MIX n MATCH
Topic: Structures

 

I chose an ecclectic mix of buildings for Mound City, the Mississippi River city on the MK&P. Cities on the Mississippi River frequently are cities which have been around for quite some time. I wanted Mound City to illustrate this long history by mixing buildings from many eras and with diverse architechural styles. We see a cross-section of these in this photo. If you look around these old cities you frequently see  contrasting building styles standing right next to each other. Kits from Atlas, DPM, Volmer, and even ready-builts from Kato were brought together in Mound City's midtown. You can also see industrial buildings close by to the right of the retail and office buildings and separated by a small change in elevation. 

 

Standing in front of the black glass high-rise built with an Atlas kit are two ready-built Kato modern buildings, an elaborate Vollmer kit next door, and much simpler traditional commercial buildings kit-bashed from DPM buildings. This mixing of building sizes and styles communicates the crowded nature of contemporary downtowns and says this is a vibrant place constantly renewing itself.

Malinkrodt - Big Industry, Big Project
Topic: Structures

Malinkrodt Chemical Company is nearning completion. Doug has been working on this big project for several months. More piping is in the works and we have yet to come up with appropriate and affordable materials for building the lengthy perimeter fence. But all of the major structures are now in place. This model has its' origins in a HO kit-bashing project by Art Curren which I found quite some time ago in Model Railroader magazine. Two Walthers New River Mining kits were heavily modified as part of that original kit-bash to create two buildings like the light green structures at the center of our factory. Other kits used by Curren for the HO kit-bash are unavailable in N scale. So we improvised. Most of the dark-colored tanks, including the large storage tanks in the foreground, are HO kits. The silver cracking towers come from the North Island Refinery kit by Walthers. You may recognize the white towers and spherical tanks as the Plastruct refinery kit. The red-topped water tower is also a Plastruct kit. The building with the sawtoothed roof line is a Green Max kit. Ancillary structures come from Model Power, Micro Engineering , and Vollmer. All these diverse kits have been brought together into a single large industrial facility. I think the crowded appearence typical of chemical plants is more evident as you get closer to a ground level view.

 

IF AT FIRST . . .
Topic: Structures
You are unlikely to remember in a post way back in September where I complained the calico-colored kit bash I was working on had a problem. The planned recycling plant was going to be too big for the space where I had intended to locate it. The modern blue sheet metal addition to the side of the older brick stucture was going to make the remodeled building too wide. This concern prompted me to kit-bash a second structure, i.e., a paint factory as a replacement. Unfortunately this factory also was too large. The paint factory will find a place in the Colorado city yet to be built. I was stumped. Track was already in place. The chemical factory had to stay where it was. The furniture factory across the street might be moved but seemed to fit well where it sat. What was I going to come up with to fit in that space? My thoughts went back to the recycling building.

What if I moved the modern addition behind the earlier brick building? Would it now be too wide in the other direction? No, it would fit! Oh, oh! a new problem. Moving the addition away from the side of the brick building revealed inappropriate features in the brick walls (doors on the second story). If I wrapped the addition around the side of the building far enough it would hide the offending second story door. Yet another new problem; now the structure wasn't going to be wide enough to fill the space! Adding a one-story truck dock allowed me to make use of the remaining space.

What first had appeared to be a failure was made to work after some re-thinking. The structure which seemed too big for the space now fits but is larger than ever. The completed factory building is more complex and interesting than my original attempt. Kit-bashing can be a lot like real world rennovations. You must come up with solutions for fitting re-modeled buildings into exisiting spaces. The recycling plant along with the furniture factory lend a sense of history to the Bottoms industrial area by their combination of historic brick building with modern additions.

Scratch Building For Everyone
Topic: Structures
Finding all of the buildings need to fill the MK&P without repeating the same kits over and over is not easy. Kit bashing is my favorite answer to this problem. While bashing a kit, however, I may discover there is an element needed for the project which cannot be fabricated from the parts available in the kits or from my scrapbox. Sometimes all I need is a small, simple part. At other times, however, when building a large industrial complex I may need an entire structure because nothing similar exists in kit form.

I think many model railroaders, myself included, are intimidated by the thought of scratch building. It brings to mind articles in modeling magazines by skilled craftsmen who have devoted months or more in research and the building of complicated and highly detailed models of a specific prototype. And there are those awesome models encountered in the contest room at an NMRA or some other convention. I shuddered as I browsed through a recent publication and found an article documenting a prize-winning stamp mill with a fully detailed interior and machinery which actually operated! Amazing - but intimidating

There is nothing like necessity to push you into doing what you're reluctant to do. I've found building something from scratch doesn't always have to be one of these daunting tasks. The MK&P is set in the contemporary era. Many modern industrial buildings aren't much more than simple steel boxes with few windows or doors and some added do-dads. I also have the advantage of modeling in N scale. In this smaller scale I find you can get by with fewer details and still have an acceptable model. So be not afraid to try your hand at scrachbuilding.

When I struck upon the idea of adding a cement factory to the layout, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. What inspired me was the thought that the Walthers HO Medusa Cement Company kit could be converted for use as the storage silos of an N scale factory. I soon became aware those silos were not the only thing required to have a rail customer which manufactured cement. To the right is an ariel photo of the cement plant which is still under construction. Although not yet finished all but one of the needed structures (the clinker storage) are now in place. They are a combination of kit bashing and scratch building.

