Rob, The sand bin looks great! Laser cutting the rot and breaks worked nicely. What did you use for roofing? Thanks for all the info on mounting and electrical. Scott
I used 400 grit sandpaper cut upside down. That way the smoke works to randomize the color with resin deposits.
A little more progress... Today I worked out the sand drying shed, and spent some time messing with making tools to stand along side the area. Here you can see the shed side views similar to the prototype photo: And here you can see the tools I made:
So I keep looking at the whole setup fantastic as always. How much compression is there with your model because even in the real photos everything does look nice and close.
So as far as compression, i just put everything real close together, but in real life there was much more room between each structure. As far as the drying shed color, it gets painted the same color as the depot, sand color with a brown base. NP painted everything these colors in the 50's and 60's, but up till sometime in the 1940's everything was brown. I'm going to fine tune the fit, and add laser ageing to the wood, then build another drying shed tomorrow. I also have to tweek the tools drawings a bit smaller.
True work of an artist, keep getting amazed! Very inspirational along the way. Keep sharing. -Tiest Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I looked over the tools I made yesterday, and decided they are too big. So I reduced them to 70%, and they still looked too big, but resolved, so I did another reduce to 70%. Now they please me, but might be too small to see?
Argh! I threw them in the bin, and there's tuna juice, wet coffee grounds, and banana peel slime all over them now. If I woulda known you wanted them...
A little more progress on the sand house today. I got the magnet electrical contact base on, wired in a gooseneck lamp at the top of the stairs on the sand bin, and a fire LED installed in the sand drying shed. I also built and painted the new drying shed with .018" plywood. I used a small paint dropper nozzle for the smoke jack, and 3mm square plastic tubing. I will try to paint it tomorrow. It's teflon, but the used eyedroppers stay dirty, so I think paint will stick. And I still have to do all the roof shingles, funky pipes and hoses, and all my little tools. I painted the tiny tools with a silver sharpie to make them stand out. And I recorded a clip of the sand dryer flicker light inside the drying shed:
Done with the sand house. Maybe I'll do the Diesel Fueling Tank next? Anyways, I got a bunch of little details attached to the structure to add interest:
Details are great! You totally captured that look. Well are you going to make your scene more like 1930-40s? Or are you going to give the later 1950-60s look?
I'm going for between 1956 and 1957. The coal dock was visible summer on '56 but gone summer of '57. I want the coal dock so I can service Steam and Diesel.
Great plan. Especially since you know the date too. You know with your magnet set up you could replace structures and remove/replace to change times and eras too….I know crazy but you really are limitless with your set up.
I did think about that, I can do the NP Steam, NP Diesel, BN, and BNSF era's. Today there is just a sign that says Lester, and a No Trespassing by order of Tacoma Watershed sign. In 1984 the depot was white and green, and so were the trains.
That would be too cool….literally changing eras with a few magnetic clicks…and vehicles in the scene. Now that’s next level!
That is a great picture!!!! The sand house looks great Robert! All those little details bring it to life. Also a fan of the magnet connections and lighting connections. I will definitely start to include that process when I build anything new.