I’m trying to help a friend by completing his Frost Co. structure and I need your help on some colors. The photo Walter’s has isn’t very good for this, but is fine for their purpose.
I’m guessing that the odd structure on top is part of the cooling system and in the photo
it appears a very dark color. The parts on the sprue in the kit are a light tan (ish) color. On the prototype what color was this tower (for lack of a better word)?
The colors of the stairways on the exterior seem to be green and, if I remember right, that’s their color in the kit (I don’t have it handy to verify that) though I believe the prototype is wrought iron and could be painted most any color you like. Most of them I see on this type building are black, but not always.
Also, the awnings over the loading dock in the photo are of a flat design unlike the ones in the kit. What color did you paint yours.
Hello Jarrell you are right the thing on top is part of the cooling system. Most cooling system I have seen are light in color ,white, silver, tanish. The stairs I would do black that’s the most common color for iron stairs by me. For the awning I would paint the support poles a rusty/black the trim I would use the green in the sign. Hope this helps Frank
Much obliged Frank for the help. I painted the structure itself a darker grey because I think the yellow sign will show up nice against it. The awning, like you, I’m going with green and the iron stair cases black. The front loading doors on the dock are going to be red. All that’s left pretty much is the cooling tower color to decide on.
I googled “cooling tower” and clicked “Images.” The pictures of similar towers to yours were all light-colored. That would make sense, as they don’t want cooling towers getting hotter from sunlight by being black, although at night the black ones would radiate heat more effectively. I would suppose the folks who build the real ones have done the calculations and know the right color to use.
These are Walthers fire escapes I put on a DPM building:
I do most of my fire escapes black, too, but I tried an olive green for these, and I really liked the color. Of course, the structure itself is brick, so that might make a difference in the appearance.
Hello Jarrell I don’t know if this will help or make it harder to pick a color. But the cooler may be wood. What year is this in ? I did a quick search and some of the older ones looked like wood. And the newer ones look more like a metal box and had different colors blue, green, but most were light gray.
A radiative or convective cooling tower would need condensor coils in it, regardless of its type. The idea is to take the hot compressed coolant and help it to get rid of its heat so that it can be used to COOL once again on the other side of the system…where we want ice or cool temps. Wood would not serve a useful purpose because it radiates and aids in convection very poorly. The engineering would specify metal radiating surfaces with the coils embedded or built-in. Ideally, the structure could be shaded to help rid it of solar radiation stress, but otherwise the cooling fins/surfaces would be painted a light or reflective paint to minimize the impact of solar heating on hot days, I would think.
As you can see in this photo, the building itself is a darker gray. The cooling fins are painted a gun metal gray, and the stairs and landings are a flat black, the railings are red. All are weathered with rust color powders & then dull coated.
From one Frank to another,at the risk of sticking my neck out,when I was growing up in the,mid 40’s,the Ice House plant near our house had that on their roof,fairly large one,and it was wood…
My recollection is that some of the old towers acutually used water to cool the coils thus wood was commonly used in the early days. Later ones used a combination.
The ones I have seen were constructed of wood and left natural wood with no paint. They also accumulated a black/green slime on them from the constant water running over the “fins”. Roger Huber Deer Creek Locomotive Works
The older one’s,were actually,wood trough’s, from the bottom to the top.they were tapered,the trough’s sides were at a 45 degree angle,water flowed from the top,spilling over the sides,into the next trough,all the way to the bottom,at the bottom,a pump would pump the water back to the top and thus constantly,cycling and they were slimy looking up close,inside was a tar coating… I remember that well,for my friends and I used to climb on that building,on weekends,many times…After being told, not to…
