This is a build thread for the "kit" that I won in the Winter Challenge, but since it's much more than just a kit I had to put it in the diorama section of the forum.
Here's a picture from the Keep it Rusty website of the completed diorama that Craig built. I can only hope to do half as good a job as he did. He is a master modeler for sure.
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The box that everything came in
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When I opened the box and started stacking things up on my workbench, I ran out of room.
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Three bags of strip wood, a hardware bag and a large parts bag were only the beginning.
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This box literally has over a hundred detail castings.
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That's it for now, much more later.
Jeff that certainly is a very nice prize!! I'll have to check in and see how you're progressing;
should be a beauty and exciting to watch your build.
Thanks for the unboxing photos. So far, that looks like a well organized kit. How are the instructions?
dave
That's a good looking kit.
Have fun building it.
Looks like you have your work cut out!!
Jerry
Neat, Jeff.
Looking forward to this build.
Cheers, Mark.
Jeff,
It appears the buyers of this kit got their moneys worth.
That's an enormous amount of wood. It looks like you have your work cut out for you.
I will be watching.
Rich
Looking forward to this. I purchased the kit, but didn't even open the box, so it's nice to see what's inside. Will be watching. Mark
Quote from: Larry C on July 10, 2025, 08:18:17 AMJeff that certainly is a very nice prize!! I'll have to check in and see how you're progressing;
should be a beauty and exciting to watch your build.
Hello Larry, a very nice prize indeed. This project will keep me busy all summer long for sure. Thanks for looking in.
Quote from: deemery on July 10, 2025, 08:32:48 AMThanks for the unboxing photos. So far, that looks like a well organized kit. How are the instructions?
dave
Hello Dave, it is a very well organized kit. My next post will talk about the instructions.
Quote from: Rick on July 10, 2025, 08:33:41 AMThat's a good looking kit.
Have fun building it.
Hello Rick, it is a great looking kit, Craig obviously spent a lot of time on the research and design phase when developing it.
Quote from: Jerry on July 10, 2025, 09:31:14 AMLooks like you have your work cut out!!
Jerry
Hello Jerry, upon opening the box, the kit is definitely intimidating, but after reading through the instructions which took several days I think that if I take it one step at a time it will go smoothly.
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on July 10, 2025, 05:03:16 PMNeat, Jeff.
Looking forward to this build.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, I'm looking forward to this as well
Quote from: Pennman on July 10, 2025, 06:39:16 PMJeff,
It appears the buyers of this kit got their moneys worth.
That's an enormous amount of wood. It looks like you have your work cut out for you.
I will be watching.
Rich
Hello Rich, it's a little misleading just calling this a kit. It's really about 5 or 6 kits in one. If you were to total up the cost of 5 or 6 small kits, then the cost of this is a bargain.
Quote from: craftsmankits on July 10, 2025, 10:22:37 PMLooking forward to this. I purchased the kit, but didn't even open the box, so it's nice to see what's inside. Will be watching. Mark
Hello Mark, I hope that by watching my build you are inspired to open your box. I would love to see what you could do with this one.
Continuing on...
The instruction manual for the kit is 96 pages long. It gives a detailed step by step for each of the many different parts of the kit
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Here's a look at the inside of the manual. There are lots of pictures along with the detailed narrative. Also included in the kit are many pages of what Craig calls a Parts Map. These pages give identifying details for all of the many laser cut sheets.
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This is a look at a full size drawing of the diorama as Craig built it. There are also many pages of full sized templates to assist in the build.
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The main mill building has all 3D printed walls shown here. These walls along with the many, many detail castings really make this kit stand out to me
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Here's a closer look at one of the walls. The detail is just amazing.
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All in all, a very impressive box opening. It took me several days to figure out what was what and to get things a little organized so that I could begin actual construction.
Before beginning construction, I wanted to give you an idea as to where the kit will be located on my layout. One of the corner scenes on the upper level of the layout was home to a grain elevator from Walthers which was served with a siding. I had been planning to do an upgrade to the scene, but when word came that I had won such a great prize from the Winter Challenge, my plans changed.
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The first step was to remove all existing buildings and scenery along with the siding down to the plywood surface that makes up the upper level shelf of my layout. The single track main line of the upper level runs near the back edge and I left that alone.
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As I always do, I first cut a piece of packing paper to fit the overall footprint of the scene. This gives me a pattern for the base of the new scene.
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Here I've cut a piece of 1/2 inch Homosote to fit the scene. This will give me a base which I can build on. The cut-out at the right side is where the siding comes into the area.
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I wanted to have a creek cutting across the area, so my first step was to cut some more of the packing paper to form a pattern for the new creek bed. This will be the location for the man bridge that I scratch built while waiting for the kit to arrive.
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Well I've unboxed the kit and set the scene for it's location, so next I will actually begin to build this steam powered flour mill diorama.
Well, of course the proof of the instructions will be how well the kit goes together. But the pages you show, with lots of photos, looks quite good.
dave
Nice looking kit and new real estate! Lot of strip wood.
Looking forward to watching you build this wonderful-looking kit.
Mike
Quote from: deemery on July 11, 2025, 09:04:59 AMWell, of course the proof of the instructions will be how well the kit goes together. But the pages you show, with lots of photos, looks quite good.
dave
Hello Dave, so far the instructions have been very helpful in the build. Lots of good tips and suggestions
Quote from: Philip on July 11, 2025, 07:44:24 PMNice looking kit and new real estate! Lot of strip wood.
Hello Philip, it is a nice looking kit and I'm very much looking forward to the build. And yes, there is a lot of strip wood.
Quote from: Michael Hohn on July 12, 2025, 10:00:24 AMLooking forward to watching you build this wonderful-looking kit.
Mike
Hello Mike, thanks for looking in. After an initial feeling of being intimidated by the sheer size of the kit, I've found that just by taking things one step at a time it is all manageable. And I'm having fun.
It's time to get started on the build...
The first structure that I wanted to build was the general store with an adjacent storage barn. The store has three walls that need to be done . The rear wall is just a spacer wall made of chipboard.
The two side walls start out with a chipboard backer. The first step is to glue on the window frames. These consist of four pieces. An inner and outer frame and two sill pieces. I sponged on the trim color after gluing the pieces in place.
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The wall finish is board by board. I first used my razor saw to distress the strip wood and then dipped it into my A&I solution. After drying, I dry brushed a brown wood color and then a little light grey and then some antique gold. I've used this combination in the past and have liked the end result. To me it looks like weathered wood that needs painting.
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The two side walls have been done and trimmed. Now it's time to start on the storefront wall, seen here in the middle.
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The storefront outer wall is laser cut clapboard. The wood clapboard is glued to the chipboard inner wall. This picture shows the backside of the storefront wall. The portion that will be seen above the roof line is given a board by board finish using the same strip wood as used on the side walls. The large opening in the storefront wall is for a recessed entrance sub-assembly.
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Here is the recessed entrance piece before folding it into a three sided entry way. A door and window opening have the frames glued in place and painted and the wall areas have been treated with the same board by board method as the side walls. You have to be careful to leave some space where the fold lines are located. The two trapezoid pieces seen in the picture are the floor and ceiling for the entryway.
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That's it for now, more later.
You're off to a strong start!
dave
Interesting project, i'll sneek a peek now and then!
Very nice Jeff. Really like the wood coloring and trim.
Jerry
Jeff, you've created a nice clean canvas on the layout to plant your kit when it's done.
Your weathered wood looks good.
Quote from: deemery on July 13, 2025, 09:01:11 AMYou're off to a strong start!
dave
Hello Dave, thank you for looking in. I feel like I've just started to run a marathon with the sheer size of this kit. I'm approaching it as doing one kit at a time.
Quote from: KentuckySouthern on July 13, 2025, 02:27:37 PMInteresting project, i'll sneek a peek now and then!
Hello KS, I appreciate you looking in
Quote from: Jerry on July 13, 2025, 03:40:51 PMVery nice Jeff. Really like the wood coloring and trim.
Jerry
Hello Jerry, I've used that same color combination before to get a weathered wood look and have always been happy with the result.
Quote from: Rick on July 13, 2025, 06:43:18 PMJeff, you've created a nice clean canvas on the layout to plant your kit when it's done.
Your weathered wood looks good.
Hello Rick, thank you for the nice comments.
Continuing on...
Here I'm gluing the recessed storefront onto the floor piece. I did this in stages. First I glued the 90 degree corner with the door and window openings to the base. After letting the glue dry overnight, I then glued the angle portion to the base.
