Campbell Scale Models Grain Elevator

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice looking Bob.

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob:

Looks just excellent so far. Can't wait to see this one done.

Karl

[Oldguy]

I decided to go ahead and use the provided cardboard roof cards.  Although, they seem a bit thin.  Si, first, I need to provide a brace along the long axis for support.  I needed to mark the center line to keep my bracing away from other bracing.

The swinging doors were a pain, but I think well worth the effort.  Instructions have one just cut out he paper "bracing: and use it.

Some areas of the roof need to have either a ridge beam or some bracing on the wall for support.

The office chimney is old school.  Two pieces that have to be cut in half and then glued together.  This task was made a lot easier with a micro saw.

Then came cutting all the corrugated roofing.  They sure eat up blades in a Chopper.  Then added transfer tape to the roof panels.  This is the first time I've tried this with metal roofing, so we'll see how it goes.  Then managed to cut my finished doors in half.

Got to open the D bag which has all the materiel for the wood road surface and handrails.  There are 3 roof hatches that one is to just glue on top the metal.  Not so sure about that.  I'll admit that I really like Campbell's lamp shades.

[Oldguy]

I got the roof cards up and drying.  One does need to take the time to ensure that they are parallel to the ground.

With the glue drying, it was on to the vehicle ramps.  More edge gluing and cutting joists on an angle.  I marked the joist locations using the drawing, and after ensuring that I have the planking in the proper direction, I marked the joist locations at each end.  I found that my roller ball pen bled just enough to be useful in gluing the joists down.  They tell you how long to cut the joists and I found out that just get one end clear of the ground line and cut the angle.  The other end will look long, but ti isn't.


What I did find out is that in the process of removing the protective sheet off the transfer tape, can delaminate the cardboard.  I needed to start at several different corners and hit the offending areas with some white glue to it all back together.  The transfer tape does hold the corrugated metal well, as long as it has a lot of material to grab.  This is my first attempt in using Model Master spray paint, and so far I like how works on the metal.

[S&S RR]

Bob


Really coming together - very nice work.

[PRR Modeler]

Looks great so far Bob.

[postalkarl]

Bob:

Looks just great. Can't wait to see what you do with the Roofs.

Karl

[Oldguy]

Bob:

Looks just great. Can't wait to see what you do with the Roofs.

Karl

Okay.    I'll admit I liked the transfer tape method, even with it's shortcomings.  The office was straight forward with cutting the supplied paper shingle materiel to length and then burnish each strip as it is applied.  In my case, I used the back end of a pair of tweezers.  It didn't take long and then it was hit some weathering powders to brown it up a bit more.  I roofed this per the instructions.  Not sure how one would add a final row of just the "shingles" in my case.

The elevator was also somewhat easy.  I just wished that I had drawn some vertical lines to check on alignment.  Nothing really special, just apply.  I did jst use rust weathering powders going from dark to light and then a fianl wide brush blending at the end.  I did hit it with dullcoat as a couple of areas were still shiny.

Now onto adding an absolute ton of rafter tails.

[nycjeff]

Hello Bob, that's a mighty fine prairie skyscraper you've got going there. It looks great.   Jeff

[Oldguy]

Thanks all for the compliments.

With close to 100 rafter tails, I decided to make a cutting jig.  The rafter angles varied from 40 degrees to 33 degrees.  So, I split the difference and decided on making them 36 degrees.  I removed the cutting pad on the Chopper, added four layers of painters tape and then, using the left side as my vertical axis found the 36 degree point and cut out the unneeded tape. I reused most of it for the length stop.

After awhile, I needed a break from the rafters and made the ramp handrails.  Instead of using tape over the template, I placed the plans on the magnetic jig and used magnets to hold things down.  One just has to remember that there are left and right handrails, so the order of fabrication changes.

The rafters do add to the overall look.

To move along, I needed to get everything on a base.  I used some foamcore cut slightly bigger than the width and depth (10.5 x 17).  Once the main structure was glued down, it was time to add the ramps and their supports.  The entrance ramp (the long one) has two supports.  All parts were precut, and the shorter one wound up being way to close to the taller one.  It was a simple matter of sanding it down.

Ramps glued down, office added, glue drying.

Next up adding the stairs from the walkway.  Stairs.  Walkway.  Um. Um. Dag nab it.  I didn't add any openings in the handrails.  Son of  a . . . . . . .

Welp.  I need to sleep on it and figure how to recover from this oversight.

[PRR Modeler]

Great modeling Bob.

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob:

Wowie!!!! Looks just gorgeous.

Karl

[Oldguy]

With the buildings mounted, it was time to make the stairs. This entails using the kits plastic stringers, cut each in half to get four pieces.  The treads come precut.  The stairs are 4 feet wide.  And since I didn't leave openings in the handrails, it was a simple matter of gluing on an additional post and cutting away what isn't needed.  Next up, the risers.  I never could master the art of double sided taping of them.  But I do have have two stair jigs.  One from Rusty Stumps and another from Blair Line that was provided in a kit.  Neither one had the needed width, so I modified the Blair Line one.  Simple matter of measuring and cutting to form a new slot.

Then on to scenery.  I don't like it.  I'm not good at it.  But, it is needed.  Once the ground foam was added, I could finally add the stairs.

One last comment.  I built and added the ramp handrail/guardrails per instructions.  In hind sight, these should have been placed so the doors could clear them, bringing them closer to the ends of the ramps.   I'll add the gravel road and paths once it gets set in the layout.

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice modeling Bob.

[Jerry]

Beautiful work Bob.


Jerry