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Reply to "Continuing Saga …"

My very first model on my birthday in 1954 was the Revell Missouri. It is purported to be the first model Revell made with their own dies. I started building it on the living room floor with Testor's Liquid Cement. It was in a very easily spoilable oval-bottomed bottle that tipped easily. I had the glue sitting in the box top. It spilled, I panicked and moved it to a nice piece of furniture sitting on a lump of Kleenex. It spilled again, this time taking some of the table's finish with it. I ran upstairs and hid, but my dad found me an it wasn't a pleasant experience. You'd think after such trauma, I wouldn't build another kit. Not so. I was hooked and built many, many kits as a kid. I had a brief hiatus after getting my driver's license, guitar and girls in that order, but actually started again in college realizing how much I missed it. My skills continued to evolve and now, heading into my late 70s, are still evolving as I take advantage of new technologies to apply to the craft.

I built the Tamiya Missouri (probably the one you built) in the mid-80s just before all the after-market etched brass was available. Then I built it again in 2011 when my oldest grandson was in Middle School and into model building. This time I pulled out all the stops and added another 1,000 parts to the kit. I was rewarded with an offer to display it in the real Missouri's Captain's Cabin if I could get it safely to Pearl Harbor on my nickel. Three years ago, the ship won Best Ship at our local judged show.

MO at MMCL 1

This turret project will be pinnacle of all my ship modeling. I'm having to re-draw and reprint a lot of parts as I learn more about what I'm doing.

Onto the P&PRR HQ: It's finished and lit and on the layout! Yesterday I got the roof gravel on over a wet coat of artist's acrylic dark, dark gray. I masked the areas that were going to hold the stairs, HVAC, Billboard and plank walkway.

P&PRR HQ Roof Mask

And here it is finished. I didn't put in vent stacks or other details since the roof is not visible from anywhere in the room unless you're 6'-6" or taller. The planks are Northeastern bass wood 2 X 12s tinted with an alcohol wash. I first was gluing the planks with Aleen's, then switched to Pressure Sensitive Adhesive.

P&PRR HQ Roof Detail

I cabled the three LED systems into a single connection. They are in parallel with the LEDs in each system in series. They're connecting to a 12VDC power source. After making the solder joints and shrink tubing them, I added shrink tube loops to tie them all together.

P&PRR HQ CablingP&PRR HQ Cable Cu

Here's the finished product on the layout.

P&PRR HQ Done 3P&PRR HQ Done 2

The site is bare… very bare and needs some stuff.

P&PRR HQ Done 4P&PRR HQ Done 1

The sign lighting works!

P&PRR HQ Done 5

Now it needs the access road. There's a hitch here. A bunch of the work is going to take place behind the petro-chemical plant. It's very, very hard for me to get back there to do any kind of site work. I started out by building up the roadway so it matched the rail head height using many scraps of foam core. In fact, I've used just about all of the foam core and will have to get some more.

The first piece developed the right angle turn to align it with the slanted railroad. That's one of my favorite locos sitting there: a 3rd Rail Pensy J1-a. It was the second engine I purchased in 1996 when I got back into model trains.

P&PRR HQ Road Extension 1

I layered some card stock to further raise the roadway to get the rail head height. This will be slathered in some form of material or another. I've been using pre-mixed tile grout for roads with decent results.

P&PRR HQ Road Extension 2

I cut and fit the other side of the cross-over. It's a ridiculous turn, but were in magic O'gauge land so it's alright.

P&PRR HQ Road Extension 3

I tapered the other end to transition back to the original roadway. I wish I had the foresight to have built the entire road BEFORE putting in the refinery. 20/20 hindsight!!

P&PRR HQ Road Extension 4

And added an extension to the other end. This may work out if I can do all the road finishing off the layout and do a "turn-key" installation. But that may be wishful thinking. Nice view of that cooling tower...

P&PRR HQ Road Extension 5

Y'all are up to date.

Attachments

Images (15)
  • MO at MMCL 1
  • P&PRR HQ Roof Mask
  • P&PRR HQ Roof Detail
  • P&PRR HQ Cabling
  • P&PRR HQ Cable Cu
  • P&PRR HQ Done 3
  • P&PRR HQ Done 2
  • P&PRR HQ Done 4
  • P&PRR HQ Done 1
  • P&PRR HQ Done 5
  • P&PRR HQ Road Extension 1
  • P&PRR HQ Road Extension 2
  • P&PRR HQ Road Extension 3
  • P&PRR HQ Road Extension 4
  • P&PRR HQ Road Extension 5

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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