Model Of The Month: Time to build Union Station!

[Bill Nelson]

have busy with a lot of family stuff, but finally got some work done on the station. Am close to rounding the corner and working on the helix side of the station, as the Possum Hollow side of the station nears completion.



Bob has convinced me that it needs an interior. The main feature will be a staircase down for access to the passenger platforms. I am also going to add in an old style wire cage elevator in a corner of the tower.

 

[Doctor G]

Good job

Bill,

You are moving along very quickly with this build. I am impressed knowing that each of those foam blocks is individually cut and shaped. Any nicked or "bunged up" fingers with all the cutting???

Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

Tom, I only stuck myself once, and it was very minor, no bandaid needed, just 5 minutes of pressure with the thumb. Those little surgical blades are sharp!!!


I just have 4 buttresses to cover, and I can turn the corner, and start on the Helix side of the building. Progress may slow some, as it looks like my wife is planning some stuff for the weekend after next, I should probably try to get 3 weeks worth of wood cutting done this weekend.

Bill

 

[Bill Nelson]

Fantastic build!

Being a foam worker myself, I appreciate the hard work that's going in to this.

Model of The Month and front page for you, Bill!

Why thank you! Everything else I have done with foam has been on the quick and easy side. I'm months into this thing, and if I consider the base , the interior, the roof, and the station platforms I'm probably less than a quarter of the way done. carving the individual stones is taking forever.


In the past I have done stone structures in carved hydrocal (dental stone) but I'm out and my supply has dried up. that too takes forever, and it would be much harder to get the window openings right. at a viewing distance of two inches the carved hydrocal looks better. the location of the station insures that the eyeball will usually be about a foot and a half from the structure, and at that distance the foam stone walls look great.

I have located the center staircase down, and cut a hole in the floor. plotting the interior details, and lighting will be a challenge, but when this thing is lit up, it will really stand out in the middle of what used to be a pretty bland yard.


Bill Nelson

 

[Bill Nelson]

My weekend started Friday Morning @7 am. I had a guy come to work on my oven, which needs to be fixed before thanksgiving. Then I went and gassed up my suburban for the antique furniture run we are going to make today. Went by the bank for the $$$ for the same. then I went to Lowe's and bought some high grade Yellow Poplar boards for a replacement piece I need to make for one of our wardrobes, and made a run by the grocery store, and payed the water bill on the way home. In spit of that I got a little work done on the buttresses, and did a little more this morning. I'm very close to rounding the cape, and being ready to start the second side of the station.

The photo is a little dark, as if it was any lighter, the unpainted foam overpowered the rest of the photo. doing the buttresses is real slow; and takes much more time than doing the flat sections of the walls, especially the corners where two buttresses touch each other.

 

[Bill Nelson]

I got the last of the pesky individual foam "stones" on the possum hollow side of the Union Station. When I get off work on Monday morning i may get the first coat of gray paint on the new stones. It takes lots of paint, and multiple touch ups to get every little nook and cranny covered. eventually I will probably add in a darker wash to get some artificial shadows in the cracks.


besides doing some painting of these foam rocks, I will need to paint the windows and doors for the other side of the structure , and get them glazed and installed; so I can start doing the stones on the other side.

 

[Zathros]

Looks really great! This would set off any kind of display regardless of genre!

 

[Doctor G]

Finish line is close

Bill,

Your regular work on this project is impressive. I think the foam work will be completed in short order. Be careful with all that cutting you are doing.

Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

interior walls

I have been busy around the house, but I did take time to get the interior walls painted white. this is needed because Bob has demanded that this building get an interior. It makes some sense, as this may end up being the most noticeable structure on the club layout. If I light it up with LEDs it will stand out even more.



Bill Nelson

 

[Doctor G]

I have been busy around the house, but I did take time to get the interior walls painted white. this is needed because Bob has demanded that this building get an interior. It makes some sense, as this may end up being the most noticeable structure on the club layout. If I light it up with LEDs it will stand out even more.



Bill Nelson

.......and here I thought the "Spit n' Chew" station was the place to see and be seen at?????sign1

Tom

 

[Bill Nelson]

mystery solved, and window work

I have been working getting windows into the helix side of the Union Station. I glue the window castings on to a sheet of glazing material, and then cut the glazing odd flush with a small pair of sisors. as you can see the window openings are cut and recessed so the window fit flush with the foam core bones of the building, making fitting the stones easier, and the joint between the stones and the window/door castings neater.



