tools Dang...so it is more art than science.... like they say in welding, go start burning holes in things and you will eventually get the hang of it.
A little more progress over the last couple of weeks...this hopper set and cylindrical tank... and here's where they will go... Next up is piping and ladders/walkways on this side. I've got the bucket elevator towers built already. I'm trying to build this in modules for a couple of reasons - easier to paint, and I've had to do a little more selective compression than I would have liked, so I'm trying to keep all the major components sized correctly, but all on their own bases/slabs, so on my next layout I can give the mill a little more square footage and make the footprint closer to real life.
Outstanding job of scratch building. I have a local industry in mind to start myself. I looked at it yesterday on Google Earth, but I guess I need to get off my duff to get some photos of it. I know you said in an earlier post that you sorta just wing it as far as measurements go, but how close do you think you are? Again nice build!
I guess I try to do a little bit better than 'winging it' - I estimate distances & lengths using doors (standard door is 6' 8" high), cars, or anything else that's in the photo. I had to do a little selective compression on one of the buildings in the complex but for the most part everything else is close to scale or as close as my eye sees it anyway
Here's this weekend's progress, the last 2 bucket elevators are taking shape. They're really straight, the fish-eye of the camera makes them look curvy .
Dave: Very nice scratchbuilding work. I will have to build some elevator legs myself and was wondering if you built them as single shafts with the segment dividers wrapped around them, or if the segment dividers were installed between sections of shaft. Tim
Hi Tim - 1 long shaft with the segment dividers wrapped around - I figured that was the only way that I would be able to keep it straight. Looking at your outstanding flat car scratchbuild, this should be a piece of cake
First, Great job modelling a distictive part of the Central Valley. I hope one day to get the nerve to delve into something like that. Second, I have used Google Earth/Sketch Up to get a reasonable idea of the size of a couple buildings I want to model. There was an article in RMC, IIRC about using it on a picture a few months back. From the GE overhead block out the major structures and build up a box then add details as you go. Using the overhead then the street view you can guess how high a wall you have. There are some tricks to Sketch Up that I found out later on. I originally "eyeballed" the wall heights and other dimensions but couldn't get a true box that Sketch Up would allow me to modify. When I entered actual heights it worked much better. From the Sketch UP model I can now scale it out and determine compression and what the model's measurements need to be. The Google Maps/Earth shots of the US Gypsum plant in Fremont CA I would like to build. I have the Sketch Up model pretty close.
That looks like it will be a really cool project - I use Google Earth/Maps along w/ Bing also. Here's some more progress, working on the northwest side of the complex now, where the cylindrical hopper tanks are. I've been doing alot of cutting and soldering of GMM walkways and ladders: I'm starting work on the pipes that connect the tanks & hoppers to the elevators, and another walkway/conveyor to the big tank now
Thanks - here's a couple more days of progress (yea, I don't get much done day to day ...). Another conveyor installed to the big cylindrical hopper, and the pipes connecting the conveyors to the elevators, plus some safety railing. I'm building each of the sub-assemblies on their own bases, so I can paint them. The pipes aren't glued into the diverter cones yet, just glued to the conveyors on the bottom, so it can come apart for painting. I just realized I've been working on this project for over 10 months, and still haven't started painting it!
That's slowly turning into an NMRA 'best of show' you know.... making the N scalers proud. Just sayin'. As you assemble it see if there's any way to be able to remove it as a diorama for contest use.
Last weekend the wife and I were in Oakdale. We got off the freeway in Modesto, missed a sign somewhere and started heading the wrong way and suddenly, we're driving past J.S. West!! Good thing she was driving at the time, because I spun around so fast I probably woulda crashed the car. I must say this model really does look like the real thing.
Holy Guacamole!! That is indeed an awe-inspiring structure! Just slogged through all 11 pages, and I'm very impressed. I am curious about the open windows - did you scratch build those or are they purchased. I can't recall seeing windows open like that before: a nice touch. Thanks for the thread: I'm hooked!
Ron - The windows are Tichy (from the 'windows and doors' pack) that i cut in half. Randy - That's an awesome idea. Since my lot size on the layout isn't as big as the prototype, I had shorten the length of the siding, shrink the depth of the long warehouse building, and also will have to put the feed mill across the street. All of the grain silos and elevators are to scale, so if I made another warehouse building and made it all removable, I could build the whole complex exactly to scale on a diorama/module. GREAT idea!! (but first I gotta finish it ...)
