Details, details, details Part 1

I've started the process of cleaning, painting, and weathering the myriad of castings used in my mill build. Over the years I admit to making this my stopping point in painting and weathering details. Meaning I would do it to a point, but would leave a bunch of detail parts undone. I thought it much to tedious, and many times felt the process was not worth my while. But with the Twin Mills Deer Creek kit I've had a change of heart. Maybe its the isolation of Covid, and maybe its personal health issues, but I've taken on this part of the build with consistency of daily modeling.

The castings are of 2 different types; polyurethane resin and metal castings. Brett Gallant describes that washing the castings is a waste of time, that he does not use a silicon release agent in his molding process so therefore prewashing is not necessary.

I've always washed my castings, and even though the kit was purchased at least a decade ago I eliminated the washing and started detailing. I still filed all the pieces necessary to get rid of casting lines, and uneven bottom surfaces so the each piece stands correctly in its final resting place. Many of these pieces will need workbench wooden legs applied so a good bottom rough up of the underside will be necessary for glue adhesion and wood to metal contact.

The technique combination I've used are my own I suppose, but what I do is simply review and copy  techniques from the myriad of blogs, YouTube, and magazines both digital and paper. It enables me to see what I don't like and what I like. 

Here is the process I am taking to get these pieces completed.

All pieces are first sanded or filed to be readied for primer eliminating spurs and mold lines. Rattlecan Scalecoat grey primer is applied to every piece. 

I used Scalecoat silver, Floquil weyer green, even SP Daylight Red for initial coloring of individual pieces. Initially bright, they get dulled later, along with everything else. The Scalecoat silver is used on trashcans, tools, and metal bars. The SP Daylight red and Floquil weyer green was used for bottles and some of the paint cans, After the paint  dries I'm ready for  staining. For this process I used pan pastels Burnt Sienna Shade, Raw Umber Tint, Raw Umber Dark, Neutral Gray, and Pearlescent Orange, along with Doc O'Brians weathering powders Rusty Brown, Rusty Red and Gritty Yellow and lastly a couple of Joel Bragdon powders, namely a rust and grey used mostly for mixing or changing shades. Do they mix well? Yes - you bet! Greys in this case, with some experimenting mix and lighten many of the Pan Pastels used as a base. I use a dental tool to push a small amount of powder onto a small plastic pallet. If I wish to lighten it, then I push out a small amount of grey powder separately. I use the flat edge of the dental tool to grind the powder to a fine consistency, and if mixing is required I repeat the grinding process for the mixer. Mixing powders to the right color comes with experience and repeated use of the technique. The more you do the better you get though, One needs to be willing to try, repeat, repeat

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

In general terms a heavier darker stain might be described as a paste, and the lightest stains could be describe as wet or thin.  I also take care to not blob a brush with too much stain, nor pick up any powder on the brush that's not fully combined with the IPA. Take your time, do as little or as much as you want, check your patience level. Again this is a mix of techniques and materials. Where you see green and silver is paint, the rest is staining. Lastly I dry brush in white stain to highlight these pieces. Some of this material will be only seen in the shadows; for instance those workbenches inside some of the buildings.

I would like to light up several of the mill structures and bring these details into the scene. I would hope to finish this part of the build by end of year. When done I'll try to shoot some more of them for the next installment.

The machinery deck in the new mill

 I started the work on the new mill deck in July and after some distraction and a much needed trip to Jamaica I'm back working the machinery deck on the new mill 

The first piece built was the log haul used to carry logs from the pond up to the cutting deck. The lower legs on the haul will be covered by "log pond water" and will pretty much disappear from view as will many of the structures lower ends that are sitting in the pond.

The log deck and haul drive were the second piece built. This connects from the log haul and pulls logs by chain drive up onto the log deck.

From there the log deck and the haul drive drop the log to the log carriage which carries the log to the saw which is a double blade circular husk saw

The log carriage and the husk saw looks like this

I've captured it both on the modeling bench and as it will look on the model. Pictured also is the husk saw, and the live and dead rolls which push the material into the old mill. Again I used a ancient bottle of "blacken it" to create a good metal finish for all the casted gears, rollers, and the rest. The code 70 track for the log haul provides trackage and helps to smoothly push the log toward the saw. Nothing has been glued down yet as I'm being careful with my elevations and want to make sure everything matches up well on the layout. Scenery bases, with dirt is going to add something to the overall height, but when those final adjustments are made and I'm confident that I'm doing the model justice I'll glue things down.

The sorting and transfer tables, tool and donkey sheds, log brow, unloading platform, slab conveyor and slab bin OH MY!

