Bottom of the Barrel

[john new]

Excellent modelling, well done.

[Woebegone-by-sea]

On 27/07/2022 at 08:07, john new said:

Excellent modelling, well done.

Thanks John. 

[Woebegone-by-sea]

So since my last post I've been constructing the loading dock, this has two purposes, the vaulted cellars bellow are where beer is stored prior to dispatch, keeping it cool. The dock its self is where the loading takes place. Casks are transferred across to the dock and rolled through the small door at the end, between the two ramps up to each side of the dock. Once down in the cellars they are moved to one of the stores until such time they are required. The casks are then going to be brought up using a cask lift. Which I'm yet to construct, this brings up casks to the dock level ready to be loaded. 

 

The Dock has been constructed using the usual methods. I use of styrene, layered onto card and foamex, the dock has also had Balsa wood strengthening. I have also used something new to me and I must say I'm very impressed with for the graveled area and that's Chinchilla Dust. This stuff is great and adheres to PVA and 3m Spray mount. Un- sieved as it comes out of the packaging it looks great. 

 

I wanted some dray horses for the layout, as these would be regularly be seen throughout breweries all over the country. I purchased a few from Ebay and although the seller stated they were a great paint job, which I agree. I felt I could do better. After watching some videos on youtube of people painting large horse figures using a variety of techniques. I thought I'd give it a go. For the brown shires, I begun with priming them in white then working from a lighter tan colour, followed by Air Brushing with Brown. Then i used weathering powders for the darker sections. Finally painting their noses and white sections and black on their main, plus over any Harness they had.  The white/ grey shire is literally white primmer with weathering powders to gain the shading. 

 

Last thing was to complete the pipe bridge, this was constructed using Dapol signal gantry kits, and although the kits had warped slightly this went together ok. I attached Pipe work which I bent from styrene plastruct rods and a large pipe from the Knightwing pipework set.  Of course what brewery Is complete without pidgeons. These 'pests' were 3d Prints which I grey primed then painted and detailed individually. A long and boring task I must say but I think worthwhile for some added realism. 

 

The Bottling hall has stalled at the moment and I am hoping to resume that and work on the dock soon. I will up date you in course. 

 

Thanks For reading 

Joe.

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by Woebegone-by-sea

[Woebegone-by-sea]

 

Horses on the dock. A mixture of dart castings and an unknown plastic manufacturer.

 

 

Pidgeon's awaiting grain deliveries. 

 

 

 

 

And as our horses arrived from Ebay, with no colour graduations.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Woebegone-by-sea

[Woebegone-by-sea]

I have to admit, I'm not the best at keep you all up to date, for the simple fact I just love the building part and tend to get a bit carried away! Over the next few weeks hopefully I will bring you up to date with the last 6 months of progress!

 

So since last year the bottling hall has now been completed, with the use of some Preiser bottles and crates which have been individually stuck in their places. I have also added people around the bottling line which have all been repainted altered or produced from scratch in some way. Note the ladies on the line, which in bottling dept's was common place (I will add an image of these later). I have built a workshop into the space as the brewery hasn't shown much of its engineering dept so far, and for me as an engineer at a brewery it would be wrong not to include something! The workshop lent itself nicely for somewhere to locate some extraction equipment fans etc above, so the fan for the pasturiser can be seen. All the walls and machinery are now painted and the addition of to Inlet Buffer Tanks which I have 3d printed helped set the scene of a modern bottling plant. 

 

I added Lighting in here which is soldered onto a bus under the dock. Also under the dock is one of the point motors. 

 

After much thought I decided the track layout was not quite to my liking and the run round curve was far to tight even for burton! More on this next time. 

 

Thanks For Reading

Joe 

[The Cable Guy]

Great to see you are still working on this project.

Looking forward to seeing some more photos soon.

[Woebegone-by-sea]

Edited June 19, 2023 by Woebegone-by-sea

[Woebegone-by-sea]

Initially I had decided to use plastikard for the stone / brick on top of a foam for the ground work. But after looking at it for some time, I became to dislike it and decided I could do better. I also felt this a great time to adjust the trackwork as the run around was just to tight.

