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HO O'Neill's Fabrication Non-build thread

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Comments

  • What a Great Looking Scene! All the colors you chose to paint your castings flows together nicely.
  • I agree with Alan, great work on the castings and building the scene. The generous supply of castings in O'Neills makes this part of the build so versatile and so much fun.
  • Well the master has pulled it off again. What a wonderful little scene Mike. The details look fantastic, especially the delicate little hand truck. Can't wait to see the whole dio. And uhmm, yes, I am aware there are way too many details and castings included in my kits but I wouldn't have it any other way!
  • Wow, what a collection of cool details. Well done.
    Jim
  • Mike, you are a true master of the hobby and I'm glad I got to meet you in Boston. I find it very fortunate to have several folks building O'Neills at the same time. It just shows how many different approaches you can take to the same kits. Keep 'em coming. Phil
  • Looks great, the scenery and details really pull everything together.
  • Thanks for your nice comments. Here is another mini-scene that is close to being done. As we've said, zooming in to many times the actual size makes it easy to come up with a lengthy punch list of things that need fixing. Fortunately almost all are pretty easily corrected in place.

    Sump
  • edited August 2016
    Nice work on those barrels Mike...Outstanding!
  • It looks perfectly filthy. An environmental hazard in the making.
  • What a great scene...oil spill looks perfect. The large oil tank timbers look exceptional. Love the decking just at the top of the stairs with the splotchy dark stains. Great stuff.
  • Thanks guys. Even when my modeling goes haywire, I always learn a lot building Brett's kits. My friend owns a service station with a garage, and on my last visit I noticed he had a welding cart, and I took a phone pic since I knew I would be putting one in O'Neill's. He told me a little bit about them.

    The shorter tank on the left is for acetylene, painted black, and the taller green one on the right is the oxygen. The second pic is my completed welding shop interior.
    The cart looks short because it is a top view looking down into the shop. My chains are a
    little big and I still need the two hoses, and a pair of leather work gloves.

    Townsend welding cart

    Welding cart
  • Wonderful stuff Mike
  • Awesome...a 2nd Cart!? There are some really neat new looking castings in this kit I have never seen before. Thanks for sharing the photo.
  • Another great scene Mike. I though acetylene tanks were reddish orange. I have set and mine is orange. Of course I'm typing this with the web at my disposal and didn't even check yet. Anyway, can't wait to see someone light up the interior of the Welding Shop...Mike?...
  • edited August 2016
    I did some research on the different tanks and here is what I found:

    Typically they assign these colors for the following gases:

    Welding Gases:
    Green - Oxygen
    Darker Red - Acetylene (aka Argon)

    Other Gases:
    Bright Red or Yellow - Hydrogen
    Brown or Orange - Helium
    Black - Nitrogen
    Gray - Carbon Dioxide


    With that said, it appears each supplier will paint the tanks their own colors to represent its contents meaning that at the end of the day, paint your tanks whatever colors you feel look best...


    Welding 101
  • Not sure what you mean by "Acetylene (aka Argon)" but Acetylene and Argon aren't the same thing. I didn't know that Argon can be used in welding (it is an inert gas and won't burn which is precisely why it is used for this type of welding: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070304201032AATOpMI ) I found the same picture of the tanks you did and got the impression that both of these gases are put into tanks of (about?) the same color.
  • Mike...the red tanks for welding either have Acetylene or Argon in them. Instead of aka, that should have probably read "or".
  • I work in a garage, our oxygen is green and the acetylene is black. The argon tank on our mig welder is black also.

    -Steve
  • Thanks all. The idea of painting them any color you feel like is probably a good one. And speaking of multi-colored, try Googling 55 gal. drums- images and see the rainbow of colors and combinations of two-tones, alternate color lids, etc. I remember someone posted on a thread that all drums would look better if black or rust.

    And speaking of needing a new OptiVISOR, check out the pulleys I inadvertently substituted for the wheels on my welder's cart. As my Sergeant-Major in the Army used to say, "inadvertent" means by pure damn carelessness. Fixing won't be easy as all the rafters are now in place.
  • It's all about the background story. The welder, having several times accidentally set fire to the rubber tires he had, decided he was going to fix it "his way"...
  • Nobody noticed except you Mike...we were all focused on all the other great stuff going on. I agree on the color...whatever color looks good in the context its put in. I actually spread some dirt yesterday!...Ken
  • Eagerly awaiting my O scale version. This is an amazing looking kit.
  • edited September 2016
    Thanks Mike, Ken, and Carl. I may build the O scale version just because O'Neill's was probably the most enjoyable kit I've ever built, and that takes in some territory. And the peer recognition was nice when it took a first at the Narrow Gauge Convention. Even better peer recognition was when you guys liked it.