 I've been building the Sierra West Mill kit and I have made good progress these past 6 months. The latest flurry of activity has me at the middle of the build. Its best in my opinion to not look too far ahead, but to keep your focus and attention on the here and now. The project seemingly never lets go. In the build manual I'm on page 58 out of 120 pages. So it is getting to the hump of the matter anyways. And it absolutely continues to be a fun build.

The sorting and transfer tables with a small transfer cart was straightforward, although mounting the rails in 5 minute epoxy was a challenge. I ended up using HOn3 spacing. It came out like this;

I had to hack off several scale feet of the sorting table to get it to fit in the space I have which is an overall width  of just 16." Getting the diorama fitted properly in the available space has been an ongoing concern.

The tool and donkey sheds were interesting to build, as they were constructed using 4x4's and were delicate to put together.  Only the donkey shed has a roof at this point. When I start getting into the details of the build the steam donkey with its exhaust poking out of the roof should look good. Here are some photos of the sheds.

Note that at the end of the deck and pointing to the log brow will be a triangular crane that will be used to lift logs off log cars and dump them onto the log brow. The log brow is tilted and angled so the the logs roll off the brow and into the pond.

The log brow was not a difficult build, but its scale bothers me. I hope that when its sitting in the mill pond it will look different. Operationally the movement of log cars in and out of the mill will add to the operations around the mill. 

The last pieces built during this round are the slab bin and slab conveyor. The conveyor will transport wood out of the new mill and connect with the bin.

That is the latest. In progress is the log conveyor to the new mill. Which I'll show next time. Thanks for reading about the Pino Grande mill build on my Placerville branch Rr. 

The log pond Boat House, saw dust shed, and the saw dust conveyor

Three additional builds in the last few weeks, though I've taken some time off to tend to other hobbies and events. 
First on the list is the log pond Boat House build. Shown here in its completed form minus details.

This was a fun build, mostly because I look forward to seeing all those pilings sitting in water one day on the layout. 
I bought more Woodland Scenics foam to continue to sort out the elevation deltas between pond - table black - and the various entrances to the two mills. Once I've painted all the details what with boats, tanks, various tools and two interior work benches those curious to take a look will find plenty of eye candy. Mostly, I want to finish the buildings - add interior details so I can add roofs and do all the building exterior details possible before I start the installation on the layout. The builds seem to get more tedious as I go along, but I'm at least at the halfway point and still enjoying the journey.

Another point of view. On the layout I may reverse the building orientation - front to back  so that the Boat House is against the back wall and the 2 mills are in front. I'll know better how to pose them once we get it all down there.
The saw dust shed was an easy build. Just a wood slated roof supported by 2 side walls for support. Here is a photo of it and the completed saw dust conveyor.

The lower end of the saw dust conveyor sits opposite the lean too or saw dust shed.
The conveyor was more difficult, involving layers of details to the structure, getting the legs all the correct length, adding a pulley to the high end and a conveyor belt. Still unfinished due to the saw dust I'll being dumping all over it later on.
Like almost all structures on this kit, I start with a template, which I cover in wax paper. The bottom pieces are spot glued to the wax paper. Just one or two drops of ZAP canopy glue on the side down  minimizes/eliminates wax paper coming off and sticking to the glued down pieces. 
FYI, I use canopy glue for all wood to wood or wood to paper applications. I use CA for metal to plastic applications.
Here is a photo of the bents being built.

Then the beginnings of the conveyor.

Then the full conveyor still on its paper base. This is a case where I followed the directions and wish I hadn't, as the all the bents were glued directly to the paper template, I assume for a stable platform, but I spent hours pulling, cutting and sanding paper off the bottom of each bent leg. 

I won't be able to fit the conveyor into its proper place due to my space restrictions. It will fit sideways with a brick firewall catching and piling up all the saw dust from the mill. With these 3 pieces done or nearly so, I'm moving onto the elevated slab bin. I'll write about that next time. 

Additions

Its seems longer then 8 days, since I posted a progress report. But the last one was on the 2nd and today's the 10th. 
Modeling abounds in those 8 days along with a stab at figuring out the location and size of the mill pond. I've had to order more foam board to help get all the levels correct.
Additionally, I am still fidgeting  where the buildings have to fit in the space. With nothing glued down it's tedious, but until I'm finished building this thing I have to live with it. 

I got to the point where I needed to open up the foam board and use the table top as the pond to get to that next level of fit. I messed around with trying to get trackage into the mill site, and wrote some additional track ideas on the foam at bottom left. I may not be able to sort that out until the model is on the layout.

