FSM #145 Coal Tower

[Opa George]

Today I am starting the Fine Scale Miniatures Coal Tower, kit 145. John Siekirk built this for the 2020 Build Challenge, starting his kit on New Years Day.  He did a magnificent job on it. I had the wonderfully good fortune to receive this kit earlier this spring from a forum benefactor. So I hope to do an equally good job, and perhaps provide some additional notes for anyone building it, without stepping on John's toes or stealing any of his (well deserved) thunder.

Here are the box contents. At extreme left is a very large plastic bag with most of the parts for the actual tower. The smaller bag contains parts for the machinery and sand house. Other items of note--two high quality glossy large format instruction sheets with full scale templates and excellent reference photos, roof cards, acetate, long lengths of scale lumber, fine wire, rolls shingles, a correction sheet and those beautiful castings:


Here are all the castings for the kit. I grouped them with the structural parts to the left, and the "extras" to the right.  I have always respected and admired George for including enough of those extra details to make a complete scene.


To get started, the first thing I did was consult the "corrections" card to make the necessary corrections to the instruction sheets.  It corrects a few incorrectly printed dimensions and notes a corrected placement of a wall, and a note about a corner trim post.  All very necessary to success.  I did not want to skip over this to do "later" only to forget about it, then find myself searching for an incorrect size of lumber, or worse, using the incorrect size.

Step two is to begin weathering the wood, starting with the wall pieces.  I noted the scribed siding has a very nice grain to start, so I decided to skip the harsh weathering with wire brushes and etc.  With much of the walls having outside bracing, I think this will be ok.
I used alcohol and ink in a slightly strong mix for the walls.  Unfortunately I can't report the exact mixture.  I just know it is a little darker than normal:


As John noted in his build, the age of the wood in the box affects how it takes the stain.  You can see a bit of that here, although some pieces are still damp.  I'll show another pic tomorrow after all are completely dry.

All for now,
Opa George

[S&S RR]

George


You are going to love building this kit. I will be following along.  I plan on building the other coal tower that George put out (I think it's number 75) for the new section of my layout. If I remember correctly there was a few pieces that got two coats of stain.  The wood from my kit was very dry - I think I bought it from someone in AZ.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Good start, George.

I'll be watching.

Cheers, Mark.

[PRR Modeler]

Great start George.  I'll be following.

[PaulS]

Good morning George,
So glad to see you digging in to the kit, and looking forward to your build and eventual placement on your layout.
And now we know what you will likely say in the fall when asked what you did over your summer vacation 
All the best and of course I'll be following along,
--Paul   

[GPdemayo]

One of my favorite coaling towers.....I'll enjoy watching you put this one together George. 

[ReadingBob]

Count me in too George.  I think I have this one in the stash.  Always fun to follow along with your builds as well as with any FSM build. 

[bandman]

Looking forward to your build.  I've had this kit for about 42 years...still in the box...waiting.

Horton M.

[WigWag Workshop]

Looking forward to the build.  Looks like a fun kit. and I am sure I will get a lot of ideas for my future builds.


-Steven

[Opa George]

Hello everyone and so good to have so many people "in the room!"  I like company. Thanks for following John, Mark, Curt, Paul, Greg, Bob, Horton and Steven!

Time to get busy.

Below are the various stacks of pre-cut stripwood, stained with A&I and ready to go.  I followed George's advice to keep them handy in pre-sorted piles.  After getting into the first wall, I can certainly see the wisdom in that. The front wall requires a large assortment of different sizes, and this was easier than having to keep measuring to find the correct piece.


The walls are built on top of the full-size plans.  As the printed plans often come with folds, it is critical to get them flat.  I used painter's tape to get it secured to my workbench, then taped wax paper on top of the plan.  The wood structure is built on top of the wax paper, held in place with pinpoints of glue.  The front wall, in progress below, is about half done.


At this point, the front wall framework is removed from the plan in order to be glued on top of the scribed wall section.  The wax paper gives up the glue easily, so removing the framework is easy.


Below is the front wall secured to the scribed wall backing, and with additional bracing and structural boards added.  The bottom is backed with individual boards.  For variety, I applied additional Hunterline stains to about six of each, and mixed them up. The Hunterline stains used were Light Gray and Driftwood.  I also applied an extra bit of A&I to a few.  The trick in placing the boards is to avoid a zebra effect.  I mixed the various board colors and tried my best to pick up and install them randomly. 


A few castings are installed, and George noted the wall should be put aside at this point.  Good place to stop for the day.  My camera flash really makes the castings jump out, but in person they are not as jarring. I also carved in some dry-rot, split boards and broken areas with an X-actor knife. No other weathering yet.  I'll be adding rust stains, dirt and grime later.


The castings are painted Rustoleum red primer, for a basic rust, then dry-brushed with acrylic "Gun Metal" for a metallic look. The concrete base was primed with Rustoleum Camouflage Khaki, lightly oversprayed with Rustoleum Gray primer, then given a shot of Rustoleum texture spray paint Desert Bisque.  It will get additional weathering with chalks, grime and etc.

I should be able to start the rear wall tomorrow.
--Opa George

[deemery]

The tools column in NMRA Mag this month recommends getting a seam iron from a sewing store to flatten those creases.  That sounds like a good idea.  I've been known to iron and once even starch plans to get them to lie flat.  (I'm old enough to remember when you had to starch your fatigue uniforms :-) )


dave

[Jerry]

Great start George.  I'll follow along.
Your builds are so interesting.


Jerry

[PRR Modeler]

Great progress George.

[Opa George]

The tools column in NMRA Mag this month recommends getting a seam iron from a sewing store to flatten those creases.  That sounds like a good idea.  I've been known to iron and once even starch plans to get them to lie flat.  (I'm old enough to remember when you had to starch your fatigue uniforms :-) )

dave

Dave, excellent idea.  I may look into that.
--Opa Geo

[S&S RR]

You are moving right along - it looks great.