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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.

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



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.



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.



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



Here's a closer look at one of the walls. The detail is just amazing.



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.

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.

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.



The box that everything came in



When I opened the box and started stacking things up on my workbench, I ran out of room.



Three bags of strip wood, a hardware bag and a large parts bag were only the beginning.



This box literally has over a hundred detail castings.



That's it for now, much more later.

Good afternoon to all, it's hotter than heck here in the desert. It's a good time to be inside in the AC. Had to go out yesterday for doctor stuff and saw an interesting sight on the BNSF line into Phoenix. It was parked on a siding used for heavy deliveries.

Hello Dave, it's coming along really nicely and I'm learning quite a bit about steam powered shops. Good job Sir

Hello Greg, OMG !  A post on your layout thread, my heart be still.

Hello Tom, the garage is looking good, can't wait to see all of the detail castings.

Afternoon all, it's July so it's hot in the desert- only 106 today, going to be 116 this coming week. I received my prize from the Winter Challenge over the weekend.  I plan on starting a build thread soon. But first, here's a picture from the Keep it Rusty website of the completed diorama.

Good morning to all from the very warm desert. We've been above 110 degrees for the last few days- it's supposed to cool down to about 102 today. Summer is wildfire season here and there was one in my area yesterday. It spread to near the BNSF track that comes into Phoenix from northern Arizona. The railroad sent out some equipment to help fight the fire near the tracks.

Quote from: Jerry on June 30, 2025, 06:49:09 PMJeff what a wonderful job you did on those angle pieces.  Fact is the whole thing is looking terrific.

Jerry

Hello Jerry, sometimes the little details stand out more than anything else. I had a lot of fun with this little build and am very happy with how it turned out.

Quote from: Rick on July 01, 2025, 06:51:30 AMJeff, that looks excellent!

Hello Rick, thank you very much

Quote from: GeorgeD on July 01, 2025, 08:34:34 AMGood looking bridge, Jeff.

George

Hello George, I appreciate the encouragement

Quote from: elwoodblues on July 01, 2025, 08:37:05 AMGret work on the bridge Jeff.

Hello Ron, thanks for looking in and for the kind words.

Hello Philip, sorry for the late reply. I looked up the kit that you mentioned, it's a nice looking structure. Did you build that kit ?

Continuing on...

One of the railings has been glued on. My bridge deck is 11 scale feet wide. I set the railing 2 scale feet in from the edge to give me room for a set of braces for each post.



I cut some of the 1/16 strip wood that I used for the posts to 3/8 inch long pieces and then used my chopper to cut a 45 degree end. Then I glued them in place using my tweezers to help. You can see the difference in this picture, one side has the braces and the other does not.



The braces were a little like rafter tails. Small pieces that are difficult to place correctly, but they look good when done so they are worth the effort.



With both railings and the braces glued in place I still have 7 scale feet in width on the bridge between the railings. I think that it looks alright.
Here I've used my trusty A&I solution to age and weather the wood.



That's it for now.

Hello Dave, I've been watching and learning as you go through your process on this build. It's going to look great when you're done. I just hope that all of the details will be visible when you are finished.

Hello Tom, I've been following along. Now you're getting to the fun part. Great job.