Mt. Coffin & Columbia River - 23"x41" layout

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks for the feedback.

For those of you unfamilier with the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest, here are some picts of cannerys in the early 1900s for reference:









As you can see, many options! (especially since the buildings were added to in somewhat haphazard ways as they expanded).

Check out the angle of the end of the far left building in relation to the square end of the building with the "Pioneer Packing Co." sign parallel to it.

An upper addition wouldn't be much, mainly to add some mass and make the structure look a little different than the engine shed (just realized that they both have the same basic shape). I'm planning on adding an awning & a bunch of cannery stuff outside (including pile of fish), but I'm still playing around with heights, roof angles, door sizes and styles, etc.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Haven't gotten a whole lot done on the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout lately.
Though I did finally get the shingles on the roof, as well as some doors and a chimney:







I need to go back and stick some glue under the shingles, as the heat causes them to curl up a bit.
Thanks for looking.

[Philip H]

M.C.,
That's more then I have gotten done in a while.  And it looks great.  Perhaps a build thread is in order somewhere else . . . .

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Been spending a bit of time working on the switching layout with my daughter, so I thought I gotta get something done on my own layout.
 As a way to procrastinate further on building the cannery, I decided to scratch a small freight shed out of styrene:
 


Wood I do ok with, but styrene continues to stymie me. I can CA it together, but the painting & weathering part just seems to elude me.
 I painted the walls Floquil SP lettering grey as base, then sprayed (lightly) with a flat white primer I had.
 That worked out alright.
 But then I "washed" it with stain from my Big Jug O' Stain, which was ok.
 Took some weathering powders to it, & it just got smudgy.
 
Also got in a bit of a hurry, so I glued the bottom posts on 1. last & 2. by hand so they came out a little caddywompus.
 
Here's the prototype, from along the Columbia River somewhere between Portland and Astoria:
 


And here it is sitting on the layout:
 






Still need some stairs at the dock end and for the truck-side door.
 And crates & stuff.
 
I think it'll come together more when I install it proper on the layout and get some dirt around the pilings.
 
Otherwise, it's nice to have another structure on the layout!
 Thanks for looking.

[John]

Very nice work .. I think this would be a good candidate for the "salt" weathering method that Tom has in his weathering book .. it gives it that peeled look .. there was also a good article in RMC a while back that covered the technique

[wm3798]

All this on 2x3.  The modeling is stunning, and the photography makes it even more so.
Lee

[Chris333]

Looks like a wood laser kit. Nice!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, guys.
I agree with you, John: this would be a good choice for the salt technique.
I'd really like to learn that.
I tried to get something similar by having the grey undercoat, flat white primer overcoat and then using some rough sandpaper to expose some of the grey, but it didn't really work.

I've heard that using drops/smears of rubber cement works too, but the thick viscosity of RC would probably lend itself better to Horribly Oversized scale than N.

At least I can rationalize the lack of peeled paint by saying it wouldn't be as heavily weathered in the early 1900s
But I would like to learn the salt / peeled paint technique.
Guess I'll have to build another structure to try it out! 

Here's another shot I just like the composition of:



Thanks for the feedback.
Cheers!

[packers#1]

MC, I think the caddywompus stilts really give that shed some character, it looks solid, nice work! Some crates will bring it to life for sure. and I agree with Lee, that 2x3 sure is something! 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Haven't really done much on the Mt.C&CR.
 Was planning on doing quite a bit today, but temperatures inside the garage skyrocketed this afternoon into the upper 90s / 100s & so I found myself sweating too much to do much modeling.
 
Got a bunch of trees done, though, so that's a good enough excuse for me to take some more photos:
 






Hope to get more done when things cool down.
Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Finally got a bit o' building done.
 Scratched this shack out of styrene & shingles & wood:
 


That's actually all that's there: no rear or far side wall.
 [and for a weather-beaten shack, that's an awefully newish-looking door]
 Originally I was going to have it nestled in the trees up a hill, but when I finished I realized it was too big for the space, so it got moved down to the "town":
 


Ok, right now it is the town, along with the engine shed, watertower and freight shed:
 


But I added a few more textures to the area: some bushes, gravel bits, static grass & some more trees.
 
Also added some textures around the frieght shed:
 


So things are "growing" right along at Mt. Coffin.
 Not so happy with the lighting for the photos: my cheap-o CFLs half-crapped out and a rainy day didn't allow as much natural light to creep into the garage as I'd like.
 So will have to wait a bit for more "enlightened" pictures.
 
Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Darn: I was just warned that this topic hasn't been posted for at least 30 days.
What have I been doing?
Oh, this.

Over on Trainboard we had a "Build-A-Boxcab Challenge" and I just finished mine (only 3 weeks late!)

So here's the boxcab beast bred in the blacksmith shop of Mt. Coffin:
 




Hank, the hapless Mt. Coffin monkey mechanic who built it out of Climax & cast-off parts, ran out of whiskey so there's still a few more bells & whistles to add.
(Namely a bell and a whistle)
Could use some more weathering, too.
 
The board-by-board shell sits on a Bmann 44-tonner mech, and just lifts up, so I can build a more modern boxcab and slip it on whenever I want to change eras.
 
But I'm kinda digging it.
Definitely adds some 1900s character to Mt. Coffin:
 


Here's the relief train, bringing much needed medicine to Mt. Coffin:
 


It's been a blast to build, & I'm very happy to finally have a boxcab.
 Not sure if it rocks, but it definitely doesn't roll: front truck pickup strips turned out bent, so until the replacement truck comes from Bmann, this thing won't roll over an unpowered turnout.
 Hope to have video soon, though.

Some more picts:





Thanks for looking.

[Chris333]

Wow man, that's pretty cool. Sort of like a wooden enclosed NYC shay.

Gets my vote.

[GaryHinshaw]

Very slick piece of work MC, and I love this ^ shot, except for two things.... 

-gfh

[pwnj]

Very slick piece of work MC, and I love this ^ shot, except for two things.... 

-gfh

Yeah, the light's off and there's no smoke!  The nerve of some people, sheesh!