Continuing Saga …

Thank you as always.

Had a nice visit today. Tony who works at our only remaining (and wonderful) Roundhouse Trains here in L'ville and Tod, a 19-year veteran of the Louisville Metro Police force enjoyed their visit and the trains worked perfectly (whew!). I regaled them about all of the projects that took place to get it to this state, and what's coming up.

My daughter's traveling so I'm driving two boys to all kinds of things that kids need to do so I was interrupted twice in doing the shingling of the main roof, but I got this much done.

Tomorrow I have my first cardiologist appointment at noon and depending on how that goes will determine what, if anything gets done on this project. The meds have calmed things down a bit, but my pulse is still 30 to 40 points above what it was last week, and still running like a high-cam, hot rod that can't idle very well. Annoying, but apparently not fatal as long as you manage the blood clot threat.

Good luck tomorrow, hopefully the meds work and you do t have to have a cardioaversion.  I hear that hurts for a day or two.

Thank you! I read that the chest can be sore where the paddles go, but it didn't say much more than that. I've had a cardia cath 10 years ago based on a false alarm. It was annoying, but survivable. To do ablation, it's basically the same procedure with different probes and goals. It doesn't scare me too much especially if it can reset my engine timing.

One of my customers had the cardioaversion, he said it felt like he had a broken rib for two days.  The ablation made me sore and beat up for about two days, but some of that is the anesthesia.  I was under a little more than two and a half hours. Six weeks later I still get tired, but my energy level is coming back.  The heart gets pretty irritated from the procedure and does take a while to heal, up to three months.

keep up the great work.

Well... the cardiologist is very conservative and that's good. The meds are working in that they're slowing everything down to the point where I'm not really aware of the stumbling engine in my chest. He says that as long as you control the potential blood clots, you can live a long life with Afib. In a couple of weeks they're doing an echo cardiogram to see if there's any other troubles that are causing the Afib, like a leaky valve. Then I'll have a Holter Monitor installed for a 24 hour session to measure my pulse variations in various activities. They want to use this to make sure it's not going too low or high and if they need to adjust the meds. All in all, it could be worse. I can always be worse.

Today, I finished shingling the main roof and attached the kitchen to the main building. I do have enough clearance to drill the holes to mount the gutters on the building side of the kitchen so I felt it was okay to go ahead and attach it. This way I can then install the main roof and get all the rest of the lighting wires hooked up.

I used a "gravity clamp" to hold the kitchen and main building together while the glue sets. It was too unwieldy to put any clamps on it, and I am always afraid of hitting one of those delicate windows.

After dinner I decided to hook up the rest of the lights and fit the roof. And then I found this...

After I found out that there wasn't enough clearance between the front roofs and the wooden gutters, I extended those roofs to be flush with the outside and would use brass gutters. But I forgot to modify the main roofs to match and these did have enough clearance to use the wood gutters. Now I have a dilemma. I can easily add the material to the big roof to bring it out flush, but it's a real pain to put shingles on from the bottom up. They don't work that way. I have a real chance of destroying the shingles that are already stuck. Clearly, I can't leave the mismatch looking this way. It just looks wrong since it is. I'll have to lay the shingles in almost one at a time to make up those starter rows. That may not work so I may have to re-shingle the whole side. I have enough material to re-do it if I have to. Not my first choice. Luckily, I didn't glue in the main roof. In fact, it fits so nicely, I'm not going to glue it. This way, I can get to the wiring if need be.

I'm glad the treatment is having good effect!  The old Holter Monitor.  I've had to have it three times now.  The first two times I thought they were saying halter monitor, which made sense because it was bulky and had a strap to keep it in place.  The last time, a couple years ago, it was small and no strap.  Then I saw Holter Monitor in writing.  It was a "duh" moment for me.

I like gravity clamps more and more as I get more clumsy with age.  The roofs look real good!  I am liking roofs that aren't glued down more and more!

