FSM tribute build

[nycjeff]

While waiting for some scenery materials to be delivered to finish up my Campbell's Schrock Meat Company build, I started on a small project that I have been wanting to do for some time. While looking through the excellent thread on the FSM that John Siekirk has been putting out, I came across a picture that really interested me as something that I wanted to add to my layout.



I know that this is just one of literally hundreds of structures that the incredible George Sellios built, but this one spoke to me. I have done some scratch-building before and wanted to give this one a try.



This is the future location of this structure. It will replace the signal bridge that is located there now. This is the entrance to my lower level yard area and the bridge spans the arrival and departure tracks of the yard.



First up was the bridge structure. I drew some basic diagrams to determine the size I wanted. Shown are the front and side views.



These are the styrene shapes from my stash that I will use to build the bridge. I am not trying to build an exact duplicate of the original, my talents would not make that possible. I don't know if anyone's are. George's work is just on another level.



Here, using my templates, I've started to build the side supports. I used the I-beam and angle iron shapes for these and used super glue to hold things together.



The bridge structure has been built. George did not put the angle pieces at the top corners of his bridge, but I felt that they were needed for more structural stability. If you have seen any of my build threads, you know that I like to add extra bracing to all of my structures. That's it for now, more later.

[GPdemayo]

 Interesting structure.....I'll be looking in. 

[Keep It Rusty]

I'll be watching this one, Jeff! A great structure to reproduce!

[BandOGuy]

Great to see a structure start from scratch . And the use of  different material is super also.
Thanks for taking the time to pass your artistry along.

[nycjeff]

Interesting structure.....I'll be looking in. 

Hello Greg, thanks for looking in. I agree with you, when I first saw this structure on the FSM picture thread it caught my eye.

I'll be watching this one, Jeff! A great structure to reproduce!

Hey Craig, it's hard to go wrong with any of George's  structures. I just hope that I can do it some justice.

Great to see a structure start from scratch . And the use of  different material is super also.
Thanks for taking the time to pass your artistry along.

Hello BandO, appreciate you joining in. I have done some smaller scratch-builds before this. It's fun planning an entire building from just a picture. I'm having a good time with this one.

Continuing on...



Here is the bridge structure after painting. I used rattle can camo with black tint and after that dried, I lightly sprayed some red primer.



Next was the base for the wood building. I just used some balsa wood and added some bracing. I cut the wood to just a little larger than the base bridge structure. I stained the ends with my AI solution, these will be the exposed landings. I made sure to stain the edges as these will be exposed.



The wood building walls were next. I used some clapboard siding material from Northeastern Scale Lumber as well as some of their windows. I had 8 windows in my stash, so that's what I used. I spaced them out on the wall pieces and drew some pencil outlines. I used my pin vise to make holes at the four corners of the outlines and then cut out the window shapes with my Exacto knife. It takes about 6 cuts to get through the siding material. I've learned not to force out the wood, just keep cutting until the wood blank is loose. Don't ask how I learned this. At the top is the balsa wood base.



Here is a view of the braced walls with the windows installed and the acetate window glass and brown construction paper shades also put in. The long front and rear walls have been glued to the short side walls and the doors, which came from my stash, have been installed. One door is from Northeastern and one is from Tichy.



Here the walls have been stained with my AI solution. You can also see the 1/16 square strip-wood corner pieces. I painted these with a dark grey craft paint color. My layout is based on the New York Central and their colors are usually a two tone grey- one light and one dark. I was going to dry brush a light grey color on the walls, but after the AI stain dried, I decided that I liked the look as it is. The small window on the lower wall is from Northeastern and I cut out the bottom mullions of one of the windows to give an open window look. You can see the window shades coming out of that window.



The hip roof is next. I had a tough time laying out the roof. I first cut some cardboard from the back of a legal pad of yellow paper to just a little wider that the assembled walls. On my first try I cut the height too short. On the second try it seemed to look right. Not having any measurements to work with makes this a trial and error process. I used some painters tape to hold the two pieces together and held this up on top of the wood wall assembly. I eyeballed the picture of George's structure and made some marks on the cardboard for the depth of the hip ends and then cut out a triangle from each end. I then cut  out a triangle shaped piece for each end and taped the whole thing together. I then cut two cardboard truss pieces and braced them with some 1/8 square strip-wood and glued them into the roof structure as you can see in the picture. The strip-wood will give me more of a gluing surface when I install the roof. I'm pleased with the end result, but I had a whole pile of cardboard pieces to get to this point. The joys of scratch-building. No pain- no gain. That's it for now, more later.

[tom.boyd.125]

Jeff,
Like this building...nice start...in Chicago there was an old prototype tower similar to what you are modeling.
The NYC even ran under it way back in the day near the 21st interchange. If you need a photo, can post it.
Tommy

[nycjeff]

Jeff,
Like this building...nice start...in Chicago there was an old prototype tower similar to what you are modeling.
The NYC even ran under it way back in the day near the 21st interchange. If you need a photo, can post it.
Tommy

Hello Tommy, by all means post the picture, I would love to see it. I know that most of the work that George did is based on prototype examples, although he did usually add his own personal touch. The fact that the NYC ran under the bridge makes it all the more interesting to me.

