Finally, the wharf section can be built. Bought the Walthers/Noch sheet piling wall just for this section. Trouble is not nearly enough for the length needed. Which gives me three options.
Buy more hard to find expensive Walthers/Noch piling wall.
Resin cast Walthers piling wall for personal use. My resin skills are at best (big mess maker)
Find something else to use.
In desperate need of about four feet of piling wall.
What do you guys use for HO steel sheet piling wall ?
I’d like something that at least resembles the Walthers/Noch wall.
Please share pictures of your steel piling walls and any suggestions .
I had originally planned to use, I believe it was Chooch**, steel piling wall. It was molded in short sections, maybe just under 4" but didn’t look “too” shabby. It was nearly an identical profile to the stuff I saw along the Cuyahoga River here in Cleveland.
My Hulett wharf took so long for me to complete (still unfinished) that in the meantime Artitec came out with the wharf seawall which is what I opted for:
The “water” here is temporary. Trouble is Artitec stuff is pretty spotty as far as availability.
I’ll try to find a photo of the Chooch stuff and post it as time permits. [edit] Come to think of it maybe it was made by “Mr. Plaster” which may have been bought by Greenway Products?
You can see the photos of the plaster stuff here. I have since molded some out of resin which looks better.
I don’t know what the material you’re using looks like, but could you use thick foil to replicate it? Rub and emboss strips of foil into it the original pattern until you get the desired look.
Even heavy duty household or kitchen foil will be extremely fragile. I have found that K&S .005" thick foil holds it’s shape pretty well, and is reasonably easy to work with. If you have a well stocked LHS, they may have it. I paid $7.29 for it at mine. It’s available online in different places too. Just google it.
Or possibly using a disposable aluminum baking pan could work?
If all else fails you could make a mold and use Hydrocal for your retailing walls. I bought some tunnel portals 30 years ago that are no longer available so I removed one from my layout and made a mold of it. I can now make my own from Hydrocal.
Mold making is a real simple process and using Hydrocal the castings turnout perfect.
This picture below was taken during a 2014 remodel of my mountains, the tunnel portal is one of the Hydrocal casting that I made.
The sidewing is also a Mel casting. My sidewing castings actually are better than the original, the original was slightly warpped. By keeping the mold flat when I pour the Hydrocal the castings come out straight.
I built a Walthers carfloat apron kit. To extend the scene, I simply made more seawall like the one in the first picture out of styrene and painted it with Rustoluem primer.