That's going to be one nice looking addition to your layout.  BTW, 73 here and have afib for over 30 years!  I think it comes from the mothers side, but who really knows.  Russ

That's nice to know about living with AFib. So far, with the meds, I really don't know I have it unless I feel my pulse.  Mark, I thought it was "halter" monitor too for the same reason you did. I had one years ago and it was a big clunge. I'm glad they've shrunken down.

If I hadn't glued the front roofs on, I could have simply cut off the material to make them match the rear. Much easier than stretching a board. But, they not only glued in, the clerestory walls are glued to them and press down on them. I'd have to practically destroy the model to "fix" it.

This distillery is not going on my layout. I already have one. This one's for the Heaven Hills Distilleries' Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, a tourist attraction on Main Street in Downtown, L'ville. They liked the one I built for my layout so much they asked if I could build one for them.

I fixed the short main roof, but it wasn't a perfect solution. I was able to separate the "tar paper" from the Masonite substrate since it was held with PSA. I was then able to slide the upper part of the new shingles under and make the shingles look correct... sort of. For the extension I used some 1/16" ply strip CA'd to the eaves edge of the roof. I applied the shingles to this piece first, slide the adhesive shingle upper edge under the tar paper and then pressed the shingles to adhere them to the Masonite. I then used Formula 560 PVA to re-glue the tar paper to the new shingles. 

The problem was that the tar paper made added thickness to the shingles at that point and resulting in a little step in the roofing. This step is a bit unsightly so I decided to disguise it a little bit with some pieces of 1/16" brass angle to serve as ice dams. It keeps you from noticing the step as much. Sort of "Misdirection".

I ran out of brass so the front roof got less pieces. I rationalized that the roof is smaller and needs less of them. If I can get more brass, I'll fill them out a bit. My LHS did not have that size in stock.

Me gutter brass arrived from Special Shapes so I'll be making gutters and downspouts tomorrow. Meanwhile, I finished the parapet caps by first air brushing them with Model Flex concrete and then cutting, fitting and gluing them to the wall tops with Aleen's Tacky Glue. They really dress up the building and give it a finished look. The stacks are just fitted for this image. I drilled the tall stack in 3 places and installed brass eyes to attach the E-Z Line guy wires.

I prepared the big  "Berheim Bros." lettering. It's laser cut laser board held into the fret with tiny nibs. I wanted to be sure to hold everything in registration so here was the sequence.

First, tape the back with some wide blue tape. I then popped out all the letters that were now supported on the tape. This tape was adhered to my painting board and I used Tamiya Primer and flat white to paint the letters. This permitted the edges to be painted. If I painted them in the fret, the edges might be left bare.

This was allowed to dry overnight and then today, I used Tamiya wide masking tape and attached it to the front. Carefully I pulled the blue tape off the back leaving the letters attached by the front still maintaining all the correct positioning.

I turned to over and sprayed the back with 3M 99 High Strength spray adhesive.

Lastly, I again turn it over and press the whole deal to the building, making sure to press the letter firmly to set them to the wall and carefully pull the Tamiya tape while using a probe to press the letters to the wall. After a little clean up, the letters are firmly attached. When I did this the last time on the first distillery the paint didn't adhere well to the laser board and it pulled off in some places when I took off the top tape. The substrate must have not been clean. This time, I used the primer first and gave it more time to dry. None of the paint peeled.

When I got ready to do the same routine on the smaller "Registered Distillery No. 9" signage, I couldn't find them. I don't think they got cut. I found an older set that was cut out of 1/32" ply, but I lost a "D" and had to try and make one by hand. Not so hot. And they're overly thick and have a lot of wood grain. I'm going to get them cut locally or have Andre cut them ASAP. Meanwhile, I have a lot to do on the base, build the shed roof and make the gutters, so if it takes some time to re-cut them, I'll be okay. I bought materials for the shed. It will be styrene like the one I made for my own RR. I have drawing to have these parts laser cut also, but chose not to worry about it at this time.

Well... I decided to see if I could get the thin ply lettering to work before I ran around trying to get them laser cut again. It didn't work too bad. Some of the letters broke, but I was able to carefully get them back together. Here's what one side looks like. The "D" was the one I had to hand cut (it's on the end). It's a tiny bit more bold than the other D, but won't be noticed.

Both sides came out satisfactorily so I texted Andre and told him that he didn't need to cut new letters for this one. If we make more I'll be sure to include them with the cutting.

Next up was painting and finishing the vents, and then making the flashing and finally installing them. I again used the wine-bottle foil for the flashing and it works really well.

Before attaching the E-Z Line guy wires I installed the small wire eyes into the roof breaking two  #77 carbide bits in the process. I then weathered the roof with Dr. Brown's powders (White, Grimy Black and Mildew Green). I used one of my wife's makeup sponges to apply the powder. It works better than brushing it on. I also added some rust stains before the eyes, and on the vents themselves. Here's the roof completed with the guys attached.

I.m going to dry brush some more rust in specific areas to highlight those areas. For those of you who haven't ever used it, Tamiya has a new color, "Burnt Iron" that is a very dark, slightly metallic brown, and it's terrific for exhaust pipes and any hot iron area. It looks great on the vents. I also did a base coat of rusty red in case I wanted to lightly sand off the dark coat, but the brown looked so good I left it alone and then smudged on some rusty red powders. 

Those snow fences kept popping off all day. The CA doesn't hold to the chemically blackened brass. When they come off, I rough sanded the mating surface and re-glued them. This seems to have solved the problem.

The next thing was the gutters. I'm using a new approach which is closing the gutter ends by cutting the sides and folding up the ends. In this way I can close them without soldering or adding addition pieces. It worked in most cases. A couple of times the piece broke off as I attempted to hammer it into the place. So in this case I shaped a piece that fit into the space and soldered it with the RSU.

I also purchased a set of K-S tubing bending springs. I tried them on a same downspout and it worked pretty well. I annealed the brass with a torch first so it would bend without tearing and then bent the bottom curve around a mandrel. It will save me a bunch of cutting, bending and soldering steps.

I was able to make all six gutters today. I center-punched them to receive the 1/8" hole for the downspouts. These will be soldered. And I did the same for the brass wires that will be soldered it to serve as attachment points to the roof. I think that the bottom curve is a little broad, but it should work. There is also and "S" curve that spaces the pipe back toward the building. These will be chemically treated to darken them and then give them green patina.

Everyone have a nice weekend. I don't know about you, but as I age, the weeks are going by faster and faster. A week feels like 3 days. When I was working, some weeks felt like 9 days. Perhaps it's because, I have so much stuff to do that I really like. I can fill every minute of every day. It's a good way to be.

Hey guys! A rare Sunday work session and it let me get the gutters and downspouts completed and chemically treated.

I needed to make two more gutters for the clerestory roofs bringing the total to 8 (6 for the main house and 2 for the kitchen). I then drilled the hole for the downspout by first drilling a small pilot and then opening up to the 1/8" on the drill press. I drilled #75 holes for the 0.021" brass wire that will pin the gutters to the eaves. I broke 2 carbide drills doing the small holes and went back to using high speed steel drills which are more forgiving. Brass grabs drills and likes to break the carbide drills when it does. At $1.50/drill that makes those very expensive holes.

The new tubing I bought from Special Shapes was thin-wall 1/8" brass. I annealed it using a micro torch to heat it until the brass changes color and let it air cool. After annealing and using the spring-based K-S tubing bender I was a able to get kink-free bends for the bottom and the s-curve to bring the tube closer to the wall. 

I use the RSU to do all the soldering and it's so slick. Here's a before and after of making the tube-to-gutter joint. I make a ring of solder around the joint after putting on some TIX liquid flux to help the rosin core solder a bit. I have some very fine gauge rosin core that I bought in Germany in 2000. It was a big roll and I still have a bunch left. It's about 0.030" diameter or its metric equivalent. I clamp the RSU on the gutter and just watch until the ring melts and forms a filet around the tube joint.

