A shipping and receiving dock structure

[Rick]

Jeff, I think it looks fantastic.
How did you cut the roof strips to give them that rough edge?

[cuse]

Very nice...Relatively simple and versatile...those little see-through structures really make a nice "complexity" to your foreground. Well done

John

[nycjeff]

Looking good, Jeff.

Yes - it all depends on the thickness and type of timber used for decking.  In our last house 1 1/2" thick hardwood was used and the joists were spaced at 2' 8" centres.  It wasn't at all springy to walk on.  Of course 'use' would also come into the equation.  If you were expecting delivery of large woodworking machinery then you would need something more substantial.

I like the different pattern used on the cross braces along the front of the deck, but must point out that two of those posts are not braced.  Of course, you can apply a rule here.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, thanks for looking in and for your insights. You are right about the cross bracing, I do plan on adding more. I just stopped at this point because I was getting tired of measuring and gluing all of those little pieces. Better to stop and come back with a fresh attitude.

Howdy Jeff, the open warehouse looks amazing. It is sturdy enough to hold those 321 blocks.  Have fun, mike

Hello Mike, thanks for the kind words. Sometimes I'm amazed at the strength of our little wood structures that are just small bits of wood glued together as well.

Jeff, I think it looks fantastic.
How did you cut the roof strips to give them that rough edge?

Hello Rick, thanks for looking in.
 I've used two methods for attaining the rough edge of the roofing material.
 First is one I learned from a Jason Jenson video. After cutting the paper into 3/8 inch strips, place the paper on the edge of a piece of wood and use a small piece of sandpaper to lightly brush the edge of the paper.
Second is to glue the paper strips on the roof and then use a small piece of sandpaper and lightly brush the whole roof area in both  a top to bottom and then a bottom to top motion. Go slowly and check after each pass- it's easy to do more damage than you might want.
Hope this helps you.

Very nice...Relatively simple and versatile...those little see-through structures really make a nice "complexity" to your foreground. Well done

John

Hello John, thank you for the nice comments. It helps when you are trying to copy the work of one of our hobby's greats- Cliff Powers.

[cuse]

Very nice...Relatively simple and versatile...those little see-through structures really make a nice "complexity" to your foreground. Well done

John

Hello John, thank you for the nice comments. It helps when you are trying to copy the work of one of our hobby's greats- Cliff Powers.

Yes. Cliff Powers has done some beautiful work...I know our buddy, ACLTom, considers him a major influence.

[Philip]

Nice work!

[Jerry]

Jeff I really like the way that turned out nice job.

Jerry

[GPdemayo]

Neat build Jeff, great details.....

[nycjeff]

Very nice...Relatively simple and versatile...those little see-through structures really make a nice "complexity" to your foreground. Well done

John

Hello John, thank you for the nice comments. It helps when you are trying to copy the work of one of our hobby's greats- Cliff Powers.

Yes. Cliff Powers has done some beautiful work...I know our buddy, ACLTom, considers him a major influence.

Hello John, I've recognized some scenes on Tom's layout as coming from Cliff. If you look closely at my layout you would also see more than a few scenes that I copied from Cliff.

Nice work!

Hello Philip, thank you sir

Jeff I really like the way that turned out nice job.

Jerry

Hello Jerry, thanks for looking in and for the kind words

Neat build Jeff, great details.....

Hello Greg, thanks for taking the time to comment, it's always nice to get some feedback.

[nycjeff]

A few more pictures...

Here's a closer look at the roof and a look at some of the details that I have added to the deck area.



A look at the right side. I definitely have to add some more cross bracing to the underside. It's amazing how much more pictures show us than just looking at something right in front of you.



A closer look inside. I've added a couple of scrap wood boards and some pigeons to the roof.



The front, or high side of the roof, will face the siding track.



A look thru the structure. I definitely have to add some rafter tails and end trim boards to the roof.



That's it for now, back to work on this one for sure and I have some ideas for what I'm going to build for the back side of the deck .

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

To help with the spacing of the rafter tails, I placed a drawing with marks 2 scale feet apart. I cut the rafter tails at a 1/2 inch length. This extra length makes it easier to handle the pieces while gluing them in place.



The rafter tails have been glued on and as you can also see I installed the rest of the cross bracing under the floor deck.



After waiting overnight for the glue to completely dry, I cut the rafter tails to their proper length with a small pair of nippers. I have very few tails break off when being trimmed using this method.



For the end rafter which is the full length of the roof, I first glued on a piece of 1/16 inch square strip wood that's cut to the same width as the side wall This gives me more of a gluing surface when installing the end rafter.



Here's a view of the installed end rafter, the underneath cross bracing and the trimmed rafter tails. I think that the structure looks a lot better now. This is as far as I am going to go with the structure for now, more details such as roof signage and non-working lighting fixtures will be added when this structure goes onto the diorama down the road.



That's it for now, more later with an additional sub-assembly on the rear of the structure.

[nycjeff]

Here's a last look at the rafter tails and the underneath cross bracing. I'm glad that I spent the time to do these improvements. Many times it's the little things that make a model look better.



The back side of the deck needed a way for the little people to get down to ground level. I first thought of a long straight ramp, but that took up too much room and just didn't look right.

Here's the first part of my solution. A center landing with a ramp down to the ground. I used a solid piece of wood for the ramp and once again scribed lines to represent boards. The two small pieces of wood in the lower right corner of the picture are support posts for the center of the lower ramp.



The upper ramp from the landing to the main deck was next. Building it was fairly straight forward, but attaching it to the center landing was the tricksie part. It looks alright in the picture , but even after letting the glue dry overnight the whole thing did not want to hold together very well.



My solution was to cut a styrene base for the whole sub-assembly. I painted it a brown ground color and added some dirt and ground foam. The assembly being held down with the file is a small kick railing that will go along the outside of the ramps and landing.



Here the kick railings have been added and the sub-assembly has been glued to the base. I stained the whole thing with my A&I solution. I plan on some more weathering with chalks and some more casting details later.

 I'm pleased with how this little build came out. It adds some more character to the larger deck structure and I think that it just looks good.



That's it for now, more later.

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

Great job on this scratch build. Well done.

Tom

[Jerry]

Jeff a great job on this build.

Jerry

[nycjeff]

Jeff,

Great job on this scratch build. Well done.

Tom

Jeff a great job on this build.

Jerry

Hello Tom and Jerry- see what I did there, you have to be pretty old to get the reference- thanks to both of you for looking in and for the kind words.

[nycjeff]

A few final pictures for now. I wanted to see what the deck looked like with the rear stairs in place.







This is as far as I'm going to go at this time for this little build. When it comes time for this to go on the larger diorama I'll add some more scenery and details along with some little people.

I had fun with this build. Thanks to all who took the time to look in and send along some comments. The feedback is always appreciated.