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I've glued the store walls together. I departed from the instructions a bit here. Craig used some chipboard triangular pieces to stabilize the corners, but I opted for the traditional 1/8 square strip wood bracing.
You can see the assembled recessed storefront in this picture as well. This little sub-assembly was a lot of work, but I'm pleased with how it came out. You can also see the screen door- a nice detail of which there are many in this kit.
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Another view of the assembled store walls.
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The recessed storefront has been glued in place along with the trim boards around the large opening and at the corners. The pieces for the sign and the blackboard all fit together easily.
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The rear wall of the store is plain chipboard. This wall butts against the storage barn structure which attaches to the rear of the store.
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That's all for the store at this point, next I'm on to the storage barn structure that attaches to the rear of the store.
Jeff, your technique for coloring the wooden walls is effective.
George
I'm preparing the strip wood for the board by board construction of the storage barn walls. I first dragged my razor saw over the boards to give them some texture and then dipped all of them into my A&I solution. As you can see I used a combination of red and grey pieces.
You can also see the chipboard wall backer pieces here along with the pieces for the window frames and door frames.
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Here are the colors that I use for the wood walls with the peeling paint look.
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I've started the board by board process here. Craig gives very specific instructions on how to proceed and his directions were spot on. They made the process much easier.
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The four walls are done. The one wall with the exposed chipboard is where the storage barn butts against the store.
Craig tells you how many pieces of each size of strip wood are necessary for each step of the build. I followed his directives and he was very correct with his estimates. The little bits that you can see in the middle of the finished walls were all that was left of the prepared strip wood.
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The storage barn walls have been glued together, again using 1/8 square bracing. I also added some bracing at the tops of the gable end walls and a beam across the peak. All of this will give me more gluing surface when attaching the roof card.
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That's it for now, more later.
Jeff your moving right along. Everything seems to be going perfectly wonderful tutorial.
Jerry
Just came across this project and having built a mill myself (not a Rusty Kit)I am really looking forward to seeing how this comes out. Really looks great so far!
Jim
Howdy Jeff,
Nice work on the big kit. The coloring is excellent. I like using 1/8" to reinforce the corners.
Have fun,
mike
Very nice start on a great kit. I bought this also, when it was released, so I sure will consult this thread when I get around to putting it together.
I also sincerely appreciate that you showed us the area on your layout into which you will be integrating this build, and look forward to seeing how you blend it into the scene.
Very nice varied colors on those boards.
Why is the screen door on the inside?
Quote from: Jerry on July 15, 2025, 09:51:57 AMJeff your moving right along. Everything seems to be going perfectly wonderful tutorial.
Jerry
Hello Jerry, I'm just going one step at a time. The instruction manual that Craig provided with the kit is essential and it's very helpful to say the least. Thanks for looking in and for the kind words.
Quote from: Jim Donovan on July 15, 2025, 10:01:59 AMJust came across this project and having built a mill myself (not a Rusty Kit)I am really looking forward to seeing how this comes out. Really looks great so far!
Jim
Hello Jim, thank you for the feedback. I'm looking forward to how this comes out as well. I'm having a lot of fun so far.
Quote from: friscomike on July 15, 2025, 01:25:14 PMHowdy Jeff,
Nice work on the big kit. The coloring is excellent. I like using 1/8" to reinforce the corners.
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, one of the first things I learned on this forum regarding craftsman kits was that there is no such thing as too much bracing. The wood coloring process is one that I have used before and been very happy with the results.
Quote from: swisstrain on July 15, 2025, 04:35:26 PMVery nice start on a great kit. I bought this also, when it was released, so I sure will consult this thread when I get around to putting it together.
I also sincerely appreciate that you showed us the area on your layout into which you will be integrating this build, and look forward to seeing how you blend it into the scene.
Hello Swiss, knowing where a kit will be placed on the layout, especially with one as complex as this one, helps me with the overall design and gives me ideas on how to make it my own version of the kit. Another thing that I have learned on this forum is not to be afraid to change things up a little. I hope that you get around to building this kit, I would love to see what you do with it.
Quote from: Rick on July 16, 2025, 07:26:03 AMVery nice varied colors on those boards.
Why is the screen door on the inside?
Hello Rick, the varied color on the walls is suggested in the instructions and I liked the idea a lot. The screen door is not inside. It is located in a recessed entry way. This entry way is a nice design feature of this kit. Thanks for looking in and for the interest.
Continuing on...
I changed a couple of things from the instructions at this point. First of all, I switched the position of the gable ends of the storage barn when assembling the walls. I put the side with the barn doors on the right instead of the left as Craig did. I did this because of the way this structure will sit on my diorama. Craig had the store to the right of the main mill building, but mine will be to the left. No big deal, except I will have to build the man steps to the door opposite of the way the instructions call.
Secondly, I decided to have the large barn doors open, showing an interior. This meant that I had to install a floor inside the barn. I glued some 1/8 square bracing strips on both ends of the inside gable walls and then cut some 1/16 plywood to fit. I scribed some board lines on the plywood with the backside of my #11 blade and then stained the floor with my A&I solution.
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Here's a look at the bottom of the floor. You can also see how the vertical bracing pieces fit together at the corners in this picture.
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Next up is the roof for the storage barn. The instructions call for painting the roof card, but I wanted to do something with a little more texture for the roof surface. I cut some packing paper to size with a little overhang on the edges. I then drew on the lines to help me position the vertical roof trim boards to cover the "seams" of the roofing material.
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Here I'm ready to glue the packing paper roof sheeting to the roof card.
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Here the roof has been glued on, the 1/32 square strip wood pieces have been glued on and I dry brushed some color onto the roof. I primarily used a brown color, with a little red and then some grey. I plan on using some chalks when the structure has been glued to the base and won't be handled as much anymore.
You can also see the roof for the store structure in this picture. I decided to do this roof in the same material as the storage barn. The instructions call for different material for each roof.
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That's it for now, more later.
The roof card for the store is ready to be glued on. There are slots at each end of the triangular portion of the roof that are meant to slide onto the storage barn roof. The instructions say that if the two do not go together easily, you may have to do a little filing and/ or trimming to get them together properly. Note the rounded top to the rear wall of the store, more to come on that in a bit.
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After lots of filing and/ or trimming along with much weaping and gnashing of teeth and more than a few choice words. I did get them to fit together finally. At first I had a quarter inch gap at the top of the walls where they were supposed to come together.
This picture shows the result of the trimming I had to do on the storage barn roof. I had to trim about an 1/8 inch from the bottom of the roof card. You can also see that I had to enlarge the slots on the store roof card.
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And here is a picture of the trimming I had to do on the store rear wall. Again I had to take about an 1/8 inch off the top of the chipboard wall piece.
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Anyway, the end result looks good. Finally. The pictures show the end result of about six attempts with a little filing and trimming at each attempt. I'm sure that the problems were of my own making, Craig's design has been spot on to this point and I think that I somehow did something to make this step more difficult than it needed to be.
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A look at the joined buildings from a different angle. You can see that I have added the rest of the 1/32 square strip wood for the vertical seam covers. I used a piece of 1/16 wood dowel along the peak line. The instructions called for two pieces of 2x4 strip wood to cover the peak joint, but I thought that the dowel looked better to me.
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All in all, I'm very pleased with how the store/ storage barn turned out. I had some fits and starts, but that's just part of the fun isn't it. I made some changes to the kit, as I always do. I blame certain members of the forum for teaching me this- I'm looking at you Tom. Such as using bracing on the inside of the walls, switching the location of the two gable end walls of the storage barn, keeping the large barn doors open and adding an interior floor and going a different way on the roof of the storage barn.
Next up are several small sub-assemblies, such as the steps below the man door at one of the gable end walls and the loading dock deck below the large barn doors. I also have a few other ideas that I want to add to this fine structure, but we'll get to those as we go along. I'm having a lot of fun with this kit.
That's it for now, more later.
Jeff,
You are attacking this kit at quite a quick pace and with excellent results.
I see a neatly attached Store with the storage barn, especially at the roof lines.
No gaps and it appears like a tight fit.
The addition of the interior floor will show off this model even better.
Keep up the great work. Thanks for sharing.
Rich
Hello Rich, thanks for looking in and for the nice words. I'm getting a lot done because this is my time of year to spend my hours in the train room. Unlike most of the other posters on the forum for whom summer is a time to be outside and get things done- it is the opposite for me here in the desert. Here, where it can be above 100 degrees before 11 am, I have to get my outside chores done early. The late morning and afternoon hours, when it is too hot to be outside, I can spend time inside in the AC in the train room.