After the flux bubbles off, here's what happens in about 15 seconds. (focus could be better)

I added the brass wires and used the TIX lower temp solder so all the other solder joints wouldn't de-solder. After soldering I trimmed the front flush and filed it so they wouldn't be seen again. I cut the piece protruding out the back to about 1/4".

I then brushed on the JAX metal blackening chemical and let it work. Instead of dipping I tried brushing since it would use less chemicals and be more controllable. It works. I found that using some steel wool on the brass enabled the chemicals to wet the surface better and give a more even toning.

After the tone was reasonably dark, I brushed on the chemically added patina. At first it looks like nothing's happening, but as it sit and dries it gets stronger. The end result is quite amazing. It still needs to be more even and I'm going add more today (Monday) to even it up a bit. The best way to simulate patina is PATINA.

Today, I'll start building the shed roof and, after more treatment, attach the gutters. I'm thinking about giving it a coat of Dullcoat to preserve the finish on the brass. The green can rub off on your fingers which tells me that it's the chemical that changes colors and sits on the surface, rather than the substrate changing color. I'm going to add a ring with pin to mount in the middle of the downspout to tie it to the building wall. It will stabilize the long dangling pipe.

Those gutters and downspouts look great.

Thanks Joe! 

I decided to not do anything more with the gutters and installed them today. The brass pins really provide a good way to join them to the building. They're held on with medium CA.  I sprayed them with Krylon Workable Fixative to keep the green powder from coming off.

I printed out the shed plans and I then—after cleaning off the main work bench a bit—taped the plans onto the Homasote and covered it with some clean Polyethylene film so the assembly doesn't stick to the plans like building a model airplane. I will pin the pieces directly to the plans. I'm also going to overlap the diagonals, rather than cut fancy miters to all the corners. My guess is the prototype wasn't that crafted and was just slapped together. It's hard to tell in the old 125 year-old photo.

I realized after studying the prototype pic some more that I way over engineered the shed on the first Bernheim build. I had the main structure running horizontally towards the building and then made the roof rafters a 2-part affair with on piece going horizontal and a second member going up at the roof pitch. 

Here was my original design. This part was being designed for laser cutting.

And here's how it actually was built which is how I'm going to change it.

Clearly it's an easier (and faster) build which is what I'm going to do. The roof rafters just sit on the front and back cross members without all this added pieces.

I really like that building so much.  Your modeling is amazing.

It is really looking impressive!  You may have covered this, and I missed it.  Do you know why the covered connecting passage between buildings is so high?  At first I was thinking just a covered people walkway, but now I am thinking there may have been pipes, conveyors, belts, etc.  Thank you!

Thanks fellows!

I wonder too about that corridor. Here's the original image again.

I've been staring at this picture a lot lately and see some errors that I've made in the design. I still didn't get the shape of the corner ornaments on the main building correct. They don't drop down as far as the one I created. The top details appear to be on on the same height, but mine are slightly different and I didn't get the shape of the top-center ornament correct. And the back little house on the roof is lower with a shallower roof than the one I designed. The center wall doesn't pierce the outside wall. I knew it didn't, but had to do it since the mid-wall would have been a butt-joint to the side walls and I didn't want that. Otherwise, it's a pretty good rendition.

TRAINMAN2001, I just noticed this thread. Wow, you did a phenomenal job on that building! Just outstanding! 

It is a really cool "steam era" structure. I love that type of architecture.

Your work really is quite impressive! The gutters looks amazing!

I agree your rendition is very close enough!  Anyone would have to inspect closely to tell any difference!

Hudson... you're now required to read all 44 pages. There's a lot more stuff on this thread than just the 2nd Bernheim build.

Mark... I'm glad you agree. That puts my mind at ease.

Thanks Goshawk!

Almost got the shed roof done today. Built the frame on the plans. As I noted before, my main workbench is covered with Homasote. It takes and holds T-pins very well. I hammer them in with a small jeweler's hammer. I usually use long-nose pliers to pull them out. Doing this ensure that at least this first part is flat and square.

