Twin Mills

Jerry

Great job on the roof Bill. Conveyor looks good.

Jerry

Wes

Bill

As always your work is just fantastic. The roof on the boathouse looks perfect.

Im really keen to see it glued to the deck and the deck weathered. Keep up the good work.

LSNRwyAl

Very inspiring ! I like the look you model of used and still very servicable.

Ted

Very realistic with the cedar shakes. Are these available commercially?

Thanks, Ted

Bill

Ted-
Those are hand cut from thin sheets of cedar that I bought here:
http://www.sierrascalemodels.com/cedar.htm
(not affiliated with Sierra West)

Bill

The Slab Bin is a really cool structure--fun to build, too. I laid out all the stripwood on double-sided tape (it's 100% board on board with no cardstock) butted up against a piece of guide wood. To cut the angles for the bottoms of the sides, I found it easiest to make a copy of the template, cut it out, then lay it directly on top of the side(s). That insured a perfect cut and that the angles would be correct. To get the spacing right on the braces, I found a piece of 3/16" square stock was darn near the right distance between each brace.







The slab conveyor for the bin was real easy to assemble. It's just stripwood wraped around a specific piece of square stock (which already has the correct roof angle pre-cut, too.) After getting the stripwood on, I scribed light pencil marks to help locate the 2x4 braces. All four sides need to line up and I didn't trust myself to "eyeball" it.



The biggest challenge was getting the little operator's platform in place on the front underneath the chute:



With a little finagling, everything came together--and it's square! Woo hoo!

admin

yeah - i love the slab bin too and am eager to build it in o scale.... the sawdust conveyor as well.... your conveyor and bin are both top notch... superbly modeled and executed.

LSNRwyAl

I echo Brett !!!

Bill

Thanks very much you guys! Here's a quick recap...
Everything that I've built so far on the 3'x3' diorama:





Pretty good, huh? Looks like I'm making a lot of progress and there's light at the end of the tunnel, right? Now, take a look at the pile of stripwood left:



And I'm probably gonna be short!!! I'm on page 49...there's still 72 pages MORE. I haven't even gotten to the section in the manual where Brett says "So, you've made it this far..." Cripes, I feel like I've given birth and I'm not up to the machinery part yet!

/whine

(make no mistake, I'm havin a blast!)

Karl.A

Outstanding work on the bin and conveyor Bill, thanks for the spacing tip also.

Yep, when we see it all there together you really have come a long way.... and it seems like in such a short time. You really are powering through this kit and doing an excedingly remarkable job of it.
This build is definately gonna stand out at the pinacle of modeling.

Really looking forward to the next update.......

Karl.A

Karl.A

yeah - i love the slab bin too and am eager to build it in o scale.... the sawdust conveyor as well.... .

Awesome!!! Something else to look forward to......

Karl.A

LSNRwyAl

Your triplets are devine :-)
Congratulations on the fine modeling Bill.

Daryl

awesome build !!!

shay987

Looks Great !!!!

Bill

Let's build the Log Brow! That's the huge wooden structure that helped absorb the fall of the logs off the railroad cars before they hit the log pond. The idea was this thing would help minimize the splash and reduce the wake in the log pond. I tried to find some prototypical pictures of one, but they're pretty tough to come by. As best I could tell, the loggers constructed them out of large logs and timbers so my goal was to model the logs as if they still had most of their bark still on them--like they'd been drug straight from the forest and dropped into position.
So...to create the bark texture I took the dowels and roughed them up using a nail board. This puts really deep, rough texture into the wood.





Then, using 150 grit sandpaper, I knocked down most of the fuzz and other loose stuff leaving just the deep grooves. Next, I applied a stain of thinned Floquil Grimy Black with a very tiny amount of Roof Brown. I don't know the exact proportions, but it was mostly Dio-sol and about a brush load of Grimy Black; then just the tip with some Roof Brown. REALLY thin stain. I kept dabbing it on until it got close to the edges.




See how little paint I used? The color remains mostly on the outer surface of the dowel:



That was key for the next step; tappering the edges of the logs. This is where I wanted to see that noticable color change from bark to sapwood (I think it's actually called the Cambium layer). I used a Stanley knife to whittle away that outer, dark layer exposing the lighter sapwood:


(BTW--that reddish spot in the middle log...that's my blood. Careful using the nailboard!) All of these little logs needed grooves so that they'd interlock with the longer logs (just like Lincoln Logs). I used one of those sandpaper tube things that come in a Dremel set. I don't know what the heck they're called...drum sander? Colonel Sander? Sander friggin thing?--this deal:

Anyway...chucked it into the drill press and it worked great. The short timbers that go on top of the brow were textured the same way that I textured the dry rollway--beat up, used and abused. Here's how it all came together:

Wes

You continue to impress with your great work Bill. I love the colouration and graining you achieved with the dowels.

At the speed you are working im starting to wonder what you will build next.

