THE BLOG SITE HAS MOVED!!

A very slight change has occurred in my blog.  It can now be viewed at http://gotts-n-blog.blogspot.com/
Clicky the linky and I'll see you there!!

jgotts

Ore Dock Development stage 3

Hola!  We're well into 2012 and I've had a few seconds to get back to my hobby.  I'm so very tempted to start up in different areas of the layout, but I disciplined myself and am going to finish the ore dock 1st.  The dock itself is a single sided dock because they could get a large ship into the east side of the dock.  There are several other ore docks to the west of this one to make up for this problem (in reality there is only the one on my layout!)  This dock is unique in that both tracks of ore cars are unloaded into the west side of the dock so a ship can technically be loaded twice as fast.

I put on some stairs, so workers don't have to walk all the way down the tracks to the actual dock and I've also applied a railing around the entire dock deck.  That was pretty tedious because I didn't have enough of any one type of plastic railing to put on. So I created the railing all out of short cuts of wire, in different diameters.  I drilled holes to mount them all and used tacky glue to hold them in the holes and CA to attach the wire handrail.  I gave it all a shot of what I refer to as steel blue (sort of a bluish / green paint) to the entire structure other than the deck, which is black.  Next a misting of a brick / ore red color for depth and then onto the creating all the ore chutes themselves, along with the associated cable's and winches that raise and lower them.  Oh, and the track too!

Close up shot of the stairway leading
up to the unloading deck.

East side with freshly primed Steel
Structure & new hand rail along the
top unloading deck.

This is the stairway pre-paint.

While looking a bit like an aircraft carrier
this is the west side of the ore dock
without any of the unloading chutes on it.

I see the light

Trying out some new lighting.  A double strip of florescent's.  The fixture itself will be covered by the 2nd deck.  It's pretty bright.  But it also makes the details pop out more.

Ore Dock Development

It's been a while since I've been active on here as well as on the layout.  Too much real life to deal with...  : - (
But alas, I have started to work on the Ore dock.  I've never claimed to understand or even be good at track laying and when I first built the elevated track line that runs across part of the city and to the ore dock itself it  I've never put any track onto it.  I love the way ore docks look, but was disappointed to find that there isn't and hasn't been one made in N-scale.  (Like many things!)  I'm not adventurous enough to try the stick building process so I needed to come up with some sort cool looking support structure below it.  I suppose I could have bought more of the Imagine that elevated line kits and used those, but I already used 10 of those kits for the run up to the dock and they just don't have the structural dynamics I was looking for.  Then I looked at the Kato truss bridges, flipped one upside down and walla!  That's the type of trussing I was looking for.  Attach those to some gator foam core board and I just might be on to something here!

Looking down the existing elevated
line to the ore dock Note the lack
of track on it!  : - (

A look from the opposite
direction.  You can see the edge
of the gator board and 2 different
colored Kato bridges.

A view of the west side of the dock.
I'll need to fill the gaps between the
Kato bridges.  It will take 4 single truss
Bridges to complete the dock understructure.

A view from the east side of the dock.
Don't look too close at the dusty water,
with the cat footprints on it.  I haven't decided
if I'm going to make the dock dump from both
sides or only from one.  I'm not sure how realistic that
will or will not be. 

Here's one last view looking to the north. I will cover about
1/3 of the dock with corregated  sheets and then make some
ore dumping chutes.  I was also going to fashion some type
of a crank wheel that in theory would have been hooked onto the ore cars with a cable and as they got dumped they would
then get pulled onto the east side track so an empty load of
cars could get pulled away from the dock.

C.A. Gotts Fish Finished

Well C. A. Gotts Wholesale Fish is open for business.  As you can tell they've been around for a while.  Like the sign says, "Quality Seafood, known as the best"!  They should maybe invest in some newer delivery trucks I think.

An aerial view.  The pavement is 1/4" poster board.  It was
1st spray painted with an oil base paint, to prevent warping,
then I etched the the paving lines into it and followed with

a couple coats of Woodland Scenics concrete and an alcohol

and India ink wash.

A mini-metals ice delivery truck was
converted into their seafood delivery truck.
I actually made 2 of them.  I stripped off the
factory applied graphics with some 70%
isopropyl alcohol and then added some
smaller sized signs like those on the building.

The larger loading dock roof is some textured
paper that I did some dry brushing of pumpkin,
pigskin, and burnt sienna acrylic paints.  The decking
has a red wine vinegar and steel wool stain.

The foundation for the smaller is a strip
of Chooch products flexible walls, that's
stained and dry brushed.  The grass is a
bit of flocking from the grass-master and
some strips of tufts that I rip off of rolls
of the Heki long grass mats. Underneath
all of the grass is a fine layer of real sifted
dirt.

Just an opposing side view.  You can see the
sign on the truck and some figures thrown in
for activity.  I lifted up the smaller building with
the stone foundation so it has a larger loading dock
in the front.  You can also see the manhole cover
just to the side of the truck.  It's a simple printed one
that I kind of smushed into the pavement so it's edges
don't stand up.

C.A. Gotts Fish #2

Things are moving along in the fish business...Here's an update of the progress.  Next a little diorama of the scene.

Pre-rolled roofing on the 2 story newer structure

Blue painters tape on all the joints and
you can see the over hang roof rafter
detail.

I spread the rolled roofing with
a coat of Elmers extra strength
glue stick glue.  It's very easy to
apply with your finger.

As you can see the glue starts
out blue, but it dries clear.  It also
rubs right off your finger.

I add more blue painters tape over the
ridge and down the valleys on the roof
I paint over the tape with shades of gray and
metallic's, to simulate a metal ridge cap and
valleys.

I dry brush the rolled roofing with flat black
and white paint.  The sign framing is just scrap
wood and all the raw wood is stained using a
red wine vinegar and steel wool stain.

C. A. Gotts Wholesale Fish Part I

2 Posts in 1 day?  Whew...... Here's a project I've been working on, among many.  It's not really a kit bash per say, but a joining of 2 wood structures to make 1 company, the C.A. Gotts Wholesale Fish company.

       

Kit 1 is the Rabbit Hash store.

It's an  Ok structure, but there's a big

 difference in the quality of the pieces

between the  2 kits.

Kit 2 is the tool and Die Company.  This kit

has better wood, thickness wise and

the instructions were much better.

  

Starting the Tool and Die, using the

Micro-mark framing jig.

Rabbit Hash was the one I did first.  The sign is

too dark.  The building is sitting on a pink foam

base and then I used the self-adhesive wall

material.  I left out the right side windows

because it's where the building's will adjoin.

Here's an overhead shot with weathered and non-weathered rolled roofing material.  I use extra strength Elmers "Blue" glue stix to attach the roofing material (which is just the dark gray construction paper included in the kits).  It's really easy to use.  Simply slide the roofing strip along the face of the paper and lay it down on the roof.  It's really tacky and can be moved around if the placement isn't right. It goes on blue so you can see that you have covered the entire piece of paper, but it dries clear and is paintable.  I dry brushed the roofing after it was all laid out.

More to come.....