After cobbling together the frame I needed to double check the fit with the building and, more importantly, that the period box car fits underneath. It fits nicely and that's without the resin pedestals underneath. 

While this was going on, I was pouring resin into the tiny mold to make the feet. It's take about 1/2 hour for the resin to cure so I was able to make four of them today.

I measured and cut the rafters I used my Chopper II with a metal rule as a length guide and the Chopper miter gauge set at a slight angle that duplicates the end--of-rafter angles. I clipped the first end and then moved the piece up the gauge until it hit the 4 inch mark on the rule. I needed 31 rafters.

To fit the rafters (0.040 X .125") I employed my new Rusty Stumps joist jig. It's a laser cut device that spaces scale 2 X 10 lumber on 16" scale centers. This was a perfect application for it. I first put in a couple rafters at the extremes to support the jig. Notice that I boxed the front and rear main members to stiffen the structure and give more glue surface for the rafters. This is deceptive since the rear is a bit higher than the front to set the roof pitch. As a result, unless I notched each rafter (which I didn't), they're really not setting square on the front and rear frames. When the solvent melts the plastic, it does settle down a bit and makes a decent joint.

The width of the frame was not quite a multiple of 16" centers, so I laid in rafters from the left side up to the mid-point. And then set the jigs on the right side and again work towards the middle. This way, the two middle rafters are a bit closer together, but it looks symmetrical and designed. The glue surface is very narrow, but it will be very stone once the flat roof goes one. I'm scratching the styrene surface with a wire brush tool to give it some wood grain and disguise any glue smudges. The modification I make definitely made it a simpler job. Before I had to create all 31 rafter assemblies before installing them.

The last thing I did was measure the flat roof pieces of Evergreen Standing Seam Roofing. The seams run long ways so I had to join two pieces so their slots would run cross piece. Once this joint fully dries (tomorrow) I lay in those tiny strips that actually are the "standing" parts of this simulated metal roofing. Then the roof will go onto the frame and the painting will begin. I should have all the feet cast by Thursday. There was a flaw in my silicone mold, where a bubble formed in the cavity and kept silicone from properly filling the whole cavity. As a result, there is a lump in one part of the finished casting. Instead of spending the time and trouble to re-mold the job, I just take a small router head on the Dremel and remove the excess.

That's very impressive, Myles. 

Thanks Max!

Built the standing seam roof today. I scrapped the piece I glued together yesterday since it was too short. I neglected to allow the additional material so it would nest against the building's wall. There is protruding brick work that the roof will settle around adding about 1/8" more depth. I also wanted some overhang in the front beyond the rafter ends. I added more texture to the styrene and then drilled and added some Tichy nut, washer combos to add interest. When this dried a bit, I took it outside and sprayed some Tamiya primer on it. It was very windy since some weird weather was heading our way and was blowing the paint every which way. I'm still lobbying for that spray booth in the basement.

I also sprayed the rails rust brown in prep for their gluing down into the base. Tomorrow I'll spray some rusty red on the roof and brown on the rest. When the rust dries I'll hit it with the burnt iron. Then some strategic sanding should expose the rust. That, plus some weathering powders will give it an old metallic, worn look. I also was able to cast 2 more footings. Four more to go and those will be ready for finishing and fastening. I found out that the 1:1 ratio of Part A and B resins is critical especially when dealing with such tiny quantities. I've resorted to measuring the resin in little graduated medicine cups: 5ml of A and B, then tipped into a 3rd cup and mixed. On one of the footings I must have missed the mix and it didn't harden... remained rubbery. I tossed that one and cast some more being more careful with the proportions.

Pretty soon I'll be doing some minor landscaping.

Myles, as always great work. Had a bout of the flu and just caught up with the last 6 days. Looking real good. 

Pat, glad your flu is gone and didn't lead to anything else. Thanks for the remarks and following all this stuff.

Got the second coats of paint on the shed and started landscaping the base. All the while I cast the rest of footings. 

