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

[EZnKY]

Outstanding work!

[Hauk]

Come on, thats not a model. Who do you think you are fooling?

[Hydrostat]

Come on, thats not a model. Who do you think you are fooling?

You're right. It's not a model. You may find one hidden in Russ' rambling splendid apartments, wearing thong bikinis and .. well, you surely already knew the story.

Oh - and Bernd - thanks for your comment and welcome to the forum!

Volker

[1-32]

Hi Volker.
Yes great.

[David Price]

Exquisite work!

[Hydrostat]

Kim and David, thank you. And a Happy (well, at that moment no longer) New Year to all! Looks like there's been a little delay in posting so I'll try to catch up with some pictures of the current state. I'm working at a book project and so there's not too much time for participating here.

The pickling shop's roof and facade are somewhat finished.




The corrugated aluminum sheets are fixed to the roof 'sheet' with mounting adhesive.




The smoke stack got a grommet from 0.1 mm soldered, tinned and blackened copper sheet.




The ridge cap was a bit of a problem, lacking prototype construction information. In addition one of the gable walls is skewed to the lateral walls, resulting in a cap shape that for sure wasn't available as prefab eternit part. Even the resulting gap at the 'simple' ridge end didn't look believable to me.




Sanding away a lot of material from cap and next layer helped.




The skewed cap was made from 0.1 mm copper sheet. I think they'd done that from lead sheet or tinned iron sheet at the prototype.




One of the lights gave me a bit of a headache. Some years ago we had an opportunity to visit a drop forge outfit in Plettenberg, where this lamp appealed to me:


Photographer: Frank Specht


According to the removable roof sheets I chose this shape of the lamp post:




The light needs to be removable for mounting the roof. I used a pin strip socket with 2,54mm grid and small neodymium magnets to solve that problem.




Well, at Buntbahn some guys stated a structural engineering calculation problem. Unfortunately I had to admit they were right. The socket hat to go, leaving behind very few space for soldering new wiring. By the way: I repainted the gates. The former blue seemed to gleam and no matte lacquer nor even sanding solved that problem.




I think all the precision engineers and electricians should stop reading at this point. Lamp post is a 2 mm plastic tube with 0.15 mm enameled copper wire inside. I needed to form some kind of plug from that: One pole is soldered into a 0.8 mm brass tube, which then was inserted to the plastic tube. The other pole runs through a small hole in the lamp post outside. A 3 mm brass tube fits very tight over the lamp post and provides contact to the stripped wire. The socket is formed from 3 and 4 mm brass tube soldered to each other. A small insulated spring pin inside the 3 mm tube provides pole 1, the tube itseld pole 2.

Questions?







The roof needed a pole duct. Those parts have been and still nowadays are cemented into the panels within the construction process. The pole got an escutcheon to have no rain water running into the duct.




That's it.







There was a brick wall to come, continuing the skewed wall, made from single bricks.




The building's plaster took some 4 or 5 attempts until I found the right texture. Coloring isn't completely finished. here I'm using some white chalk to brighten it up a bit. After 'drawing' the surface with it I use a stiff brush and my fingers to rub it into the plaster.




Frithjof last year surprised me with that beautiful handcart, that really comes handy for the pickling shop! Thank you so much!




At the moment I'm fiddling around with concrete surfaces. I like that texture, coloring is still to come.




That's a first somewhat finished piece with chipped areas where the tires run.




Oh well - I finally got into lego blocks, too.




Cheers,
Volker

[Barney]

Lovely detailing and exquisite workmanship - the building looks so realistic
Barney

[Bill Gill]

Volker, Quite an update! There are so many details to enjoy and study, I am still reviewing all the new photos and will be for some time..

[TRAINS1941]

Great update.  And the workmanship just beautiful.

Jerry

[Sami]

Magnificent ! The details that give life have their importance.

[1-32]

Hi Volker .
Yes, your progress is most satisfactory.
I am going to give you a new title-Volker the king of detail.
Really great.
cheers, Kim.

[finescalerr]

You've been missing for weeks and that's all you've accomplished? How disappointing....

World class modeling. Absolutely superb.

Russ

[1-32]

Hi Volker.
Just back .
One thing that bothers me about the model is the finish on the lamps.
The finish does not fit the overall look of the model, the amount of detail on the lamps overwhelm the other features. The proportions are wrong.
In one of your pictures, the one with the door open and the wire across the door opening the lamps are a nice neutral brown this looks great.
I hope this helps.
Kim

[Hydrostat]

Hi Kim,
thanks for your thoughts. There's a final weathering to come when the surrounding elements and landscaping are done. Howsoever I don't want to have the lamps completely rusted, but an additional layer of dirt and soot will surely tone them down a bit.

Cheers,
Volker

[Bernhard]

It's always a pleasure and educational to study all the details in your pictures carefully. Very inspiring!

Bernhard