Construction Update #21- Westmoreland, TN Part 1 - Commercial Structures

The Commercial District

In the last post, there were several photographs taken in Westmoreland that showed several of the building I had already built for a small commercial district and residential area.  When laying out the roads, I had used a small warehouse as a stand in for the commercial district.  The warehouse shows up in the background up against the backdrop.  Before going any further, I decided it was time for the small commercial district.  I thought about using one of the "Merchants Row" kits from Walthers.  I had one on hand and ordered a second off ebay.  Neither was tall enough to match up with the building printed on the backdrop so I went through my old stash of  kits and came up with the Daily Examiner kit also from Walthers.

 

 

I don't like to use kits right out of the box for two reasons.  First, I don't want to see the exact same kit on my layout that shows up on some other layout and second, most of the factory stock kits seem to small to me.  Since the building was only going to be 2 inches deep, the wall sections were laid out on my desk in three or four reasonable configurations.  Here is the configuration I settled on.  I only had to cut and splice together one small section of trim along the top of the building.  The kit comes with a lot of blank wall sections that would normally be used on the back side.  These were cut to size and used on the ends.  Since the building butts up against the backdrop, it doesn't have a back wall.  I added some interior bracing, sprayed the structure with rattle cans, weathered it with Bragdon powdered pigments, and finished up with a thin application Dullcoat.  The foundation was pieced together with parts from the kit.

The Daily Examiner is one of the "Blue Ribbon" kits that come with pre-made windows that are painted and have the glass installed.  This is a nice feature, but changing the color of the window frames is difficult as is weathering.  They were installed after the weathering.  I cut a new roof from .0080" black styrene, painted it flat black and glued it in place.  I also added a piece of black styrene behind the glass.  It obscures the fact there is no interior and the "reflection" effect is pretty cool.  And, notice how well the structure blends in with the brick building on the backdrop.

 

 

Here's another photo that clearly shows the other end of the building.  The kit comes with a printed sheet of "interiors" that can be applied to the inside of the windows to represent some interior detailing; if you don't look real close. 

 

 

Construction, to this point, took less than a day.  I started about 10:00am and finished up, to this point, around 4:30pm.   All it needs now are some additional details; maybe a mailbox on the corner, a few figures, signs, and a lamp post or two.  

 

The commercial buildings for Westmoreland are all "fronts" about 2" deep.  As a result, you end up with a lot of left over back and side walls.  I cobbled together this alleyway from the back walls of two Walthers Merchant Row kits.  The crates and barrels are from Woodland Scenics, the dumpster from Hi-Tech.  If you decide to build one of these dumpster kits, disregard the instructions that come with the kit and build it upside down starting with the upper frame.  I followed the instructions for the first dumpster and ended up throwing it away; the bottom of the bin is to small to build around and nothing fit.

 

 Unfortunately, a lot of these details will be obscured by the general store.

 

Next up is another series of storefronts.  This series of storefronts was made using a combination of Walthers Merchant Row structure kits #IV and #V.  The same process was used; cutting all the wall sections off the sprues and laying them out on my work surface.  The front wall of the merchants row kits are made up three store fronts cast in one piece.  I cut these up to come up with the following configuration.  Cutting these kits up is really easy using a scribe and snap technique.  This combination, including the sides, is made up of 9 different sections.  I sanded the edges a little and then glued the together with liquid cement.  I added some bracing to the  back side.  The upper portion is set back from the front, has no sides.  It will rest against the backdrop.  The storefronts were painted with rattle cans and the window frames/details were brush painted with Floquil Poly Scale acrylics. 

 

 

Here it is resting on the layout...  And I am not happy with upper section.  I think I will try moving the wall forward and adding about an inch of side wall.  If that doesn't work, I will remove it altogether.  I also need to rework the street here.  When I originally laid out this scene, the seam in the road was obscured by another structure so I didn't worry about it.  Now it's pretty obvious and something needs to be done.

 

 

I tried moving that upper wall forward and it still looked wrong so I stayed up until nearly 3:00am removing it and making some minor repairs...  And here it is on the layout.  The building leaning back a little but that's an easy fix.  Both of these building will be removable in order to add details (At some point in the future).

 

Here it is from the opposite direction.  I had to remove a couple of houses to get this view.

