Milling about Feed Mill (Walthers)

[Outback]

I am building a Walthers Cornerstone Sunrise Feed Mill and am sort of stuck as to what colour to do the roofs. I have the loading dock roof already on the structure and painted in a moss green colour, but feel that if the rest of the roofs are this colour, it will be too much green.

So I was wondering what others have done with this structure roof-wise to help me decide what colour or what direction to go with this aspect of the kit so I can get it completed and ready for weathering.

Here is the kit as it is built now...

Ideas? Photos of yours?

 

[tomstockton]

Larry,

I have one of these, but I haven't built it yet -- so I'm not speaking from experience about this building. I do not know what the kit's roof looks like, but have you considered corrugated aluminum? If the kit does not have corrugated roofing, adding that would help to set it apart from other models of the same kit. It would add some expense, unless you already have enough on hand. Plastistruct makes some nice styrene corrugated sheets. Or you could use K&S or Campbell corrugated aluminum, cut to scale-sized sheets and attached one sheet at a time as the "real" stuff would be. Then, depending on how "new" the roofing was, you could weather it to show age (or newness).

Regards,
Tom Stockton

 

[flh80]

Most of the time roofs were painted Silver to reflect the sun and the building itself with white sides, probbly cause white was the cheapest color. Go to Google Image tab and type in "Feed Mill", you'll see a lot of old structures.

 

[Outback]

Yeah, I have been googling various forms of "feed mill", Walthers feed mill", "sunrise feed mill", "Prairie Feed mill", "typical feed mill", &c and have found 3 main roof colours. Black, red or brown.

My mill structure is painted a satin sand so any colour will "go" with it, and it is typical in that it is painted a light colour. I guess I can always repaint the roofs if the green is too much, but I'd rather just do one paint job. Maybe an earthen red would suit with the sand and brown foundation. I might investigate that idea more before I settle.

D

 

[Outback]

Well, after a couple days of thought I figured it out. I decided that based on the design of the roof I could get away with claiming that when the mill was built they used rolled asphalt shingle to roof it with. So, I went with that theory and painted most of the roofs to represent reddish asphalt roofing. But, I also kept the green loading dock roof I had already painted and installed, and additionally painted the office section roofs the same green.

My reasoning? These areas have been re-roofed with new materials and in as such were done in tin/aluminum (hence their shiney result) on the same horizontal pattern as the asphalt rolled roofing on the older sections.

Below you can see the progression and results of the still under construction structure...

First test on main roof...

The panels were first painted w/ flat black krylon to represent the tar/asphalt base then when dry were over-sprayed lightly with red oxide primer to give the stippled effect of the red shingle chipping.

Shown w/ green office sections in place and shed roofs painted and awaiting separation from spru...

Below w/ cupola and other fittings and the shed roofs ready for installation....

I am more or less happy with the effect and contrasts of the sections and expect that final weathering will tie it all together in a more concise manner.

D

 

[flh80]

Yeah that looks OK, I was assuming it had a steel roof but that does look like a rolled roof. Most mills had metal roofs but would have ribs going verticle.

 

[Outback]

With most of the construction now completed, I have set the Mill on location for pondering prior to starting on any detailing or weathering. This has brought the idea that perhaps the storage shed extension could be removed to open up the view to the bridge over the river.

My thoughts at present are to remove the shed extension and replace it with a Rix 35ft Grain Bin and elevating leg. The storage shed could then be used on another site, w/ another building, or even stored for future unknown use.

Here is the arrangement so far...

Thoughts on ditching the shed and opening up the bridge view?

 

[lears2005]

I think it looks good just how it is