Great work, Joe..........these are very challenging kits to build. You are an accomplished modeler and the time you take to share your thoughts and illustrate what you do is greatly appreciated!
Peter
The railings were glued on (super glue) yesterday. I will be designing a swing gate for the track side today. There will be three. The holes in the railing where the swing gates go were cut out after the railing was glued on. Gluing one piece is much easier than trying to align and glue separate railings.
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Looking good, Joe - what did you use to cut out the three openings ? They look very even and consistent.
Very nice Joe.
@Richie C. posted:Looking good, Joe - what did you use to cut out the three openings ? They look very even and consistent.
410A Flush cutter - have not done it yet but I will clean up the ends with a fine file
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I designed a drop down 'swing gate'. I was unable to find working hinges in O scale so ended up with the design below.
After gluing the gate planks together I glued an 1/8 inch spacer to the bottom then some 'stem' wire to the spacer. I drilled holes into the ends of 1/8 inch bass wood, rounded the ends then cut them to length. When I tried gluing the assembly to the platform the wire came off the spacer. what you don't see is an 1/8 in angle I glued over the wire and onto the spacer.
After gluing the gate to the platform I ended up gluing an 1/8 piece further down as a stop so the gate would not drop straight down.
With stop this is as far as the gate will swing down. I still may buy some chain to attach the ends of the gate to the posts.
Some views of the platform
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I started work on the ice conveyor. The kit comes with two white styrene strips that once thin vertical pieces are glued on gets painted black. since the conveyor was going to end up black I used some black styrene stock I have then wnet over it with flat black paint.
I needed to let the paint dry so started the Atlas O ice house kit. I was going to give this a separate post but it is a pretty easy build (at least the house). Every thing is basically keyed to fit its mating piece. below was about 40 minutes of work. The base has slots that main building fit into. One is supposed to glue the walls into the base and with each other however since I want to paint the base a different color I did not glue the building onto it.
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I installed the ice conveyor but built it differently from the instructions. Instead of gluing the black styrene to the platform and having to figure out how to mask it when I painted, I glued to bass wood right angles to the platform that the styrene will seat into. The black clips are old oven clips I used to use to clamp lids on ceramic microelectronic packages when sending them down the sealing furnace.
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I put the Berkshire Valley kit aside for a day or two so I could assemble one the two Atlas O ice platforms. While a little more involved than the ice house the platform was fairly easy to assemble. I have it in sections to accommodate painting like items. Only issue I ran into was (probably missed reading this in the instructions), there is special end U-shaped cross brace that has holes in it for a ground level platform. It is still sitting on the bench. I could have either drilled holes (most likely mess up position) or just cut off the pins on the platform. I chose to cut the pins. I will be shipping the platform separate any way. The customer can line up the conveyor to the main platform and glue in place.
Above is the bottom of the upper deck. The cross beams have holes in on the bottom for the U-shaped cross beams and holes on top for roof the posts. I glued the cross beams to the upper platform then glued the platform to the U-shaped posts. As a result I had difficulty mounting the roof posts in correct positions. Next platform I will glue the cross beams onto the U-shaped posts first then use the roof posts to position the upper platform on the cross beams.
The ground level platform is on the left and the base (will be painted concrete) is on the right.
Above is the assembled platform. The stairway on the left is not glued to the platform. the roof panels are not glued in place, the ground level platform is not glued to the upper platform and the conveyor structure is not glued to the platform as yet. also the little white shed is not glued in as yet.
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I have been assembling the second Atlas O platform which is going much faster than the first. Learning lessons from the first build I deviated from the instructions and instead of gluing the floor supports to the underside of the floor sections I glued them to the U-shaped platform supports first. I found out from the last build that gluing the floor supports to the flooring first did not ensure holes on the supports would line up with the holes in the flooring for the roof posts.
Meanwhile I painted the plastic roofs for the Atlas O and conservation boards for the Berkshire Valley buildings. I stated out with flat black then misted on some dark gray followed by a textured paint called wrought iron. The gray tends to add age to the roofs.
Since the Berkshire Valley roofs are flat I may glue on some N scale black ballast to give a rougher appearance.
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Lookin' good, Joe.
Will they be side by side on the layout?
Great job, Joe - they look terrific !
Joe:
I don't know but I will ask the customer for photos. There are three of them.
@coach joe posted:Will they be side by side on the layout?
Yes two will be side by side and one on the other side of my layout. If anyone is thinking about using Joe to build you anything I highly recommend. He has built me some impressive structures so far and getting back in the que to start another project soon.
Everything Joe has posted on this forum is top notch.
