Working on storage tanks using driftwood logs this evening.
First of several coats of paint applied. Storage tanks will contain water (blue), liquid nitrogen (white), fire-fighting foam (red), tetrachloroethylene (green), and alkyl benzene (brown). When finished, the tanks will appear metallic, not wooden.
The fire-fighting foam tank will be positioned between the two chemical tanks and will feed foam into the outer chambers of these two tanks as required. Tank fill valves will be on top and will connect to tanker cars. Fluid feeds to the deep mine shaft will run along the surface to the base of the butte.
Clay pavement cured and painted. Alberta ground cover coming along to my satisfaction. Tipple base structure fixed in place, more parts to be made to turn it into a National Historic Site.
Helical metal staircases are easy to make using a hot knife and zinc. Railings will also be added with metal.
That staircase is way out of scale for HO. If those storage tanks are somewhere between 3 and 5 inches tall, you would need somewhere between 26 and 44 treads assuming 10 inch risers - - - the acceptable industrial tolerance.
I couldn’t care less.
[:D][:D][:D][:D]
You’re killin’ me here!
Well since tuyas are somewhat common in BC, maybe that’s what it is. Except it’s unlikely there’d be a hoodoo on one.
Somehow I missed that post from Rich - did he delete it or edit that line out?
–Randy
Page 8, second up from the bottom.
It’s still there. Scratch and I were discussing the inclusion of a tuya, but I couldn’t convince him to add it. As you say, Randy, tuyas are prominent in British Columbia, but our guy wanted to restrict his hoodoo modeling to the Alberta Badlands. Can’t fault him for that.
Rich
Solid wire connects the zinc stairs and structural nylon bonded to the base of the storage tank. Lots more parts to install on this tank.
I am still reading all the updates on this magnificent project. And… I am enjoying all of them.
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Keep 'em coming.
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-Kevin
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“Forget it Rich, it’s ‘Old School Scratchbuilder’ town.”
I, myself, had to refrain from questioning how he’s going to make those wooden chunks look like metal tanks instead of children’s blocks (“When finished, the tanks will appear metallic, not wooden.”), and just decided to go with the flow. If nothing else, the infinity of projects we are witnessing in this thread are pretty colourful.
Now, if in 4+ months we find this has all been one epic Kalmbach-planned April Fools trolling…
Thank you - very kind.
Building this display is allowing me to combine all of my material interests in wood, stone, organics, metal, glass, and polymers. My skills are improving in areas like woodworking, stonework, metalwork, glasswork, painting, bonding techniques, artistic design, and especially patience with my MR forum detractors, several of whom I simply ignore.
I find my huge hardcopy library of model railroad magazine articles inspiring and I sometimes go beyond the scratchbuilding techniques of those of similar mind a half century ago - for example, glasswork and cutting my own timbers.
As for established practices and ‘rules’, I’m a freelancer so these artificial guidelines don’t matter to me, after all, real trains are not plastic and made in China, real rails do not carry electricity, real buildings are not made of plastic, and the list goes on. But, I respect everyone’s take on this hobby and I don’t try to impose my values and way of doing business on anyone else. I am 63 years old, have severe arthritis in my hands, but still am having the time of my life with trains.
So, on that note, Merry Christmas to all and may your stockings be filled with the locomotives and rolling stock of your dreams! I suspect my wife bought me something from Walthers In that package that came by way of UPS recently.
Making wood look like metal is something I’m not worried about - it’s actually pretty easy, if a bit time consuming, to do. You just need enough sanding sealer and time, and some very fine grades of sandpaper. Enough coats with increasingly finer sandpaper used in between and you’ll end up with something with absolutely no visible grain that is as smooth as any piece of plastic. I’ve done that as far back as my model rocket days, I had some you’d swear were the ‘cheater’ plastic fin type and not the balsa fins that you had to lay out and cut yourself. It’s come in handy for a project of mine to make early covered hoppers the same way my prototype did - take old open hoppers and bolt on a roof. Micro Mark has wood eoof stock that precisely fits in the Accurail hoppers I used as a base and has the exact overhang it needs. Only problem is, the roofs are supposed to be sheet metal and the roof stock is long strips of wood. Out comes the sanding sealer and after about 5 coats plus a final coat of primer, it looks like a metal (or at least plastic) part, and even tapping it with your fingernail, it feels more plastic than wood.
–Randy
That wasn’t my point concerning the tanks. We had a discussion about sanding sealer in a thread I started awhile back about the MR article concerning building a 1960’s craftsman helium car.
However, as you likely have being following this thread, you have seen the wood ‘tanks’ have already been painted without being sealed, sanded, or otherwise finished to resemble metal. ‘OSS’ has stated he is going to make the tanks look metallic at this stage, and I wish to see how (even better if he has those chunks of metal steps sticking out of the wood). Anything is possible…to a certain degree.
Tetrachloroethylene tank has been shielded from electromagnetic radiation using copper foil. Two hand rails added so grad students and postdocs don’t fall off, and paint applied.
Well, there’s one answer - make them look like metal by wrapping them with - metal.
–Randy
Well…hmmm…er…hmmm…
That was a bit…unexpected…which I believe is pretty par for this thread.
It does have the unfortunate apperance that OSS will later hook it up to his crystal wireless set and pick up the Jack Benny program.