Some recent work on the In-ko-pah RR

[Ray Dunakin]

I haven't had a lot of time for modeling so far this year, and what time I did have, has mostly been spent refurbishing older models. The newest structure is a through, plate girder bridge. Until now I've just had a crude temporary bridge made of wood, which has become badly warped:






I built a permanent replacement for it. My previous plate girder bridges were all made using a structural fiberglass material called G10. This time, I wanted to try making it out of Sintra. I used 6mm Sintra for the deck and sides. The interior braces were made from 1mm Sintra. The rest of the details are styrene.  I got a bit lazy on this bridge and decided to leave off the rivets -- where it's located, no one can get very close to it anyway. The underside of the bridge is strengthened with three lengths of 1/2" square acrylic tube, plus three sections of extruded aluminum angle for good measure.










I sprayed it with red primer followed by gloss black. Then I weathered it with a thin, alcohol wash of gray acrylic paint. Then I used RustAll to create reddish rusty streaks. Next I used Sophisticated Finishes' "Iron" and "Rust Solution".









Two of my earliest structures on the layout were really starting to show their age. The paint was faded and worn (beyond the intentional weathering). The clear plastic used in some of the windows had yellowed, fogged, and warped. Slide cover glass used in a few places had broken or fallen out. A couple signs were faded, and both structures had minor damage caused by a raccoon. One of the buildings still had incandescent "grain of rice" bulbs, which I wanted to replace with LEDs. Here are the "before" photos:












Here are the "after" photos:















Enjoy!

[Wesleybeks]

Always love pics of your Railway Ray.

The night shots are awesome

[finescalerr]

That photo of the Rock Shop door and window is convincing. -- Russ

[Bill Gill]

Ray, Good to see that your models are salvageable! Sounds like you've been having a hot spell there and I saw photos of plastic siding and stuff over in Arizona that really warped and sagged in the heat there. The new bridge is a good addition to the RR.

[Design-HSB]

Hi Ray, as always very impressive pictures, especially like the night shots.

[Ray Dunakin]

Recently I've been working on a new building for the town of Mineral Ridge. This will be a saloon called "The Grizzly Bar". That's a double pun -- not only the obvious "bar/bear", but also there is a piece of mining equipment called a "grizzly" consisting of a series of thick metal bars used to separate oversized rocks from the rest of the ore.

Anyway, this saloon has to fit an odd-shaped space underneath a mine tram bridge. There will be a small covered porch or patio area attached to the main building. I'm not going to post a step-by-step at this time because I plan to use this build in a magazine article. But for now I will post a few in-progress pics:













Enjoy!


PS -- On Thursday I'm leaving for my annual Nevada/Mojave ghost town trip, so I'll be offline for a while.

[Chuck Doan]

NIce to see progress. Hope you have a good trip. I always enjoy seeing your pictures and stories.

[finescalerr]

I like how you designed the structure to fit an unusual place. -- Russ

[Sami]

your Work is very fantastic !

[Ray Dunakin]

I've set aside my model of the Grizzly Bar saloon for now, and started work on a new building for the Mineral Ridge mine and mill. This will be the power house. It will eventually contain a diesel-powered generator, an air compressor for the mine, and possibly a blacksmith's shop.

The major components (walls, roof, etc) are made from 6mm Sintra:





This is the main room. There will be a smaller room added on one side. The floor is 3mm Sintra, and won't be glued in until after I get the roof installed:








The smaller room was also made with 6mm Sintra. I use these steel machinist's blocks to keep everything square:





Here, I've started adding the roof:





There are openings on the rear of each room, for access to the interior. The rear walls will be removable:





This is where the structure will sit on the layout:





Fitting the roof of the side room into the roof of the larger room was a bit tricky. I used scraps of Sintra and some Dynaflex 230 paintable sealant to fill the gaps:









Another shot of the structure temporarily placed on the layout:





The smaller room will only have one window, located close to the cliff, so there is no need to detail the interior there. But the large room has multiple windows, making the interior fairly visible. The interior is built as a separate model that slides into the rear of the building. Because the exterior will be clad with corrugated metal, for the interior I am simulating the appearance of a a wood-framed structure. The interior walls are scribed to give it a little bit of a corrugated look. The framework is built up out of strips of styrene:













That's all for now. Enjoy!

[finescalerr]

It would appear you have been busy. Satisfactory. -- Russ

[Greg Hile]

Well, I see you figured out which side has the thin sheet of plastic! 

Very nice! I especially like the interior framing. Looking forward to seeing more ...

[Bill Gill]

Another good start, Ray! I know you've said this before, but can you remind me what you use to bond the styrene to the Sintra?

[Ray Dunakin]

Bill, I use Weld-On 16. It's also sold under the "SciGrip" brand. It's for acrylics and most other plastics.

[Sami]

It's well done Ray !