The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 2

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I started the removal of Jefferies Heading from the diorama today. These are the tools I'll be using if all goes as planned.



If not, I'll be using these instead.



Naw, just kidding. Sort of that is.


More in a few.

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I started by removing the rails from the ties and wetting the area with warm water. I added a few drops of liquid dish soap to help with the water soaking on the old scenery.

I let the water soak in for about ten minutes.

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After ten minutes, I tested the glue and scenery with the #17 Xacto blade.

It was starting to loosen but still a little sticky. I applied more water using the eye dropper and waited another few minutes.

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I also soaked the area of the stairs while the ties were being removed. I let the water sit here for about 15 minutes.

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I then carefully and gently slid the #17 Xacto blade under the stairs and loosened the scenery. I then very carefully removed the stair sub assembly from the diorama.



I'll have more to report later this afternoon.

Stay tuned.

[geoawelch]

Some painstaking surgery there.

George

[ACL1504]

Some painstaking surgery there.

George

George,

Yes, it is. This is my third FSM diorama kit removal. And, probably the last. I appreciate you following along on this one.

Tom

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Using the putty knife helps remove larger portions of the scenery from the structure.



More wet water was added to this area. I'll come back to it later.

More in a few.

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The road was the next to be removed. I let the Homosote under the road soak up some of the water and then used the putty knife to remove a great portion of the plaster/water putty road.




You can see in the above photo where I saturated the out house area with water to loosen more of the scenery.

Out house and more scenery/road was removed.



More in a few.

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I worked my way around the structure and removed 98% the scenery and PA dirt from the diorama.

I then used the Xacto #11 blade and cut along the bottom of the four sides. I did this to cut into the Homosote to ease in removing the structure when ready.

I used the flat #17 Xacto blade and carefully slid it under the structure every 1/2 inch or so. As the glue softened, I gently pried up a corner and slipped the pointed tool under it. I wanted to keep any raised portion of the kit out of the tacky glue/water mix.



More in a few.

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After lifting each corner, the building came up. Success!

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The loading dock was next and the hardest to remove.

I applied a very liberal amount of wet water to the bottom sides of the dock. It took about 30 minutes before I could remove it. I used the #17 flat blade for this surgery.





More in a few.

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I wasn't sure how much of the water the dock soaked up. I'm using the weights to hold it in place/flat for two days to make sure it doesn't warp as it dries.

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I'll need to make a few minor repairs to the one long wood loading dock and I have all the pieces, easy peasy.





Continued after grabbing a cold Diet Pepsi.

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It took the better part of 3 hours to remove this beautiful Reading Bob built FSM kit.


Here it is in place for a test fit, without the diorama base and details. I'll get it fixed, add LED lighting and add it to the south end of Tahope.