 

I had seen a method before where Das Modeling clay or plaster had been used and scribed out. But I simply haven't got the patience for this. I had recently purchased a 3D printer and had found some readily available STL files for flag stones and brick Rollers, but they weren't the pattern or type of stone I wanted. Luckily I found some rollers at a show, they were available in several scales with bricks and stone sets, amongst other things, and they were just right for the job.

 

For the initial ground works I used plaster  and clay in some places to get the ground to the same level as the sleepers. Once dry I sanded this flat, this also provided a coarse key for the next layer. For the top I rolled out on a seperate board Das Modeling clay to roughly rail height, then cut it to shape by placing ontop of the rails and gently depressing to see where to cut, then carefully embossed it using the Roller. Before fitting into place and cutting a little more to fit, I spread PVA onto the plaster to help hold the clay down. The result I felt was much better especially once painted weathered and receiving a wash to tone the colours down. 

 

I did try using a cheaper clay for the concrete sections however this shrunk when dry and I had to strip it off (note to self always use Das and let it dry slowly). The concrete section was done later this was initially smooth, but some texture was added by gently depressing an old flat tooth brush across the surface to give tiny holes.  This was then painted a Khaki colour with some dry brushing of other colours to add tone. 

 

Lastly this gave me opportunity to alter something else I had decided I could improve and that was the pipe bridge. I printed this with my PLA printer which worked well providing a strong structure and of a more realistic width. For reference I used a pipe bridge that was recently demolished at the brewery where I work. This replaced the Dapol signal gantries I had initially used, luckily the pigeons rather like there new perch and moved straight onto it! (more Images on that later) 

 

Thanks For reading

Joe

 

The plastikard base

 

The plaster and clay base.

 

 

 

Here you can see the brown colour of the sets then the grey wash applied.

 

 

The final  effect of the sets and the concrete.

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Woebegone-by-sea
Additional content

[The Cable Guy]

The cobbles are looking great!

Is that a new loco I've spotted in one of the photos?

[Dava]

It would be great to see this fascinating layout with the brilliant interior brewery modelling displayed at an exhibition in the National Brewery Centre in Burton, just like we used to. Sadly that isn’t going to happen now, the museum & venue is closed but I hope we can still see it on completion.

 

Dava

[Woebegone-by-sea]

On 19/06/2023 at 17:56, The Cable Guy said:

The cobbles are looking great!

Is that a new loco I've spotted in one of the photos?

Thankyou, yes its a 3d print of a Bass Neilson Reid, something im working on at tge moment. Not quite finnished though. 

[Woebegone-by-sea]

Now it was time to infill between the rails, I wanted to keep the rails completely clear, with it only being code 75 and having some older wagons, I wanted to give them the the best chance and clearance. I went for a well tried and tested method that I had seen before. I got some spare code 75 flexi track and stripped away the sleepers this was then bent, marked out and cut. I then bent it to shape and glued it with gel superglue. Once glued in place I could set to work on filling. However I had to add something that i want to eventually use to lift wagon connector hooks. These were man holes. I had recently bought a laser cutter at this point and this was one of the first projects I I tried with it. It came out rather well, I drew out the pattern and the outer shape to fit in between the tracks. then surrounded by the rails and a small laser cut frame. these were now ready for the filling stage. Again this was undertaken with clay depressed in between the railed and then pressed with a pattern or using the tooth brush method to indicate concrete. On a side Note there are a couple of nods to the brewery I work at, often when fresh concrete was laid someone would always right a name in it. Not their own name mind! D.Black and Albert are common sights in concrete at the brewery I work at. Consequently I had to get them in, so look out for those. Tomorrow I hope to give an update on figures and trolley's.

 

Thanks for reading,

Joe.

 

[Woebegone-by-sea]

My Brewery now needed some figures, I had purchased a few from ModelU and they were fantastic, once painted up, these feature across the model, I used ones from the range, from shopkeepers to creamery workers I was able to make use of so many of these figures, there are also couple of stray repainted prieser figures dotted around.