 

 

And finally, for some reasons the comments section doesn't always work.  Please feel free to email me with your comments or suggestions at sdepolo@outlook.com

 

Construction Update #20 - Working Gates, small details, and roads areound Westmoreland

Working Gates

I tend to work on several projects at a time.  While working on the roads around Westmoreland I have also been detailing the propane dealer on the west end of  town.  I noticed, at my local hobby shop the Electric Train Shop in Burien, WA, that Woodland Scenics has added several fence styles to their extensive line of products.  One of them is a pretty nifty set of chain link fencing.  I bought several sets to go around complex  While not included with fencing, I decided that a working gate was in order to access the spur within the complex.  The gates turned out to be a quick and easy way to add interest during an operating session.  It took less the 15 minutes to make the gates and about 10 minutes to install them.

I used a section of Woodland Scenics fencing along with two sizes of  Evergreen Styrene telescoping  tubing and a short section of plastic rod that matched the size of the fencing material (Photo 1).  I cut the gate, shown on the bottom right of the first photo from a section of fence shown in the top left of the photo.  Then I cut the diagonal brace to length from the styrene rod, painted it silver, and glued it in place with medium viscosity ACC (Photo 2)

I cut the smaller diameter tube to about an inch in length and slid it over the small pin extending from the bottom of the gate.  I glued it in place with ACC.   The tubing serves two purpose.  First, when inserted into the larger piece of tubing, it rotates freely and second, it serves to protect and strengthen the soft metal pin.  After the initial application of ACC had cured, I placed an additional bead of glue around pin where it slides into the tube.  The larger section of  tubing was then cut to size.

Two holes were then drilled in the scenery base and the larger tube was glued in place.  I built up the area around the tube with ground cover, sealed it with matte medium and slid the gates in place.  The resulting gates move freely with a uncoupling pick but retain enough friction to stay in place once they are opened or closed.  Other methods can be used to open and close the gates from beneath the bench work.  I that case, the length of the telescoping tubing could be cut longer to reach through the bench work.  Finally, if one of the gates gets damaged or broken, it can easily be replaced.

Other Details

 

The speed limit drops from 30mph to 20mph on the approach to Westmoreland.  These speed limit signs are available from JL Innovative.  They add to the scene and operations.

 

Details West makes a number of neat track side details to include a dragging equipment detector.  The white metal kit takes a couple of hours to build, paint, and install and adds a lot of interest to the scene.  After I was done building the detector it occurred to me that it could easily made into a working model by using a piece a brass tubing instead of the cast pole.  The wires for a LED or bulb could then run up through the tubing to light the red lens at the top of the pole.

Roads around Westmoreland

 

The roads around Westmoreland are built using a method developed by Lance Mindheim.  The roads were laid out with a black felt pin and strips of Midwest cork roadbed were glued down to raise the level of the road above the surrounding terrain and closer to the top of the code 70 rail head.  A pattern was then made using plain printer paper and the roadway was then cut from .0040" black styrene.  The Rix Products sidewalks, were applicable, were cut to size and glued to the edge of the roadway.

 

 

 

 

Two shades of gray were used to paint the roadway and curbs.  Both will darken up a bit with weathering.

 

And here is the street after weathering.  The weathering is a little darker than I planned.  It looked about right until I sprayed some matte finish over the Bragdon powdered pigments which darkened things up considerably.  The joints in the concrete and cracks were done with a pencil, the white lines were masked off and painted with a cosmetic sponge.  I still need to work on blending the street color into the backdrop.  The warehouse on left is a stand in for a group of storefronts on the workbench.  In addition a fence on the left side and some foliage and maybe a tree on the right should help the foreground blend into the backdrop.

Note, with this post I have increased the font size to make the blog easier to read and I have added a "Follow by Email" link so you can be notified anytime I update the blog.  Note that you will receive a email to validate and confirm your subscription.  And finally, thanks for your interest.  Currently I am getting about 300 hits a month with a total of over 2,000 to date.

Construction Update #19 - State Line Tunnel & RediGas Westmoreland

Tunnel 1- State Line,KY

 

The state line between Kentucky and Tennessee is about 15 miles south of Bowling Green.  On my layout the distance is about 15 feet.  Like most modelers, I had to come up with a way to put some perceived distance between these two points.  The 15 feet includes a 180 degree turn back curve and the need to transition from an urban setting (Bowling Green) to a heavily forested area along the Kentucky/Tennessee border.  The only workable solution was a short tunnel.

