Modelling the Cement works part 1
Started working now on the Cement works, I’d been buying bits and pieces of slaters plasticard for this purpose over the last few months and as you can see from the photo below I had some ideas about how it was all going to fit together and I’d had the buildings made but not detailed and fitted for some time.
The first thing that had to go was the polystyrene formed mounds under the conveyor, they didn’t look quite right to my eyes and I decided to replace them with foam board mounds like the rest of the yard. Cutting the polystyrene out was a little challenging as I didn’t want to have to remake the Conveyor frame and apart from a few challenges came away fairly cleanly, had to file some down and the rest will be covered with sand and paint anyway.
I re-examined the prototype and decided to extend the frame to give it a little more length on both ends. Wanted the join hidden by the hopper so some juggling done. I made the hopper from styrene sheet and pasticard box and Girder sections. First time I have used these and very impressed at how well these go together and stick. I had some concerns based on modelling plastic kits in my younger years but this was great. Secure in 30 Seconds or so and still movable for a few minutes for adjustments if needed. The hopper hides the join and provides the support for the extension. At the moment this is just balanced on the beams as I want to paint and do the sand piles before connecting together.
I managed to get a bit carried away doing this and so pleased with this stage I may have rashly decided to enter this at the local Model Railway Club modelling completion in December. To facilitate this I needed to provide a new base for temporary use and so have acquired an old shelf and cut some foamboard for depth and then a new concrete apron from thick card as the base. I’m hoping that I can lift the model on the card and drop the whole lot into the layout as one piece. Time will tell on this. What I will do is make sure that everything that may need to be removed can be relatively easy in case.
Made up a mixture of green, white, black and brown for the concrete base painted over a grid pattern for the concrete. I’ll dry brush this a little once the buildings are down to lighten up and bit and then have a play with the spray gun to tone the base down.
Once the base was down my attention returned to the two large buildings, These are joined at the top and from the bottom so spent some time looking at this and figuring out how to join. One of the areas I had neglected was the roof on the control room. I decided to add some foamboard as the roof and cut this to shape and installed. This made the building look to short so ended up adding a longer piece for the tank and joining to the cement storage tower slightly lower down that the prototype. I used a drill and knife then filed out the gaps for the connectors which are Plasticard square tubes. For the roof of the drying tower (At least I think this is what it is) I built the conveyor mounting with plasticard, some more tubes and railings. Added a cut down ratio junction box for the conveyor controls.
The Conveyors themselves have got me thinking the most. The compromise I have come up with is to use the diameter of the tubing which sits in the hoppers. This gives a scale width of around 5 feet which I think is ok but looks very narrow when viewed from above. I’m going to use thin cheap magazine paper for the belt and have some brass rodding for the rollers. I’ve built a walkway down the length of the conveyor and used some clear plastic sanded into a mesh pattern (same as the fences) I’ll drybrush this white and then clean off to give the impression of a grid. Will have to fit the guard rail after painting I think.
I’ve dug the first hole for the conveyor feeds from the rail head and used some Ancortons fencing here in the ground to show the inspection pit. Next jobs will be to put a low barrier around these and put some fencing in.
Still lots of jobs to do on this so next installment on these soon.
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