New Project Oil Terminal completed model pictures May 6, 20222

Thanks Alan, It will be cool to watch the progress!

Alan - Love seeing your work. Wow. 

Henry Ford's assembly line has nothing on your prolific production. Good to see a containment dike.  Having spent some time in storage tank regulation compliance I've missed secondary containment in our hobby.

Super Nice

Here are some more progress pictures. The three smallest tanks have been constructed. These are all made from ABS tubing.

Looks awesome!

Absolutely fascinating.

I just completed the three large tanks. Here are some pictures

Man Alan, those pics made my day!  It looks terrific.

Looks great Alan! That sure looks like a peaceful environment outside to work with too.

Thank you All. Building tank models is my favorite thing to construct.

I recently been considering a scene with an oil facility of some sort.  Your work is great inspiration.  Amazing craftsmanship and attention to detail.   👍🏼  

Really well done Alan !!!

Looks great Alan.  Thanks for sharing

Remarkable!

I thought you added steps before you rolled the tank so I was confused by the pictures of you adding steps to the erect small tank.  Once I saw the pictures of the large tank being built it finally clicked that the smaller tanks were made out pipe so they were never flat.  How much longer does it take to do stairs on pipe versus on a flat sheet before you roll it into a tank?

Fabulous!

Peter

Coach,

i do not see much of a difference. On diameters less than 4 inches it may take a little more time.

Thank you all for your great compliments.

Dang Alan, you really go to town with all your builds. Can you pump some oil out and about please? Seriously though, are these a kit or is it a bunch of stuff that you just throw together and make it outstanding, because it is outstanding.

I don't know how you can concentrate on building anything with that fabulous view you have out the window.  Did you ever forget to put a step on or something ?  Lol

JP,

I never miss a step no matter what is going on outside that window.

Dave,

The tanks are scratch built. Plastruct has some tank model kits that I designed for them many years ago.

@Alan Graziano posted:

JP,

I never miss a step no matter what is going on outside that window.

Dave,

The tanks are scratch built. Plastruct has some tank model kits that I designed for them many years ago.

Oh nice. Now that is innovative, and something else.

And I thought they were modeled after the plastruct kits - should have known better.

@Alan Graziano - I've built one of the plastruct kits and found I either was not able to scribe the weld lines deeply enough or I could not scribe around the tanks to meet up. I used modeling putty to form the weld lines as a thin line between painters tape. The tape thickness was about right so I could just level the putty against the tape. I pulled the tape once the putty had set for a few minutes.  Plastruct tanks  it worked OK for these tanks, but not sure it would work on the big ones like you build.

A question - I was using Plastruct Bondene to attach elements, but I do not think it bonds very well. Do you use something else? I have a bottle of Plast-I-Weld but have not tried that as yet.  THX

Scouting Dad,

Bondene will glue similar materials to each other such as styrene to styrene and Abs to Abs. For dissimilar plastics use Plastic Weld Cement. Both items are from Plastruct. You can also use CA glue (crazy glue) with an accelerato for any material. When I was making parts for the models Plastruct sold, the tank wheels were Abs, the bottoms, roofs and reinforcing pads were styrene and the ladders and handrails were Abs. I deliver they are still producing the kits but have not had me make any of the parts for a number of years. I feel the kits are Craftsman style on the order of a Korbut building for level of difficulty.

@Alan Graziano posted:

Scouting Dad,

Bondene will glue similar materials to each other such as styrene to styrene and Abs to Abs. For dissimilar plastics use Plastic Weld Cement. Both items are from Plastruct. You can also use CA glue (crazy glue) with an accelerato for any material. When I was making parts for the models Plastruct sold, the tank wheels were Abs, the bottoms, roofs and reinforcing pads were styrene and the ladders and handrails were Abs. I deliver they are still producing the kits but have not had me make any of the parts for a number of years. I feel the kits are Craftsman style on the order of a Korbut building for level of difficulty.

