Micro-Scale Models Two Stall Engine House

[MartyO]

Morning,

It is great to see that you like what I have done so far. I hope the rest of the build will go as well.

Next posts will outline how the structure base is going. I hope you like it.

[MartyO]

The base is also plaster about 1/2" thick to look like concrete. It has two inspection pits surrounded by walkways made from cast wood planking. Based on this assumption, this is a few photos of how I have handled it so far.


The base was stained with a coat of India ink stain, then burnt umber chalks and blended with a stiff brush. This set the tone of a well used old Engine House.



I then cut in expansion joints for the main walking areas of the base. Very fine cracks were then lightly scratched in and brushed in to match the colours of the rest of the concrete.




The inspection pits were made a bit more dirty than the floor level as stuff would have been kicked in the pits.




The next part was a bit of a bother for me. I wanted to add conduit for lights in the pit, but the pre-wired SMC 603 Warm LEDs were too thick for HO scale 1" conduit. So I decided to carve a grove into the sidewall of the inspection pits to embed the AWG 30 wire from the LEDs. A hole was drilled through the base to run the wires under the bas to the NCE Light-it modules.



There is no easy way to fasten the SMC 603 LEDs to the plaster base. I tried to epoxy them, but it looked terrible so I reverted to using quick drying CA. It does stain/cover the chalked walls , but scraping the excess glue down to the plaster and re-staining make the LED fixing near invisible.



More in the next post.

[MartyO]

How to deal with those LED wires was a bit of worry for me. 

So out came the epoxy and the LED wires were laid flat and dressed together by inspection pit and sent toward where I will be putting the multiple NCE Light-it models.

Speaking of the Light-it modules they can handle a maximum of 30 mA over three LED connections. The Warm light SMC 603 LEDS take 10-20 mA each. Since a inspection pit has four (4) LEDs that is I will need two (2) Light-it modules to control that lights. This may overload each Light-it, but I have done this in the past and it has worked. Time will tell.

[MartyO]

I will worry about the LEDs use later, but I still need to add some timbers on top of the posts you can see in each of the inspection pits. This timbers will be holding the rails of the track in place otherwise the track falls into the pits. Plus it give me options where I use Peco flex track or hand laid track; I have not decided yet.



Since those timbers would be holding the full weight of a loco it would have al been bolted to the side walls of the inspection pits as well has benign supported by the vertical 8x8 posts win the pit. This detail most likely not be obvious to a viewer, but since the roof will be removable, a keen modeller will see it. So I must do this detail.



The timbers (8"x12") are then CA'd to the sidewalls and the vertical posts.



The timbers are given a quick wash of dark brown stain, and black India ink for now. Notice the LEDs are not at all visible so me adding conduit would have never been seen.



Over the next few days I will try to figure the Light-it issues and how I can accommodate adding more lights to the front end wall and eventually in the Engine House itself. Then figure out to work in the rafters, hanging lights and workbench lighting, Gosh, I am glad I have bought more Pre-wired LEDs.

So long for now.

[postalkarl]

Hey Marty:

A little more progress. Looks great.

Karl

[MartyO]

Progress is a bit at a time for this Engine House.

I managed to figure out what I wanted to do with the NCE Light-It models. Each inspection pit has a total of four (4) lights with two (2) on each side of the inspection pit. I connected one side (Light-it address 208)of the pit to be controlled by one CV in the Light-It then the opposite side each LED is controlled by individual CVs. This is replicated (Light-it address 209) to the second inspection pit.

By having this configuration I can control the LEDs reasonable well without having to incur the extra cost of double the number of Light-It modules. So for example, I can has one LED flicker on one side with another looking like there is a welder in the pit.

The third Light-it will be used to control the ceiling lights and the two (2) front door lights. I could go crazy and have another Light-it to control the ceiling and front lights independently from the opposite side.



This is what it looks like for now until the Engine House is placed on the diorama.



More in the next post.

[MartyO]

Welcome back,

To see how the Engine House will look, a mock-up is in order to get a feel how it all works together.

This is the three-quarter view from the front left of the engine house. I immediately notice that the colours need to be adjusted and the end walls are a bit to tight. Sanding those edges will solve that.



I wondered how the engine house would look from the front and it looks ok. But where did the back wall go?



OPPS! and many other words that did not pass my lips and got stock in my throat.



I buy the cheap CA glue I can find at the dollar store. It is the thin fast setting type and I get 5 small tubes for $2 CDN or less. This is the most cost effective CA and it works amazing re-gluing HydroCal plaster pieces together. When I got the kit there were multiple broken pieces that I repaired and you can not tell that was done. Epoxy does work, but you can see the glue seam, while with thin CA you see nothing.



That is all for now. I will be trying to build the front gooseneck lamp fixtures. I suspect that my throat will be clogged while doing it.

Bye for now.

[tom.boyd.125]

Marty,
Like those lighted service pits.
Good repair on the plaster walls too.
Tommy

[MartyO]

Wow, this thread is still here.

I will be working on it soon, after the back scene is done.

Sigh!

[GPdemayo]

Looking forward to the updates Marty.....that is a neat stone structure. 

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking great, Marty.

I love the lights down the pit.

Cheers, Mark.

[deemery]

When I was working on the old Model Masterpieces CM Roundhouse (plaster) kit, I lived in fear of parts breaking, or dropping the whole thing.  When we moved, I carefully packed that up, but haven't unpacked it in the new house to see if it survived the journey.  

Your slab joints look good, but I wonder if you should make them darker, maybe to represent tar as well as accumulated oil/dirt.

dave

[Lynnb]

  Yep,time to get back at it.

[PRR Modeler]

Very well done.

[MartyO]

Gosh time flys by when you are hunkered down avoiding COVID and all the supply issues it had brought. I finally got the time to begin actually doing some work on this kit.

First, let me explain something about this kit - the instructions are not for the weak of heart and should only be attacked by an experienced modeller. Not to say that I am that experienced modeller, but love the challenge; until the challenge gets to confusing. I wanted to take this kit to the next level of realism and detail which presents so many options. Taking time to evaluate the options I began to clarify the options, or procrastination as it is known by others, has given me the motivation to finish this build.

This kit will not be in any layout that I plan on, so it will continue to be worked on when I have the time. Read this an updates to the thread will be at the whim of my progress.

So I quick recap...

- Kit contents have been laying on my workbench getting dusty and ripe without any care for it
- Our cat(s) decided it was a good idea to jump on the workbench and step on everything
- I had to re-attach the windows from the cat damage
- Re-inventory the kit parts
- Actually read the instructions for the first time, or better understand them
- Do the final fit up of the four walls and super glue them together

Next is to re-read the next steps, ignore them and do something else as far as detailing the interior of the building. 

That's all for now.