Continuing on...
Next up were the stairs for the outside door on the left side of the storage barn. The instruction manual dedicates a couple of pages to this little project, along with a separate sheet of full size templates.
First I "grained and stained" the strip wood. This means that I used my razor saw to texture the surface of the wood and then I dipped all of it into my A&I solution. When dry, I dry brushed a little of the trim color onto the strip wood.
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Here are the major pieces of the stairs. I had to remember to make the stairs, railings and steps face the opposite direction than shown in the instructions. This was because I switched the gable ends of the kit when assembling the building.
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Here are the assembled stairs. The templates made this job easier. It's much easier making little sub-assemblies like this on a flat surface, then gluing them together.
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And here is a look at the stairs in their intended location. Also, in this picture you can see the finished rafter tails on both the barn and the store.
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Now it was time for the loading dock/ deck for the other side of the storage barn, under the large barn doors.
First, I separated out the strip wood needed for the deck and then I "grained and stained" the wood.
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I used my chopper to cut pieces to the correct size following the information provided on the template sheet.
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Following the steps given I first laid out the support beams and then glued the deck joists in place.
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The instructions only called for cross bracing between the front row of posts and the front side posts. I decided to install cross bracing between all of the rows of posts. I dipped into my strip wood stash box for this additional work.
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Here's a look at the finished loading dock/ deck
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Jeff, I really like how you rusted the roof.
Looks very realistic.
Nice job on adding the floor and good colors on the stairs and deck.
Jeff nice coloring on the roof. And your stairs and deck came out perfectly.
Jerry
Howdy Jeff,
As other folks have said, the roof looks terrific. That porch is tiny. The loading dock looks terrific, too. This is a fun build to follow.
Have fun,
mike
Quote from: Rick on July 20, 2025, 06:12:40 PMJeff, I really like how you rusted the roof.
Looks very realistic.
Nice job on adding the floor and good colors on the stairs and deck.
Hello Rick, thank you for the generous comments. I'm pleased with how the roof came out as well. The stairs and deck were not very difficult to build with the aid of the excellent instructions and templates.
Quote from: Jerry on July 20, 2025, 11:46:14 PMJeff nice coloring on the roof. And your stairs and deck came out perfectly.
Jerry
Hello Jerry, thank you so much for looking in. The feedback is much appreciated.
Quote from: friscomike on July 21, 2025, 07:38:49 AMHowdy Jeff,
As other folks have said, the roof looks terrific. That porch is tiny. The loading dock looks terrific, too. This is a fun build to follow.
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, I'm glad that you like my build and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.
Continuing on...
Here's a look at the loading dock/deck in it's future position. I haven't added the barn doors to the wall because I wanted to make sure that they would fit when the dock was in place.
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Next up is another little sub-assembly- the outhouse. It comes with four laser cut framed walls that fit together very well, as have all the parts that I have come across so far. Craig has done a remarkable job with the design and engineering in this kit.
In this picture you can also see the laser cut parts for the floor, ceiling, toilet seat and more strip wood, because this outhouse is made with board by board construction. The door with it's Z frame bracing is still on the carrier sheet.
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The outhouse is done. the hardest part was fitting the foldable toilet seat part into position through the door. And if you can believe it, there is a 3D printed toilet paper roll sitting on the seat shelf inside and you can actually see the hole in the middle of the roll. This 3D stuff is amazing.
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Here's another look at the outhouse. The door has been added and of course it has a crescent moon cut-out in it. If you look carefully you can see the toilet paper roll inside.
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Here's a look at all three little sub-assemblies that I have done so far. As I said before, constructing them was made much easier by the very well done step-by-step instructions and the templates that come with this kit. This is the first exposure that I have had with this large a kit and with this level of detail and construction techniques. I'm very impressed and can't wait to get to the rest of this kit. I'm only just getting started with everything that needs to be built.
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It's time to start putting this part of the diorama together. I will mount this scene on a styrene base as I usually do with my builds. I always draw out the footprint of the structure and then use blue painters tape to cover the footprint before painting.
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The styrene base has been painted. I used a dark camo rattle can color this time. Any dark color that resembles an earth color will do, you just don't want any of the white styrene color to show through. When painting I always make sure to get the white edges of the base painted.
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For this next part of the build, I'm going off script. I wanted to add something to the front of the store, but I didn't want to cover up the view of the wonderful recessed entryway. I decided to add a wood floor in the area outside the front entry. For this I used some 4x10 strip wood from my stash. Here I've added some texture to the boards surface and then dipped them into my A&I solution.
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I cut the boards to about the same length and then used my #11 blade to distress the ends of the boards. Next I glued them onto the base. You'll notice a section of the floor is a little longer, that's for the part that extends into the recessed entryway.
Also in this picture, you can see the barn door assembly for the storage barn. It comes with some wonderfully detailed rollers at the top of the doors that fit into a styrene channel and some 3D printed door handles that are incredible.
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I wanted a cover for this front deck area, but I didn't want a full roof, again because I didn't want to hide the detailed recessed entryway that I worked so hard to build. I decided to build a wood frame. I used 3/32 square strip wood for this. The ledger board on the wall of the store just below the sign is a piece of 4x10 strip wood that I cut out pockets for the four joists to fit into. The diagonal bracing at the top of the posts is only 1/4 inch long with 45 degree cuts on each end. This was definitely a tweezer job. More detail for this front deck cover is coming, but that's for next time.
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I wanted the appearance of some type of roof covering for the front area, so I decided to have a folded up awning with pull ropes. I used some grey packing paper for the awning. I cut a piece to the correct size and then folded it. I glued some black thread to the underside of the awning and then glued the folded awning in place. I also started to glue pieces of a wood walkway to the stairs on the left side.
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The rear wall of the structure will face the track at the back of the diorama, so I just put some basic scenery in place there.
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It's getting to be detail time so I stuck some, but not all, of the castings that come with the kit to some painters tape and then got then ready for a coat of rattle can primer grey.
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I continued the basic scenery, which is just sifted dirt from my yard and some ground foams held in place with a mod podge and water mixture, on the left side.
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Using some of the castings I made some display benches for the front area under the awning frame. I finished laying the pieces for the wood walkway on the left side as well.
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Howdy Jeff,
Oddmun and Co. is looking terrific. Wow, that's a lot of details to paint. It will take longer to paint them than to build the rest of the kit! ;)
Have fun,
mike
Awnings were MUCH more common, and rarely modeled, for the era before air conditioning.
dave
Jeff, that's looking very good.
Nice job on the scenery.
Jeff the scenery looks great and the added details already are making it come alive!
Jerry
Jeff,
You are making great progress on the kit and it looks great as well. It will be an excellent addition to the layout.
Tom
Nice work, Jeff. Excellent job of fitting the two roofs together.
George
Quote from: friscomike on July 23, 2025, 06:12:16 PMHowdy Jeff,
Oddmun and Co. is looking terrific. Wow, that's a lot of details to paint. It will take longer to paint them than to build the rest of the kit! ;)
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, Thanks for the kind words. It is a lot of detail castings and that wasn't all of them. I will paint them a few at a time as needed. What fun.
Quote from: deemery on July 24, 2025, 08:41:17 AMAwnings were MUCH more common, and rarely modeled, for the era before air conditioning.
dave
Hello Dave, you're right. Whenever I see street scenes of the late 1940's which is the period that I model, it seems like every business has an awning.
Quote from: Rick on July 24, 2025, 08:59:40 AMJeff, that's looking very good.
Nice job on the scenery.
Hello Rick, thanks for looking in and for the nice comments
Quote from: Jerry on July 24, 2025, 09:42:55 AMJeff the scenery looks great and the added details already are making it come alive!
Jerry
Hello Jerry, you're right- the details always make a scene more complete and they help tell the story
Quote from: ACL1504 on July 24, 2025, 10:51:39 AMJeff,
You are making great progress on the kit and it looks great as well. It will be an excellent addition to the layout.
Tom
Hello Tom, thanks for taking the time to look in and to comment- it means a lot.
Quote from: GeorgeD on July 24, 2025, 12:05:48 PMNice work, Jeff. Excellent job of fitting the two roofs together.
George
Hello George, I hard quite the time getting those roofs to fit together and I'm very pleased with how well it all came out.
Continuing on...
The barn door assembly has been glued in place showing off the interior.
