Quiet earth (was: Exercise module for Plettenberg railroad in 1/22.5 scale)

[nk]

Volker the way you recreate the real process in miniature makes your work seem like the real thing. Its beautifully observed and executed. The bricks with the missing mortar and the stucco layering...WOW.

[finescalerr]

Thank you for the step-by-step instructions. If I had published them in a book, the result would be worth its weight in gold. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Great stuff! I especially like the look of the bricks and mortar.

[Barney]

Amazing Yes I agree with all - love the brickwork
Barney

[1-32]

Hi Volker.
The switch stand is especially tasty just the right amount of weathering on the moving parts.
all the best

[Hauk]

Have you described your concrete and tarpaper techniques earlier in the thread?

No, I didn't - thanks for asking!

And thanks for the great tutorial!

[Bernhard]

Thanks for the tutorial. It is very interesting and helpful for future projects.

Bernhard

[Hydrostat]

Since July 2020 I've been working at the last segment's building, which was the pickling shop of Brockhaus Söhne for removing cinder from forgings. Presumably around 1960 the building had gone and there are only two distance shots available, one from the 1930ies


Slg. Wolf Dietrich Groote


and one from the Fifties, which is more interesting to me. There's an additional aerial photo and some land register maps that I'm not allowed to show here. Those maps helped to determine the building's groundplan and coarse dimensions. I decided to create a mixture from both states - to cap it all it seems to have been torn down and rebuilt at the same location in the 1940ies - just a bit larger.


Out-take from an early "image brochure" of Brockhaus Söhne, Brockhaus Heuer GmbH collection


In that brochure was one thrilling indoor shot with a lot of character, which became the base for the building's reconstruction:


Brockhaus Heuer GmbH collection


It started with some CAD work.




Creating the roof truss was a special task. I first thought of a wooden structure, but it would have left far too little space from floor to structure, restricting later photographic capabilities:







Additional research lead to the Polonceau support structure from mid 19th century (Barthélemy Camille Polonceau, engineer, *1813 Chambéry – †1859 Châtillon) which had some strong aesthetic appeal to me. Brockhaus Söhne was part of the metalworking industry and they may have made the necessary parts by themselves. There's a great site (in German) with some additional information to this construction by Jürgen Riedl und Thomas Scherer: http://www.laenderbahn-forum.de/galerie/polonceau-traeger/polonceau-traeger.html#top.

Indoor view first to compare with the clearance of the wooden construction:




The crane runway leading out of the building is pure fiction. The indoor photo shows some kind of overhead wires which might have served the crane, but I don't know how this kind of power supply should have crossed the building's gates. Any idea?










Starting from CAD the elements arose. Walls and backsplashs Frithjof milled from Forex (Sintra board), Hard PVC, Styrene and Resopal (Formica). Window frames are made from multiple layers of laser cut cardboard. The Polonceau support structure was made from milled parts for the connecting metal sheets, 3D-printing and lost wax brass casting for supports and binders and laser-sintering for supports. All additional parts were made from brazed and/or screwed brass and steel parts.

Roof beams with ridge bearing shoe (I hope that's the correct translation), printed in Shapeways Gray PA12:




Roof lantern (again: correct translation?):







Details of the Polonceau construction with compression member, knot and draw bars:




Lateral bearing shoe:




There are three of those elements lengthwise the building:







Some shots of the current state:







I would particularly like to thank the Hessische Kulturstiftung (Hessian culture foundation), which supported the project with a three-month working fellowship - and I do especially thank my friends from finescalerr and Buntbahn, who helped and help to realize the project to that state.

Cheers,
Volker



Gefördert im Rahmen des Kulturförderprogramms
,,Hessen kulturell neu eröffnen".

[finescalerr]

GOOD LORD! That is superb! No wonder we haven't heard from you since September.

I've decided to change my hobby from building the occasional model to watching you guys build models better than I could ever conceive of. That should be much more satisfying and infinitely less frustrating.

Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow, that is awesome! I really like the metal-braced rafters, they're much more unique and interesting than plain wooden rafters.

[1-32]

great Volker cheers.

[Bill Gill]

Looks terrific!

[Peter_T1958]

Hi Volker

I am very glad to see this piece of art also posted here. You have definietly opened the door to new dimensions in modelling! The whole project is absolute incredible!!!
Just one question yet: Do you plan to fill one of the tubes with a true to scale acid bath too?
(If so, Kim will be able to contribute some of his poison-green swampy water mixtures for sure ...  )

Cheers, Peter

[1-32]

Volker your trusses are great.
European design of roof trusses is very interesting the use of metal rods and plates is unique to Germany and France the rest of the world used more wood please correct me. This example is very elegant and you have captured it very well typically industrial.
cheers

[Barney]

lovely detail in your modelling - great stuff
Barney