Bar Mills Tylick Tool - Time for the Insanity


This is looking fantastic, I can't wait to see it finished. I think something like this would fit in in my mid 1980's layout I am planning. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the complement. It's a challenging model. Yesterday I discovered, again, that there was not enough stick basswood supplied. This seems to be a trend with Bar Mills kits. I have an assortment of sizes, but I'm running out of some. Does anyone know where you can order an assorted pack of basswood strips with smaller strips in it?

Today I discovered that the plastic molded nuts and bolt supplied were way too big, and there weren't enough of them. So I ordered up 200 of the smaller Titchy nuts and bolts. :)

I also got some more work done today. I got the decks all glued up, including the cross bracing, and got all the decks and the overhang support painted.


I also spent some time trying to decide how I want to place this model on my layout, and figuring out whether you can actually get a rail car under the overhang. It turns out that a flat car will just fit, but a standard box car is too tall. I'm not too worried about the box cars because even if it's only a 35 footer the door isn't going to line up with the door in the building. (Though I could just pretend I guess.) So all deliveries will be via flat car. I'm going to have to make some "No Clearance" signs for the brakemen.


But, I need to sink the track down into the earth so that a) the deck of the flat car is at a more reasonable height and b) so that I can fill in the track so trucks can drive across them and under the crane between the two buildings. As with some other "craftsman" models some of these buildings don't really make a lot of sense in the way they are designed. They look really cool, but I'm not sure I would have designed my building like this. :)


I was planning on putting the building on a base of 1/8" hardboard, but decided that I needed to make it out of two thicknesses so I could sink the track.


Here's another test-fit with most of the parts of the building and a flat car. A box car will now just barely fit under the overhang, but again, the doors won't line up.


I've glued the two pieces of hardboard together and when the glue dries I'm going to cut the corners off at an angle so it fits on the layout better. Then I'll prime it, glue down a piece of track and ballast/dirt it. I think it will work out okay.

Every time I start to think I might be getting close to finished I look at the bag of metal parts that I still need to clean up, prime and paint. So there is still a ways to go.
 
Yesterday I cut the corners off the hard board base and then primed it. I was going to hit the track area with some brown, but the nozzle on the spray can was clogged, so I put it to soak in some mineral spirits to see if I can unclog it.

I also got the windows installed in the walk way.


I started installing the roof. The roofing material is made of adhesive backed paper, it says "Starliner" on the back. Bar Mills laser cut it into strips the correct width to apply with a small over lap. Then you burnish the edge of the over lap and it looks like raised seam roofing. It seems to be working out pretty well so far.

Kinda hard to see the seams in this photo. I'm sure they will show up better when painted. I plan on spraying it with some Rustoleum "Aluminum" and then rusting it.
 
Another update - yesterday I got all the roofing material on and then formed the roofs. Today I discovered that I used the wrong internal braces on the large roof so I had to cut them out and glue in the correct ones. I'm not sure if I read the instructions wrong, or if the instructions were incorrect. In any case, it was an easy fix.

I also got the roof cap strips on almost all the roofs. Again, Bar Mills skimped on the strip wood but luckily I had some that would make do. They also didn't laser cut enough of the small strips of roofing even though there was plenty of material to do so, so I'm going to have to cut some with my knife. Oh well. I sent them an email. :)

Here are the roofs. A few need the cap strips finished off, then I can hit them with some silver and rust them up!


I also started on the stairs. These are kind of neat - they provide a spacer and you build all three sets at once. You cut them apart when you are done. I pre-painted, but some of the treads needed to go on with the unpainted side up, and the inside of the risers needs paint, so I'm just going to paint them again now they are assembled.

Oh, and I painted the base and glued a piece of track to it.
 
Things are slowing down a little, it's getting to some fiddly stuff.

I glued down some track and painted it with brown for rust. Then I installed some timbers for a crossing for the truck path.


I also painted the roofs silver and put some rust on them. They need more rust yet.


After the glue for the crossing drys then I can ballast the track. I think after that I can start gluing the buildings into position.
 
Progress is a little slow now - lots of waiting for stuff to dry. Yesterday I got some ballast down on the track, then I had to wait for the glue to dry.

Today I started putting a grimy wash on the ballast, but the wash loosened up the ballast glue, so now I need to let that dry again.

In any case, the track looks like this now.


I think some more grime around the track and then I can start gluing the buildings down. Then things will speed up a little bit.
 
I added some more grime to the ballast and then went ahead and glued down the first building.


Then I remembered that I'm waiting for some nut, bolt and washer castings to arrive, so I can't install the walkway, other building or support yet.

But I should be able to start doing some ground cover around the first building, and I can finish the small porch outside the office. So there is still work that can be done.
 
My NBW castings (well, moldings) came today, so I managed to get those installed. Man those 1-3/4" bolts are tiny. I see why they sell them in packs of 200, I think I launched at least 3 of them, never to be seen again.

