I Don't Do Windows - 1.5 Hours Work

The next step is to work on all the windows and doors. I cut these from the sprues very carefully as not to break them. The concrete steps in the kit will be isolated and trimmed later when I have other concrete color items to paint.

In this kit there are
64 total windows
4 regular doors
6 double doors

For the price you can almost afford to throw the kit parts away and just keep the windows!

I break the sprue trees down to smaller sections with a Xuron tool. This makes it easier to use the sprue cutter on small or delicate parts.

I also cut out all the dark gray parts which included the water tank and railings.

Now that I have the windows in a pile, I can clean them up. Using a SHARP NEW BLADE in my hobby knife I trimmed each window being careful to remove any flash in the window panes. Areas with a lot of flash were sanded with a 3M fine grade sanding block.

Tip: Each evening when you finish working at your work bench take five minutes and clean up. Put things in their proper place, replace worn blades, clean brushes and move things off your main work space. You'll find that you are going to build cleaner and better models and that you'll like sitting down to work in a place where you can find everything you need in its proper place.

Tip: Never keep your trash can under your workbench. Always keep it to the side where small parts can't find their way in.

Tip: As a safety procedure always put used or broken blades in a special container and throw them out carefully. Don't put used blades in your shop wastebasket where your fingers mind find them when you've accidentally thrown a small part away.

Tip: Use a combination of black and white floor tiles for your work shop area. This way, when you lose a white part, you can sweep the floor to a black square and find it easily. Use the reverse process for a black part.

I dropped a small part and looked everywhere for it, sweeping my squares and looking in places that I shouldn't have to look. I found the part in my trash can which is very close to my work space. My finger found a use hobby blade while I was looking. The first aid kit is over the door.

Experience is a good teacher.

Begin Slaughterhouse #5 - 2 Hours Work

Over the past few weeks I went to Chicago and number of times and visited some hobby shops. Many of the shops I used to frequent are no longer in business. I purchased the following for Slaughterhouse #5:

Central Valley #101 HO Stock Car Kit $11.95
Atlas #778 HO Scale Cows/Horses & Farm Animals $4.25
Model Power $5793 Kit 72 unpainted animals $12.99

My goal is to have the slaughterhouse complex finished for the SER convention on June 13th, which is about three months away.

The prototype of this facility is Champion Packing in Waterloo, Iowa. I could not locate any photos on line.

It is hard to keep decals from getting destroyed or lost. I tape mine face down to the kit's box lid.

I'm going to paint the brick parts first. This is a midwestern packing plant so it might have red or a yellowish brick. I might change it from red brick to a yellow so that it doesn't look so much like a kit.

The stack is round, one piece unit, not a two piece like pictured on the box lid.

I sprued and prepped all the brick parts and prepared them for painting. This means that I put down double sided masking tape on some flat cardboard sections that are about the size of the opening to my spray booth.

* I may paint the inside of the wall sections flat black

The structure is two separate buildings! Oh, this opens up some doors! This will allow the two to be reconfigured and look different. That is the real trick with a kit; to make it NOT look like a kit.

I drew several sketches in my notebook and decided to finish the two buildings and then look at the assembly of the complex. It appears that there are enough parts to complete the building in several fashions.

All the parts were washed in warm, soapy water and allowed to dry. Once they are dry, you don't want to touch the surface. Floquil paints are SO FINE that you will see your fingerprints painted on the building if you touch it prior to painting.

As I place the building sides on the tape boards I make notes on the board such as the paint type and color, any warnings or notes about masked parts.

* Idea - Develop a sticky sheet of carboard that is ready for parts so I don't have to put on masking tape.

I'm going to paint the backsides of the structure a flat black first, so I marked the boards as such.

I drew in my notebook a sketch of jig for holding round parts. The brick chimney has to be carefully painted since it is a long, round tube. The jig is a board with two uprights and a dowel threads through the chimney so that it can be rotated like a lathe.

Before I start cutting off parts I take a digital photograph of the sets of components with the number indicators toward the camera. This allows me to be able to figure out which part is which should I forget after painting.

When de-spruing (or spruing as I call it) I break down the sprue trees (thin bars of plastic that hold the parts and are used for guiding the plastic in the mold) to make them easier to handle.