Thanks Alan, makes sense.  The bondene bond between the tanks and roofs was not very strong - ABS / Styrene. I think I may have used Testors on the inside once the roofs were in place to make a better joint.  I get Testors everywhere which is why I wanted to use a liquid cement. Jeff

@Alan Graziano posted:

You can also use CA glue (crazy glue) with an accelerato for any material.

For a cheap accelerator for CA adhesive, try water!  I was blown away when I found out that instead of keeping the joint dry, you put the CA on one piece and wet the other piece.  Instant bond!  CA actually cures in the absence of air, which is why it doesn't harden in the bottle. 

I made some more progress this weekend. I got the numbering and kettering on the tanks, set them in place and ran the piping in the dike area. Here are the pictures.

Another incredible AG original.  Thanks for the close ups, the weathering shows up better.

Phenomenal!

I made a little more progress on the terminal building and installing the floating roof in tank 3,installing the tank car loading rack with piping and some stairs in and over the dike wall. Here are some pictures

I love the stairs over the containment wall.  That's the type of detail usually missing.

Beautiful!

Peter

The name on the razor blade holder says it all, Master!!!!!  As in Master Craftsman!

Alan, absolutely gorgeous!

Do your clients all reside in your area?  Local pickup of projects of this sort??

Or, how do you ship something like this????!!!!!!

I can't even imagine where to start to package something like this for cross-country...worldwide??...shipping.  Protecting the details, providing for extreme shocks, external loads from stacking, etc., etc., etc..   I'd get a headache just thinking about it, were it my own handiwork!  Do you have custom wood crates built?  Professional packing service?  Charter a private jet and Uber delivery service?

(All of my concerns the result of my own shipping experience disasters with items far more mundane than your handiwork.)

Just wondering.

KD

Fantastic detail and overall look and feel!

Question, is everything you're showing plastic, or are there metal components?  If so did you weld anything together, or solder, or simply glue?

Texgeekboy,

all the components are plastic except the wood base. All gluing is with solvents or CA.

KD,

Believe it or not, I do ship completed models across the country and occasionally the world. Lately shipping has been a problem. I used the post office most of the time because they handled things better but now you cannot count on a reasonable delivery time. I am back to UPS  and the prices are very high and damage has occurred.

Gunnruner John,

I never knew why when I put some liquid solvent glue on top of CA glue it cured right away. I did this once and it created ripples like on a real weld. Another modeler told me he mixed CA with Elmer’s glue to make it kick. You are the only one that has explained why it cures in these cases even using water. Thank you.

@Alan Graziano posted:

Texgeekboy,

all the components are plastic except the wood base. All gluing is with solvents or CA.

KD,

Believe it or not, I do ship completed models across the country and occasionally the world. Lately shipping has been a problem. I used the post office most of the time because they handled things better but now you cannot count on a reasonable delivery time. I am back to UPS  and the prices are very high and damage has occurred.

Gunnruner John,

I never knew why when I put some liquid solvent glue on top of CA glue it cured right away. I did this once and it created ripples like on a real weld. Another modeler told me he mixed CA with Elmer’s glue to make it kick. You are the only one that has explained why it cures in these cases even using water. Thank you.

Alan...  I'm going to re-open this 'How do you pack/ship it?' question re custom/fragile work as a separate thread, rather than hijack your celebration here.  I'm really interested in how others cope with this issue.

Thx...KD

BTW...Re mixing adhesives?...I've stumbled onto that myself when just one didn't seem to do the job adequately on dissimilar materials.  For me it's one of those HBZ items (How 'Bout Zat?!) that I just never ventured into the 'Howcum's'.

It was especially an epiphany when I learned that CA was created for field triage of wounds for the Defense...and have since used it in our home 'battlegrounds'...workshop, kitchen, garden, et al...as such...successfully, I might add!

This model is on its final stages. Finish the fence with some signage, wire the lights together, and install a couple of gates. Here are some pictures

Excellent!   I can't wait to see this!