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The large stack has been placed in the rear roof and the wood walkway has been completed. A rabbit hutch has been placed along the side. This detail comes with the kit. I glued on some screen material per the instructions, but something about it doesn't look right to me.
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Details have been added to the right side dock area. The stack of bags on the dock comes with the kit. The detail of the 3D castings is very impressive. The wood corral filled with flour bags near the front corner also came with the kit. I built a second wood corral and placed it next to the other one.
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The cornice has been added. This is a 3D printed one piece casting. The decorative owls on the corners is a nice touch. I painted them with a copper paint I have on hand. I also added a couple of non-working lights above the sign. I'm pleased with the addition of the front awning framework and the wood decking. It gives the storefront a busy look while still allowing views of the recessed entryway.
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This is a nice view of the roof. I painted on some black roof tar along the valley seams and also a couple of pigeons, that come with the kit, along with the requisite pigeon poop. The security bars on the side window are another nice detail.
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Those owls will keep the pigeons off the roof!
dave
Quote from: deemery on July 25, 2025, 10:22:19 AMThose owls will keep the pigeons off the roof!
dave
Unfortunately, Dave, the birds soon cotton on the the fact they aren't real. I put an owl on a stand attached to a post under the large eve of our barn to stop the birds nesting in the rafters. It didn't make the slightest difference!
Cheers, Mark.
This is looking superb, Jeff!
I really like the stepping stones - a lovely little detail.
Cheers, Mark.
With the additions you've made to all of the scenery and details, this build is certainly
very nice. I like all of the changes you made too.
Rich
Jeff, all those details are bring the scene to life.
Nice job!
Jeff really a nice job!!
Jerry
Jeff, the structure looks amazing with all the details and quality construction. It is a "model" for all of us. Have fun, mike
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on July 25, 2025, 09:07:33 PMQuote from: deemery on July 25, 2025, 10:22:19 AMThose owls will keep the pigeons off the roof!
dave
Unfortunately, Dave, the birds soon cotton on the the fact they aren't real. I put an owl on a stand attached to a post under the large eve of our barn to stop the birds nesting in the rafters. It didn't make the slightest difference!
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Dave and Mark, unfortunately Dave, I have to agree with Mark, I saw a picture of one of those fake owls with a pigeon sitting on the top of it once. Thanks to you both for looking in.
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on July 25, 2025, 09:08:50 PMThis is looking superb, Jeff!
I really like the stepping stones - a lovely little detail.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, thank you for the feedback, it's appreciated
Quote from: Pennman on July 25, 2025, 09:45:29 PMWith the additions you've made to all of the scenery and details, this build is certainly
very nice. I like all of the changes you made too.
Rich
Hello Rich, thanks for looking in and for the nice comments. I can't seem to help myself as far as changing a kits appearance. I guess it's because I've done so many scratch builds. I look at a kit as a starting point.
Quote from: Rick on July 26, 2025, 09:02:20 AMJeff, all those details are bring the scene to life.
Nice job!
Hello Rick, once the structure is done, it's time for the real fun to begin with the details. And yes, they do bring a build to life.
Quote from: Jerry on July 26, 2025, 09:11:12 AMJeff really a nice job!!
Jerry
Hello jerry, thank you sir
Quote from: friscomike on July 26, 2025, 10:36:09 AMJeff, the structure looks amazing with all the details and quality construction. It is a "model" for all of us. Have fun, mike
Hello Mike, thank you for the nice comments and I am having a lot of fun with this build. Craig did a wonderful job with the design and engineering.
Neat Lil Structure!
Still adding some of the smaller details. A non-working light fixture above the side door and some wood bracing on the front of the rabbit hutch. I used some 1/32 square wood that came with the kit. How do they cut it that small without it breaking ? Now the hutch looks right to me. The security bars on the window look cool.
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I'm very pleased with how the wood step walkway and the whole front wood deck and awning frame came out. I'd like to think that I've improved on an already good looking building.
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A look at the roof. I like how the backside of the false front looks. Another nice design feature of this kit. The fake owls and the real pigeons and pigeon poop add some nice detail to this area.
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I'm pleased with the front produce display, I think it helps the whole front addition come to life. I still need to add some little people though.
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The light fixture above the door and a look inside the storage barn along with all of the flour sacks make the right side very interesting to look at.
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This will do it for this part of the build for now. When I place it on the layout base I'm sure that more details will be added. I've really enjoyed this part of the kit and I'm looking forward to the next part- the mill building with all of its attached additions.
Great job on the first structure. I've got this kit somewhere in the pile and am following your thread with interest.
Jeff
Jeff, you've created a great looking diorama.
Very nicely done. Jeff. I agree with the others on your fine detail work.
George
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on July 27, 2025, 05:21:15 PMGreat job on the first structure. I've got this kit somewhere in the pile and am following your thread with interest.
Jeff
Hello Jeff, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. Hope to see you try this kit- it's a lot of fun to build.
Quote from: Rick on July 27, 2025, 05:51:57 PMJeff, you've created a great looking diorama.
Hello Rick, thank you for the nice comments. This is only the first part of this large kit's footprint.
Quote from: GeorgeD on July 28, 2025, 02:09:19 PMVery nicely done. Jeff. I agree with the others on your fine detail work.
George
Hello George, I appreciate the feedback. This kit comes with a ton of details.
It's time to move on to the next biggest part of this kit- the mill building. It's the large structure to the left in this picture.
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Here's a view of the footprint of the mill building structure. It stretches over 9 inches across and about 6 inches in depth. It's a big one.
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We start out with the four 3D printed walls of the core of the whole thing- the mill itself. The detail on these walls is very impressive. I've only seen detail like this on plaster walls before, but these are much thinner and lighter. The large blank spaces on the two bottom walls are where wood additions are attached to the mill.
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I only had to do a little filing at the base of the corner of the walls before assembling them. I first dry fitted them and then used some super glue to assemble them. They went together easily and the assembled structure is very solid- no bracing needed.
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Per the instructions, I didn't paint the walls until they were already assembled. I used a rattle can dark color- it's almost black, but it doesn't show that dark in the picture. My workbench lighting I guess.
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That's it for now, more later.
Howdy Jeff,
You finished the other structure with a blast. I'm looking forward to the main mill building construction.
Have fun,
mike
Jeff and Craig: I think it's unfortunate that one wall section has the large blank area where the wood wall goes. That limits the kit's utility for kitbashing. Better, in my view, would be to provide a small notch where the walls/roof fits in (which a kitbasher could fill), and maybe a slightly offset interior wall to butt up against the stonework.
But I'd be interested in the views of others.
The wall sections look great, including those corner quoins. That's an architectural detail that's pretty common here in Dover NH on wood buildings, to get the effect of much more expensive stone architecture.
dave
Hello Dave, I see what you mean about the limits to kit-bashing by the blank wall spaces. For myself, in building this kit, I plan on doing my kit-bashing to the wood structures that attach to the main mill building. Maybe you can talk to Craig about making some wall pieces available for modular construction. They would be great. The level of detail in these 3D printed walls is amazing.
This series of pictures shows the stages for coloring the mill building walls. Per the kit's instructions I sponged on several colors. I first used a brick red color. This was the primary brick color and I used more of this than the others.
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Next I used a slightly orange color. Craig used a terra cotta color on his build, but I didn't have that exact color.
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Next was a dark brown color that toned down the brightness.
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Finally, a little antique gold was added followed by more of the dark brown to tone things down. The multi-part laser cut windows all fit their spaces nicely. On his build Craig painted the quoins on the corners a different color. I thought about it, but decided to just paint the window lintels a dark grey and leave it at that. We'll see, I can still change my mind if I want too later.
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The texture of the 3D printed walls is really brought out by the adding of colors. You can see the shadows between the different brick rows clearly. This was my first experience with this type of wall and I like them a lot.
My only complaint is that so much of the mill building's walls will not be visible after adding the wood walled structures to the front and the sides. The rear wall will not be visible on my layout except to the little people in passing trains.
That's it for now, more later.
Quote from: friscomike on July 31, 2025, 11:46:11 AMHowdy Jeff,
You finished the other structure with a blast. I'm looking forward to the main mill building construction.
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, thanks for taking the time to comment. I too am looking forward to the mill building. The 3D printed walls are amazing.
Jeff,
The General Store building turned out really nice and I'm sure this next
structure will as well. I'm liking the colors you used for the stonework,
especially the orange/brown effects which will make it stand out more.
With the kit sold out, I wish Craig would reconsider making a few of the stone walls for sale.
Rich
Jeff nice coloring on those stone walls!
