Kamloops Lumber - completed scene

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In recent blog entries, I have described some of the work done to create components of the scene on my model railroad for the lumber mill called Kamloops Lumber. Since the Okanagan Seed & Feed industry is placed in front of Kamloops Lumber on the layout, some of Kamloops Lumber will be partially obscured. I took a few still pictures and a 1 minute and 30-second video of the Kamloops Lumber scene before installing Okanagan Seed and Feed.

Here are some still pictures:

Here is the video (despite my best efforts, my hand holding of my phone could be a little more steady):

 

Scratch Building a small Office Building - Part 2 of 2

Continued from Part 1 of 2:

I next applied a generous amount of unscented hair spray to the lower half of all the exterior walls. This is needed to create the peeling paint effect:

I next painted the exterior walls with light yellow acrylic paint. Once set, following the steps in my earlier blog on the peeling paint effect, I removed some of the yellow paint to show the effect:

Next I added a basic interior which is simply a photograph of shelving obtained from an Internet search which I glued to a triangular-shaped piece of card stock glued to the wood flooring. I have found that, when this interior of a structure is lit as this one will be, this very simple approach to a building interior provides enough information to the viewer who is looking through the 1:87 scale size window to suggest that there is a finished interior. It is not possible for them to discern that this is merely a photograph attached to cardboard. The interior is lit with a single LED mounted to the top of a tower of strip wood mounted to one corner of the floor.

Finally, I applied Rusty Stumps self-adhesive shingles to the roof which can be seen being lowered into the building along with the interior walls:

I made the sign by printing the letters on printer paper with my inkjet printer and gluing the resulting sign to the signboard I made from scrap wood.

Here is the completed building with the lights on and showing a partially-pulled-down folding blind in the right-hand window (although not visible in this picture, I drew parallel pencil lines horizontally on the inside of the blind which gives the illusion of the pleats in a pull-down folding blind). The foundation stonework is made from left-over peel-and-stick material left over from the craftsman kit project I outlined in an earlier blog post. I 3D printed the handrails for the stairs.

The next project is to complete the scenery around the base of the building, including a parking lot and some other ground cover.

Scratch Building a small Office Building - Part 1of 2

I have a location on my home layout in need of a small office building for one of my industries, Kamloops Lumber. I decided to try my hand at scratch building this structure in wood, using scale HO lumber purchased from Mount Albert Scale Lumber. For this project the only ready-made components will be the four windows and three doors made from an assortment I purchased several years ago from Tichy Train Group:

I sketched all of the foundation, siding and roof components on graph paper, assigning dimensions to all sides, carefully measuring and cutting the components with a number 11 Exacto blade. I cut the dimensional lumber to length with a NorthWest Short Line Chopper II. The siding is board and batten style.

I attached supporting lumber to the interior of the sides and bottom to prevent warping. I used Aleen's Tacky Glue for my adhesive.

In most cases, I would have stained the lumber before assembly to avoid the problem arisign when wayward adhesive finds its way on surfaces to be stained. However, in this instance, I decided to do so after the walls and floor were assembled for two reasons: 1) I suspected that I may have needed to modify some of my parts as I went as this is a "one-of" project based on my initial drawings (as it turned out I didn't need to make any such modifications); 2) the stain will not be the final finish as explained later on.

As was described in an earlier post regarding creating a peeling-paint effect I decided to stain the exterior with Hunterline light brown stain. This is the colour that will show through the peeling top coat.

I wanted to create a removable roof to be able to gain access to the interior. I attached the interior walls to this removable roof. The following picture shows the rafters attached to the top of the removable interior wall structure which is made from heavy card stock. Note that the joists are complete with galvanized steel joist fasteners on the upper joints - these were not added to the lower joints because these are hidden by the attic insulation. I used thin pink packing foam for the attic insulation (the pink colour of the foam didn't come through very well in this picture due to the colour of lighting above my workbench).

Here is a picture of the structure with the interior walls in place:

I next attached the wood roof to the joists. The following picture shows the attic insulation a bit more clearly. Again, note that the removable interior walls are attached to the roof.

To be continued as Part 2 of 2 in my next blog post........