 

I studied prototype photos on the internet, checked out available HO-Scale tunnel portals and settled on one of several versions offered by CC Crow.  I ordered the generic concrete portal set.  It includes two tunnel portals with a textured liner plus a concrete retaining wall.  My tunnel portals came with 18' wide openings; 16' wide versions are also available.  The superb masters for these portals were hand carved by Clint Crow and cast in hydrocal.  The castings are easily modified and colored using techniques described in the "how to" section of CC Crow's website.

The wing walls were cut from the concrete retaining wall using the scribe and snap technique and stained with Builders in Scale Silverwood.  Make sure your hands are clean and oil free when handling the castings.  I found that the oil from my hands effected how well one of my castings absorbed the Silverwood.  And don't worry about a few cracks or crumbling along the edges of the castings after making a cut.  Many of the prototype concrete tunnel portals you see these days are 100 years old or older.  The freeze and thaw cycle along with other forms of erosion like wind and water take their tole on the concrete.  I took this picture of a Milwaukee Road portal around 1988.  Located on St. Paul Pass, in Idaho, the portal was about 80 years old at the time.  New and old versions of this tunnel portal are also available in HO Scale from CC Crow.  I am planning to use one of these on the upper level of  the layout.

 

 

The pre-stained components were assembled with yellow carpenters glue and then weathered using Bragdon powdered pigments.

 

Its probably not necessary to reinforce the glue joints on these castings, but I did it anyway.  My portal is made up from seven different castings.  The liner, on the right of the portal, is made up of three castings and the retaining walls are made up from another three castings, one on the far side and two on the near side.

The completed portal was moved around until I settled on the final location near the center of a transition curve; from about 60" to 34".  I ran a test train to include a 89' flat to make sure the cars would clear.

Once I had decided the exact location of the portal, I cut out a portion of the fascia and replaced it with a new section cut to the approximate contour of the hillside. The area around the tunnel portal was then built up with pink foam

Two layers of Scenic Express plaster cloth were applied over the pink foam. 

The plaster cloth was then painted and the initial ground cover of paving sand from Home Depot was glued down.  Eventually, this area will be heavily forested to match the backdrop.  In the meantime, since it sometimes takes me awhile to finish a scene, I spread around some fine green foam ground cover to add some color and make the area a bit more presentable.

 

In order to make progress on the tunnel portal, I needed to make additional Super Trees.  I must admit that I am a little disappointed in the quality of the tree material that came out of the super value pack,  The quality of the tree material was much better in the starter pack and the smaller value pack.  Regardless, I have made about 100 trees so far and I probably need another 50 or so.

 

I'd say the area around the tunnel portal is about 75% complete.  I need to weather the track, add additional vegetation, and add some track side details.  I ordered and received a flange lubricator and a hot box detector from Details West.  One of them, along with a speed limit sign from JL Innovative and maybe a small phone shanty from Atlas or Tichy, will add some interest.  One other thing, and I think it's pretty apparent from the photo, is that it's difficult to create much depth  in a scene that is only 8"deep.

 

 A couple of other small projects 

One of the projects I have been working on is a propane dealer for Westmoreland.  I built it using parts from several Walthers kits.  Unfortunately, I did a lousy job of assembling the propane storage tanks.  The tanks consist of two pieces, split horizontally, and I ended up with grossly visible seems on each side and ends of  both tanks.  The complex was mounted on a piece of styrene.    This allowed me to build the complex in the comfort of my model room before installing it on the layout.

Fortunately for me, my good friend Kurt Boyd is also building a set of these tanks and he bought them along to lunch the other day.  Kurt had assembled his tanks, puttied up the seams, and was in the process of smoothing them out with sandpaper... And, they looked really good.   After inspecting his, I went home, removed my tanks from the layout, and followed his lead.  I puttied the seams up with Tamiya filler, let it dry, and smoothed out with progressively finer sanding film.  The end result, while not perfect, is a huge improvement.  Here they are back on the layout along with some basic ground cover.

I also had a couple of old Tomar signals on hand so I decided to set them in place, temporarily, while I wait for the long overdue Atlas/BLMA replacements to arrive. 

The Westmoreland Turn