Jerry
Jeff, I think you nailed the colors on those walls.
I agree, nice coloring on the walls. It would be nice if Craig would offer this as a separate kit.
Mark
Quote from: Pennman on July 31, 2025, 10:16:51 PMJeff,
The General Store building turned out really nice and I'm sure this next
structure will as well. I'm liking the colors you used for the stonework,
especially the orange/brown effects which will make it stand out more.
With the kit sold out, I wish Craig would reconsider making a few of the stone walls for sale.
Rich
Hello Rich, I'm glad that you like the color scheme for the mill building. I can't take credit for it, I just followed Craig's suggestions from the instructions and I'm glad I did. I'm pleased with the result so far.
You are one of several to comment on wishing for Craig to make the stone walls available. We can only hope that he is following along and will read about the interest in them.
Quote from: Jerry on July 31, 2025, 10:26:57 PMJeff nice coloring on those stone walls!
Jerry
Hello Jerry, I'm very pleased with how the stone walls came out and it was an easy process. Just sponged on the colors after priming them. I think that the deatil texture of the 3D printed walls helps quite a bit with the finished look.
Quote from: Rick on August 01, 2025, 08:00:33 PMJeff, I think you nailed the colors on those walls.
Hello Rick, thank you for the nice comment and for looking in.
Quote from: craftsmankits on August 01, 2025, 10:52:30 PMI agree, nice coloring on the walls. It would be nice if Craig would offer this as a separate kit.
Mark
Hello Mark, thank you for the feed back, it's appreciated. Yes it would be nice if the walls were made available. Maybe Craig will notice the interest expressed by several forum members.
A short weekend post for the project here...
Here are the colors that I used for the mill building stone walls. I first used a rattle can flat grey primer on the walls. The first color that I sponged on was the brick red and this was the color that I used the most of. I tried to use the orange and gold colors sparingly and then I used the dark brown to tone things down a little. I'm thinking about using a thinned black wash to help age the look of the walls. Haven't decided on that as of yet.
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Next up is the roof for the mill building. The notch on the left side of the picture is for the location of the barn when it is attached to the mill. The oval hole is for a large roof stack that will be added later. I then painted the undersides of the roof cards with a dark brown where they will be visible and made sure to paint the edges of the roof cards as they will definitely be visible. I've made that mistake before and learned a lesson.
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I took the roof material for the mill building and sprayed it with a silver rattle can color. When dry, I misted a flat red primer over them.
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After the paint dried overnight, I dry brushed on some olive drab color. There will be some more rust effects added later after the roof has been glued onto the building.
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That's it for now, more later.
Howdy Jeff, the roof is looking good and promises to complement the structure. Persist! Have fun, mike
You're making great progress, Jeff.
Coming on very nicely. You're great thread is sure to entice many more to join the next challenge!
Cheers, Mark.
Jeff great job on the Store and love all the nice details; very well done.
The Flour Mill certainly is a big'n; should be a fun project.
Quote from: friscomike on August 03, 2025, 11:59:11 AMHowdy Jeff, the roof is looking good and promises to complement the structure. Persist! Have fun, mike
Hello Mike, this roof is a little different than any I've done before. I'm interested in seeing how it comes out. And I am having fun.
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on August 03, 2025, 03:14:55 PMYou're making great progress, Jeff.
Coming on very nicely. You're great thread is sure to entice many more to join the next challenge!
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, I'm just treating this very large kit as many small kits and doing them one step at a time. If I look at it all at once, it's kind of overwhelming. I sure hope that a lot of modelers join in on the next challenge, if there is one. With such high quality prizes such as Craig's kits it's a no brainer.
Quote from: Larry C on August 03, 2025, 05:02:18 PMJeff great job on the Store and love all the nice details; very well done.
The Flour Mill certainly is a big'n; should be a fun project.
Hello Larry, thanks for looking in and for the encouragement. The flour mill is a big one indeed. The main building with the stone walls has a total of three attached big sub-assemblies and three more big ones that are not attached but adjacent. And then there's the under construction steam engine enclosure with it's various sub-assemblies. A big'n indeed.
Continuing on...
The roof pieces have been cut to fit and notched. The instructions call for gluing the large pieces on in one piece and not many smaller pieces as most metal roofs have. Here's what the roof will look like on the stone mill building. I haven't glued the roof on yet. Per Craig's instructions I used a pointy file to make nail marks along the bottom edge of the roof panels.
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Next up is the Mill Barn, a major sub-assembly that attaches to the front of the mill building. The large blank spot in the front stone wall and the notched roof are where it will fit. Here are the four walls for the mill barn. The rear wall will not be finished. I have installed the bracing for the walls. The two horizontal pieces on the front and rear wall are to accommodate the kit bashing elements of this piece of the kit.
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The laser cut clapboard pieces have been attached to the fiberboard back pieces. The two sides have a man door in one and a window in the other. The front wall has a large double barn door and another smaller second level door above. The instructions call for all of the doors to be modeled in a closed position. With such a large opening, I just couldn't do that. I have decided to add not one, but two interior floors and to model some sort of interior on both levels.
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The walls have been stained with my A&I solution. I also dry brushed an undercoat brown color on the walls for an old wood look.
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I decided to follow Craig's original build lead and use a blue color as the wall base color. Here I've dry brushed the blue on. A little blue goes a long way and I was afraid to overdo it.
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That's it for now, more later.
Jeff very nice coloring on the walls and I like your idea of adding in floors and interiors; that'll take it to the next level. Enjoy.
I'm just now seeing and catching up on this build thread... and what a joy it is!
You've made absolutely fantastic progress so far and I am really enjoying the small changes you've made. The barn and store switch around is fabulous. Your colouring is great and I can already see how it's all going to look.
Really looking forward to more progress as and when.
As a note, the greyboard backers for the clapboard are in place of stripwood bracing, so therefore do not require bracing in themselves.
Great work, Jeff!
Quote from: Larry C on August 04, 2025, 07:30:06 AMJeff very nice coloring on the walls and I like your idea of adding in floors and interiors; that'll take it to the next level. Enjoy.
Hello Larry, thanks for looking in and for the feedback and encouragement.
Quote from: Keep It Rusty on August 04, 2025, 01:30:38 PMI'm just now seeing and catching up on this build thread... and what a joy it is!
You've made absolutely fantastic progress so far and I am really enjoying the small changes you've made. The barn and store switch around is fabulous. Your colouring is great and I can already see how it's all going to look.
Really looking forward to more progress as and when.
As a note, the greyboard backers for the clapboard are in place of stripwood bracing, so therefore do not require bracing in themselves.
Great work, Jeff!
Hello Craig, thank you so much for the kind words. While building your kit, I want to tell you how much I appreciate all the work that you put into the design and the very detailed instruction manual. It's making the build process much easier and less daunting. All of the 3D printed details and the large stone walls are a wonder in themselves.
Thank you so much for offering up such a great kit as a prize in the recent Winter Challenge. I just hope that I can do it justice. I'm trying to make the build my own. I couldn't hope to do as good a job as you did on the original build.
As for the bracing. One thing that I've learned on this forum is that you can never have too much bracing. Also, you can never have too many details and that is not a problem with this kit. You have supplied more than enough with the kit.
Again, thank you.
Jeff great coloring on those walls. Would have never thought of using blue.
Jerry
Continuing on...
The instructions next called for the installation of the cornice trim at the top of the front wall of the barn. I followed the instructions and glued on the wood pieces. They went on easily and looked good and I was happy. Until, I was not. More on this to come.
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Next I worked on the barn doors. The 3D printed hinges and door handles are great.
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Next came the interior that I wanted to add. I looked at literally hundreds of pictures of flour mill interior photos online, until I found the perfect one. This was just what I was looking for. A simple scene that made sense.
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Here's what I came up with. Using strip wood from my stash I built a wood frame and a wood ramp with a flour bag at it's base.
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After gluing a wood floor that I made from 1/16 plywood in place, I glued the small bag loading frame into place. I'm very pleased with how this came out. When looking inside the barn you get the impression that something is happening that makes sense. Luckily I had a figure of a man sitting on a stool that I could place in the scene.
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Quote from: Jerry on August 04, 2025, 09:43:41 PMJeff great coloring on those walls. Would have never thought of using blue.
Jerry
Hello Jerry, thanks for looking in. I can't take credit for the idea of using blue. Craig suggested it in the instructions. I was at first hesitant, but I think that it came out well.
Here are a few more pictures of the assembled barn with the interior in place.
