My first building - to weather or not...
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Bill Sherry
Joined: Oct 27, 2010
Topics: 4 Replies: 10
Topics: 4
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I decided that my first building should be one that is not up close. This way my mistakes during learning are not that obvious. I also decided to copy a design I have seen several times on the OGR forum, a kit bash of the Korber Flag Co Building. I used the magic marker method instead of paint and was pleased with the results.
However, when it came time to do the weathering I had a real hard time destroying the nice finish I had just created. I am a clean freak. I live in a house that is finished on the contemporary side, all white walls, total white kitchen etc, so you get the picture of how this was a struggle. Then I found a way out by having a paint crew painting the ouside so I could leave a portion of my building unweathered.
I first looked at Artista figures and found some that would work but then it came to me that Lionel had the accessory where the men are gluing up a billboard. The next pic is a closeup of it.
I just had to make a scaffold for them and some sort of rigging above. I then decided to go the whole nine yards and just make it operate. It wasn't real easy as Lionel uses the front and rear halves of the structure to hold the plastic gears in place so I had to leave that part intact. I did butcher most of it away to fit inside the structure as seen in the next pic.
I also had to mount it in the corner to make it work. You can't see in the picture but there is a slot in the corner of the wall where the roller is and that connects to the mechanism on the inside.
I then added the GE animated sign and the water tower that came with the kit. I modified the water tower to have a flashing red light (LED) on top as it is a tall structure. This was very simple to do. I drilled a small hole in the lid of the tower just big enough so the end of the LED comes through and the base stops it from going through all the way. It was a 3MM flshing LED so all I had to do was connect it to the correct voltage. It does look good and flashes at a nice slow rate.
A picture of the lighting on the inside of the structure.
I used incandescents as I 1) have a ton of them saved from over the years and 2) run the lighting through a channel on my dimmer panel so I can adjust the brighness as I see fit.
Last picture I just put up some workers to see how it will look. I also added about 15 GOW lights in the rafters of the loading dock ceiling.
I enjoyed doing the project and learned quite a bit along the way. I'll have to get over the weathering issue on future buildings or I'll have a ton of painters on my layout!
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Hartman
Joined: Sep 20, 2008
Topics: 21 Replies: 50
Topics: 21
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Bill, Thanks for posting this building. I really like what you did here.
I am in the process of making a couple of buildings for along the wall and I was not sure about the weathering issue (and I'm still not sure
). I totally understand not wanting to mess up something that you put so much work into. I had a weathering project to do on a cheap switcher that I just completely reworked and I HATED the thought to dirty it. Like you, I found a way out. I did a second engine the same way and kept it clean... best of both worlds
. You can see my blog on the switchers. Thanks again for this posting for us to see.
Dennis (Hartman)
Progress: