ACME Marine Services

Nice work John. The ACME office and the way you constructed quonset huts are superb. I guess Wylie Coyote and the Road Runner gave ACME a bad reputation...

 

Thanks. It has been a challenge to construct these little rascals. I went for the later modified version with the side additions. My story line is that when the Commodore bought out what used to be Friday Harbor Salvage and renamed it as ACME Marine Services he also bought several WW2 surplus Quonset huts. One was divided into two structures with new end walls fabricated in the ACME shops. That gave two short huts that could set in the small space at the dock. They measure 20 feet wide by 22 feet long. A standard Quonset hut is around 20 feet wide by 46 feet long. A photo below shows the first one with some paint and two of the doors added. Still need to do the foundation and add at least two small doors, and touch up some paint. When I weather the huts the detail will show in the corrugated metal better.


As far as giving ACME a bad name it was all Wile E.s fault. Dang critter never read any of the instructions completely. Case in point the earthquake pills. Clearly stated on the bottle that they did not affect Road Runners.

 

Besides the Quonset hut kit made by Rix there is one made by Imex and at least one other, whose manufacturer eludes me right now, which is a solid cast resin piece. The standard military one was a 20X40 footer with other dimensions coming into play later during the war of some up to 100 foot long and about 36 foot wide. Only the Quonset hut kit by Rix has the potential of being kit bashed. The grain storage kit by them can give the raw material to create some but you have to fabricate the end pieces and come up with your own doors and windows as versus using the kit designed for that. As with all of the above you are set with a fixed width unfortunately if one wants a wider version.

For the two that I am building I am using Evergreen corrugated siding sheets and Evergreen board and batten for the raised sides and end pieces. Since on most of my build projects I am continuing to use stock I have in hand I used the .040 thick sheets. I recommend using a thinner thickness as getting the bend and curvature is difficult with the .040 thick sheets. I think the thinner stock will also hold the curvature easier and may not required a sub structure to laminate it on. In using my old plastic pill vials for the substructure I did not cut the tube but left as is, a complete round. That was because of my method of framing my substructure for the docks left openings to set the vial into and the raised four foot sides made a perfect fit. Not something I planned but it came out that way to my advantage.

Thousands of the 1 to 1 kits became surplus after the war and they cropped up all over the place and some are still in use today from that era. And they are still being manufactured. Small structures with a small footprint, they can fit in almost anywhere and house almost any business one wants to hang a sign on. I was surprised to find that more than a few were converted to residential housing.

 

Finished all but the window glazing and drilling out for stovepipes. Mounted to dock base with foundation installed on huts. Next up to start the decking for the dock and the rail loading dock side.



Heavy India Ink weathering helps bring out the corrugations.

 

Starting the decking tonight for the mini modules that will make up the ACME Marine portion of the docks and harbor area. Also setting them out and trying to figure out what order I want them in. So far I have taken up about 16 inches of the allotted 24 inches of space with one more mini module to do. And I may be able to squeeze in a 5th one looking at the available space on my plan.

 

The base structure was done fairly well and weathered fairly decent. Unfortunately the window trim paint was sloppy and the door arrangement on the end was not doable for me. I sanded and carved off the center door and replaced it with a much better door from my stock. Not sure what they are made of but it seems to be resin in some characteristics and also similar to a plaster. Could have been cut to divide into two but I did not like the wall thickness. The other one I have, laying in a box somewhere is a solid casting rather than hollow like the Imex.

 

Danged thing just keeps growing. Started out to have the central facility made from the repurposed grain elevator kit and added a communications and radio shop module. That grew to two more modules for a total of four. Decided I needed a way to fuel those tugboats and other craft so now a fueling center and fuel storage has been added. Fuel tanks are behind the Quonset huts being assembled. Added decking to both Quonset hut mini modules and primed everything ready for some paint.

 

In the last day or so I have managed to make some progress. Now have three of the mini modules almost finished totaling about 16.5 inches of dockside and dang near to at least having one area ready to install once the bench work and terrain level are finished. Still have some minor details to add to all three module like the rubber fenders on the dock edges. Got into the last of my storage tank modular that Walther's released a number of years ago. That has been an investment that I have gotten a lot of mileage out of. And I have a Showcase #117 pump house and sheds kit that will get repurposed for the last two modules. And I am still using parts and getting more mileage out of that grain elevator kit. Freezing outside and my old body doesn't take well to the cold since the stroke so I am content to confine myself to my nice warm workshop and tending to my domestic diva house husband chores. My Missus will trudge home from work tonight to be treated to a dinner of Ham steaks, baked Sweet Potatoes, homemade Apple sauce, and a fresh made salad.

 

Got the base almost done for the fuel facility and fueling docks. Facility will be fed by both rail tank car and barge. Once the glue has set for the last two pieces I will join then all together. So far this mini module has been done entirely from scrap wood from previous kits, or left from the repurposed grain elevator, and some strips cut from Cedar wood closet liner. My box of scrap styrene in back has come into play also for the impoundment dike for the tanks. This will be represented as an all concrete facility with the exception of the wood deck on both fueling piers. Their base will also be concrete. When the glue is setting on these pieces I will start working on the small bldgs. I mentioned in the kit on the previous post. Those three bldgs. will be divided between the radio facility module and this one.

 

Finished painting the fuel facility mini module after I managed to get the piers coming off the dock where I wanted them and glued in place. Also started painting the small bldgs. that will be used on this module and the radio and communications facility. The dock is all concrete construction with the piers having a wood decking over concrete. The concrete color is the result of an India Ink wash.The laser cut bldg. wall sections have had a very light coat of gray primer then a dry brushing of a bright white that allows some of the gray to show through. The wood pier decking will get a dry brushing of railroad tie brown allowing again some of the gray to show through. At some point a very light touch of green will be applied possibly as a dry pigment. Once I get the tanks in place I will then worry about piping. You will notice that the diking or impoundment areas have increased. There will be four tanks. Two diesel, one gasoline, and one for bilge water that is pumped out of the vessels which will later be transferred to a tank car for transport to a recycle center.

 

A little more progress on the fueling mini module, Tanks are now installed and I am mulling over the piping arrangements to get the fuel to the piers. Once again I am taking a surplus kit and repurposing it. This time a Showcase Section pump house and sheds kit. Haven't decided which structure get used on the fuel dock and most likely when I run the piping that will decide it for me based on space. The structure at the pier end is the pump house head tower that was modified to sit on a flat surface and it is slated to become a floodlight tower and warning beacon tower since this is in close proximity to the seaplane hangar and ferry slip. The low part of the pier seen on the left at the end of the pier is for small craft refueling and will have a couple of pumps on that platform.

 

Made a little progress today before the winds we were having blew the electricity right out of the wires and shut me down. Decided that the majority of the piping would be below the concrete and the wood decking on the piers. Keeps them away from the salt spray lessening corrosion. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So the piping that is showing is going to be about it. One manifold for barge unloading and another on the rear, rail side, for tank car unloading. The single red pipes are for fueling while the blue pipes are for pumping out contaminated bilge water. Dug in my parts box and came up with two gas pumps for the lower pier, one for diesel the other for gasoline. So tomorrow they get painted and hopefully installed along with a whole bunch of valve wheels that the dock and piers are already predrilled for. Settled on the small shed that is shown and dug some more in the parts boxes for barrels to paint up and set on the dock around the shed. Still haven't come up with what I will use for the flood lights on the small tower yet. I may have saved some sprue trimmings that might be right for those. The other bldg. from the kit is going on the radio and communications module sitting behind the fuel dock and that will leave me with one extra that I will find some use for.


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First mini module of ACME Marine Services completed. And it is the last one I started. Go figure. It is about 6.25 inches deep by 5.75 inches wide. Squint carefully and one can see the small beacon on the tower top and some of the flood lights. Front view waterside.


Rail side for tank car delivery.



And for a size perspective with a 60 foot tugboat and the Beaver float plane.

 

The next few days I will be slowly working on the radio shop and communications center. This will anchor the far left side of my little two foot dock and pier area. The white and green object in the photo is the generator I am fabricating out of styrene and some vent castings. This is the type of generator that sits on it's fuel tank. The little white rod in front of it is the exhaust that I am fabricating out of some styrene rod, three pieces, with the muffler part .045 rod while the exhaust pipe is .035 rod. Using Bar Mills wood fencing to fence in the antennae and generator. There won't be a rail dock on this one so I will most likely landscape the back and when it goes on the layout create a parking lot behind it and maybe one other structure.

 

Well from the bare bones photo of yesterday's post a communications center and radio shop has emerged. Since there is not a rail dock behind this one the back got a treatment of Arizona stone. The more I use this stuff the better I like it. Added some post lights from my parts box and installed the fence around the generator and radio tower. After looking at the last bollards I had bought I said the heck with spending more money on something that doesn't make me entirely happy. So out came some rod, styrene strip, and the paint and I made my own. The power pole and transformers in back are also my own creation. Next up is to apply a bit of weathering to this mini module.

And from the waterside of the structure.