Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 10:49PM Lynn Zelmer send this flat that is a part of his Sugar cane dio. I love how well this intigrates into both the photographic backdrop and the forground display. a great example of selective dimension.
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 9:43PM 
Wes’s notes
The model, Miller Welding, (it is built in 1/4” scale and the foot print is 4 1/2” x 5”.)
was already an idea because of the two car stone garage by John Kosma. I resized the structure and wanted some doors and windows to create a shop (a very small shop that fits on my 1940’s Chicago traction layout. I used windows from other buildings I already had of yours and made all the extras such as table, box, barrel, trash cans, trash out of the sheets such as the roofing, original doors of the garage and the picket fence printout. I paid a lot of attention to detail and found paper works in reproducing almost anything and perhaps quicker. I still want to do a 1936 Chevy pickup for the shop(a challenge for sure). The chains that hold the sign up are a work in progress and the Miller Welding lettering almost did me in. I got smart and typed up the other two signs. I used Z56 glue and gulp, some elmers (my grand daughters). Tools were a steel ruler, exacto knife, razor blade, set of fine point markers and some chalks.
Besides the glue, the entire model is your paper, even though I copied several sheets for extras. Note the gutters on the roof along with the smoke stack and stand pipe. The sky light is from your industrial window sheet.
Thom adds, Wes created a great sense of story with this model. I especially like the interior shop.
More tomorrow.
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 11:49PM Our first entry for consideration is “Slippery Oil” from Larry Bradstreet.
Larry sent along some notes on building the model. I am attaching them here. Thanks for getting involved Larry. This ia a great effort and there’s more coming.
When I saw the Tank Car plan on the “Narrow Gauge Rolling Stock & Critters” CD, I knew I had to do something with it. It just looked fun to build so I decided to incorporate the tank into a structure of a mid-20th Century oil dealer which would provide an interesting business on my future On30 layout. This business will provide a place to spot both tank cars & boxcars.
This project began with preliminary sketches which then evolved into some rough plan views & elevations. Once, I was satisfied with the general layout I constructed the tank car tanks & they were a fascinating project in themselves.
Next came the loading dock & platform; this was built on a foamcore foundation which was then covered with Clever Models texture paper.
I then built the building which sits on the platform. This building is constructed of Clever Models texture paper & has foamcore interior stiffeners as well as a roof which consists of matt board covered with Clever Models texture paper. The windows & doors are also Clever Models products. The windows are glazed with exposed X-Ray film which has a blueish color.
Once the building was completed, I built the platform & stairway over the tanks. This again is Clever Models texture paper & the catwalk has an interior stiffener made from a piece of matt board.
The entire model has had its’ color enhanced through the use of washes of artist’s acrylic paints. I think this adds some richness & depth to the underlying colors as the successive washes are laid one on top of the next. The use of these transparent washes also helps to tie all the various colors together.
Details:
1) The barrels & bucket on the model are from some Tamiya military model kits.
2) All the signage on the models as well as the oil & grease drum labels are downloaded from the Internet & then sized to fit prior to printing.
3) The pallets are constructed from Clever Model texture paper.
4) The scrap wood in the trash barrel is Clever Models texture paper.
5) The piping is constructed from Evergreen Styrene tubing & the vale handles are HO scale brake wheels.
6) I built the pump out of wood dowels & the unloading hose is shrink tubing from an electrical supplier.
7) The 1950 GMC Pick Up is a Rail King Roadster model.
Thanks for the kit-bashing contest, it is what spurred me to complete this model, Larry Bradstreet
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 1:50PM Maybe a bit too busy. I’ve been a commuter lately, with a suburban client. It’s cut into my model designing and building time. BUT. I am getting all kinds of new inspiration by all of the medium industries I’ve been rolling through as I ride the Metra. The Mars candy company has a big modern plant, they even have their own station. Theres also a very busy grain elevator right in the city just west of down town. There always seems to be a few covered hoppers on the siding and a very used looking Plymouth switcher. The tracks are so crowded with hoppers, I can’t see how anything gets shunted around.
Pretty cool scenes though. I’ve been shooting lots of pix and once again the realization that there is a prototype for everything. Imagine a line of qounset huts that are stagered on an angle and overlapping.
What a wierd structure. I havent been able to get a good pic yet but when I do, I’ll post it here.
I’m looking forward to getting back to building.
Thom