After acquiring the HO kit I set about determining how it might be converted to N scale. The most obvious thing was the shed for unloading HO hopper cars which shouted "HO scale". It would have to go. Happily, the truck portals in the silos were just the right size for N scale hopper cars. The overhead steel doors were molded closed, however. A bit of work with a saw and knife opened the doors.

So I had my silos for storing cement and loading hopper cars for shipment. Now what was I going to do for the rest of the plant? Time for some research which the wise modeler might have done first. I began with a search of the web. On the Portland Cement Association website http://www.cement.org/manufacture/ I found a virtual plant tour and other helpful material. Next, I went to the on-line magazine index at Trains.com. That turned up articles in the Rail Model Journal and Craftsman magazines. With this information in hand, I could proceed with the design and building of the other elements needed for a cement factory.


The first order of business was to find a replacement to the shed for unloading HO hopper cars. The RMJ article of May, 1995, included a drawing of a baghouse/warehouse. With the drawing as a starting point, I created my own building which would receive empty boxcars for shipping bagged cement.

Not being an experienced and talented scratch buildder, I kept it simple with only enough details to communicate the purpose of the building. As you can see in the photo the building is basically three boxes, two on either side of a taller cental one. The office portion is not visible but is nothing more than a small narrow box with a lean-to roof at the far end of the building. A tower (painted brown) sits on the roof.

I may add more details later or even construct a replacement. But following the "good enough" principle this will do for now. This is indicative of all my current scratch building. It is but one of several structures in a complex. To my way of thinking, most layout visitors are going to be looking at the overall scene. With several things to look at the details of each individual structure won't be getting a lot of their attention. I have a lot of real estate to cover and not unlimited time in which to do it. I think this is an approach which can be useful for many layout builders. I believe a number of us become impatient and ultimately discouraged by slow progress. I am not advocating sloppy work, but there may be value in maintaining momentum at the cost of leaving some details for later. The silos and baghouse were only two of several structures which I needed to build.

Standing just to the left of the silos is another scratch-built structure, the milling building. Again, as with most buildings, it is nothing more than a series of boxes combined into a single structure. The flat roofs make the box character even more apparent.

In this view of the west end of the cement factory the two white buildings at either side are the latest scratch building projects. The one on the left is the materials storage building and the one on the right holds the furnace for the kiln. Not sure at first what to do for these buildings I received inspiration from the Walthers HO cement factory kit. This kit is not yet available in N scale, but the buildings are uncomplicated which is one of my prime criteria for scratch building.

To design these buildings I did some paper cut-outs of the end profile of each building. I took these out to the layout to compare them to the other structures. After three or four tries with various sizes and proportions, I arrived at what seemed suitable. I also had to consider the dimensions of the space available and the need to place a drive motor for the kiln inside the furnace building.

You can see the two boxes which make up the furnace building. I selected styrene sheeting with a pattern to match the siding of the pre-heating tower which is located at the opposite end of the kiln. The pre-heating tower is another modified HO kit.

The materials building is where the limestone from the adjoining quarry will be stored along with other ingredients of cement which will be arriving by railcar. These heavy materials are held in concrete bins which form the greater portion of this building. I built it with smooth styrene sheets. On top of this base is a sheet metal collar and roof. Alongside I built a shed of sheet metal to receive hopper cars for unloading incoming materials. The quarry will located in front of the factory and therefore will be off the layout. To imply it's presence I'll need to build a conveyor to the materials building.

I hope you can see from this example it is possible for everyone by choosing uncomplicated structures to scratch build models which will work for your layouts. Further detailing can be added later as your skills grow or more time becomes available.

Furniture Factory Kitbash
Topic: Structures

Sometimes kitbashes are simple and straight forward. That was what the magazine article promised and it did appear to be a simple small building project. It may be that parts in the N scale version vary from those of the HO kit used by the article's author. In any case, as you may have guessed from the calico appearance of this building it has proven to be anything but simple. I'll leave for another time detailing the hidden problems which which were hiding for me. The frustration only intensified when it became clear the completed structure will not fit into the space I planned for it.

A second attempt at kitbashing a factory for this location has run into the same difficulty, i.e., to big for the space. Construction of the ultimate occupant will require some new inspiration. Happily, kitbashing the building across the street was not so daunting.

Howard's furniture factory is the new occupant of an older brick building. Two steel buildings have been added to permit the new use. The larger addition holds room for warehousing lumber and other supplies arriving by rail. It also accomodates a shop area. The smaller addition holds the finished products which are then shipped by truck.


The furniture factory began life as two Jackson Meat Packing kits by Model Power.

Essentially, the kitbash is nothing more than combining the pairs of walls into four new walls. The peaks of end walls are removed so that the finished building can be flat roofed.

Next I test fit the walls using one of my favorite kitbashing tools, i.e., masking tape. While it is likely advisable to make cardboard mock-ups with photocopies, I'm too impatient to go through that step and instead work directly with the kit parts.



The small brick addition has only minimal alterations. Part of the platform and roof at the back of the structure must be removed so that the steel building addition can be fitted snuggly against the brick addition.

All of the components of the structure, both brick and steel are then test fit. The entrance of the original building has been moved to the center of the new version. The blue steel building addition was fabricated from Pikestuff components. The brown steel building was made from a Micro Engineering kit with the walls shortened at one corner so it could fit around the corner of the main brick building.

The final assembly could now be done. A front cornice was constructed with styrene strips. Other strips were added to the end walls so as to cover what remained of the round windows when the peaks were removed. These side strips were painted the same color as the brick walls and are hardly noticable. There are still details such as a whirlwind and firescape to be added to fully complete the building.