08-30-2010, 11:26 PM
Hi guys --
After looking at Kurts thread on his new layout, I just happened upon this picture, which made me think "this building is just crying to get onto my layout":
![[Image: pillsbury_mill.jpg]](http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/warehouse/pillsbury_mill.jpg)
The original Pillsbury mill building is a seven stories tall (counting the little part on the roof) stone building, and about 4 boxcars long - call it about 24" in H0 scale.
Lengthwise it is not too bad for available space on my layout - I can do 18" long and 6" deep, at the far left rear of this area - the area tentatively maked "GERN Mpls plant" (another inspiration by modelers on this forum :-) )
![[Image: first_street_yard.jpg]](http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/warehouse/first_street_yard.jpg)
But height wise 7 stories will be too tall for my shelf - here is a picture that shows the location on my layout with an old four story high (8.5") and 15" long printed paper building:
![[Image: CIMG0841.jpg]](http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/warehouse/CIMG0841.jpg)
You can see the bottom of the shelf above just over the building - by repositioning a light strip I could free up enough vertical space to allow a 10" tall building with 1.5" of space above it, without getting a light and heat source too close to the building.
Any suggestions on
1) how to cut down the prototype building to a 10" tall and 18" long representation - what elements would you keep and what would you drop to retain as much as possible of the look and feel of the building while still making it fit the space available ?
I'm thinking that if I number the floors 1-7 from bottom to top, and the columns 1 - 11, left to right, what I could perhaps dropcolumns 3 and 9, ie the middle column of each wing group of three, and retain floors 1 (loading dock), 3 (with blank space in center), 5 (rounded window in center), 6 (added floor, rounded window on sides) and a cut down floor 7 (roof).
2) How would you build up this building in layers to get the indentations etc ?
Looking at Kurt's work, I see that he is using two layers of 1 mm (.040") styrene for the recessed parts, and adding a layer of 2mm (0.080") styrene on the outside of the main 1 mm building part for the part of his building that comes further out. Same principle would work for the lower part of this building, I think.
How about achieving the look of the top stories here? Do you figure just some kind of strip on the wall under the last full length story, and a couple of strips to build the cornice at top of the building?
AFAIK, I can only get small plates of styrene (6" x 12") over here - the kind you get in bags from WS or Evergreen - not the big 4x8 foot sheets - how would you guys do the joints - vertically or horizontally?
3) What would you do to make the building look like it is made out of stone ?
Building will be at rear of layout - about 20" away from viewers at the closest - about the distance I took the photo above from. I know I can print out a pattern of stones (like in that old paper building in the picture above), and just glue that to some underlying material, and it won't look too horrible (if I use a better printer).
But if I went for something like Kurt's approach (layering styrene to get the indentations etc) - what can I do to get a stone building look surface? Is it just dumb of me to even consider doing this with styrene layers?
Lots of questions - hope people don't mind.
Suggestions gratefully accepted
Smile,
Stein
After looking at Kurts thread on his new layout, I just happened upon this picture, which made me think "this building is just crying to get onto my layout":
The original Pillsbury mill building is a seven stories tall (counting the little part on the roof) stone building, and about 4 boxcars long - call it about 24" in H0 scale.
Lengthwise it is not too bad for available space on my layout - I can do 18" long and 6" deep, at the far left rear of this area - the area tentatively maked "GERN Mpls plant" (another inspiration by modelers on this forum :-) )
But height wise 7 stories will be too tall for my shelf - here is a picture that shows the location on my layout with an old four story high (8.5") and 15" long printed paper building:
You can see the bottom of the shelf above just over the building - by repositioning a light strip I could free up enough vertical space to allow a 10" tall building with 1.5" of space above it, without getting a light and heat source too close to the building.
Any suggestions on
1) how to cut down the prototype building to a 10" tall and 18" long representation - what elements would you keep and what would you drop to retain as much as possible of the look and feel of the building while still making it fit the space available ?
I'm thinking that if I number the floors 1-7 from bottom to top, and the columns 1 - 11, left to right, what I could perhaps dropcolumns 3 and 9, ie the middle column of each wing group of three, and retain floors 1 (loading dock), 3 (with blank space in center), 5 (rounded window in center), 6 (added floor, rounded window on sides) and a cut down floor 7 (roof).
2) How would you build up this building in layers to get the indentations etc ?
Looking at Kurt's work, I see that he is using two layers of 1 mm (.040") styrene for the recessed parts, and adding a layer of 2mm (0.080") styrene on the outside of the main 1 mm building part for the part of his building that comes further out. Same principle would work for the lower part of this building, I think.
How about achieving the look of the top stories here? Do you figure just some kind of strip on the wall under the last full length story, and a couple of strips to build the cornice at top of the building?
AFAIK, I can only get small plates of styrene (6" x 12") over here - the kind you get in bags from WS or Evergreen - not the big 4x8 foot sheets - how would you guys do the joints - vertically or horizontally?
3) What would you do to make the building look like it is made out of stone ?
Building will be at rear of layout - about 20" away from viewers at the closest - about the distance I took the photo above from. I know I can print out a pattern of stones (like in that old paper building in the picture above), and just glue that to some underlying material, and it won't look too horrible (if I use a better printer).
But if I went for something like Kurt's approach (layering styrene to get the indentations etc) - what can I do to get a stone building look surface? Is it just dumb of me to even consider doing this with styrene layers?
Lots of questions - hope people don't mind.
Suggestions gratefully accepted
Smile,
Stein