Alan's O'Neill's Build

ALCO

Ed: It’s hard to believe but the corona put the last train store (Caboose Hobbies) out of business. Hard to believe that Colorado has ZERO train stores.
Brett: That’s very kind of you. Give me the weekend to see if I found enough lumber from past kits. I think I’m close.

KKarns

It is nice to see things come together Alan, nice progress.

TomH

Looks great Alan!

Alan_H

Not much work getting done. Christmas prep is taking up my time, along with the pre Christmas rush at work. Hopefully I’ll get back to work next week!

Alan_H

Hello All! Back after a short break. A Merry Christmas was had by all, and was much more busy than I expected! I'm back at the bench again. More graining & staining, painting the mailbox and elbow castings (the elbow casting was resin not metal, but no matter). I did the awnings, and applied a few slightly different techniques. Thick CA instead if epoxy on the awning. A little paint and chalk on the castings. Nothing too radical, just methods I prefer. Tomorrow I'll assemble the castings and the buildings with epoxy as directed.





Maybe a little more weathering on the castings as well!

TomH

Coming together nicely!

KKarns

Tower looks great Alan. Your aged concrete color looks perfect.

Alan_H

I got the main building & tower assembled last night. Still a few tweaks I want to make now that everything is together. I'll be working on the roof next. I'm looking forward to the welding shop, as I haven't worked with the laser cut framework before and that looks interesting!

Thoughts so far:

Things went together well overall. Follow the manual.
The unexpected will happen. Roll with it. It isn't always a bad thing.
I feel like I've grained and stained my way across the state and there's still a bunch of bare wood in the box.
Still having fun.
Happy New Year!

Mountaingoat

Most important is the enjoyment factor. You are doing a terrific job. This is coming together beautifully....Rick

AlexR

Alan- it looks wonderful; and- it's so small but looks so real. Very well done!

Alan_H

Thanks for the positive comments and encouragement everyone. It helps! I got the ribbed roofing panels cut out this evening, and tomorrow I'll paint and attach them.

KKarns

Nice progress and work Alan! Embrace the wood work Alan, it's so important and you're doing a terrific job with it.

admin

Looking wonderful! The roof will bring everything together. Can't wait to see.

Alan_H

I have the roof material mounted on the roof cards. I still have to do the weathering and coloring with Mars violet, but I wanted to see how it looked test fit. I spent a little too much time and effort trying to get the ribs in line over the peak. Don't do that. The roof cap will hide any minor difference. Looks pretty good, I think!

Alan_H

First coat of chalks on the roof. I think I'll fix this with a little flat, and hit it with a little more color.

Alan_H

I flat coated the roof and did a second round of chalk. When mounting the roof pieces I did the addition first, then the main, though this was backwards from the manual. The 1-2-3 blocks kept everything in line, though one of them slipped when I did the main roof and sheared the awning off the wall. Fortunately it survived relatively unscathed and I was able to reattach it with a minimum of fuss and swearing. Most of the swearing occurred when the block slipped and the damage happened.

Karl.A

Incredible work Alan, beautiful walls.
Put some sand in a zip lock bag as a weight to hold your roofs in place. Conforms to any roof with even pressure and much safer.
Spent yesterday afternoon reading through this great thread.

Alan_H

Karl.A said:

Incredible work Alan, beautiful walls.
Put some sand in a zip lock bag as a weight to hold your roofs in place. Conforms to any roof with even pressure and much safer.
Spent yesterday afternoon reading through this great thread.

That's a great idea Karl! I'll do that next time.

