visit sierrawestscalemodels.com

Machinery - O Scale

James
edited January 2014 in O Scale Builds
over christmas needed a small project between holiday activities so built the planer and grinder. Now, these are original CHB kits which I got from a retailer, but they are identical to the SW kits so i felt it was ok to post here. Even in O scale these are small details but so finely cast and designed they go together very easily. The only trouble I had was mounting the rest arms on the grinder- as one can see they need a bit of tweaking. image
These are to go into a version of the well documented Sierra RR Machine Shop I've planned out. If anyone else has any builds of the SW/CHB machinery kits it would be great to see them too.

Comments

  • Karl.AKarl.A
    Fantastic results James, I really like the worn green colouring and the evidence of wear and tear. Very nice modeling indeed. Thanks for sharing.
    Inspirational.

    Karl.A
  • James
    thanks Karl. I should say this is the CHB Shaper, not a planer, although I guess they kind of do similar things...
  • JohnMJohnM
    Well James, only you would think the rest arms need to be tweaked . . .
  • James
    Yeah, we all tend to get hung up on little things which we think are staring us in the face but no one will ever notice (and we forget about over time). I'll just be lucky if my wife doesn't think the grinder is just an old piece of something and toss it in the garbage.
  • KKarnsKKarns
    James, Great looking machinery, very well done subtile coloring and the metal looks a bit worn/well used patina. What material are the grind wheels suppose to be made of? The face of the wheels look shiny, are these suppose to be a stone type material with a slightly rough and grayish texture like smaller grinding wheels?
  • LSNRwyAlLSNRwyAl
    Nice work James. The edge of old wheels tended to get a shine as they wore from use. Holding a piece of work to them the stone would wear as it shaped/sharpened the item.
    image
  • James
    Hah! That actually was another detail I was obsessing over. I had left them unpolished but I decided I needed to take a bit of parting line off the wheels I did a light sand with 600 grit. I liked the look but was wondering the same thing.i looked at pictures and the wheels could appear both shiny or dull depending probably on the age of the wheel. But I was thinking of dusting the wheels as even well used they still have an abrasive surface and shouldn't look like machined steel. But I do dig on that polished look on metal castings. Incidentally i did leave some surfaces "bright" like the vice rails etc. but they didn't look right so I brushed some Pax or Blacken it over those areas and lightly buffed them and they looked better in the end. This is a version of a method used by Brian N shown on the website and recommended to get a balanced aged look:
    1 blacken the pieces
    2 buff the larger ones (don't try buffing the small ones with a Dremel)
    3 paint the areas which would be painted (I airbrushed green with a bit of grey- black in it)
    4 chip Or lightly sand painted areas - nuts, edges etc.
    5 reapply blackener with a brush in select areas and buff out with a q tip
    6 carefully buff handles etc. with a q tip to brighten them. Leave blackener on oily or dirty surfaces (Pax is best for this)
    7 float in some black wash for details to pop them out.
    8 apply 408.3 chalk ( my preferred fall back dirty dust colour now). Finally dusting once installed.

    Of course Chuck D 's ( that's Doan , not the rapper, although u never know what people are into) pieces are phenomenal and probably done in a similar manner.

    By the way, I've read that one should only use acrylics on white metal ( unless primed) as minerals will leach through enamels and eventually turn the detail black?..
    (Sorry, typed this from my iPad in a coffee shop)....
  • James
    OK so here is my Evil Plan (subject to Spousal approval of course):
    image
    The Machine Shop is in the middle. It is 60 ft x 40 ft. You can see where the shaper and grinder will go. The Tractor Repair Kit would go on the west end. I'm just eyeballing scale as I don't have dimensions (or kit yet). The northern most rail would go right through the shed to the planer/ radial press in the Machine Shop as it does on the existing prototype today. The next rail would stop at the wheel press, again as per the prototype. A third rail would run along the south side. The south side of the Machine Shop would be opened up (probably leaving off doors) for viewing. A removable roof is a challenge here because of the line and secondary shafts, but essential.

    To make the plan super duper evil, the Boiler and Engine House could be added to the east side. However, I don't know if this would be "over powering" the Machine Shop. Historically, it has been run on about 75 HP, by an electric motor since day one. Any comments / insights welcome. At my rate right now this will take me about 50 years...
Sign In or Register to comment.