I also used the NBW castings that came with the kit on the support beams. There were just enough to do all the outer bolts, and four inners. But of course I launched one and can't find it. Guess I'll go to the hobby store and buy some more.

You can sort of see the bolts in this photo. I need to hit them with some rust and then I can install the support.
 
I went to the local hobby shop today to get some more NBW castings, but of course when I got home I discovered I bought the wrong ones. Sigh, guess I'll have to go to the hobby shop again. Oh darn.

But, since the walkway was finished I decided to bite the bullet and glue down the second building! I made sure everything was lined up like I wanted and put on the glue.


Next steps will be to start putting ground cover around the buildings. Mostly gravel and weeds I think. I need to figure out how the road is going to come into the building too.
 
Guess I didn't post an update yesterday. I did go back to the LHS again and I helped support their business by purchasing more than just the $3 package of NBW. I also picked up a resin truck model (first resin kit for me) and a Red Caboose model of a GN Western Fruit Express reefer.

I installed the one NBW casting I needed and glued the overhang support into place.


Next up is gluing down gravel and the various platforms.
 
I'm not dead yet, just haven't gotten a lot of time to work on this. But I did get a couple of things done.

I got the trim boards installed.


The rails for the crane are painted and installed.


And I started putting the roofs on.


I think I may pull the windows and add some glue. The adhesive doesn't appear to be very strong, and there isn't much surface area. Some of the windows pop out of the wall if you just look at them wrong.
 
I think I may pull the windows and add some glue. The adhesive doesn't appear to be very strong, and there isn't much surface area. Some of the windows pop out of the wall if you just look at them wrong.
I generally do that on all Bar Mills and similar kit windows. A small dot of white glue in each corner, I use Aleene's Original Tacky Glue because it seems to work best for me.
 
Got a little more done yesterday. First thing was to remove all the windows and put them back in with some canopy glue so they stick better. I think this will be the default action for me from now on.

After that I decided it was time to install the roofs. After some test fitting and such I put on some tacky glue and stuck down the roofs. The interface between the walkway roof and the main roofs isn't the best, but I guess with a bunch of flashing it will turn out okay.


I also glued the two dormers on but figured I'd better let that glue dry for a bit before installing the roof. I might also put some black paint inside the dormers before putting the roofs on.


And then we will be doing flashing. That will be fun.
 
I'm enjoying watching the progress on your Tylick Tool structure and like how it's shaping up. Watching your progress reminds me that I have a Bar Mills kit that I purchased several years ago and even without a spot on the layout for the kit, I should build it anyway.

Keep up the good progress and looking forward to the next post.

Greg
 
I'm enjoying watching the progress on your Tylick Tool structure and like how it's shaping up. Watching your progress reminds me that I have a Bar Mills kit that I purchased several years ago and even without a spot on the layout for the kit, I should build it anyway.

Keep up the good progress and looking forward to the next post.

Greg
Thanks for the kind words. It's going a little slow right now, but I keep doing small bits of work.

Yesterday I got the roofs on the dormers and then started putting on the flashing. I know that this is not how flashing is supposed to go, but the way they have you assemble the roofing material makes it impossible to flash it correctly.

The correct thing would have been to leave the roofing material off and apply it after installing the roofs. I completely understand why they have you do it this way, but it kind of bugs me that the flashing is wrong. When I built the Empire Stove building a while ago, I actually used some tin foil to make valley flashing so it looks more correct. I guess I could have done that here, but I didn't. Oh well. The instructions don't talk about flashing at all, and the photos all have a complete lack of flashing.

Here's a photo of the walkway flashing. I still need to figure out what to do about the peaks.


Here are the dormers with their flashing. Same issue with the peaks.


Here I'm installing the rafter tails on asymmetric building. They don't provide rafter tails for the other roof, which is fine. The assembly order makes it difficult to install the rafter tails on the side with the walkway but I manage to get them in there too.
 
Here's a photo of new metal roof system.

1593881219743.png


Having experience with metal roof in the commercial world, Older metal roofs were repaired using a asphalt (a rubber product is more modern repair material) based material, almost like roofing cement and the roofers covered the joints were water could penetrant the roof system. Repairs usually were not neat.

Just a thought, could you cut down on the width of the flashings to make them stand out less and then extend the flashing a bit bewlo the edge of the roof. On the peak just take a cut piece of flashing and fold it over the opening and then tar the piece. Note the flashing roof edges on the building to the right on wood pilings.

1593882125005.png


Looking good!!!

Greg
 
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Thanks Greg. I was thinking about bodging some tar on there. I agree that the flashing is a little large now that I look at it again, but it's stuck down pretty well, so I don't know if I can get it off. Ah well, I'll just paint it, rust it and tar it a bit.
 



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