The roof is a base coat of rust red and then Dark Iron. The wood work is Tamiya flat brown. Tomorrow, I'll lightly abrade the dark iron to bring up some of the rust. I will alcohol was the wood. Then I do some rust work on the exposed NBWs and do some weathering power work. By that time, all the footings will be fully cured and I'll finish them up and install them. I sanded and trued up all the ones that had cured from the last two days pours.

Before laying down any Sculptamold I needed to mask the areas where the building was going to set. With a smaller structure that weighed less I would have applied food wrap under the building and put the plaster right up to it. But this building is heavy and a bit dedicate so I made place holders instead (like I did with the boiler house). I traced the profile onto some cardboard and cut out the pieces. 

I also made a 0.040" Styrene sidewalk with scribed expansion lines and some scribed cracks. This two was traced to make a cardboard template. These pieces were affixed to the base board with some 3M77 spray adhesive. This was just needed to hold down the edges so the SM wouldn't creep underneath.

I masked the RR track and got the SM ready to apply by adding some W-S Earth Color Tinting to make it less white. I then slathered a layer over the entire board and got it into all the ties. Before it set up hard, I pried the templates out since I didn't want them to be hardened onto the board which could have risked popping the plaster loose. When I pulled it off, the edges were pretty clean. I tested the sidewalk and it fit nicely. When I do the ground cover it should be a pretty clean installation. The edges are slightly raised which I'll knock down with the sanding stick when fully hard. You can also see that I smushed the shed into the wet plaster to denote where the footings are going to be. I then took a footing and smashed the plaster some more so it will be easier to embed the footings into the "ground". The rectangular hole in the base is the passthrough for the AC converter that's attached to the building.

The plaster is relatively thin and should be dry tomorrow so I can start ground cover. At least that's the plan. Tomorrow is also my 48th Anniversary and we're having a special dinner out at Mesh in Louisville.

Finished painting the shed and cleaned up, painted and installed the concrete footings. I spent the rest of the day cleaning plaster off the track and cleaning up the edges next to where the buildings were going to go. I painted the styrene sidewalk too. On Monday I'll treat it to bring out the expansion joints and cracks.

The Sculptamold (SM) takes a long time to dry especially when air can't get to the backside. It's been 24 hours and there are still areas that are wet and too soft to really work with. I shouldn't have bothered to paint the rails since almost all the paint has been removed in the process of cleaning off the excess plaster. When all is fully dry I will re-spray the rails. The footings' holes are a little big and I'll probably use some filler to close it up a bit. I was going to sand off the dark iron color to reveal the rust base coat, but as soon as I tried it, the paint came off the standing ribs down to the styrene white, so I stopped and added rust weathering powder to the surface. If it was a flat surface, it wouldn't have been a problem.

I need to some research on how to landscape buried spur tracks since I'm not actually sure what to do next and this detail is front and center on the finished diorama. Any suggestions? You can see the wet areas of the SM. By the end of the weekend, they will all be dry and ready for paint and ground cover. Have a nice weekend!

Hi Myles.  Looking good!

I did the spur tracks on my old HO layout by "ballasting" them with sand.  I used crushed and sieved dolomite (my weapon of choice), but any fine sand will do.

Well... I did a full-court press yesterday and actually, sort of, finished up the Bernheim 2 project. It needs to thoroughly dry and then get some more spritzes with wet water and scenic cement to secure all the grass. For the track, I painted everything earth color and then picked out the ties with medium gray as if they were aged wood. It seems to work. Here's some final, but not display, pics.

When finishing the sidewalk I ran into a problem that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I painted the styrene with two coats of a custom mixed concrete color (Tamiya Deck Tan and Medium Gray mixed about 50:50). I then oversprayed with Dull Coat to protect it from the alcohol wash that would bring out the joints and cracks. Doh! Isopropyl alcohol dissolves Dull Coat. So as I was wiping off the excess, all the paint was coming off too. I decided to clean off all the paint and start over, but what was left was all the cracks nicely filled in with paint. So I then air brushed two light coats of the same concrete mix that gave it a concrete color and let the colored cracks show through. The results were very pleasing and are a way I'll probably do this in the future. Serendipitous discovery... kind of like Teflon.

