Idaho Belt Freelanced plan

[Pomperaugrr]

I love to see large industries like yours.   That is looking awesome.  I agree that the raw materials section would look and operate better on the narrow  shelf and allow for "operational" scenery like offices and parking on the wider layout  sections.   

[basementcalling]

I love to see large industries like yours.   That is looking awesome.  I agree that the raw materials section would look and operate better on the narrow  shelf and allow for "operational" scenery like offices and parking on the wider layout  sections.

Might be too big. I added an extra bay for inside loading of boxcars and now the warehouse section is wider than planned, which I think will dominate the scene too much. I'd lose needed spacing between the warehouse and the storage yard tracks, so I may be hacking a pair of bays out of the middle of this wall.

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Not fun to hack out a middle section after the time I spent keeping the right hand track bay. I wanted that, but wanted the stepped roof to be visible from the aisle, and not hidden by the higher main roof. So I cut and sanded a wall piece to elevate the roof over the right hand bay, and then modified a piece I removed from a normal rear wall of the kit to fit the bay I added to the left hand side of the kit. I want a track side view to show the roof lines stepping up in height from the edge of the building back towards the backdrop.

This kit is easier to kitbash with the warehouse building front facing left instead of right. Lots of extra chopping required because my scene has it oriented reversed from that.

I might also have to cut one window section off the fourdrinier building as well to get a better turnout angle for tracks going into the building. Either way, some non reversible decisions about to be made on by Inland Empire Paper management today.

[basementcalling]

Sick as a dog so not much happened on the Idaho Belt this weekend. I did manage to scrounge up some old roof vent kits I think are HO. The dust extractors are 45 feet  tall in n scale, but those and these doodads may become pumps, vents, or some such in the pipe maze in the paper mill

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Speaking of which,  I painted a coat of Rustoleum primer on the walls, then bricked up 11 windows that will be partially hidden by the shipping warehouse.  I'm not sure I like how dark and uniform the primer looks, but that will change some after weathering and using flour for the mortar. I did mask the foundation so in one of these shots you can see the primer beats the candy apple red plastic color Walthers used on one of the kits.

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Making the brick patches was tedious.

[basementcalling]

Slow but steady progress the last two weeks scattered around root canal complications that make doing much besides grimacing in pain impossible.

Digester and recovery boiler beginning to take shape with a few tanks and support buildings roughed out for a first look. I'll keep playing with the arrangement and angles.

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Some work on pollution control details. The bracing was an adventure into angle girders.

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Finally played with a couple ideas for mortar  lines for the warehouse  building. Durham's Water Putty brushed on, rubber in, then misted with wet water. What thinks the group?

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[LIRR]

Looking forward to more photos as you make progress on the paper mill. I thought I saw a solid plywood building in there as well.......

[basementcalling]

Looking forward to more photos as you make progress on the paper mill. I thought I saw a solid plywood building in there as well.......

Looks like it!     I copied you and glued 4 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood together and then cut the roof angles on my chop saw.

 Course when I looked at a photo of that building at my prototype mill taken from a different angle, I discovered that only the upper 1/3 is that shape. The bottom is actually digester tanks and not building, but I may just leave it as is anyway. The ventilation duct work to get from boiler house to the plywood building is incredible and easily modeled with carefully chopped bass wood.

[Bendtracker1]

Looks like the scene is coming together nicely!
I had a buddy who used Durhams on some of his HO buildings before. 
He put it on much heavier than you have and then smeared it in with fingers, yuck!
Didn't look anywhere near as good as what's you've go there. Less is better.

[basementcalling]

Looks like the scene is coming together nicely!
I had a buddy who used Durhams on some of his HO buildings before. 
He put it on much heavier than you have and then smeared it in with fingers, yuck!
Didn't look anywhere near as good as what's you've go there. Less is better.

I may see about mixing in some powdered chalk for coloring, but I figure for now the weathering I apply to the building will tone down the effect some.

Two problems with it so far. One is the Walthers brick pattern is almost chevron like in shape on the left. You can see it clearly about 1/3 down from the top of the wall section I experimented on. Why there are diagonal lines is beyond me, but they are clearly there in a few mortar lines.  The lower RH wall is a DPM modular piece and it does not have that pattern.

Second problem is that the Durhams is pretty damn close to permanent once misted with the water. I tried hard to remove as much from the top of the brick surface as possible before misting with the water, but it's such a fine powder it's hard to get it all. Spraying hard enough to "blow" or wash it off the brick surfaces also removes it from the mortar lines. I think skin oil may be messing up some areas and keeping the powder from getting down in the lines too.

For a test it turned out decent enough to keep playing with it. I wonder if unsanded grout would work better, but I hesitate to use grout given all the hazards to breathing the stuff in when it's in powder form.

I may try quick drying spackle too. That should work, at least on simple and smooth surfaces, but would be a SOB to get right around any fancy trim or mouldings.