 

However, no one actually did figures that would be suitable for my brewery. Also there were no examples of brewery specific trolleys and trucks available. Having been a volunteer at the National Brewery Centre for some time, I had free access to some of the equipment there and was able to make drawings of certain carts etc. I was keen to include Hop Sack trolleys within my brewery. These were oversized sack trucks that are used to transfer hop sacks. Hope sacks are lark by nature around 5 ft tall.

 

 

I had found that Metit coal sacks looked the part for these, turned upside down and painted to look like the sacks with markings on etc. Having recently bought a couple of 3D Printers I decided it was time to put them to the test. Especially my resin one as I wanted to see how finer Item It was able to produce.  I set to work in Tinkercad, If you have never worked in cad before I can highly recommend this. I was able to produce a suitable representation of a Hop trolley. next I had to look to the figures. Tinker cad allows the manipulation of simple shapes, but does not allow for complex sculpting, figures etc.

I had picked up on here that some one had used Make Human, with the help of a few You tube tutorials I was able to draw up a few basic figures with different clothing, but most importantly they had a manipulatable skellington. So once imported into a cad program, in my case I use blender, which is a free program, that allows complicated sculpts, I was put onto this by a work colleague who does allot of sculpting for war hammer etc. once the figure was in Blender I was able to import both my figure and Hop trolley, all that was left now was to marry the two together to get a decent looking pose. Once Posed I was able to set to work slicing my figures in Chitu Box. 

 

Chitu box is a slicer software, which basically provides the G-code that your printer needs to print. I had by this point printed several of my bass loco's and was able to deter roughly the best orientation and supports for the models. I have to say this doe's take some practice and can be rather frustrating at times. Getting wrong can mean several hours of print have gone to waste and, vat cleaning etc is required. 

 

Once  printed the figures are very fiddly and in an uncured state allow for subtle movements of appendages to get to cut away the supports. 

 

The figures and trolleys are the cured, coated with spray primer and finally painted.

 

 

 

I was able to produce several figures in this way for barrel rolling etc. This allowed me to produce some figures unique to the location and I think the really add to the model.

 

 

Thanks for reading

Joe

Edited July 7, 2023 by Woebegone-by-sea
Additional image

[The Cable Guy]

Great idea to use man holes to hid coupling lifters.

Your 3d printed sack trollies look really good👍

On the subject of model hop sacks, have a look at anyscalemodels.com who produce them.

[Woebegone-by-sea]

5 minutes ago, The Cable Guy said:

Great idea to use man holes to hid coupling lifters.

Your 3d printed sack trollies look really good👍

On the subject of model hop sacks, have a look at anyscalemodels.com who produce them.

 

Thanks for the info, I have to admit I had No Idea they produced hop sacks, nor had I heard of them before. I may use some of these. though unfortunately my trolleys fit round the Merit coal sacks now as I drew them to suit, though I may purchase some of these for use else where.

 

Cheers Joe 

[The Cable Guy]

I brought some a few years ago but still haven't used them!

 

[Woebegone-by-sea]

Unfortunately I wasn't able to update this last weekend as I have been at our local steam rally with one of my vehicles but anyway now Im back I can get on with the update.

 

So no doubt some of you will be asking why its called bottom of the barrel? I have always enjoyed seeing models displayed in different and novel ways. One year at Warley I can recall being fascinated by a model inside a picture frame, that used forced perspective and the same train, in different scales, to give the effect it was traveling through the landscape. My last brewery model had a surround like a pub sign, but this time I wanted to go one step further. Do something different. I have often thought I bet I could put a Brewery inside a Barrel. So hence the name the brewery will sit inside the bottom of a barrel. 

 

I was lucky enough to get hold of a barrel, with one end missing, no matter though as this wasn't needed any way, and suited to allow access for an operator. I marked up the barrel before stripping it, this was necessary to clean up the staves, and also to remove it from its previous location where it had been enclosed. Once stripped it was sanded and the hoops were wire brushed.

 

Now to re assembly, I got the assistance here of my brilliant and helpful partner. She handed me each stave and each was inserted it into the hoops.  I'm afraid I'm no cooper! But Once all the staves were in loosely I drove down the central hoops with a hoop driver (wooden block with a metal end).

