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Comments
While waiting for the additional shingles to arrive, I have made progress by constructing the Loading Docks. These are all made in basically the same way, with a couple of variations.
All the docks have a paper template that the dock is built directly upon. Here is the Left Loading Dock template taped down to my glass plate and ready for action.
Some guides made from scrap wood are then attached with double sided tape and the frame is built up.
The decking is then added and nail holes applied before giving the deck a final light wash with the black ink/alcohol mix.
Finally, dock legs are cut to length and attached to the underside of the frame.
The Right Loading Dock is made the same way, only this time some bracing is added to the legs.
The Barge Derrick Dock is similar again. A hole is left un-planked to receive the derrick later on.
The legs under the larger left-hand end of the dock also receive some barnacles around their lower sections. These were represented by a mix of three different shades of ballast.
The Sales Office Porch is once again constructed in the same way, this time with the addition of some lattice work. (Propped up on one of the other docks in this photo to show the lattice work.)
The Main Dock, together with the Foundations for the main buildings are constructed at the same time in the same manner. In this photo, the framing is complete along with a series of joists for the Main Dock.
A staggered "shift of the butts" was used on the Main Dock decking, except where the Dock will be covered by the main buildings. The Main Dock also receives a set of railway tracks as part of the construction. I couldn’t source separate track easily, so I bought some FlexTrack and “deconstructed” it to remove the tracks from the plastic ties. I also blackened the tracks to remove the bright brass look they came with.
That completes the Loading Docks. We now move on to some more of the out buildings….
Grant
The colours all look great and there is certainly quite a few of them all executed so well.
Great progress and informative posts as always.
Moving on now to the outbuildings, and starting with the Derrick Dock Storage Shed.
This little building is a gem. It is made up by gluing strip-wood boards (prepared as per previous boards, but with a little more greying to show a more weather-beaten look) over a carboard substrate. However, some clever design here creates a “trap” to assist in gluing up the walls.
In the following photo you can see some scrap-wood guides tack glued in place along some scribed lines. These will help to form the “trap” on the front and rear walls. In the lower part of the picture, strip-wood boards are being glued over the side walls.
Here are the completed walls. The front and rear walls are upside down to show the “trap”. A door has also been constructed for the front wall, complete with rusty handle made from a tiny piece of brass wire.
Here is a shot of the completed front wall, with door in place and rusty hinges added. The hinges are laser cut board that have been painted and then dusted with rust-coloured chalks.
The building is then assembled and the roof added. The roof is made up with some “tar paper”, this time grey in colour, and with some light streaking added once in place.
Some additional interest is added by placing some detritus on the roof. Here I’ve used some scraps of wood, a coil of rope, and a couple of chain links made by bending, soldering and blackening some brass wire. I must confess to pretty much copying what Brett showed in the instruction manual here, but hey, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery right?
And here is the shed placed temporarily on the Barge Derrick Dock to give a better idea of scale (it really is tiny!).
The Upper Yard Storage Shed will be next…
Terrific colour on the shed and the way you got the grain and details to stand out is superb.
Jerry
The Upper Yard Storage Shed
This is another little gem of a building. Its construction starts in much the same way as the Derrick Storage shed just completed.
Once the basic walls are completed, a new style of construction is introduced by the addition of thin vertical battens at the join between each plank. The effect is quite convincing.
Each of the walls now gets its own level of detail. The Left Wall is left plain, with the exception of the addition of a window (not shown in this photo).
The Rear Wall gets some double doors, complete with split boards, rusty hinges, and a locking bar/latch. It also gets a coil of rope that is actually a metal casting – cleaned, blackened, painted and chalked.
The Front Wall gets an entry door, a mail box (a resin casting, painted and chalked), and a sign.
And finally, the Right Wall gets a window and another sign.
The walls are then glued together using the “trap” method as with the previous building, and a tar-paper roof. The roof also gets a stack – another casting that is cleaned, blackened, buffed, and epoxied in place. This was quite tricky to do due to the weight of the metal stack. I literally had to hold it in place until the epoxy started to set up. Here are a few shots of the completed building.
That completes the Upper Yard Storage Shed. The Saw Shed is next…
Grant
The Saw Shed
The Saw Shed is quite a complex build and is very delicate. Ultimately, it will include a great deal of detail – but that’s a little way off just yet…
We start with a template upon which we build two identical walls. As this is a destructive process for the template, I scanned and printed two copies so that I could build the two walls simultaneously.
As can be seen from the dimensions on the template, the framework is built up from 3/64” (1.2mm) square stock. We start by using some double-sided tape to stick down a scrap-wood straight edge and the four upright posts.
Then we add the header and the braces (the braces are 0.020” x 5/64”). A cutting guide for the braces can be seen at the top right the template drawing.
The wall is then removed from the template, a floor joist positioned on a fresh version of the template and the wall is glued on top of the floor joist.
Cross members are then added to one of the walls, inverted (ie we’re adding the top cross braces). A tricky business to be sure.
The second wall is then attached – even trickier….