    I'll post some final photos on this one some day. A lot of little things were added or changed because of contest entry strategy- yes, competition does motivate me to keep modeling. I was also a competitive golfer, but golf was frustrating most of the time and rarely enjoyable for me.

    For those building O'Neill's, here are some dirty oily rags and another welder's cart you can model. From the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington- a neat Maine two-footer we went to. Lots of good modeling ideas.

    Oily rag at WW&F

    Welders cart at WW&F
  • Oily rag at WW&F
    /Users/mike.engler59gmail.com/Desktop/Welders cart at WW&F.jpg
  • So the dust has settled on this one, and if the sun ever comes out again I'll take some final photos out on the deck. I'll wait to post them in deference to my friend Karl posting his when he finishes his terrific build thread.

    I made some modifications on my O'Neill's because I entered it in the Square Foot Challenge at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Maine two weeks ago. It was for small dioramas 12"x12" and O'Neill's was the perfect size for this. I'll walk you through the changes and additions I made.

    1) Made half of the Welding Shop roof removable
    2) Made the drive-through removable, and added extra framing detail that matches what will be in the "O" scale O'Neill's
    3) Eliminated the covered drive-up framing and roof

    All of these were done simply because I couldn't stand to cover up all of those great details and castings included in Brett's kit. At many contests, and this was true of the Maine NNGC, the entries are displayed on hotel tables that are only 30" high. Old folks like myself aren't going to crouch down to see the model at eye-level, and this is a popular vote contest.

    All of the roofs and frames have been built, and have been restored to the model now that it is home and can be retired to the layout I am building.

    Other changes I will describe in the next week or so, include three lights- the two yard lights and the Welding Shop interior. I also put a flashing light in the burn-barrel where the pallets were burned, under some yellow and orange plastic to simulate the fire.
    I eliminated the drive-up roof and framing, primarily because I angled the adjacent scrapping area to accommodate some ground elevations I added to the diorama, and there just wasn't room for the frame.

    I better start including some pics of what I am talking about. First the drive-through framing. The roof would have made it more difficult at that height to see the sump and other great details. Thanks very much to Brett for sending me the photo of what the "O" scale version looked like.


    Drive thru roof frame
  • The Welding Shop has a fully detailed interior with some incredible castings- some of Brett's best. Even if I hadn't entered this model in a contest I would have found a way to make this removable. I made all seven of the roofs on the structures of my Twin Mills removable, and I have always been happy I did so even though it was considerably more time consuming. (but extremely rewarding) And I'm proud that none of them have warped even slightly.

    So the Welding Shop is small and I decided to try an alternative roof, and since it was a trial I didn't use the kit materials. Instead of the included cardstock I cut some .030 styrene to the same size as the die-cut included roof. Instead of scoring it to fold it, I cut it into two halves. I sprayed one side dark brown, and marked 1/8" pencil sides on the other.

    Next I applied 3M transfer adhesive #465. I've been using it for 40 years, ever since it was a test product for 3M. Absolutely no warping when applying paper shingles, ties to homasote, strip wood to card stock (or in this case styrene) subwalls, etc., etc.
    Next I applied some Wild West Scale Models shake shingles, which I think are a good representation of rough sawn cedar shakes. I started on the bottom of one half, and applied the strips to about 3/8" from the top. Then I cut the un-shingled part off, and applied strips to it, making sure the bottom row would overlap the top row of the first piece.

    Next I shingled and then glued in place the permanent side. Then the top of the two-piece half. After it was capped with card stock, I could now slide the removable piece into place. A nice snug fit, and when in place it's hard to tell where the seam is. Like most things, a photo will point it out.

    So here is the roof in place, then a photo of removing the lower panel, and finally how the interior is displayed. The snug fit under the adjacent main building roof keeps the removable piece firmly in place. A couple of small pieces of strip wood underneath the removable section would also keep it in place. Next time we'll talk about lighting and some other fun.

    Alternate roof intact

    Almost half removable

    Interior viewing and lighting access
  • Very clever
  • Thank you for the tutorial Mike. We can learn a lot from your experience modeling and of course winning contests!
  • Nice solution to display the interior of the shed and leave all the adjoining structures alone to do it. I noticed you have some oil stains on top of the tank and a little extra "halo" around them. Very realistic.

    Mitch
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