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The window and man door went in easily and I also glued the wood trim around the two door openings in the front wall. I'm really pleased with how the interior came out. I didn't just want to add a few pieces of random details inside. My online research paid off and I learned something about how a rural flour mill actually works as a bonus.
That's it for now, more later.
Next up is the roof for the barn. This is the sheet of slate shingles that comes with the kit. There are more than enough here to do the job.
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I first sprayed the sheet of shingles with a rattle can dark grey primer to get a base slate color look. After the paint dried, I dry brushed on some additional color to get the streaky slate look.
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I usually attach shingles on the roof card on the bench, but this time with the many folds of the gambrel barn roof I decided to glue the cards in place and then glue the shingles on. Getting the strip of shingles to lay flat at the fold of the roof was challenging.
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In this picture you can see that the front wall upper cornice trim is missing. I found out that when it was time to glue the roof card onto the walls that it wouldn't lay flat at the front. The rear wall was no problem. So I took off the cornice pieces and then the roof card fit perfectly. When I first glued on the cornice it was definitely even with the top of the wall. I still don't understand what happened, but no big deal, I'll just glue the cornice pieces back on after the roof is done.
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The shingles are all on and the cornice is also back on. You can see into the second floor of the barn here. After the first floor interior was finished, I glued a second floor into the barn using the same technique. I wanted this to be the place where the empty flour bags were stored. I cut some bag shaped pieces from some packing paper and then piled them up with one draped out of the opening.
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The upper and lower barn doors still have to be glued on and then some loading dock/ decks need to be made. There's always a next step to this kit.
Here's a look at how the barn will fit against the stone walled mill building. I had to trim the metal roof of the mill building to get the barn roof to fit. There will be some flashing where the two roofs meet. Nothing is glued yet.
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The upper barn doors have been glued on as well as a wood spar to help hoist the empty flour bags from the deck below to the second story. Some of the stone wall details really stand out in this picture. Those 3D printed stone walls are so nice.
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Here's a view of the deck template sheet for the barn loading docks. The strip wood has been grained and stained.
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Working right on top of the template helps make the deck construction fairly straight forward. Here the deck joists are being glued in place.
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One deck is done and the second is being worked on. The missing boards at the front corner are intentional. This will be a mini-scene where some of the deck boards are in process of being replaced. You can see in the upper right corner of the picture the deck boards for the second deck already cut to the proper length and ready to be glued onto the joists.
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That's it for now, more later.
More excellent updates.
You may have trimmed slightly too much metal roofing away, but no harm. Once the flashing is in if you have any remaining gaps, fill them with a build of leaves and scatter :)
What a beautiful build.
Jerry
Quote from: Keep It Rusty on August 08, 2025, 05:10:35 AMMore excellent updates.
You may have trimmed slightly too much metal roofing away, but no harm. Once the flashing is in if you have any remaining gaps, fill them with a build of leaves and scatter :)
Hello Craig, thanks for keeping an eye on me during this build, I appreciate the input.
Quote from: Jerry on August 08, 2025, 08:38:47 AMWhat a beautiful build.
Jerry
Hello Jerry, thank you sir, I'm having a lot of fun and by following the great instructions that come with this kit, it's relatively easy to come to a satisfactory ending.
Next up is another building that attaches to the left end of the stone mill building. It is called the Loading dock Addition. This is the point where the grain comes into the mill by truck and/ or rail in Craig's version. This little building is a board-by-board type construction.
Here is the front wall, which will not be very visible. The office addition attaches right in front of this wall. I decided to have a little fun with the board-by-board on this wall. Apparently at some point, the wall was damaged and repairs were made using a few horizontal boards and some plywood.
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The walls have all been braced and glued together. The right hand wall does not get any cladding- this is the wall that attaches to the mill building. The overhead door sitting on this wall in the picture goes into the door opening of the gable end wall.
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There is a three sided base for this building. The rear is the 3D printed loading dock, which I have painted with a chalk concrete color after priming with a dark grey rattle can color. The dock will get some further weathering with chalks when things are a little farther along.
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The interior floor comes with the kit. I decided to place a horizontal board at the top of the straight portion of the walls. The piece of plywood at the peak area is for something I have planned for later in the build. You can also see the stone wall foundation here.
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This is a view of the front wall that will be covered by the elevated office building.
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The roof for the loading dock addition is the same as the roof on the large mill building- the green colored metal material. In this picture you can see the extra bracing that I installed at the peak lines of the gables for more of a gluing surface.
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The roof card is being glued onto the walls. After taking this picture some weight was added to the roof card to help insure that the roof fit the walls perfectly.
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The roof material has been glued on. I trimmed the top piece so that I had about equal length of the two panels.
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Here's the front view of the roof. Some more weathering will be done later. The peak cap also needs to be glued on.
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The roof material is cut even with the rear wall because this is the wall that attaches to the large mill building.
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That's it for now, more later.
Next up is a little structure called the office. The kit provided three laser cut clapboard walls but I decided to stay with the board-by-board method and make my own walls.
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The windows and door have been installed and I've started gluing the walls together.
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The office sits on a timber framed platform. Using the template provided I started on the support platform.
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Here is the completed platform with the legs and bracing.
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The office has been glued onto the platform.
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The office and it's platform sit right next to the loading dock addition. I had to slice two tabs into the metal roof to fit the office in it's proper place. You can also see here that the overhead door has been installed in the loading dock addition. I dry brushed a white wash color on the walls, I think it helps with the aged look and it also brings out some of the detail on the board-by-board walls.
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Here's a look at the other side of the office in it's proper place.
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I used the same shingles for the office that I used on the mill barn. The roof fit against the metal roof nicely, I still have to glue on some flashing where the roofs meet. You can also see the ridge cap for the metal roof has been glued into place.
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The front view of the office. I still have to make some railings and a stairway for the office platform, but I'm going to wait until things are glued onto a base for that. They'll only get broken if I do them now.
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A closer look at the side wall. The board-by-board came out well and I'm happy with it. A covered wood frame will attach to this side of the structure, but once again I will wait until things are glued onto the base before installing it.
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That's it for now, more later.
Jeff,
Moving steadily along, I see, and the construction seems tight on all corners.
I like the coloring on the roof tops, the shingles and the rusty door.
Great modeling.
Rich
Jeff, nice to see all the progress you're making.
Excellent job of painting and weathering.
Quote from: Pennman on August 12, 2025, 11:48:19 PMJeff,
Moving steadily along, I see, and the construction seems tight on all corners.
I like the coloring on the roof tops, the shingles and the rusty door.
Great modeling.
Rich
Hello Rich, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. It's always nice to get some feedback.
Quote from: Rick on August 13, 2025, 07:52:14 AMJeff, nice to see all the progress you're making.
Excellent job of painting and weathering.
Hello Rick, I'm just going from one sub-assembly to another with this kit. Soon it will be time to start tying things together. Thanks for looking in.
Continuing on...
I added some flashing at the roof joints. I used some brown packing paper which I painted grey for the flashing. Craig suggests using aluminum foil for the flashing, but I wanted to try the packing paper and I'm pleased with how it came out. I also did a little weathering on the metal roof.
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Here's a view of the other side of the roof. This is as far as I'm going to go with this little structure for right now. Later when things start getting glued together, I'll do some more detailing and weathering.
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Next up is to me the most interesting part of the kit. The steam engine, it's large belt and the boiler and steam piping. Craig supplies a piece of cardboard for the base of the engine shed, but I wanted something bigger that would allow me to put the shed, the pulley tower and the boiler all on one base. I cut a piece of styrene that would allow me to do all of that and painted it a dark grey with a rattle can primer. I then glued the walls of the shed together and glued the shed to the base. The walls were single piece laser cut wood with some nice framing detail.
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The idea is that the shed is under construction and I wanted to take that idea a little further along. I used some untreated 2x10 strip wood for vertical siding boards and did the wall that will be near the stone mill building with that material. Since it's supposed to be new construction I didn't stain or color the boards at all.
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Next was the steam engine. It comes as eight different 3D printed pieces that you first paint, I used a rattle can grey primer for all the pieces, and then paint before assembling. Everything fit well with almost no flash and I like the look of the finished steam engine. I used a silver color on the outside surfaces of the pulleys, A blue/ grey mixture for the body of the engine and a red for the inside of the pulleys. You can also see that I'm painting the material for the belt with a brownish/ orange color to look like a belt color.
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That's it for now, more later.
Jeff,
You are doing an excellent job on the kit. Craig sure has designed on fantastic looking kit as well.