I showed these images to the Shapira Family last night. They are the owners of Heaven Hill Distilleries, and their response was wonderful. Max Shapira, the patriarch and CEO wants to get an article written in the local Louisville paper about my hobby, the railroad, my interest in "Bourbonism" (a recent term coined by our mayor), and the creation of this model. I'm looking forward to that. 

Removing the middle rail on the Ross track worked well to simulate 2 rail scale. Of course Ross track is taller than scale spur tracks, and if I went to scale height rail I would then have to change out the trucks on the Atlas Steam Era freight car. The viewers will not pay attention to this. They will be looking at the building and comparing it to the picture from 1870.

The building dropped into its socket very nicely. I'm not gluing it in. It will be easier to move this if I can separate the building from the base. Prior to doing any ground cover I sanded down any raised edges around the socket to make the transition to the building very flat and even.

They are now deciding how and where I should deliver it so they can have the base and clear case made.

Andre Garcia (River Leaf) and I are still trying to determine if there's enough interest in this complex model to offer one to the market. I'm going to prepare some more elegant pictures for him to display at York and see what kind of interest it generates. It's going to be expensive due to the extensive and elaborate cutting costs. If it wasn't for the bricks it would be a simple, but the bricks add an enormous amount of time on the machine.

Let me know if any one would like something like this on your railroad. If you want one built, that can be done also. I'm getting pretty good at it...

Great looking model, Myles.  It was as much fun following along for the second go around as the first. Thanks for posting.

It looks absolutely great!  I'm glad the Heaven Hill folks really like it!  Like Pat, I enjoyed following the second build 

I've been following this since the beginning, and must say your attention to detail is awesome!  I'll be in Kentucky a week from Saturday visiting the Buffalo Trace Distillery (W.L. Weller 12 Year has replaced Maker's Mark as my drink of choice). Perhaps Bernheim will be my other stop on the KY Bourbon Trail.

You certainly are getting pretty good at it, Myles.

What a cracker! 

Thanks guys! I promise, if there's a 3rd one I won't bore you with it. If there is a 3rd one, I might even figure out how to get that large roof the right size the first time. I'm going to finish that TBM Avenger now and then start on the Plastruct Chemical Plant. That should be an interesting build so stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, I've enlisted the COO of Heaven Hill's help to get me some plans from Buzick. Buzick is the main builder of all the Bourbon rick houses. They specialize in it. I want to build a small one under construction and need some details about lumber sizes, lengths, etc. I had originally sent a note to Buzick directly, but got no response. Heaven Hill is a huge customer and he expects that he will get a good response. That will also be a fun project.

Myles,

that model is absolutley awesome.

Alan Graziano

Al, that's as nice a thing as it's possible to say!

I needed a shot of the building done outdoors in a natural setting. At first I was a little squeamish about moving it, putting it in the trunk and going au plain are. But I bit the bullet and took it to Cherokee Park yesterday and took some pics with the Canon EOS. Where I was I couldn't get a full sun in front shot because of a parking lot that kept showing up on stage left. So I did the best I could. With full lighting I was able to shoot with a small f-stop and get good depth of field. I can't do that indoors since I don't have photo lighting.

The end result was pretty good even though I didn't find a site where the tree line was nearer to the horizon. 

Also, the Comm director of Heaven Hill Brands contacted me to get more information about the project, my hobby and my interest in Bourbon production. They want to create something in the local press. I might have my 15 minutes of fame out of this. Better late then never. Apparently, the CEO is really impressed with this and wants publicity about it. That's a good thing.

New topic!

I started building the Plastruct petrochemical plant today. And I already started to upgrade it. This is basically an augmented scratch-build project. All the parts are simply cutoffs or standard Plastruct accessories. The plans are not to scale and are given in 1:1 dimensions which must be converted to 1:48 going forward. The assembly instructions are a joke since they give no details at all about how to mount valves and fittings, how to measure and lay pipe runs, etc. In addition to the 9 process units, I'm going to add a medium-sized industrial cooling tower and a building or two for a control room and maintenance center. 

