Campbell's #411 Schrock Meat Company

[nycjeff]

This is my first Campbell's kit build. In doing my research on Campbell's kits I noticed a lot of negative comments, such as they are 40 to 50 years old, they are just a bag of sticks and that they were not much more than a scratch-built kit. I have done a few smaller scratch-built structures on my layout, so none of this scared me off. So, here we go...



Here is the box that the kit came in. I was impressed with Campbell's service. I received the kit less than a week after ordering. They included a nice sanding stick with my order. Free stuff is always good. I also ordered extra hanging sides of beef.



There is a lot inside the box, some of which is pictured here. I could immediately see why many called these kits scratch-built type kits. There are none of the complete laser cut wall sections with door and window openings already done for you. What is there includes many pages of drawings and templates, that were done in the 70's and 80's by a lady named Sherry Collins. I mention her name because of the very good quality of these drawings. I was a residential general contractor for many years and I saw many blueprints that were not as good as these are.



After spending a lot of time reading over the instructions I realized that by following them step by step I would achieve my best result. The first portion of the kit to be built is the Slaughterhouse section, which is the biggest sub-assembly and an entire kit in it's own right. Each wall requires several wood wall sections be glued together and the door and window openings need to be cut out. The locations are lightly stamped onto the wood wall sections and this picture shows one of them with the window openings highlighted with a pencil



The instruction say to use either masking tape or light paper on the back of the wall sections that have openings that need to be cut out. I used masking tape. My research said that in some instances the wood from these kits might be brittle with age and that the backing would help prevent the wall sections from splitting.



This picture shows the tools that I used to cut out the openings. First I used my pin vise to drill holes at each corner of the opening and then used a sharp new blade in my Exacto knife to cut out the opening while using a steel rule to guide the initial cuts. It usually took about 6 cuts for each line with extra cuts at the corners. Don't force out the wood that you will be removing. It will come out easily when the cuts are all the way through. Use the door or window as a guide and with a little filing they will fit nicely. In the upper left you can see one of the walls with the sections glued together and bracing installed. One way that I differed from the instructions was in the amount of bracing used. I like to use a lot of bracing.



Here is one of the front wall sections with the openings removed. Many complaints about these kits that I read about concerned having to do this step, instead of the openings already laser cut for you. Having done some small scratch-built structures already, this was not a problem for me and it shouldn't be for anyone. It just takes a little patience and care laying out the openings and being careful while cutting them out. More in a minute

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



Here all of the Slaughterhouse walls have been assembled and braced. You can see that I marked all of the wall sections with their correct number. I did this before starting because there are a lot of pieces and I wanted to make sure that I had everything I needed.



I used rattle can dark grey primer on both sides of the assembled and braced walls. You can  see the first dry brush coat of antique gold on the lower right section. You can also see the doors and windows painted with light avocado craft paint and the corner bracing material. Some small trim pieces for around the freight doors and for support beams for the front canopy have also been painted. The instructions are very good in telling you what to do next. I didn't mention before that I sorted out all of the different sizes of strip-wood into bundles that I labeled with the correct part number. I have found this to be very helpful and recommend this to everyone. It takes away a lot of confusion once you start building.



The front and back walls have been dry brushed with first the antique gold and then a cocoa bean color. I used this color combination on another kit in the past and I think it gives a nice natural wood color result.



Doors and windows have been added. You can see the strip-wood trim around the door openings. I sponged on some of the cocoa bean color to the door and window castings and the wood trim pieces for an aged paint look.



The rear and right side walls have been glued together. I have added the acetate for the window glass and used brown construction paper for the window shades. The unpainted strip-wood is to support the second floor cardstock floor. I deviated from the instructions here because of my extra bracing. The instructions show the floor supports glued directly onto the wall sections. I thought the extra bracing more important, so I did it this way. You can also see the corner trim pieces on the rear wall.



The front and left side walls are shown here. The two horizontal wood pieces on the front are the supports for the front canopy. To this point, I am very pleased with how the kit is coming along. I can see that having done a few laser cut wood kits and also some scratch-building has helped me be better prepared for this kit. The well done instructions and the excellent drawings help a lot. You just have to take your time and consult each before taking the next step. That's it for now, more later.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking great, Jeff.

This is one of my favourite offerings from Campbell, and one that is in my stash.  I agree - their drawings are some of the best in the business.  You could easily build a 1:1 scale structure using them.  I would think that when buying direct from Campbells the kits would be fairly fresh, and so not too brittle.  I'll be watching your progress.

Cheers, Mark.

[PRR Modeler]

Nice job so far.

[NEMMRRC]

Wow. Very nice.


That's a lot of building to fit inside a small box.


Jaime

[nycjeff]

Looking great, Jeff.

This is one of my favourite offerings from Campbell, and one that is in my stash.  I agree - their drawings are some of the best in the business.  You could easily build a 1:1 scale structure using them.  I would think that when buying direct from Campbells the kits would be fairly fresh, and so not too brittle.  I'll be watching your progress.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, thanks for looking in. Working on this kit is a pleasure using the well explained instructions and the excellent drawings. You'll have fun when you build this one. I haven't had any problems with the wood being brittle.

Nice job so far.

Thank you Curt, the slaughterhouse is only the main sub-assembly and it is bigger than a lot of kits that I have built. There are 4 more sub-assemblies that adjoin the main structure. I'm looking forward to them all.

