In-ko-pah RR: The Mineral Ridge Mill

[chester]

I'll echo what has already been said about the look you achieved, very nice. Do you need to seal this work now to protect it?

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks!

Chester, I give it a coat of Krylon UV resistant matte clear to protect it from the sun.

[Ray Dunakin]

BTW, something I forgot to mention... some kind soul had an order of corrugated metal sent to me, anonymously, from Rainbow Ridge. However, by that time I'd already sheathed everything except the sorting house, so I decided to stick with the handmade stuff and save the Rainbow Ridge stuff for another structure.

[Ray Dunakin]

More progress...

I decided that a sign at the top of the mill would look great. Such signs, displaying the company name, were common. So I began by masking the the background. Then I stippled on a couple different shades of dark gray, to represent faded, peeled black paint:




I designed the sign on the computer and printed it out on self-adhesive vinyl. The font I used is only to give me the general dimensions. As I cut out the letters, I modified them slightly -- squaring the serifs, eliminating that pointy thing in the middle, etc:




The vinyl was then positioned on the model. Getting it off the backing intact was a bit tricky. Some small bits had to be placed separately. Also you'll notice that I've moved the A and L closer to the R in the word "mineral". I should have done that on the computer, before printing it out, but got lazy:




Using the vinyl as a stencil, I stippled the lettering with a "dirty" mix of white paint. The vinyl couldn't be pressed down into the grooves of the corrugated metal, so there is a lot of touching up that needs to be done:




The letters were touched up by hand with a small brush. I also did some work on the background, reducing the number of "peeled" spots. Then the wall was weathered with craft acrylics and even a bit of RustAll:




I installed the windows in the sorting house temporarily and shot some pics of it in place on the mill. I still haven't glazed the windows yet:










That's it for now. Enjoy!

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[lab-dad]

Great idea!
That looks killer dude!
Mj

[Ray Dunakin]

I'm doing some work on the doors of the mill. There are two. This is the rear door, which will be located near the top of the street next to the ore bin. For this door I wanted to do something to make it interesting, so I decided to have a sheet of plywood nailed up over the upper panels of the door.

The door itself a Grandt Line part, which was given some subtle wood grain prior to painting. The doorknob was made by heating one end of a thin styrene rod. This causes it to form a nice rounded knob.

I found a good photo of old plywood online, reduced it to fit and printed it on self-adhesive vinyl. This was applied to .010" styrene, which was then glued to the door. I carefully pressed some texture into it, but only in a few spots as I was worried about possibly damaging the print. The sign was printed separately and applied directly to the "plywood". I weathered it by hand using craft acrylics. I think I went overboard on the sign but it won't be seen very much anyway.







That's all for now...

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[finescalerr]

The self adhesive vinyl print is a clever idea. -- Russ

[artizen]

Wonderful work. Here's hoping that the vinyl stands up to outside use!

[Ray Dunakin]

I've used the vinyl for a lot of signs on the layout. Some have had several years of exposure now and still look good.

[lab-dad]

That looks great but the old sign on the newer door looks out of place.
May be move the sign next to the door and put a newer "closed" sign on the door?
All in all a very interesting door!
Mj

[Hydrostat]

I enjoy every step. Both idea and implementation are very well done. But I'm completely with Marty. The sign is somewhat overdone. Why not use a "new" sign?

Volker

[Ray Dunakin]

Time to wrap this one up, at least for a while...

First off, I changed the sign on the rear door of the mill. The original sign was ok but looked older than the plywood it was mounted on. As you can see in this photo, I also weathered the corrugated metal. And I finished the ore bin, adding tie rods, nut/bolt/washer details, and final paint:




I also finished and installed the windows, and the main door. Like the rear door, this was a Grandt Line casting with added wood grain and cracks. I still have to build some steps up to the door:






The loading dock door was scratch built from a sheet of 4mm Sintra PVC with scribed planks and wood grain. Styrene strips were used for the trim. This is supposed to represent an internal, sliding door, so I added some horizontal scraps across the face of the door. The sign was hand painted:










Here are a couple shots of the mill with all the doors and windows installed:






Here are some shots of the ore bin and sorting house showing the completed ore bin. It was painted with several shades of brown, starting with a golden brown, then a medium brown, followed by a darker, redder brown. Then I added some dark, almost black streaks, and finished with some light gold streaks. As mentioned above I also added tie rods and nut/bolt/washer details. Some of these are made from nails and actually help hold the bin together:






To prevent rainwater accumulating in the upper level ore chute, I added a brass tube for drainage:




For now, I'm calling it complete. Eventually though, I will add some lights, as well as the tram tracks inside the sorting house, and the tram bridges leading to the ore bin/sorting house.

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[Chuck Doan]

All of this is Very effective. The doors are really nice-the plywood looks perfect. Just seems too nice to put outside!

[finescalerr]

That's what I keep saying but Ray never listens .... -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Well, I had a tiny bit of modeling time this week and was able to squeeze in a little project related to the mill -- I built and installed the 15" track extending from the mine adit (entrance) above the mill.

I started with a length of Peco Code 100, On30 flex track. I cut off all but a few of the cross ties. The remaining ties were used to hold the rails in gauge while I added new, larger ties. I made new ties from 1/4" strips of 6mm Sintra PVC board. I scribed simulated wood grain into the ties by scraping them lengthwise with a razor saw.

The ties were sprayed with white primer, then painted with a light, brownish-gray latex paint (Behr's "Shitake" color). When this dried, I went over the ties with a thinned mix of dark brown and black. Then I dry-brushed a little more of the base color over the center of the ties, where they would be worn by the feet of miners pushing ore cars. I finished off the ties by spraying them with Krylon UV-resistant matte clear.

I used Shinohara HO rail spikes to spike the rails to the ties. Unfortunately these are slightly longer than the thickness of the ties, and the track was going to be mounted on a concrete surface. So I had to use wire cutters to nip about 3/16" off the tip of each spike before driving it into the tie.

Here's a shot of the entire 30" length of track, with one end curved to fit the interior of the mine:




A close up of the track in position. The ground outside the mine is made of mortar, grit and small rocks. When I made it, I used a narrow board to create a level path for the track:




I used the same mix of mortar, grit and dirt , with a bit of concrete pigment, to build up the ground around the track. Later I will use some stains to add more color to this "soil" and make it look more like typical mine tailings:






Now I just have to build a bridge to connect the tracks to the top of the mill:




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