see the extra bracing I installed at the top and bottom of the front. The small windows that come with the kit allow for modeling in the open position and I like to model doors that are partially open. I added a small wood floor inside the door to give the appearance of a finished interior and I will place something on the floor later so that the interior looks used. Walthers has an unpainted industrial little people item that never seems to be in stock- I'd like to have someone standing at the door later on.



A view of the assembled loading dock and ramp- these items went together easily and once again I was impressed with the fine detail of the laser cut wood pieces. You can also see the assembled front roof dormer- these small pieces also went together easily



Here I've started on the roof. You can see the pencil marks for the cardboard trusses that I will install to give the roof some rigidity. I cut my trusses to match the end wall gable ends and you can see that I've positioned the roof card into the correct position and am holding it with wood blocks and my ballast material weights. That's it for now, more later.

[Oldguy]

Coming together really nicely.

[postalkarl]

Hey Jeff:

looks great so far. Looking forward to more.

Karl

[nycjeff]

Thank you Bob for the nice words. Thank you Karl, I'm just trying to do justice to the kit as you did so well in your build thread. Continuing on...



Here I'm installing the cardboard roof trusses- I just spread glue on the edge and positioned them in the roof card. This technique gives the roof additional stability



Here all the trusses have been installed



The overhangs above the doors have been installed. Once again I was dubious about the overhang supports handling being cut from the laser cut sheet- they are very small delicate pieces. They all made it without damage, the laser cutting process used by Bar Mills is amazing. Full disclosure- I did break one of the pieces when installing it on the wall, but I was able to repair it with no problem. I used corrugated roof pieces left over from my Beer and Ice build here. The roof for the rear building addition has also been added- I used rolled-roofing from a previous build here as well. I have a box with all of my roofing materials handy at all times.



I used paint washes to color the roof shingle sheets provided with the kit. I used light grey and the cocoa bean wall color for these washes. I dry brushed the washes until they looked right to me.



I've begun to install the roof shingles using glue spread on the roof card and then pressing the shingle rows onto the glue surface. In the instructions we are told not to cover the entire roof with shingles, because there wouldn't be enough. You can see the pencil outline for the front roof dormer on the other side of the roof in this picture. I didn't cover this area with shingles. I plan on additional pastel chalk being applied to the shingles after the shingles are done



The roof shingles are done and the dormer has been installed. The gable end trim pieces have been installed. The end rafter tails have also been installed and you can see the floor section I installed inside the open large doors. It doesn't take much to suggest a finished interior. Again, I was very impressed with the rafter tail pieces fitting into the slots on the top of the walls- excellent engineering. That's it for now more later.

[ReadingBob]

Awesome start Jeff!  I'm following along for sure.   

[nycjeff]

Hello Bob, it's nice to have you looking in. I'm having a good time with this build. Bar Mills does a great job with it's kits.



I've started painting the detail castings. First I painted all of them with a rattle can grey primer, this gives a good base for the brush painted craft paints. Later I will use an AI solution wash to tone down the bright colors.



Here the front roof dormer has been glued onto the main roof. I like the look of the shingles. Trim has been added to the corners and edges of the roofs.



The roof top details have been painted- here we see the large vent and it's base along with the window frames for the dormer and the sign that will be placed on the top of the dormer.



The window frames are in- I like the look of open windows, it gives the impression of life inside the building. The roof top sign has been added, again the small sign supports were easy to remove from the laser sheet and easy to install. Can't say enough for the quality of the small laser cut pieces in this kit. The base for the large roof vent has been glued to the rear face of the roof. You can see on the roof where I left out rows of shingles and used brown construction paper as exposed underlayment. I think this makes the shingles more interesting to look at.



Here I've painted 1/8 square stripwood dark grey for a foundation for the building. All buildings need a foundation.



Foundations have been added to the main building and the rear addition. I found that I also had to add a foundation under the loading dock or it would not have the correct height next to the building. I'm hoping that it looks alright. I will use pastel chalks to tone down the colors later. That's it for now, more later

[PRR Modeler]

Awesome Bob.

[postalkarl]

Hey Jeff:

Looking just great.

Karl

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

Just getting caught up on this one. I would say nice start but it looks like you are about finished. Nice build.

Tom