Bill

Thanks much, Wes. I use the same method to scratchbuild my trees...works great.
My next build? Let's see...here's the stack:

I've also got a Foss kit someplace, 2 more Sierra West kits on order and a Hunterline bridge all screaming to be built. Oh yeah, and a layout that's supposed to be coming together. Other than that, my plate is wide open!

tnt5963

Great build Bill,
Can you tell me the size of the shingles that you cut, and if they are the .011 or the .018 thick cedar shingles sheets.

Terry

Bill

Hi Terry-
I cut the shingles to about the same dimensions as the paper shingles in the kit--about a foot wide and 2 feet long (HO). But, I varried the widths up to as wide as 18" and down to 6" in spots where I needed to fill in. I used the standard thickness sheets (.018) and those seemed to work fine.
Thanks for checking in...post some pictures of your build when you're ready!

Bill

hoN3_rr

Really looking nice. You keep coming up with some interesting techniques to produce some really fine finishes on the components. I get the feeling that you are discovering that it's easy to spend as much or more time creating the finish on the model parts then the amount of time spent in construction. This is going to be a showpiece once you complete it.

Bill

I'm skipping around a little bit. The sorting table and transfer table are next in the manual, but I need to order a few pieces of stripwood. So, I jumped ahead to the log haul. It's very similar to the sawdust conveyor and flat car ramp, but not as complex. You build 7 bents, connect them with bracing and the walkway. The addition of some castings is the last step.

Bill

Now I'm up to the machinery build! Exciting stuff since I've never made any of these. All of the metal parts get dunked in Blacken-It. I've had mixed results with this stuff. First, it really doesn't "blacken" the parts. Brass rods and rail get pretty black, but the white metal castings take a little more time and effort. I'm not sure if oils from my fingers slows the process down or what. If you don't scrub the castings with a stiff brush, you get white splotches where the chemical reaction doesn't take place. By repeating the dunking, scrubbing and drying process a few times I got the machinery parts to look fairly black. Between rubbing them with a cloth or between my fingers or by polishing the parts with a buffing wheel I was able to get a nice "aged metal" look.

Here's the Log Deck & Haul Drive. I weathered it in spots where grease may have spun off the rotating parts and areas where the chain would have rubbed against the wood supports.





The Log Carriage was next. I'll be honest...I had a tough time putting this together. Getting everything to line up correctly and keeping it square posed the biggest challenge. I'll share some of the things I did along the way. First you build the wooden deck and add the wheels and axles underneath.



The knee guides and brass rod are added on top, then it's time to add the cut log and knees. To help locate the kness, I cut a log in half on a scroll saw. I held the cut log in position with a square like this:



With the log in place temporarily, I butted the knee up against the log and glued it in place with super glue. I also kept a cup with some accelerator on hand and dripped a tiny amount onto the glue joint.


After all 4 knees were in place, I added CA to the log at the points where it made contact with the knees and the knee guides and let everything dry. The tiny dog heads and dogs were added next. Again, tiny parts that took some finesse and patience to get into the correct position and keep straight. They attach to the sides of the knees.

Bill

So here's how these two pieces turned out.

admin

simply stunning as we would expect from you buddy...

LSNRwyAl

Just WOW !

Bill

Thanks Brett! Thanks Alan! I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out. It's been about three months since I started and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm working on the big husk saw and the live rolls...then I tackle the castings. LOTS of them. Time to go back and re-read the Old Minion's thread on detailing castings!

One other thing...When you go to Petsmart to buy the bird perchs that are used for the logs, be prepared for when they ask you "What kind of bird are these for?" "Eagle" is not the correct answer.

Karl.A

Simply awesome work Bill !!

Karl.A

( Pterodactyl )

Bill

Thanks Karl! (BTW, Pterodactyl perchs are in the reptile isle but are grossly out of scale!)

Here's the husk saw...another cool detail in this kit. Assembly is pretty simple but adding the belts takes some patience and steady hands.





For the saw blades, I felt that they needed to be weathered somehow. I wanted them to look used, but not old and rusty. I took a look at my table saw blade and saw that it's got scuff marks and what looks like burn marks from where the wood got bound up. Blaken-it was out of the question because I believe the blades are aluminum and using echant seemed too risky. What I ended up doing was chucking the baldes into my Dremel and adding a coat of flat finish and chalk while they spun. I went back and forth trying to thin down the mixture with Dio-Sol, then adding more chalk (grays and a touch of black) and reapplying, etc. (this blade is part of the cutoff saw rather than the husk saw):



I got a nice "used" look in a steel color but found it impossible to repeat the pattern on the other blades (and the other sides). I couldn't find any prototype pictures for a double saw, but my guess is that they wouldn't bind or wear in the exact same way on the top and bottom. Here's how it turned out:

Wes

Damn! That is impressiveand tidy work for such small pieces. I love it.

I read about the dremmel trick in thread By Kevin O Neal sometime ago. It really does work a treat. Your blades are a perfect testament to that.

Bill

Thanks Wes, and yes...I should have mentioned that. It came directly from Kevin's Blacksmith Car build. About the only thing I did differently was using the dull coat (to keep the blade looking new, yet in service). Here's the link to that thread:
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32752
And if anyone missed it...Kevin's thread on detailing castings is another "must read":
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33146