Kit-built Structure Rehab - IHC Machine Shop

[deemery]

Dave, I was able to correct the warp by gentle flexing.  I believe the laminated inner brick sheet was causing the issue.

Good to hear!

dave

[VagelK]

The interior trim looks good, but I'm not sure about the "passive air conditioning" on the left side.

Chuckle!  The rest of the windows will come in time; Micro Crystal Clear panes.  In the description of framing, I didn't mention that I removed some of the mullions from the transom and windows in the door to give a bit more of a N. American look.

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[VagelK]

Got the front porch done.  Fabricated the sidewalk, walls & deck from .030" styrene sheet and built up stairs with .060" square styrene rod.  Railing from a Central Valley stairs & railing set. 



I put it back on the layout to clear work bench space for working on the RR Repair Facility wing, and it looks forlorn tucked away in that corner ... oh, well.

[Philip]

Great looking model!

[VagelK]

Got diverted for a while running trains ...

I've made a start on the exterior and interior walls of the railway repair facility/shop extension wing by drybrushing "old concrete" over the primed and dullcoated walls.  When Floquil became a 'dot.gone' I took a sample of Polly-S "Old Concrete" to Home Despot and bought a sample size jar of Glidden custom blended interior latex paint, which is what I used here.





I'm continuing to use TrueScale "brushable roof brown" for the window frames and what I'm assuming to be a structural steel upper story.  I'm thinking of taping off and spray painting the interior upper story walls, as the results with the brush painting so far are a bit uneven (which can be dealt with by weathering on the exterior, but not so much on the inside).

There's some warping of the long walls on this kit, too, which I'll fix by cementing to a base of .030" sheet styrene when the time comes.

[PRR Modeler]

Great job re-purposing these structures.

[VagelK]

Thanks, Curt.  I've got the walls of the Railway Repair Facility kit painted and assembled to the .030" styrene sub-floor; the windows are painted, too.  I did go with masking & spray painting the upper story and window frames; Tamiya "NATO Brown" (in aerosol can) is a very close match to the TrueScale "brushable Roof Brown" I had been using on the Machine Shop structure window frames and door, as well as so far on this building. 



The stages of assembly were to first to assemble two pairs of end and side walls upright on on a sheet of glass, then to assemble the pairs into a rectangle, then to cement the rectangle to the base, which was primed (with an unpainted strip of bare styrene around the perimeter for cementing).

Here's a shot of the project structure in its current state and in context with the blast furnace complex:



I getting close to running out of "next steps" for a while, I think.  I'm going to add some random plank flooring in the "new wing" in the area around the end of the ramp down from the "old machine shop," and insert (without cementing) the window frames in the openings.  The corrugated metal roof halves are primed and ready for steel color and weathering, so they'll get made into a removable one-piece.  All that can be done in time for an up-coming layout open house for the local NMRA division later this month, and that's probably where I'll let things lie for a while.



I'd like to get the office space in the right-front corner of "old" building partitioned off by then, as well, but a major ballasting project in the narrow gauge's Richmond Furnace yard (off scene, lower left of the middle picture) is going to take priority of time.  Beyond that, plans are "fuzzy."  I think this is going to be an electrified machine shop, which may be powered by a dynamo in the "new" wing using steam piped from the boiler house (in the shadows to the right of the water tower).  Alexander Scale Models' website has inexpensive, one-piece machine tool castings for a small shop like this one, and they'll fit neatly in the rear of the "old" building.  A large, belt-driven engine lathe (FOScale) might possibly be purchased "second-hand" by the furnace company and installed with a dedicated electric motor to drive its belt and pulleys near the foot of ramp in the "new" wing.  That part of the finished structure will definitely have a 3' gauge tram entering from the shadows between those two brick structures to the right (which is "back stage" out of sight from the aisle) and probably/possibly a traveling crane cobbled together from the outdoor A-frame gantry crane provided in the kit and various styrene structural shapes.

[deemery]

Besides the lathe, you'll want a drill press, and maybe a grinder wheel.  Don't forget to weather/stain underneath the machines.  And of course some workbenches and stock storage.  Mine Mount Models has a nice metal rack kit for storing lumber or steel strips.  I took some Evergreen/Plastruct strips and angles and painted them steel and light rust colors for my rack.  An outside forge might also be a good addition, Sierra Scale Models has a great forge kit.  (Not cheap, but up to Brett's exacting standards.)

dave

[PRR Modeler]

The complex looks very good.

[VagelK]

Besides the lathe, you'll want a drill press, and maybe a grinder wheel.
dave

Alexander Scale Models has those ... a forge would be great, too.

[Michael Hohn]

Serious looking group of buildings, Vagel.