[Keep It Rusty]

Like what I'm seeing here Jeff! Are you scratch building the stairs too?

[tom.boyd.125]

Jeff,
Like this building...nice start...in Chicago there was an old prototype tower similar to what you are modeling.
The NYC even ran under it way back in the day near the 21st interchange. If you need a photo, can post it.
Tommy

Hello Tommy, by all means post the picture, I would love to see it. I know that most of the work that George did is based on prototype examples, although he did usually add his own personal touch. The fact that the NYC ran under the bridge makes it all the more interesting to me.

Here's the old photo you requested...see it mentions Lynn Wescott ( MR ) and Thomas Ayers ( an old kit mfg. )

[nycjeff]

Like what I'm seeing here Jeff! Are you scratch building the stairs too?

Hello Craig, thanks for the kind words and yes I am scratch-building the steps.

Jeff,
Like this building...nice start...in Chicago there was an old prototype tower similar to what you are modeling.
The NYC even ran under it way back in the day near the 21st interchange. If you need a photo, can post it.
Tommy

Hello Tommy, by all means post the picture, I would love to see it. I know that most of the work that George did is based on prototype examples, although he did usually add his own personal touch. The fact that the NYC ran under the bridge makes it all the more interesting to me.

Here's the old photo you requested...see it mentions Lynn Wescott ( MR ) and Thomas Ayers ( an old kit mfg. )

Hello Tommy, thanks so much for the picture, I don't think I've ever seen that one before.

Continuing on...



Here is a view of the top of the roof after taping all of the cardboard pieces together.



The roll-roofing material has been installed. I used black construction paper with a light spray of grey rattle can paint and then cut it into 3/8 inch wide strips. I then sanded the edge per Jason Jenson's excellent video and used full strength white glue to attach it to the roof. I cut one of the strips about 1/4 inch wide, folded it in half and sanded the other edge and then glued it on the roof for the peak areas. I applied some weathering chalks.



This is a drawing of the mid stairway landing platform and the structure that holds it up. I used 1/8 square strip-wood and 2x8 strip-wood for this, along with white glue.



The mid stairway platform has been assembled and stained with my AI solution. I placed it on my scale drawing to check it's size. When scratch-building, since you do not have any instructions or templates, you have to make your own. The tall line to the right is the edge of the bridge and the angled lines are the steps.



Pictured is the stairway jig from KC's workshop. If you don't have one, I highly recommend getting one. I did not have any luck with stairs before I got one. The stair stringers are placed in the horizontal slots, which I then taped into place, and the stair treads are then glued into place. You can see one stairway , already done, above the jig. A few stair treads are also visible.



Next are the base assemblies. I cut some cork roadbed to the size I wanted and used some thin styrene glued to the bottom to stiffen it up, as seen on the top long piece. I cut some balsa wood for the top of the cork and scribed some lines to represent individual boards and also added some nail holes. I then stained the wood with my AI solution. The two dark rectangular shapes are the bases for the bridge legs which will be glued onto the base assembly. I painted these with dark grey paint to represent concrete. At the bottom are my two stairways which have been stained with my AI solution and weathered using some chalks. That's it for now, more later.

[Keep It Rusty]

Great work, Jeff. I just bought KC's stair jig just recently. Looking forward to using it!

[nycjeff]

Great work, Jeff. I just bought KC's stair jig just recently. Looking forward to using it!

Hello Craig, thanks for the nice comment and you will enjoy building stairs using that jig.

Continuing on...



The walls for the wood building have been assembled. This is a view of the rear and right side



Here is the front and left side. I placed a trim board even with the bottom of the windows and also on the sides. I like the look of this extra trim. I painted it dark grey to match the other trim pieces and the doors and windows.



A view from the topo. You can see all of the bracing here, I like bracing.



The roof has been glued on as well as some Tichy light fixtures above the doors, the open-able window is from Northeastern and a couple of roof vents made from styrene round stock.



I placed some railings on the landing ends of the wood building base. The railings are from a Central Valley package of assorted fencing and railings. I was going to attempt to build the railings from strip-wood, but the angle railings on the stairs were too much for me.



I've started to glue things together. First the "concrete" bases for the bridge structure were glued on the base assemblies. I used white glue for this as it was wood on wood. Next I glued the bridge structure to the base assemblies using super glue- this was styrene to wood. I then glued the wood building base to the top of the bridge structure using super glue- more wood to styrene. The mid-point stairway was then glued to the base using measurements from my scale drawing. I then glued the stairways in place and they actually fit- I must have measured correctly. Lastly, I started to glue the railings to the steps and the mid-point platform using more of the Central Valley pieces. That's as far as I got for now. Gluing the railings on an angle and trying to keep them straight was not easy. I had to stop and will come back to it later when my hands stop shaking. That's it for now. more later

[Janbouli]

Looking great Jeff , nice subtle colors and weathering.

[PRR Modeler]

Beautiful modeling Jeff. I couldn't figure out what you were building until I saw the 1:1 photo yesterday. A unique structure that will look great on your layout.

[deemery]

When I saw the framing in white styrene, I was a bit 'suspicious' that it was oversized.  Now that I see it painted, it looks great.  The house on top came out nicely, too.


dave