Franksville Wisconsin N-scale modutrak module buildout

[lashedup]

The duckweed and algae in the pond looks excellent.  Is that Floquil in Envirotex?  Very nice effect!

Eric

That is just a few drops of BN green stirred into Magic Water after it was poured.

[Pomperaugrr]

Wow, you nailed that!  What a realistic looking effect! 



Awesome.

Eric

[lashedup]

After banks are fixed (still need to do some cleanup and scraping excess)...





oil buildings are now glued in place...





Also started digging out the foundation for the office/storage building...

[wazzou]

@lashedup - Jamie, do you just mask the pond once dried, re-apply Scenic Cement of some sort and fix the banks that way?

[lashedup]

@lashedup - Jamie, do you just mask the pond once dried, re-apply Scenic Cement of some sort and fix the banks that way?

I just use a small paint brush to brush on white glue and then sprinkle dirt on it and gently push it into the glue. Then vacuum up afterwards. I have some clean up left to do to make sure the dirt isn't on the surface of the water, but otherwise I'll just touch up grass next.

[lashedup]

Ok, some more updates...

Oil building is dug in and glued down. Damn roof shingle caps keep coming up and I need to glue them down.



Added some miscellaneous details to the Fhranksville Depot and Klema Feeds.





Skibbe has been building some of his custom signals and there will be quite a few on the Franksville/Caledonia 30 feet of modules. We were able to get signal diagrams for 1952:



We were testing BeNscale signals previously and once we got hold of the actual Milwaukee Road signal shop drawings, we decided to try and make something more prototypical.  Here is the MILW shops drawing for a single head searchlight as an example:



Mike did CAD drawings for all the different types:



Mike created custom bases in SolidWorks and then had them cast in brass:



He also created etchings based on CAD drawings he created:



This example doesn't have the custom base installed, but it gives you an idea of the difference between the BeNscale signal (left signal) commonly available and the prototypically correct size of ones Mike created (on the right).



So I needed to paint a bunch of these (including Mike's custom double-dwarf) and get them mounted...

After paint:



Triple-head and double dwarf (sounds like a bad role-playing game...)



Mainline double and siding single:



And opposite mainline triple:



We also had custom signal driver boards made and programmed to simulate the prototype searchlight behavior where the different lens inside the searchlight rotate in and out and make a bouncing motion as they cycle through the different colors. This was a test light setup to see how it would work:

Not a valid vimeo URL
Anyway, sorry for the long post. I'll try to get some video and photos of the signals in operation on the layout. We still have quite a few left to install, but nearly all the wiring is done underneath. Any questions and maybe Mike can answer further as the signal "project" is his thing.

-jamie

[Pomperaugrr]

Wow, you are making tremendous progress.  Those signals are beautiful.  Can't wait for the video to see them working.

Eric

[James Costello]

Stunning 

[lashedup]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Forgot to mention I changed the way I do the gravel lots.  I used to paint a base coat of light brown latex paint, let it dry and then spread a thin layer of sanded grout down and wet it all down.  Looked great but would sometimes flake off and not stick due to the smooth surface underneath.  I tried sanding the surface first and that didn't get quite enough texture, so now I sprinkle the grout on top of the wet light brown paint (add some fine green ground foam at that point too where you want weeds.  After it all dries I vacuum the excess off and it leaves a nice textured and more varied surface. Adding more grout on top of that rough surface works much better if you need more gravel coverage.

So the base layer looks like this once I sprinkled grout, fine ground foam and some natural dirt on top of the still-wet paint pink foam:



Much better variation. I've also been using chalk that I scrape against sand paper over the top of the dried grout and then work in with a dried brush to get more natural variation in the gravel lots. I used black chalk, shades of brown chalk, grey chalk and some natural dirt to get more variation in this lot...

[wazzou]

Everything looks fantastic as always Jamie.  I'm glad you're back to posting more often.
You're modleing and well explained methods always provide ideas. 
The signaling that Skibbe is doing is absolutely stunning.
One comment about the little white cinder block building; I think that is one area where using the Sillouhette to cut accurately sized blocks suffers when applying commercially available shingles.  The shingles are too large by comparison and when seen in context with the rest of the modeling it becomes obvious.
It's probably an acceptable tradeoff though as it doesn't detract from the rest of the awesomeness.

[lashedup]

LOL. So the interesting thing is that I cut the roof pieces on the cutter as well and scribed that pattern based on the dimensions in this article:

http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/pubs/htmlpubs/htm08732308/

12" x 12" or 16" x 16" tiles according to the article. 

I'll double check my conversion to n scale and also see if I accidentally blew them up in the drawing program. It's also possible the dimensions are off too.  I need to also find a better peak covering as the masking tape I used doesn't want stay down. 

Thanks for the feedback!

 - Jamie

[lashedup]

Ok, I posted a few of these in last weeks weekend update, but there are a couple of additional photos added.

I finally started getting around to detailing the lumber yard a bit...











Lightened up a couple shots to try and show the interior stuff...

[lashedup]

So I'm working on this grain elevator/silo complex that I've partially built and temporarily fit into place.





Going back to the only photo I have of the feed mill, it appears that there are quite a few connecting pipes going from the mill tower to at least three places over the roof of the buildings, one to the silo and where else I'm not sure:



Does anyone know if these pipes would have just gone through the roof to some sort of internal storage in the feed building? Maybe a small second floor silo/storage that has a chute inside to fill bags of feed?  I'm still trying to dig up other views from this period, but coming up empty, so I'm left to try and use some forensic guessing via some help from friends...

Thanks,

-jamie

[Pomperaugrr]

Beautiful work!

[Chris333]

I think feed mills were used to mix different items together for farmers to use. So those tubes could go to different places for different mixes and different holding bins.

What was that in the movie "footloose" ?    At the beginning they are working at a mill stacking sacks.

http://millpictures.com/mills.php?millid=1343
http://millpictures.com/mills.php?millid=5081