Log ramps are built with entry trackage on the inside of the mill. The dam is built, its right up against the uncut foam. You can see it peeking out left and right. The two sided rough drying shed without the roof is also complete and resides on the opposite end of the mill.

One last thought for today. I am so happy I took the time to stain every last piece of wood for this project on Day 1. Now I just look up the bag number for the dimensions I need, pull the wood and I'm good to go. As I cut and fit legs or supports the ends are prime wood with no stain, so I go back to the staining and painting table in the garage with a hand full of parts, decks, legs etc and restain the bare ends. Why not - it looks so much better in the end.

Next is the Log Pond dock and Dynamite Shack dock. I am happy to be building that which will stand in the modeled water. 

See you all next time and happy modeling

Space considerations

As previously mentioned , the space needed for the entire Twin Mills Deer Creek diorama is not near what the Placerville Branch layout can provide. 
I decided on woodland scenic's foam board as the diorama's base and took it to the layout and and cut it to the shape of the space available. Once that was done I started by placing the basic four sides of the new mill on the layout to gain perspective as to how this might work not just for space, but for view perspective as well

 

In the above photo, what with only single building half way constructed its a real guessing game what will be included and what will not. I've done enough of these fit ups and compression's to know that it takes time. The more data you have, meaning the more pieces placed on the available space the more the space reveals itself. I know, sounds a bit airy, but its how I at least work out a "what'll fit," problem like this. Here are some other on layout prospective's with the new Mill shell moved around.

My next step was to take everything up to the modeling room, put out a small table, put the foam on it and as I build, move the pieces around to see if i can sort it out that way.  I probably have a good year of building ahead of me, so no rush. I'll move things around when I have a fresh notion.

I'll keep adding to the structures until all structures are built, then I'll sort it out from there. The lower 2 photos show the new and old mills partially built and the boiler house shell tagged onto the new mill
More building next time. Next up; the drying shed.

The New Mill sides

left wall completed, right wall in process

The new mill sides incorporated some different techniques that I had not tried before.  The framing composed mostly of 8 x 8’s has been the same for all of the buildings and is just a matter of cutting accurately and gluing neatly. Easy to say, harder to do. It just comes with practice.

both walls completed with siding

Siding is composed of 2 x 12’s at the bottom in the horizontal plane, 3 strips wide, 3' total. The vertical pieces are composed of 2 x 10’s. The manufacturer suggested mixing the 2 x 10’s and the 2 x 12’s on the vertical plane, but I went with 2 x 10’s only. I didn’t think mixed width siding boards would look proper.
The siding needs lots of work before applying them to the frames.  I roughed them up with a metal brush to give them a weathered appearance. I followed by 400 grit sanding sticks. to lighten areas that I thought had stained too dark. The next step was to recreate a broken or faded yellow paint, mottled with age.  Here again my application was different then the suggested one. The recommended applicator was terry cloth. Looking around my own supplies I came up with artists sponges instead. These worked fine and gave me a very light mottled yellow look to the siding. I dipped the sponge into water first, then squeezed it out. I used a aged yellow acrylic as my color and after getting some on the sponge dabbed it against some cardboard to rid the sponge of most of the paint.  Then I applied what was left on my sponge to my weathered siding.
That was it. The siding takes time of course. It is board on board and care needs to be taken to get them right. 
Last, I came up with a feasible way to understand and correct for the space I have to put this model onto the layout. I had mentioned in earlier posts that there were space restrictions. That means I ain't got enough room for everything so I will have to make choices and compromises. That will be for next time. Stay safe and sane out there. We're all in this together. 

Old Mill sorting floor and lower deck

The next 2 decks on the Pino Mill are the sorting floor deck and the lower deck of the Old mill floors
Both can be seen here fitted to the raised old mill deck. The lower deck fits into the square void of the upper or elevated deck and the sorting deck sits to the right. These were fairly easy to construct and completes the old mill minus the machinery, pulleys, wires, chains etc which will bring this portion alive.
Before leaving this section I'll get bare wood restained as needed..
After that, I need to take some undocumented time out and works on a couple of loco items which John Gibson has installed sound. Mostly decaling and renumbering is in order and a ladders and railings reinstalled.
That along with getting all the castings primered for this project, repaint a brass tender so John can get the Tsunami decoder I bought for that installed. I imagine it will take a couple of weeks....and I'll be back after that with the New Mill build. That will be interesting as its paint on top of stain showing lots of age. The techniques I 'll use for that will be explained then.  See you Soon! And thanks for reading.

all old mill decks fitted together

the lower old mill deck and sorting floor