A steam powered flour mill from Keep it Rusty

[nycjeff]

Hello Jerry, thank you for the kind words. I'm very happy with how the silos came out.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on with the mill complex...

Continuing on with modeling how the grain is moved around the mill area, I decided that a grain leg, or grain elevator, was needed to get excess grain from the mill to the storage silos, now that I have two of them. The location of the grain leg was going to be along the rear wall of the mill building. I had to trim the roof of the mill slightly.



I ordered some grain bin parts from Rix Products, which shipped and arrived very quickly, I might add. I sprayed the parts with a rattle can dark brown primer.



I made a platform for the top of the grain leg using the Rix parts and rusted them using some craft paints.



I decided that I wanted a man ladder on the outside of the grain leg. I had this from a Walthers kit and I painted and rusted this as well.



I wanted my grain leg to be different from the typical kit seen on many grain elevator pictures, so I decided to make mine wood framed. I used a 3/4 inch square piece of hardwood for the core and cut some clapboard and strip wood pieces for the outside surfaces. I didn't have any prototype photos for what I wanted, so I just sort of built something that, to my eye, looked right. After assembly, I stained it all with my A&I solution and then dry brushed it to match the colors I used on the barn structure in front of the stone mill building.

[nycjeff]

Here's how the grain leg looked after all of the paint and glue dried.



And here it is in place at the rear of the mill building.



I built another vertical conveyor structure at the left side of the unloading area. It connects to the angled enclosed conveyor that sits above the covered way. I used some clapboard and strip wood pieces for this as well and painted it to match the barn structure also.



The mill complex is as about complete as it can be at this stage of the build. After attaching the mill complex to a larger homosote base I can install the overhead pipes from the top of the grain leg to the tops of the silos and I can also install a conveyor system from the bottom of the silos to the smaller lift to get the grain into the mill.



I'm very pleased with the grain leg and I think that I have shown how grain is moved around the mill area in my modeling. I said before that I was modernizing Craig's original mill concept to fit my 1940's time frame and I think that I have accomplished that goal.



That's it for now, more later.

[Larry C]

Jeff that is a very nice looking structure and the elevators gives it more of a massive look.

[friscomike]

Howdy Jeff, 

Nice work on the mill and elevator.  The clever elevator construction looks perfect for the mill.

Have fun,
mike

[Rick]

Jeff, that's a good addition to the scene.

[Jerry]

Jeff grreat addition.  Beautiful modeling.

Jerry

[Mark Dalrymple]

The elevators look great, Jeff.

Cheers, Mark.

[nycjeff]

Jeff that is a very nice looking structure and the elevators gives it more of a massive look.

Hello Larry, thank you for the kind words. I'm pleased with how the addition of the elevator looks behind the mill.

Howdy Jeff,

Nice work on the mill and elevator.  The clever elevator construction looks perfect for the mill.

Have fun,
mike

Hello Mike, thank you for the nice comments. I'm happy with how the elevator came out and I'm definitely having fun.

Jeff, that's a good addition to the scene.

Hello Rick, thank you sir. I think that the addition of the elevator helps tell the story of the mill's operation.

Jeff grreat addition.  Beautiful modeling.

Jerry

Hello Jerry, thank you for looking in and for the kind words.

The elevators look great, Jeff.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, thank you for the nice comment.

[Pennman]

Jeff,

I like the looks of the rusted metal on the grain tower and other objects.
Do you prime those parts first, or just use various craft paints at random
coming up with the final rust look? ie: rust colored paint, dark brown paint,
and no primer?  Thanks

Rich

[nycjeff]

Hello Rich, to get the rust colored look I first use a rattle can dark brown camo color as a primer. I posted a picture of the Rix Products sprues after this step just a few posts back.
I then dry brush a dark chocolate craft paint color rather heavily.
Next I sponge on a little orange and then dark red colors, but very lightly.
After all of this dries, I then lightly dry brush a silver craft paint color.
If it looks right to me at this point, I'm done. If not I might sponge on a little more color and then dry brush some more silver.
Thanks for asking, I hope this makes some sort of sense to you.

[Keep It Rusty]

Fantastic additions to a wonderful build. Really nice work, Jeff. I'm thrilled to see the kit used in new ways.

[GPdemayo]

Beautiful build Jeff, well done.....

[Philip]

Great build Jeff!