I built the big chunks today including the two HP storage spheres, a large storage tank, a horizontal reactor, and a 50 scale feet distillation tower. I made a flange at the tower's bottom and put on a ring of faux NBWs. You know me, I follow Raymond Lowey's mantra, "Never leave well enough alone."

All the mating surfaces were first sanded on a piece of medium sand paper adhered to a granite surface plate. I then filed the edges to kill SOME of the flash. The rest will be removed during the next work session after the Bondene cures completely, which it will since we're heading to York (Mecca) tomorrow and then on to a trip back East to visit family and friends.

For the distillation tower, the instructions call for a 1/4" (12") foundation, but no 1/4" material was included. I could have glued two piece of 1/8" sheet together, but chose to use a piece of leftover 1/4" MDF from the Distillery. I then thought that a tower isn't just plopped onto a foundation so I cut a piece of 0.040" styrene and added some True Details resin NBWs which are sized for 1:24 car models, but work as larger size bolts for our scale. The plastic part was glued to the tower with Bondene and then the whole deal was glued to the MDF with 30 minute epoxy.

Most chem plant unit ops are jacketed, and have textures and bands that would show this. I think I'm going to try and do that here to add interest. This facility will be on the rear half of the layout and will be 10 feet from the average viewer unless they go inside. So I have to be careful to not go too crazy. You can see the sand paper/surface plate thing in this picture.

And for everyone's edification, at the same time I finished Bernheim 2 I also finished that very fine Trumpeter TBM-3 Avenger in 1:32. It had a bunch of add-ins and augmentations (as usual). It's going on a shelf next to the Missouri.

Those access hatches were not part of the kit. Lots of added details on the engine, firewall area, and wing fold.

It was a nice, but difficult model. It's an older Trumpeter model and they're not noted for their fits. They're not Tamiya or Hasegawa who have impeccable engineering. The Eduard painting masks really helped in painting all that cockpit glazing. The prototype was painted in all gloss dark sea blue. Gloss dark surfaces are difficult to weather and show every imperfection. But it was easier since there were two (or 3) paint demarcations that needed masking.

Hi Myles, I would highly encourage you to send a link of this thread to the Heaven Hills communications people. Remember, you don't have to be a member to read the thread. I think the thoughtfulness and process at which you approached both build #1 and build #2 as shown here will give them a lot of great material. The accolades to which you highly deserve!

The outdoor photos really look great!!

Trainman2001 posted:

The end result was pretty good even though I didn't find a site where the tree line was nearer to the horizon. 

Also, the Comm director of Heaven Hill Brands contacted me to get more information about the project, my hobby and my interest in Bourbon production. They want to create something in the local press. I might have my 15 minutes of fame out of this. Better late then never. Apparently, the CEO is really impressed with this and wants publicity about it. That's a good thing.

Well deserved, Myles. 

Myles, The outdoor photos look fantastic.  Looking forward to the chemical plant build. Thanks for letting us look over your shoulder and hear (read) your thoughts. Great thread. 

Pat Kn posted:

Myles, The outdoor photos look fantastic.  Looking forward to the chemical plant build. Thanks for letting us look over your shoulder and hear (read) your thoughts. Great thread. 

Pat, That is an excellent way of putting it, "look over your shoulder"!

Myles, You have given a lot of good ideas in how to present our own projects to the group!  

I don't think the spherical tanks in the petrochemical kit come with wind girders, however the standard Plastruct spherical tank kit does include this. I think the wind girder adds a lot to the tank structure.

The supplied wind girder is a very thin plastic ring. It is too late for your spheres but for future builds to add a wind girder instead of trying to cut out a ring simply cut a circle and glue the two hemispheres to it. This way you can make the girder as thick as you want. This way the girder can be used as extra glue surface for the leg assembly.

Joe