It will be a great addition to your layout. Looking forward to when it will be planted.
Tom
Hello Tom, thanks for looking in and for the nice comments. I agree with you that Craig did a nice job with the design of this kit, it's been a lot of fun working on it.
Next up is the line shaft support platform. This platform houses the other end of the main drive belt from the steam engine. Using the template provided helped greatly while building this little structure. In this picture you can see that one side is drying, while the other side is laying on the template. The 3D printed concrete bases for the legs of the platform have been painted and the guard for the lower part of the belt is partially done
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Gluing the two sides of the platform together requires more hands than I have available. I used several tools to help hold things steady so that the glue could dry properly.
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The platform has been glued into place. The main drive shaft was fed into the mounting holes of two brackets with a pulley wheel in the middle. I spaced the three parts properly using the template and the super glued them into place on the undersides of the top platform timbers. The drive belt was first glued to the bottom of the big drive pulley on the steam engine and then glued onto the top pulley one end at a time. I'm pleased with the color that I used for the belt. The most tricksie part of all of this was getting the wood guard tray in place. There wasn't a lot of room to work, but I eventually got it where it belonged. One of the reasons that I installed the exterior wall cladding on the back side of the shed was so that I could put some details against the wall on the inside. The castings came with the kit.
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There were five complete trusses on the roof when I started. I had a paint bottle balanced on top of the wood platform while the glue was drying, but it fell off and broke two of the trusses. I thought about trying to repair the broken trusses, but then realized that by just cutting them off at the ridge beam it would just look like those two rafters hadn't been installed yet. A happy accident.
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I'm very pleased with how this whole thing came out. I'm glad that I decided to use a base piece big enough for all of the pieces. I don't know how I would have gotten them all into place without it. In case you're wondering, the metal drive shaft will go into a hole in the side of the stone wall mill building when all of the sub-assemblies get glued together. The tie straps on top of the corners of the platform were laser cut wood that bent into place when glued- just another little detail that Craig designed into the kit. Amazing.
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That's it for now, more later.
I've installed the vertical boiler and the steam piping
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I decided to use the left over bits from the steam pipe install to create a pile of steam pipes with fittings on the ground behind the boiler
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I added a few details to the pulley tower end as well
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This is as far as I am going to go with this sub-assembly for now. When it is planted along with the rest of the sub-assemblies I will add more scenery and details.
Jeff, that looks fantastic!
Nice job!
Nice job Jeff, you've been making a ton of progress on this kit. I'll have to pop mine open and take a look at what's in the box. There's a lot going on there, more than I imagined. Mark
More fantastic progress, Jeff. Watching you discover all the little details is such a joy. Thank you for continuing to share your build here.
Wonderful build Jeff!!!
Jerry
Great work Jeff..... 8)
Howdy Jeff,
The boiler and engine house are looking great. Congrats on the excellent progress.
Have fun,
mike
Good looking detailing and a fine build, Jeff.
Thanks for the tutorial on assembling the machines.
Rich
Quote from: Rick on August 18, 2025, 08:37:56 PMJeff, that looks fantastic!
Nice job!
Hello Rick, I appreciate the nice comment
Quote from: craftsmankits on August 18, 2025, 10:30:30 PMNice job Jeff, you've been making a ton of progress on this kit. I'll have to pop mine open and take a look at what's in the box. There's a lot going on there, more than I imagined. Mark
Hello Mark, you should open that box, there's a lot to look at and maybe you'll be inspired to start work on the kit.
Quote from: Keep It Rusty on August 19, 2025, 10:29:20 AMMore fantastic progress, Jeff. Watching you discover all the little details is such a joy. Thank you for continuing to share your build here.
Hello Craig, thanks so much for looking in. I'm having a lot of fun with your kit. You did a great job with the design and construction of all of the many parts.
Quote from: Jerry on August 19, 2025, 11:15:54 AMWonderful build Jeff!!!
Jerry
Hello Jerry, thank you for the kind words.
Quote from: GPdemayo on August 20, 2025, 03:03:45 PMGreat work Jeff..... 8)
Hello Greg, thank you, sir
Quote from: friscomike on August 20, 2025, 05:15:28 PMHowdy Jeff,
The boiler and engine house are looking great. Congrats on the excellent progress.
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, I think that this part of the kit is the most interesting to build. Craig did a wonderful job with the design and the instructions and templates that come with the kit. And I am having fun.
Quote from: Pennman on August 22, 2025, 07:33:31 AMGood looking detailing and a fine build, Jeff.
Thanks for the tutorial on assembling the machines.
Rich
Hello Rich, thank you for looking in and for the feedback. The detail that has been built into this kit is amazing. I've been very impressed with the 3D printing that is possible these days. It makes building a kit like this a lot of fun.
Jeff,
You are doing a fantastic job on this build. You must work on this all day everyday, again, well done.
Tom
Hello Tom, sorry for the late reply, the real life stuff keeps getting in the way of my train room time. I appreciate the nice comments. I'm having a lot of fun with this large build. With the summer heat here in the desert getting above 90 before 9 am it gives me extra time for the workbench. After the end of the heat in late September, I will have more time for outside projects.
Next up is the storage silo that comes with the kit. I started by painting it with a dark grey rattle can primer, then I dry brushed some dark chocolate brown, then an orange rust color followed by a little red. I finished with a layer of silver. The kit came with some black thread for the seams, but I raided my better halves sewing room and got some rust colored thread to use.
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The top pieces were folded cardboard and a plastic straw was used for the side shaft. I painted all of these pieces much the same as the silo. I'm pleased with how it all came out.
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Now it's time to start assembling all of the pieces into one large structure. I cut a piece of styrene to fit my space. I then traced the footprint of the structure onto the styrene and covered it with p[ainters tape.
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I sprayed the styrene base with a dark brown rattle can color and after removing the tape, started to place the completed pieces onto the base.
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After gluing the front barn and the left side office and receiving addition in place. I started some basic scenery. I also installed the flashing where the barn and stone mill building roofs meet. I used some brown packing paper that I painted grey and glued it in place.
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I glued the front loading dock in place after extending the scenery layer down. Since I added a mini-scene inside the barn of a bag loading station, I thought that I had to have a way to get the flour from the mill to the station, so I added some ductwork from the mill roof into the barn roof. I used some styrene pieces from my stash and painted them with my rusty silver color combination colors.
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Next was the Covered Way wood framed structure for the receiving area. I used the templates provided.
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Here is a look at the completed covered way structure. The templates provided all of the information needed to do this little build easily.
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The roof for the covered way came with the kit. I cut the corrugated roof material sheet to the proper sized pieces, then sprayed them with a dark grey primer. When that dried, I dry brushed a dark browncolor, the sponged on some orange and red. I finished with some additional dry brushed silver.
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The roof has been glued in place as well as the covered way itself. I decided to add a more modern way of unloading the grain needed for the mill. I built a wooden weigh platform with a grated center area for the grain to drop into from the incoming trucks. I also added the stairway and railings for the second story office. Once again, the templates provided made short work of this usually tedious process.
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Craig did a great job with all of the templates provided with the kit. The templates along with the 96 page instruction manual helps make sense of this large project and takes the modeler step by step through the entire build.
That's it for now, more later.
Jeff, Hey,
This is coming along and I love the overall look.
Tom
The lines of the assembled structure, the coloring, the roof (including the flashing) all look really good. This is coming together very nicely.
dave
Jeff, it all looks very good.
Jeff,
I am also impressed with the work you have done with all the fit and finishing.
Everything is looking really good.
Rich
Quote from: ACL1504 on September 02, 2025, 07:49:14 PMJeff, Hey,
This is coming along and I love the overall look.
Tom
Hello Tom, I appreciate you looking in and thank you for the kind words.
Quote from: deemery on September 03, 2025, 09:19:24 AMThe lines of the assembled structure, the coloring, the roof (including the flashing) all look really good. This is coming together very nicely.
dave
Hello Dave, thank you for the feedback. I'm basically following the instructions with this kit. Craig did a very good job with the design elements and I'm very pleased with how it's all coming together.
Quote from: Rick on September 03, 2025, 09:42:49 AMJeff, it all looks very good.
Hello Rick, thank you for the nice comment.
Quote from: Pennman on September 03, 2025, 09:49:33 AMJeff,
I am also impressed with the work you have done with all the fit and finishing.
Everything is looking really good.
Rich
Hello Rich, thank you for taking the time to comment, it's appreciated. I'm very happy with how this kit is coming together.