[basementcalling]

Weekend update wouldn't take photos, but the Idaho Belt continues to wait anxiously for Inland Empire Paper to complete construction  of their new pulp and paper mill.

Progress is ongoing. With the nice weather, spray bombs could be used outside safely, though some leakage under the masking tape complicated matters on the new recovery boiler. The background is a simple 8-10 print on regular paper just to test an image. Thinking I may be able to get away with several photos cropped and mounted on the backdrop rather than a long collage or mural take continuous print.



Although not completely ready for prime time, the penthouse of the paper machine building is almost compketed. Rooftop details and some touch up on two corner joints is needed, but playing around with using Durham's Water Putty brushed on  for mortar proved successful, I think. Weathering to come, but after a misting with wet water to set the powd3r, it seems to hold well.



A paper mill cannot have too many tanks, right? So I've been collecting Scotch tape center rolls for years, but last week a friend gave me a couple packing tape remnants. What the heck. Some paper mill tanks I've measured in Google Earth are 40 to 55 feet across. Some Walthere Goo and a carefully trimmed section of NSA's  welded plate styrene sheet, and presto.



Next up, chopping PVC  to make the rotary lime kilns. It's cut up, but needs length adjusted and painting.



I also managed to mortar the shipping warehouse, and played with rooftop photos from Google Earth to use as models or prints for rooftop
.

[basementcalling]

Losing my mind.

Clearance testing at the mill proved required this week when I noted that the enclosed paper loading dock is a giant gaping hole staring operators right in the face if no cars are spotted. And even when in the warehouse, there is room in the opening to see around them, so I find myself going into detail mode rather early in the scene construction process.

I tested the center to center and side to side track clearances tonight with two BMLA ARMN Trinity reefers simply because they are huge and were on the workbench. If they fit, my paper boxcars will too.

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A removable roof? No problemo. Convertable styling to check the 1 inch track spacings. I may go 1 1/16th, but the loading dock can come further out.

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A couple close ups on the work bench in the loading bay.

The verdict? Don't try to adjust the track spacing when loud, close by lightning strikes are happening, or everything tips over and you drop the steel hobby square on your toes.

[C855B]

... and you drop the steel hobby square on your toes.

Better that than the X-acto knife. 

[MVW]

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The mortar looks outstanding in these photos. Should look damn good when it's grimed up a bit.

(EDIT: I was referring to the last two images directly above. They're not showing up for me.)

Jim

[basementcalling]

Mike, neither of us should admit how learning that one stabbed us.   

Thanks, Jim. I can't wait to get it grimy, though not too much. The Water Putty method worked.

The overall scene is showing progress too. More composition coming into focus  literally and figuratively.  Laying out piping is next. Stalling on some building details while the girder sizing and creation project continues. I need 15 foot spacings for my chosen PVC fitting Venturi scrubber imitations. Nothing off the bench looks good enough yet. I almost super glued the etched brass I tried to the damn cat. I would try soldering, but not sure a regular old 15 iron will work without lots of burned fingers and problems controlling the heat. Resistance soldering is not something in the $$$ right now.

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This is the basic view from the room entry way. I angled the grey, white & green recovery boiler to get a better fit. Cost me a small chunk of a corner, but the improvement over the full depth building flat against the backdrop is well worth the large piece of styrene needed for a false back wall. Coming down the stairs means roof details will be very visible, even though this scene is eye level (58) inches for some operators. I used the pattern in the kit roof holes for vents as a template to stay consistent in the spacing when  adding them to the fourdrinier machine building roof.

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The view from the other direction shows the size and sides of the boilers. The concrete chip silos are in place. Still trying to get all three to fit as I want them to.  Unfortunately, as configured, the rotary chip car unloaded would be positioned  right over a benchwork joist that cannot be moved or eliminated. The 1 1/4 diameter PVC cuttings are proving a hair to large for the bracing on the first floor of the rotary lime kiln superstructure, so it's back to Lowes for 1 inch INSIDE diameter pipe.  That's ok, the cutying of the rotary tire ring from PVC needed redoing anyway. This would seem to me to be  a great detail piece for someone to 3D print on Shapeways, but it is far beyond my  non existance 3D design skills. My Tinker CAD attempts  so far look like warped Tinker Toys. The gear motors would be excellent ideas too. My kilns will be front and center in the middle of the scene. The close up photo I have of the teeth is impressive.



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I should be able to start roughing in track this weekend. I have the 1:1 track plan here printed, but a few real world adjustments have already proven needed. I may have found room for more of the recycled paper yard and its interesting water cannon towers. Those were a neat find on the last scouting trip to West Point.

[Scottl]

That mill is looking great.  I love the scale and impression it gives.

[Bendtracker1]

I agree with Scott, it's really coming together nicely.
The angled buildings gives it a much larger look.