For spruing I use a sprue cutter (a pair of sharp tweezers) or a Xuron cutter that is dedicated to sprues. Usually this is a track cutter that has gotten dull. I write "for plastic only" on the handle with a Sharpie pen.

All the brick sections are now clean and on the paint boards.

A new model...

After working on the raffle layout I'm finding that my painting skills are a bit rusty. I've not build a kit in many years because I usually scratchbuild. So I went an bought a kit at Trainmaster Models.

Walther's Cornerstone Kit in HO
Champion Packing Co.
#933-3048
Cost $40.98

Tenax Glue $3.99
Testor's Enamel Thinner $8.00
Woodland Scenics figures
A1823 Dock Workers $9.79
A1867 Factory Workers $9.80
A1843 Hereford Cows $8.10

This is a very large kit with several hundred pieces.

Idea - take the sides of beek and cast them. There are only four in the kit and it would look more realistic if there were more on the dock being loaded.

Goal: to get my skills back and practice. Also to use Dr. Ben's pigment paints, which I've not used before. I have a complete set of them.

I opened the kit, examined the parts and read through the instructions.

Name of the new industry: Stamped Meat Packing Company, Slaughterhouse #5

The slaughterhouse fits well on a layout. It has a great deal of in and out traffic.

Inbound loads can be cattle, supplies, machinery, coal (furnace and power), packaging materials, ice, etc.

Outbound loads can be processed beef, fertilizer, hides, byproducts.

The structure doesn't come with everything. I'm going to add an ice house, cattle pen and walkways, clean out track for cattle cars, clean out track for reefers and a coal dock for the power plant.

2004 Piedmont Raffle Layout

Here is a picture of the 2004 Raffle Layout that Paul Voelker and I built. This was an HO scale logging layout. A 4x8, but double decked partially with a switch back on one side. It was very creative and was quite popular.

Cast In A Bad Light

Crap! I hate it when things go wrong, which is usually every time I walk down to the shop. Today I checked on Steve-bay's casting of a side frame and the silicone had not set! For some reason the blend didn't work. I first thought that it was the temperature of the shop, then it was that the casting material was old.



But I finally found the reason when I went to make the mold again. The measuring cups furnished with the kit don't have the proper measuring marks! It would never work using the cups! So I chucked them and went back to weight measurement and repoured. It appears to be working nicely now and I'll make the frames later this week.

I've been using Alumilite's products for years and love them. I love their staff even more! They are always very helpful. Most always I weigh measure so I recommend that for you too.

Piedmont Raffle Layout

I have trouble making it to the Wednesday night raffle layout work session. Most of the time I'm on the road. So I volunteered this time to build some structures. I'm off for President's Day today so I put the finishing touches on two buildings.

I've worked on many of the Piedmont Raffle Layouts and have had several at my house. They are fun projects and are a good exercise in getting folks to actually build something. This year its an N-scale coal hauling line.

The first one is Walther's Clarksville Depot. I changed it to shades of gray to make it loo less conspicuous. I used light gray for the sides, and dark gray for the trim. It is not a showy building and doesn't sick out, which is what I wanted.



The other is the Model Power Brewery. This is a horrible kit, and not a very American building. But with some color changes it came out rather nice. The yellow brick is ghastly, but when you paint it oxide red, it really takes on a whole new feel.

Once I get these weathered I'll take some pix.

I'll finish the weathering and give them a coat of Dullcoat and they'll be good to go.

Truck Sideframe Casting

Man, is my shop a mess! I've got to spend a few hours to get it back in shape. The vertical milling machine is still in pieces and coffee drippings are on my electrical work bench. Yuck!

I spent some time today getting ready to cast some side frames. Steve-bay had a caboose or some other similar rail car that was missing all but one side frame. I sanded the back of the frame and mounted it in a metal tin using bathtub caulk. On the back of the truck I smear a very thin coat, just enough to hold the frame but not enough to distort the thickness. The caulk allows the master to be easily removed. When I mount it I push the sideframe down hard and squeeze all of the caulk that I can out from under the piece. Once it is dry I'll trim the excess caulk and pour the Dow silicone molding compound.