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My Second Sierra West Model

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Comments

  • Love the pallet collection you worked up Randy.
  • Thanks Art, Bryan, and Ken. Your input is always welcome. Randy
  • Like those pallets. Wish there were a template for them in HO.
  • Excellent batch of pallets!

  • Thanks Tom and Emery. Yes Tom the jig from Brett is a great little time saver. Randy
  • Staining on the pallets is another detail....you can add oil stains, rust outlines from an old machine that was once on the pallet....even metal strapping remnants.....I'll post a few photos later once I get home.....as Brett always says....the little scenes can tell a great story...
  • Thanks Art, I am looking forward to see what you are talking about. Randy
  • Nice pallets Randy and a fantastic job on the roof.
  • Love those pallets!
  • Thanks Joel and Brett.
    It has been a while since I posted any pictures. Due to the holidays I have not got much workbench time in on the handcar shed. My latest project has been the handcar itself. In Karl's build he said he simulated carriage bolts on the decking. I decided I wanted to try to take that a step further. I got this idea from PBL truss rods on their car kits. Take monofilament fishing line and melt the end with a soldering iron. Thread the line through the turnbuckle until the melted fishing line stopped. Do the same for the other end of the turnbuckle. That would leave the the middle of the turnbuckle empty so a board could be threaded through the two buckles on one side of the car. So I decided to try this for bolt heads The first picture was my first attempt. I was not happy as many of the bolt heads were too big. IMG_1620resized
    So back to the drawing board. IMG_1629resized
    Here is the fishing line held up close to the soldering iron. Notice the end of the line is starting to swell. I drilled holes through the wood with a # 77 drill and threaded the fishing line through. Painted the swelling, added a little ACC and pulled the swelling up tight to the board. I added four "bolts" to each of the long boards and two for each short board. Here is my second try with the bolts on the decking.IMG_1630resized It also looks like I need to pop off the bottom old board and square it up. I think the bolts look much better this size. I went with a green and rust color over the black primer with my handcar. IMG_1631resized
    Above is the side frame with the two wheels. Below is the side where one wheel has been removed.IMG_1632resized
    This end view shows the two older boards that were not "replaced" as they were still in good shape. The other old boards were also left because being close the pump handle they did not get as much wear and damage as the outside boards. The pump handle were painted a light tan and then lightly brushed with a dark color to simulate the use by dirty and oily hands. IMG_1634resized
    The bolts in the new boards were painted with oily steel. The old boards bolts were painted with dark rust. Thanks for looking, and as usual all comments and suggestions are welcomed. Randy
  • what an excellent idea.
    damn rivet counter..... :)
  • Interesting idea Randy, it's coming together well.
    Ha Kev !
  • That handcar is such a wonderful detail.
  • That it is! Super nice detail job on this.
  • Excellent build of the handcar! Love the creativity in these builds.
  • Thanks Kevin, I think. Karl, Not my ideal just applied in a different way. Thanks Emery and Ken, I need to add some of Brett's detail parts on top and figure out where it is going so it can be seen. Brett it does seem that everyone adds just a little different twist to their build. Thanks again, Randy
  • Yeah, the 'smoosh' is hard to control Randy, especially in something so small and in such a close up pic. I try to use something cooler than a soldering iron, but even then, the consistency is still the hardest thing to get, consistent, ha.
    Great work so far.
  • Thanks Karl. I am at a bit of a standstill until I can get a template for the area that the building is going to go on Riche's layout.Then I can start glueing things down. Thanks again, Randy
  • Rich is definitely a lucky guy to have you building these structures for him so excellently.
    I sure hope he sends you that footprint soon so that we can get another update.
  • The handcart is quite nice. Great detailing. I particularly like the peeling green pain with the rust showing through
  • Nice detail! I like the color and weathering of the hand car itself.
  • Nice paint finish on the sides and wood color on the deck.
  • I am still waiting for Rich to get me a template of the area to put the handcar shed and water tank. I was going to get today But he took off for Amherst this morning. If any of you are at the Amherst train show this weekend stop by Berkshire Valley's table and say hi to Rich and Donna for me. Randy
  • I'll be in Springfield at the show on Saturday
  • While I have not been working much on the structure itself I have not been idle. If you followed my truck repair build you may remember that I like to use real glass in the windows. So here are a few pictures of my process. It is not shown but when I work with glass I always wear latex exam gloves. This keeps finger prints off the glass. For the small two pain windows I cut the glass to width first then lay the window frame over the glass and cut the glass to size. IMG_1635resized
    You will notice that I covered only one of the openings. I cut separate pains of glass. That way if I want a broken window one side can be broken without disturbing the other. I then put some dotts of ACC on the frame.IMG_1640resized


    This frame was for one of the pumphouse windows. I then set a larger pain of glass on the frame and let the glue set. One advantage of using real glass is if glue gets out on the open part of the glass it can be scraped off with the point of a hobby knife. I then turned the window frame over and scored along the side of the frameIMG_1643
    This picture shows the glass along side of the window that I just scored broken off.
    IMG_1645 (1)resized
    I finished all of the other windows in the same manner. So, now all the windows are glazed and ready to install. Thanks for looking and as always all comments and suggestion are welcomed. Randy
  • Hi, Art. Rich is person I built the truck repair for and am building the water tank for. Be sure to stop and say hi from me. Randy
  • I have not been making to much progress on the water tank and handcar shed. Just adding a few more detail parts to the shelves and trying to get lighting on the center wall. Another thing I have been doing while I wait for Rich to get back from Amherst, is to precut a batch of shingles. I first started by measuring and cutting a strip of cader to width, one strip at a time. This took a lot of time. Then I remembered I had a NWSL Dupli-Cutter in a drawer. I dug it out and set it up. IMG_1646resized
    You can see the sheet of cader sticking out of the top of the Dupli-Cutter. Just slide it down to the stop and slice off a strip of cader. No more measuring, much faster. Then put the strip under a chopper blade and break it off at the blade as Karl suggested. I now have quit a few shingles cut and reddy to set in place.IMG_1649resized
    As you can see a lot of the shingles have a rough uneven end which I hope will add a lot of character to the roof. Thanks for looking and all comments and suggestions are welcomed. Randy
  • edited January 2023
    Those shingles look great Randy, such natural variation in colour tones and the texture is wonderful.
    The dupli-cutter looks very useful. I've been using a paper guillotine in much the same way for many years.

    Tip: I have several sheets marked with various common dimensions such as 6, 8, 10 and 12" incremental lines. I tape the one I need to the bed and then move the sheet stock one line at a time for quick and consistent width strips.

    Thought: As you have the wonderfully aged tones on one side and the new natural colour on the other side you could add a repair patch as I did on this old scratch build from many years ago, (2009).

    These were also real cedar shingles from a cigar box...

    roof2
  • Thanks Karl for your suggestions. The shingles on your building look very real. I like the idea of adding a patch on the handcar shed. Thanks for showing me an example. The pile of shingles is make up of strips from five or six different cader sheets that aged differently. I just hope I do not come up with a checker board look. Thanks again Karl. Randy
  • edited February 2023
    If it looks a little 'harsh' in the raw, a VERY light dusting of medium grey chalk will blend everything together nicely.
    Just to dull that stark contrast (if there even is any).
    Dip a make-up 'blusher' brush (which is very soft and quite wide) in the chalk, knock all the chalk off the brush and then wipe it vertically to very subtly dull the transitions.
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