In-ko-pah RR: The Mineral Ridge Mill

[finescalerr]

This part of the layout reminds me of one I saw from the 1950s by an extremely talented Disney artist (Paul Detlefsen?). His layout and everything on it including locomotives, was completely scratchbuilt. He used wood for almost every model including locos. Anyway, that puts you in some pretty good company. -- Russ

[artizen]

Your layout reminds me of some of the buntbahn stuff -

http://www.buntbahn.de/modellbau/viewtopic.php?t=11637
http://www.buntbahn.de/modellbau/viewtopic.php?t=8493&start=280
http://www.buntbahn.de/modellbau/viewtopic.php?t=9965

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks guys!

[Ray Dunakin]

Your layout reminds me of some of the buntbahn stuff -

http://www.buntbahn.de/modellbau/viewtopic.php?t=11637

The tunnel portal in that first link is amazing!

[Ray Dunakin]

Time for another progress report...

I finished installing the framing on the interior walls. (The diagonal braces will be added later, after it's painted.) The ore chute is removable to facilitate painting:




Then I painted the interior. The timbers and framework are painted to look like aged "indoor" wood. The interior wall was painted a zinc-like gray, to simulate the appearance of the galvanized metal that will be applied to the exterior. The ore chute was painted separately, then glued in place:








I also started building the roof, which is fairly complex. This is due to the ore chute for the upper level tram:




The interior of the roof is braced with 6mm thick sheets of Sintra PVC glued flat to the underside, to prevent sagging or warping in the sun. There are also crude rafters made of the same material. More bracing will be added later:






Here are a couple shots of the interior. I've added some planking to create a "floor" and painted it to match the timbers and wall frames. I still have to install the tracks for the lower level tram, which will run through the building. The roof has not yet been finished nor painted:






That's all for now, more later.

.

[lab-dad]

WOW!
Great interior shots!
All those angles must have took a lot of math!
-Mj

[chester]

Wonderful coloring on the 'wood' surfaces Ray.

[BKLN]

Ray,
your "fake" wood is just amazing! You have no idea how often I go back to the last Modelers Annual and stare at your article about painting the styrene on the miners shacks!
I can't wait to see the outside wood!

Christian

[finescalerr]

Most satisfactory. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks guys! I really didn't put too much effort into painting the interior wood. It was enough trouble just having to paint it "inside-out", plus most of it wouldn't show. All I did was put on a base coat of light, grayish brown using latex paint. Then added some darker accents, mostly dry-brushed.

Woody, there was no math involved with that roof, nor the ore chute. I just took it slowly, adding bits in what seemed a logical manner, and measuring and cutting each to fit.

[Geoff Ringle]

Nice! Looking forward to progress reports.

[Chuck Doan]

I think some critters are going to enjoy that interior detailing too!

[Ray Dunakin]

Time for another update on this project...

I glued the corrugated metal to the sorting house, starting with the roof:






Then I did the walls:




I painted the roof, including the interior. The interior of the roof will only be minimally visible, and in shadow, so it got a really sloppy, crude paint job -- something with just enough variegation to give the impression of old wood:




The exterior was painted, and the roof received some rusty streaks. I still need to do a bit more weathering of the roof, and haven't yet weathered the sides:





Meanwhile, the main part of the mill has been sitting outside on the layout for a while. As a result, I found that the two sloped sections of roof were not sufficiently braced, and warped in the hot sun. Straightening them out without damaging the corrugated metal was a little tricky. I had to heat the underside with a torch to soften the PVC slightly, then lay it fly with a couple bricks on it. Once that was done I added some heavy bracing, and then painted the underside of each roof:




Then I weathered them with some subtle streaks and a few rusty spots:




I also weathered the peaked roof on the lowest level of the mill:




Now I'm working on the doors and windows, which are from Grandt Line. Since they need to look old and heavily weathered, I scribed some wood grain and a few small cracks into them. Then they were given a light coat of white primer. Next I painted them with a light, grayish brown latex house paint, thinned with water:




This was followed with a few very thin washes of medium brown and dark brown craft acrylics:








The final step was to give them traces of old, peeled paint. This effect was achieved by coating each piece with Testor's enamel thinner. While this was still wet, I lightly brushed on some green, craft acrylic:










Next will be the "fun" part -- cutting glass to fit all the windows.

.

[Gordon Ferguson]

You have been busy, always enjoy your updates.

Very effective and realistic wood finish on those windows, all the work you must have put to add grain, splits etc has certainly paid off and the final colour looks spot to on to me

[finescalerr]

The whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. I predict a most adequate model. -- Russ