First attempt - Scratchbuilding Yard Structures

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ctulanko

ctulanko

Member
After beginning the build of my first layout, I purchased a few plastic structures (Engine House, Diesel Fueling Station, Fuel facility, etc...) and kit bashed all of them to fit the Yard. While they were decent kits, I could not find exactly what I wanted or what would fit the yard, so I decided to try my hand at some scratch building. I used photos from the web for some of the structures and used photos from a kit or two for the mechanics and over the last couple of months, I was able to build several structures for the yard. I also learned quite a bit along the way and you can probably see progressively better construction in the photos I have linked below. As I am still new to this, there may have been something I did wrong or maybe missed and I am always open to suggestions; it's how you learn, so feel free to comment. It doesn't have to be exact for me, but something that appears both functional and realistic works for me and I have really enjoyed doing these projects. Note that all of the cables, pulleys, tie rods, etc... are all from scratch, but the ladders were actually purchased. Again, if something looks wrong, let me know, as I am still learning. Photos are listed in the order they were constructed and everything is in HO gauge.


Ash Pit- My first attempt at scratch building. Scored lines into wood so it looked like planks and recessed it into the table.

Ash Pit 1

Sand Tower- First time using metal. 3/4" copper joiner from Home Depot used for tower and brass sheet shaped and soldered to top. Pulleys are small cut tubes and there is a fill pipe(not shown) coming from a sand house(plastic house kit) with a scratch built wood sand pit(neither are shown). I also constructed it to fill Diesels on one side and Steam on the other. Diesel hoses can be moved up and down while remaining perpendicular to the ground.

Sand Tower 1
Sand Tower 2

Water Tower- I purchased a Walthers kit that was too big, so I scratch built with individual planks, wire straps and aluminum hood. Real hand made pulleys are functional and fill tube moves up and down. Walkway rails lumber used is too large and I need to re-do it, which will be a simple fix.

Water Tower 1
Water Tower 2
Water Tower 3

Coal Tower- Tried to construct it structurally like a real one using individual planks and support beams. All brass including the bucket is hand made and it moves up and down. Coal ramp also pivots on home made hardware and I used an outside winch with cover and activation lever to save space, instead of one in a house as it showed in my research photo. Hanging functional lamps will be added later.
Coal Tower 1
Coal Tower 2
Coal Tower 3
Coal Tower 4

Freight House- This was actually a DMP kit bash. their freight house was too small, so I enlarged it to fit my layout. First set of steps are all wood and from scratch. I tried to build the roof like a real house, even though you can't see it. The center steps wound up in the way, so I have since moved them to the end of the dock.(not shown in photos)
Freight House 1
Freight House 2
Freight House 3

Passenger Station- (Under construction) I plan on using more brass for this station and shrinking the size down a bit to fit two rails.
Research Pic


Thanks in advance for any advice,

Carl
http://www.scalerocketry.com/mrr/prr.html
 
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Carl - if these are your first attempts then I can't imagine what you will be building in few years!

Keep it up - they all look great.
 


Thanks guys, I appreciate your comments. The coal tower was the most challenging, as I only had one photo of the front so I had to guess at some of it, but I think it was my best one out of the group. Laying individual planks really gave it a more realistic look, so I plan on doing the same to future builds, of which there are several.

I do have one question though, which would be where can I get some of the low heat solder they use for assembling brass engines? I am building the Passenger Platform out of brass and while I have used standard solder, low heat solder would probably allow me to file/sand the excess off a little better. I have the side posts nearly completed and am starting on the upper cross frame and members.
 
If you think they look good now, wait until you paint them. They will take on a whole new level of realism and you'll be ultra impressed with yourself! (It's a really good feeling)

One thing I might suggest for the future is Bass wood over Balsa. (I assume you used Balsa due to the way the wood looks in the pictures. If I'm mistaken, my apologies)

Balsa is easier to cut, but it's also not as strong and will soak up paint like a sponge which sometimes leads to warping. Bass wood is a lot sturdier and doesn't warp as much when you paint it. And it's still plenty easy to work with.

I actually find it easier to work with because you don't squish the wood when your knife starts to get dull. It still makes a clean cut. Plus you don't accidentally snap your pieces in half when you put too much pressure on one.

The advantage balsa has over bas is the weight. That's a great advantage if you are building a model airplane. But for these kinds of structures the added weight is meaningless and the extra durability of Bass is a huge advantage.

Bass wood should be right next to the Balsa at your local hobby shop. The prices should be similar. On the flip side if you've had good results with Balsa and you're comfortable with it....don't fix what ain't broke!
 
CMMR said:
Carl - if these are your first attempts then I can't imagine what you will be building in few years!