 

Once tight enough to hold I was able to re assemble the end which had come apart. I then leveled up the staves and put the end through into the slot in the stave on one side of the cask and knocked it in with a block from the other end. So from the in out. Once the end was in I could fit all the hoops and drive them home. Making the staves nice and tight, I finally drilled holes in the hoops and screwed them into the staves (wooden sides) to reduce the chance of movement. A quick light sand and a coat of lacquer as I wanted it to look like a Barrel in trade and used, the barrel was now ready for the hole to be cut to allow people to see into the barrel. 

Once the staves are screwed in place it is rather easy to cut away the parts of the staves no longer required, I had watched lots of videos on whisky barrels being made into cupboards, and planters etc to check if this would work. 

 

Now cut out she was ready for a quick check to see if the brewery and baseboard fitted the barrel correctly and did not over power it. 

 

I felt it looked right so next I was able to seal the end and insides, and paint the inside ready black for the 'back scene' I was also able to give the chines (end of the staves) a coat of red paint to ensure it looked the part of a real barrel. 

 

 

 

Note the Barrel was put together fairly early on in the project but I have decided to hold that detail until now, Hence the early baseboard an building shot.

 

Next update will be the 'back scene' and how this was constructed. 

 

Thanks For reading 

 

Joe 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Woebegone-by-sea

[Woebegone-by-sea]

[Woebegone-by-sea]

I now moved onto the back scene this was something that was difficult to approach. The shape of the barrel made it  hard to put in a traditional or paper back scene so I had a look around for something different and something I don't believe has ever been used in any other model railways to date. 

 

My previous layout Gone for a Burton had a tall chimney stack on it with clouds of cotton wool sprayed to make it seem like smoke. This received many positive comments however my dad always joked about it. 

 

I always thought that I could do something with it and looked into what was out there having googled cotton wool clouds I stumbled across this.

Cloud lamp shades, looking into this I eventually learned that they were fire proof stuffing for stuffed animals, which is glued onto a shade with LED lighting behind. I decided to purchase an LED strip that was colour changeable. I glued this to the back of the barrel in different directions to spread the light. Then I got fire proof stuffing from Amazon which I glued onto the barrel over the LED's. This gave quite a pleasing result. I then had to build up the fore ground. I already had a wonderful Image from local photographer Robin Jeffcoat, this image was of the same area of burton and was in colour and although slightly later it showed some of the buildings of peter walkers brewery. 

 

I used this image with Robins kind permission, I had it printed on PVC Foam board and then cut round the buildings. once cut round I painted the edges and added a few details to it. This was then added to some more silhouettes that I drew up, and cut out of MDF, on my new laser cutter. These were stacked in various colours and glued together. then glued in place on the back scene. I had drawn several chimneys and of course these needed  smoke. 

 

This was achieved in the same manner as Gone for a Burton but using the stuffing that I had. I pulled it into suitable smoke like shapes, and then sprayed with black/ grey and although previously I had used wire to hold up the smoke this was not necessary here. I glued the smoke to the stuffing on the back of the barrel and then the fine end to the back of each chimney. 

 

I feel the overall affect is quite reasonable. I left the sides as I didn't want to over do it and i thought it may be difficult to make it look correct.  

 

 

 

I finished the lighting by the addition of a LED light bar, this was adjusted in a similar way to stage lighting with gels for colours and deflectors to aim the light just on the buildings.

 

Hope I did right leaving the sides but it looks right to me.

 

Thanks for reading 

Joe

 

 

[bazzer42]

Thanks for posting those pictures.  Lovely to see something different and the back drop is genius - love it!

[The Bandit]

Very impressive. A novel way of displaying a micro, carried out with great invention and skill!

[Sweet pea]

Fantastic modelling Joe. The attention to detail and the backscene is just genius.👌

[Woebegone-by-sea]

Thank you for the kind coments. 👍

Edited July 8, 2023 by Woebegone-by-sea

[Woebegone-by-sea]

A few closer images taken using my phone and using focus stacking. 

[The Cable Guy]

The use of the barrel is brilliant and the back scene is superb!

Looking forward to seeing it for real soon.

 

Richard