Wow. Very nice.


That's a lot of building to fit inside a small box.


Jaime

Hi Jaime, you're right, it is a large building that comes out of a small box. It is due to having to glue sometimes three wall pieces together to form a finished wall, but it is going together nicely to this point. Thanks for the kind words.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



The slaughterhouse walls have been assembled, the second floor cardstock floor has been installed and a roof beam has also been installed. I had to trim the second floor floor to fit after I changed up the instructions regarding the placement of the floor supports due to the added bracing I placed on the walls. I also used a larger roof beam than instructed- I used some 3/16 square wood from my stash, rather than the 1/8 square that came with the kit.



Another view of the assembled slaughterhouse walls. I really like the wood color that combining the antique gold and cocoa bean colors gives. I think it is a good natural wood look.



A top view of the slaughterhouse showing the roof beam and the second floor cardstock floor. This is it for the slaughterhouse sub-assembly for now. Next up is the rear addition, which is the warehouse.



Here are the warehouse walls. Each wall has at least two pieces and the center bottom wall has three pieces. I added 1/8 square wood bracing after cutting out the two window openings.



Here is as front view of the warehouse walls ready for painting.



As with the slaughterhouse walls, I sprayed the warehouse walls with rattle can dark grey primer on both the front and back sides. More in a minute

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



The warehouse walls have been assembled after adding the corner posts. After installing the freight doors I added some 2x4 wood trim pieces. I thought that the plain wood slab doors needed some dressing up. I also put in some window shades made from brown construction paper that are flowing out of the open window.



Another view of the warehouse walls after assembly.  The plain tall wall goes up against the rear slaughterhouse wall and I haven't added the freight door trim pieces yet.



Next up is the foundation for the slaughterhouse and warehouse assembly. The short walls are cardstock that needed to be cut out and the bracing, which came with the kit was then added. The clearly written instructions made it easy for this step to be completed.



The kit came with some plain clear embossed plastic sheets that are meant to be the foundation stone walls. I must admit that when I first saw these clear plastic sheets I was not impressed, but after spraying them with rattle can dark grey primer, painting individual stones with various colors and then applying a light grey wash for the mortar color I liked the result.



Here is a view of the foundation wall. I think that I will apply an AI solution wash and then some weathering chalks later on, but I like the look so far.



Here is the completed foundation assembly. The kit provides a cardstock floor that must be cut out and then the foundation walls were glued to the perimeter. Everything fit perfectly. I added extra bracing, I like bracing, to the whole thing using wood from my stash. More in a minute

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



The slaughterhouse is just sitting on the foundation for now.



The warehouse has not been glued to the larger building yet and it is also sitting on the foundation. I added a sign to the rear wall of the warehouse.



I added another sign to the warehouse as well as the freight door trim pieces. What I have done so far would normally be  a good sized kit, but there are still several more sub-assemblies to go. I am really enjoying this kit. Next up are the front loading docks and then... I am only about halfway through the instruction sheets. That's it for now more later

[PRR Modeler]

Excellent modeling Jeff. That is a great color.

[Janbouli]

That is looking great Jeff, nice wood-weathering .

[GPdemayo]

A little late to the thread Jeff.....good looking build. 

[ReadingBob]

A little late to the thread Jeff.....good looking build. 

Me too.  Ditto on the looking good.  I do like the Campbell offerings.  Haven't built one in ages though.  There are a few in the stash.

[jerryrbeach]

Jeff,


I have this in my stash and am following your thread.  All the required edge gluing of wall sections is a pain, but I still like Campbell kits.  You're doing a great job on this one, nice to see all the progress.

[nycjeff]

Excellent modeling Jeff. That is a great color.

Hello Curt. Thank you, I kind of stumbled on the color when experimenting while trying to get a natural looking wood color. Dark grey primer, dry brushed antique gold and finally dry brushed cocoa bean.

That is looking great Jeff, nice wood-weathering .

Hey Jan, thanks for looking in and for the kind words

A little late to the thread Jeff.....good looking build. 

Hello Greg, thank you, I'm having a great time with this build.

A little late to the thread Jeff.....good looking build. 

Me too.  Ditto on the looking good.  I do like the Campbell offerings.  Haven't built one in ages though.  There are a few in the stash.

Hello Bob, I keep hearing that people haven't built Campbell's kits in a long time. I don't understand why, with the talent level of all the people on this forum I know that the scratch-building aspect of these kits it not out of the reach of most formum modelers. I think they are great and I  definitely look forward to doing others.

Jeff,


I have this in my stash and am following your thread.  All the required edge gluing of wall sections is a pain, but I still like Campbell kits.  You're doing a great job on this one, nice to see all the progress.

Hey Jerry, I think that you will really enjoy building this kit. I have a small confession to make, I'm not edge gluing the wall pieces. I mount them on some painters tape on a stiff backing and then glue on the bracing, which seems to hold the wall pieces together nicely. I kept reading about glue getting on the front of the wall surfaces and interfering with the stain and/or paint look.  I heard that Bob Parrish has a nice tutorial regarding edge gluing, but I couldn't find it.

Thanks to all for looking in, I'm really enjoying this build. My next post will be about the front loading dock and the cattle ramp with it's timber supports. I've never glued so many small pieces of strip-wood together.