Keep it up - they all look great.
Click to expand...

Agreed!

Skipjacks said:
If you think they look good now, wait until you paint them. They will take on a whole new level of realism and you'll be ultra impressed with yourself! (It's a really good feeling)

One thing I might suggest for the future is Bass wood over Balsa. (I assume you used Balsa due to the way the wood looks in the pictures. If I'm mistaken, my apologies)

Balsa is easier to cut, but it's also not as strong and will soak up paint like a sponge which sometimes leads to warping. Bass wood is a lot sturdier and doesn't warp as much when you paint it. And it's still plenty easy to work with.

I actually find it easier to work with because you don't squish the wood when your knife starts to get dull. It still makes a clean cut. Plus you don't accidentally snap your pieces in half when you put too much pressure on one.

The advantage balsa has over bas is the weight. That's a great advantage if you are building a model airplane. But for these kinds of structures the added weight is meaningless and the extra durability of Bass is a huge advantage.

Bass wood should be right next to the Balsa at your local hobby shop. The prices should be similar. On the flip side if you've had good results with Balsa and you're comfortable with it....don't fix what ain't broke!
Click to expand...

Also agreed. The first scratch built model I built was out of Balsa due to not knowing about Bass Wood, and warped so much when I painted it it became unusable. A lot of that probably, in hindsight, was due to my lack of skills at the time.

IF your structures are Balsa, then as Skipjacks has recommended - for your next try Bass Wood, I think you will be a lot happier (if possible) with the end result. :)
 
I actually built all of them using Basswood and plywood, as balsa is too grainy and doesn't work well for this scale of model. all of the supports are basswood and the planking was cut in 3/32" wide strips from 1/64" plywood sheet for the coal tower and I used thicker 1/32" ply for the vertical strips on the water tower to define some separation of the boards. If I missed sanding or edging something, let me know because I don't want them to look like balsa in the future. :)

Thanks for the tips!
 
One thing here - don't worry about how your structures look in a picture. Pictures tend to be very unforgiving things. My scratch built stuff is all bass wood and when I take pictures of it, it too looks "fuzzy", similar to the way balsa looks now it was mentioned. As said, photographs are very unforgiving when it comes to picking up the smallest of smallest little thing.

Keep doing what you are doing - it works and looks great!
 
ctulanko said:
I actually built all of them using Basswood and plywood, as balsa is too grainy and doesn't work well for this scale of model. all of the supports are basswood and the planking was cut in 3/32" wide strips from 1/64" plywood sheet for the coal tower and I used thicker 1/32" ply for the vertical strips on the water tower to define some separation of the boards. If I missed sanding or edging something, let me know because I don't want them to look like balsa in the future. :)

Thanks for the tips!
Click to expand...

It was just the pictures then. The wood looked light in color like balsa and the grain seemed to be too wide for bass. But like Wombat said that's probably just the pictures. Photos of tiny models like this are unforgiving. Things always look distorted. It has NOTHING to do with your sanding and detail work. (That's outstanding! And any blemishes you do have will be covered by paint.)

I even looked really close at your pictures before making my comments, certain that they were balsa based on the color and grain. That's close up photos for you! You'll have the same issues after they are painted. You'll hold the models in your hand and they will look phenomenal. On your layout they will look even better! Then you'll take a picture of them and see them at 5 times their real life size on your computer monitor and you will be annoyed at all the imperfections you see.

The increased size will blow up any perfections, and the lighting for the camera will shine a spot light on them. Just like when you look at a mint condition coin in a microscope. It looks clean to the naked eye but under the microscope its got dents and pits and scratches all over it. It's a real pain in the rump when you try to sell and N Scale item on eBay and you end up with pictures for the auction that make your mint condition item look like a gorilla beat it to death with a rock.

So be prepared for that when you photograph it. Make sure you judge your own work by how it looks in real life, not by how it looks in a big photograph. (Either that or spend the time to learn how to take quality photographs so your stuff looks just as good in pictures as it does on your layout. That's on my list of things to do. :cool:)
 


Great Job Carl. I guess I'm going to give you that advice you already thanked me for. What did you have planned for sand storage. I know years ago I seen a cut in half damaged covered hopper in some RR photo used as the storage unit. I built it and it looks great although it's not a part of my layout at the moment. Think about that idea. I don't want to steal your thread so maybe I'll post it some where else.

George
 
Thanks again guys...much appreciate it. For sand storage, I have a small left over Walthers plastic house with a supported fill pipe running up, over and to the top of the sand tower. up against one side of the house is a little scratch built wood sand box. I just finished the passenger station build and will start another thread for it.
 
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