I was very pleased with how the stairs to the upper office level came out. The templates provided with the kit helped make this an easy project. Here are a couple of pictures showing the stairs in place.
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I'm very pleased with how visible the mini-scene inside the barn showing a flour bag filling station is showing up in the pictures. I think it adds a little life to the overall look.
The slanted square shape in the next two pictures is something that I have added to the kit. I wanted to further model how the grain that is delivered to the mill is moved around. The slanted piece is an enclosed conveyor that lifts the grain from below into the mill itself. More elements of this process are coming.
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I really liked how the storage silo came out, so I thought that having a second one would be a good idea. At first I thought about modeling just the base of a second silo would be a good idea to show a history of the mill, but after rummaging around in my spare parts box, I found that I had enough left over parts from a Walthers tank kit to build an entire second silo. Luckily the second silo parts were the same diameter as the one that came with the kit.
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I painted the second silo the same way as the first and then placed then both on a styrene "concrete" base. Using some bits and pieces from my styrene stash I added a lower access point to the two silos. This will be part of the how grain is moved around the mill process.
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I wanted to have the tops of the silos match, so I used the carrier sheets from the original silo top and traced out the shapes for the top pieces from the empty areas on the carrier sheets. Using some cereal box cardboard, I cut the traced shapes out and then scored the fold lines with the backside of my #11 blade. I painted them the same way as the first silo parts again. I'm very happy with my second silo.
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In my version of Craig's flour mill, I decided to expand the overall scope of the business and make it larger and a little more modern- at least as modern as the time frame of my layout, the 1940's, will allow me too. The in ground unloading station under the covered way, the overhead enclosed conveyor and now the two silos with the lower access points are all parts of this modernization. More parts of this modernization are coming, but that's it for now.
Hi Jeff, the mill and silos look nice. Can't wait to see them on the layout. Have fun, mike
Jeff, great job on the silos.
Hello Mike an Rick, thank you for looking in and for the nice comments.
It seems that I have finally finished all of the structures and sub-assemblies and that now it is time to get them ready for planting on my layout.
I usually glue the structures that I build to a styrene base large enough for the structure and some adjacent details. I find that it is easier to do this on the workbench. An example is the general store that was one of the first parts of this kit that I built.
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Because this kit is part of a large diorama that will go onto the layout, the next step was to glue the structure with it's styrene base to a larger piece of homosote that was cut to fit the available space on the layout. Doing it this way allows me to do some more scenery work done on the workbench and also place the low profile details such as fences and walls done in a more convenient way.
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Blending the scenery around the perimeter of the styrene base is a simple matter of spreading some sifted dirt and then drizzling on some mod podge and water to fix everything in place.
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After I place this larger piece on the layout I will again blend the scenery around the edges. Then there will be more details added such as power poles, vehicles, figures and trees.
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This last picture is of the back of the scene which will not be seen as it faces the backdrop on the layout. I do not typically add a lot of details to areas like this.
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The general store part of the diorama is now set to be planted on the layout. Next up is the larger mill scene part of the diorama. That's it for now, more later.
Beautiful scene Jeff, well done..... 8)
Jeff,
I agree, well done.
Tom
Jeff,
Very nice looking models.
Rich
Howdy Jeff,
Excellent work. The structure planting was a success; it looks fantastic. Good luck with installing it on the layout.
Have fun,
mike
Quote from: GPdemayo on September 07, 2025, 12:53:39 PMBeautiful scene Jeff, well done..... 8)
Hello Greg, thank you sir.
Quote from: ACL1504 on September 07, 2025, 07:44:43 PMJeff,
I agree, well done.
Tom
Hello Tom, thank you for taking the time to look in, I appreciate the kind words
Quote from: Pennman on September 07, 2025, 11:22:04 PMJeff,
Very nice looking models.
Rich
Hello Rich, thank you for the nice comments
Quote from: friscomike on September 08, 2025, 04:33:19 PMHowdy Jeff,
Excellent work. The structure planting was a success; it looks fantastic. Good luck with installing it on the layout.
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, I still have a ways to go with the large mill scene portion of the diorama, but I'm getting there and I'm definitely still having fun.
Jeff wonderful scenery work!! Those silios are beautiful!!
Jerry
Hello Jerry, thank you for the kind words. I'm very happy with how the silos came out.
Continuing on with the mill complex...
Continuing on with modeling how the grain is moved around the mill area, I decided that a grain leg, or grain elevator, was needed to get excess grain from the mill to the storage silos, now that I have two of them. The location of the grain leg was going to be along the rear wall of the mill building. I had to trim the roof of the mill slightly.
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I ordered some grain bin parts from Rix Products, which shipped and arrived very quickly, I might add. I sprayed the parts with a rattle can dark brown primer.
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I made a platform for the top of the grain leg using the Rix parts and rusted them using some craft paints.
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I decided that I wanted a man ladder on the outside of the grain leg. I had this from a Walthers kit and I painted and rusted this as well.
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I wanted my grain leg to be different from the typical kit seen on many grain elevator pictures, so I decided to make mine wood framed. I used a 3/4 inch square piece of hardwood for the core and cut some clapboard and strip wood pieces for the outside surfaces. I didn't have any prototype photos for what I wanted, so I just sort of built something that, to my eye, looked right. After assembly, I stained it all with my A&I solution and then dry brushed it to match the colors I used on the barn structure in front of the stone mill building.
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Here's how the grain leg looked after all of the paint and glue dried.
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And here it is in place at the rear of the mill building.
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I built another vertical conveyor structure at the left side of the unloading area. It connects to the angled enclosed conveyor that sits above the covered way. I used some clapboard and strip wood pieces for this as well and painted it to match the barn structure also.
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The mill complex is as about complete as it can be at this stage of the build. After attaching the mill complex to a larger homosote base I can install the overhead pipes from the top of the grain leg to the tops of the silos and I can also install a conveyor system from the bottom of the silos to the smaller lift to get the grain into the mill.
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I'm very pleased with the grain leg and I think that I have shown how grain is moved around the mill area in my modeling. I said before that I was modernizing Craig's original mill concept to fit my 1940's time frame and I think that I have accomplished that goal.
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That's it for now, more later.
Jeff that is a very nice looking structure and the elevators gives it more of a massive look.
Howdy Jeff,
Nice work on the mill and elevator. The clever elevator construction looks perfect for the mill.
Have fun,
mike
Jeff, that's a good addition to the scene.
Jeff grreat addition. Beautiful modeling.
Jerry
The elevators look great, Jeff.
Cheers, Mark.
Quote from: Larry C on September 14, 2025, 02:51:32 PMJeff that is a very nice looking structure and the elevators gives it more of a massive look.
Hello Larry, thank you for the kind words. I'm pleased with how the addition of the elevator looks behind the mill.
Quote from: friscomike on September 15, 2025, 08:37:00 AMHowdy Jeff,
Nice work on the mill and elevator. The clever elevator construction looks perfect for the mill.
Have fun,
mike
Hello Mike, thank you for the nice comments. I'm happy with how the elevator came out and I'm definitely having fun.
Quote from: Rick on September 15, 2025, 09:41:54 AMJeff, that's a good addition to the scene.
Hello Rick, thank you sir. I think that the addition of the elevator helps tell the story of the mill's operation.
Quote from: Jerry on September 15, 2025, 09:50:58 AMJeff grreat addition. Beautiful modeling.
Jerry
Hello Jerry, thank you for looking in and for the kind words.
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on September 15, 2025, 04:18:52 PMThe elevators look great, Jeff.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, thank you for the nice comment.
Jeff,
I like the looks of the rusted metal on the grain tower and other objects.
Do you prime those parts first, or just use various craft paints at random
coming up with the final rust look? ie: rust colored paint, dark brown paint,
and no primer? Thanks
Rich
Hello Rich, to get the rust colored look I first use a rattle can dark brown camo color as a primer. I posted a picture of the Rix Products sprues after this step just a few posts back.
I then dry brush a dark chocolate craft paint color rather heavily.
Next I sponge on a little orange and then dark red colors, but very lightly.
After all of this dries, I then lightly dry brush a silver craft paint color.
If it looks right to me at this point, I'm done. If not I might sponge on a little more color and then dry brush some more silver.
Thanks for asking, I hope this makes some sort of sense to you.
Fantastic additions to a wonderful build. Really nice work, Jeff. I'm thrilled to see the kit used in new ways.
Beautiful build Jeff, well done..... 8)
Great build Jeff!