And the bottom cross braces installed on top of the floor joists (since the walls are inverted, these will be below the floor joists once the walls are turned right way up).
The assembly is then turned right way up and the remaining floor joists are added.
Decking is then added on top of the floor joists – a relatively simple, though still delicate task. I worked from each end to meet in the middle and cut the last few boards to fill the gap. I have deliberately allowed a few gaps to appear in the decking.
Next, we are provided with a cutting and assembly jig for making the roof trusses – a clever and convenient inclusion.
A couple of scrap-wood guides are tack glued along the laser scribed lines to ensure that both the lower cross brace and the top brace are positioned exactly right. Once dry, they are removed from the jig and a second top brace is added to the opposite side.
Here are the four roof trusses completed. The gap at the top is to receive a ridge beam.
The roof trusses are then installed atop the cross members.
The glue is still wet in this photo. Once cured, the ridge beam will be inserted. Then we start on the roof and the internal details…
Grant
A minor update today. The Saw Shed Ridge Beam has now been installed.
Our attention turns, temporarily, to the shed roofing. The Saw Shed is roofed with corrugated iron sheeting. The kit provides some corrugated aluminium siding and some instructions on how to prepare this.
Here is the raw kit material – two strips about 8 inches long by 1 ½” tall.
The first task is to cut this into strips about ¾” wide.
Now the fun part….
To achieve an aged and rusted look, the aluminium is treated with Ferric Chloride PCB etchant solution. Yes, nasty stuff, but quite safe if proper precautions are taken – and the instruction manual is quite emphatic about this!
The method is to dunk a piece of aluminium into the Ferric Chloride solution with a pair of long tweezers. The instructions say that after a few seconds the piece will start to bubble. I found that it took a good couple of minutes for any reaction to start, but once it started it was very quick! Once it does start to bubble, it is removed from the solution and dunked in clean water to stop the chemical reaction. The longer it is left to bubble, the more of the aluminium gets eaten away. I experimented a little bit to produce some with heavily frayed edges. I will use these judiciously to represent some more rusted/worn panels.
Here are the pieces after the “mad chemist” treatment.
These will eventually have rust coloured chalk applied before being installed, but for now they are put aside.
The next task will be creating the Saw Table – a mini-project in itself….
Grant
The PCB etchant is always fun to use, the warmer it gets from the chemical reaction as you use it, the quicker it works on the next pieces.
The first piece takes a couple of minutes to get going, by the time you get to the last piece you've got to be quick and get it in and out of there before you end up with nothing left... haha.
Yours looks good so far and we look forward to seeing your next steps.
This update has a lot of pictures, so I'll split it into two posts...
The Saw Shed (Continued)
We now turn our attention to the Saw Table. Once again, it is built directly onto the provided template. I have to admit, I was not happy with my first attempt at this and scrapped that before starting again. Here is the commencement of the process – the Table Top glued up.
To help keep the legs aligned, I transferred their positions onto a large piece of scrap wood and using a second piece of scrap, clamped the tabletop between the two before attaching the legs on the first side.
The table was flipped and the second set of legs attached. Here is the end result – much happier with this version.
Sides were then added. To provide some support to the somewhat fragile assembly, I clamped it in a small vise with a piece of scrap of a convenient size for support.
Here it is with all of the sides attached.
The saw blade and an end plate are provided as laser cut pieces. These were painted with AK 11210 (Natural Steel) and then dirtied up with a bit of dark rust coloured chalk powder. In the picture below, they are each held on the end of a toothpick – just to give an indication of size!
The next task was to clean, blacken and buff all of the metal castings and brass rod required for the rest of the saw table and shed.
Some additional planking is added to the underside of the table and the blower unit epoxied in place.
Continued next post...
The saw blade receives a small brass rod “axle” and is then epoxied in place. At the same time, the end plate is glued in place and another shaft inserted through it. It is supported on a block on the underside of the table and as a drive wheel attached at the outer end.
The end plate also receives a Feed Handle. This part is truly tiny. I dropped it on the carpet twice and was lucky to find it again both times!
Returning to the top of the table, the rollers are now epoxied in place.
With the Saw Table now complete, it is permanently attached to the floor of the shed – positioning is indicated on the template.
Next, we add some decking to the attic space to support the electric motor and drive shaft.
The electric motor is installed, along with the drive shaft, two pillow blocks mounted on scrap timber supports, and the driven wheel.
Some special material is provided for the drive belt. All that is required is to cut a 1/16” wide strip, paint it and attach it to the two drive wheels.
Two lamps are hung from a support beam to complete the internals of the Saw Shed.
Next up we return to the roofing…
Grant
Jerry
The little vice is a DSPIAE product. I picked it up at a local modelling fair recently and it really is excellent. I also used it to hold the lamp shades and motor unit under my drill press while I drilled out the holes to accept the brass rods.
Here is a link to a description of it:
https://canberrahobbycentre.com/products/dspiae-at-tv-table-top-vise
These guys are an online business only (they only do “in person” sales at shows), so I’m sure they can expect a few new orders!