Alan_H

So the roof was in interesting experience. I did have a few issues, and I have some cleanup to do, but I got there! If you are also following Phil's O'Neill's Tutorial thread, (and you should be), you'll see he had a bit of an issue with ribs lining up over the peak. So did I. He left his alone. I tried to fix mine. I shouldn't have. After I went through the experience I came to the realization it wouldn't have mattered once the roof cap was on. Live and learn. That "You're your own worst critic" thing will bite you in the butt every time! I laid the roofing material on the adhesive without applying pressure, and made the mistake of trying to move it. The adhesive is tough stuff but something of a one shot. It's also pretty hard to get the material back off without bending it if you make a mistake. I managed this but the result wasn't worth the effort I expended. I have to trim some of the rafter tails. There is some staining that needs touched up. I also note that my awning seems placed a little too high which made it something of a bitch to get those rafter tails installed. I couldn't see the cuts to place them, so I eyeballed it with the other side as a guide. I too had issues with chalk sticking to the roof, the biggest one is handling after. It comes off pretty easily! I may try and match that Mars Violet out of the Reaper stash and try a little dry brushing, or maybe a little rust. We'll see. Like I said at the beginning: "warts and all"! Observation: If there is a Hell for craftsman kit builders, I think it may consist of endlessly cutting and attaching rafter tails to a very large structure!

KCSTrains

Alan, hang in there. Since you are a few steps ahead of me, I've used your thread to discover any "rough" areas you've had. Then I can be aware and look at it carefully before proceeding. That's the beauty of having forum builds - learning from other's mistakes or difficulties. When my roof ribs didn't line up, I already knew that it wouldn't matter because it would be hidden. I learned that from your remarks.

I'll have to take a look at the rafters and see if there is a better way to install them so it's not such a pain to do them. Thanks. Phil

Mountaingoat

Nothing wrong with what we see. All of us are overly critical of our own work. Most of what we fret about will never be seen by others. Great job from where I sit......Rick

Robert.G

I certainly must agree !!

brownbr

I think it looks fine. The close ups will make you seen things that you will never see in person like Rick says. I think it's good to use these closeups to make our work better as long as we take it easy on ourselves.

Alan_H

Thanks for the positive comments everyone! Yesterday I mounted the roof sign and attached the stacks. This was a bit fiddly. I'm not sure I'm happy with the twin stacks. The initial tack of the epoxy is low. You can play the waiting game and let it react until it's stickier, but wait too long and you start over! Contact cement like Walthers Goo might work better, but I may just pull these and drill holes for them. They are off plumb just enough to bug me! You could also drill holes in the bottom of each and insert a piece of brass wire so the hole you need to drill is smaller. The addition smoke jack was the easiest and I did use a pin vise and drill two holes at 90 degrees for the guy wires. Not deep, just enough to nest the wire. Thick CA was used there. At this point, I'm almost halfway through the manual! I'm going to spend a little time looking for and fixing nits before starting on the welding shop. For your viewing pleasure:

KCSTrains

Great progress Alan. I’m sure it feels good to get to this point. I’m right behind you!!! Phil

TomH

Looks great Alan!

Alan_H

So I took the week off for various reasons, and here I am this weekend picking nits. Those stacks just looked terrible the more I looked at them, and especially in photos. Yuck! I decided a do-over was really the only option. I removed them, and got lucky. The epoxy popped right off the roof with the castings down to the primer gray. I used a Dremel on the lowest speed and a properly sized bit to drill a pair of holes. I started perpendicular to the roof surface, and once through I went back and drilled again at the correct angle for the stack placement. After a quick test fit I hit the bare spots with some rust from the Sierra West/Reaper paint set, allowed 10 minutes or so drying time, then applied the specified rust colors, and topped it with the Mars Violet using a small brush. I attached the stacks with medium CA which will allow you a little time for positioning. When the CA is cured, they'll get the white glue/black paint tar treatment.

Side note: I've noticed that the Reaper paints over the rattle can gray primer give me much better chalk adhesion. Giving 10-15 minutes of setting time lets you get chalk powder into the paint without smearing using a soft bristled brush. A light touch is best.

Karl.A

Nice redo Alan, its always satisfying to take the plunge and get rid of a niggle.
The build is looking fantastic.

Alan_H

Spent yesterday evening graining and detailing the lumber for the welding shop. No photos of that. You all know what that looks like anyway. In addition to the wire brushing I used a fine razor saw blade and dragged it down the boards. Tonight: saw blade marks and toothpick knots.

kebmo

welding shop is the most fun part of this kit, inside and out.