I have solved the mystery of my missing package from Walther's. I had a replacement mail carrier last week, as my normal mail carrier had a death in the family. the replacement carrier apparently was not comfortable going down my driveway to attempt to deliver a package (My driveway disappears into the deep woods), and left a pink slip asking for a signature. I provided the signature, but the package was never moved from the pick up area to the delivery area. To make things even more fun a scanner input error made the computer think the package was in Kansas. It took a call to Walther's to get the tracking #, and then about four phone calls to the local PO.


Hopefully i will get it tomorrow, and can start building the passenger platfurms.

 

[BadJackDaniels]

Great and hard work, i am impressive... congratulations !!!

 

[Bill Nelson]

Thank you. In looking at this I don't see the photo of the stones !/2 way done I swore O posted. I must be loosing my tiny little mind. but here it is.


The problem with a project like this is you have to keep on going, trying to match or exceed the quality of what you have done so far. that is going to turn this into a long build.


Bill nelson

 

[Bill Nelson]

Post Thanksgiving Greetings, and minor progress

I was busy this week Preparing for thanksgiving. We had hoped that my old train buddy Mack Montgomery was going to be able to come up for thanksgiving, as he used to before the economy went down the ****** pipe. Since then work, transportation, and economic interference had got in the way of our train fun. This year he was planning on making it, but contracted an intestinal crud; and had to cancel I was hoping to mine him for opinions on my railroad's rebuild design. Mack has been operating my model railroad off and on since 1974 , and he knows my concept, and the area I model, as well as the southern iron ore and logging industries better than most folks. Sadly I'll have to e-mail him track plans, and collaborate from a distance which will not be as productive, but as worn out as I am now, I'd be seriously shot had Mack been able to come


My #1 son did come down from Ohio. I had to work the graveyard shift both on Thanksgiving day, and on Friday,. I got my son to help with the preperation of the turkey, so he could learn the process, and left him with a basting schedule, so I got a chance to teach my son our ancestral turkey magic, and splitting my sleep between before and after the meal, I almost got enough sleep.

This morning, after getting off or work I took a nap. when I got up I cut some foam from a yellow chicken tray, and started putting in the foundation stones, and the steps for the door ways on the helix side of the Union Station. Previously last week I have got the last of the window and door castings glazed and installed; so I'm ready to start the stone work on the helix side. I have also been going through my stash of big chunks of balsa, looking for stuff to use to build the poured concrete bridge piers for the road bridge next to the station, and am trying to design them right now. I doubt I'll get much done tomorrow, My son has invited some of his friends over to use the rifle range. I will want to hang around the young guys, and be sure range safety proceedures are followed. I have not had a good supply of black powder in years, but I do now. It should be fun to teach the young guys about the care and feeding of 50 cal flintlocks.


Bill Nelson

 

[Zathros]

I had the opportunity to fire a Kentucky Long Rifle. I was obviously not in a strong enough stance as I remember walking backwards around 5 paces. I did hit the target. This had a ball and ramrod. This guy made his own barrels in his machine shop, and most of the rest of the weapons he made. He had a tendency to "load" them up. It truly is a different feel, far different from my Winchester 30-30 Model 94. My also had a black power six shooter. I was surprised how he had to grease up the barrel to prevent the bullet from accidentally setting off the other rounds. This he "under loaded" the round as the gun was a valuable antique.

This is what I would like to have. With the bullets sharpened to a point on a lathe, or formed that way, the velocity of the round picks up incredible. Of course that same round would have to be loaded into the breech of a Winchester 95 rifle.Magnum Research BFR in 30-30 Winchester. I don't have a spare $1000 right now, nor a reason, but that is the best tie to get a gun! This would make a nice paper model!!

 

[Bill Nelson]

A lot of folks like to load for bear. As a rule, I'm target shooting, and I load for accuracy. In practicality there isn't much around here that is going to stand up to a well placed 50 cal round ball, so I played with increasing the load until my accuracy started to suffer. They sell Buffalo bullets, that are pre lubed hollow point bullet shaped projectiles. due to the shape they mass about 2.5 times as much as a round ball of the same caliber; and they are a tolerance fit, and don't need wadding . The ideal rifling twist is different for a round ball than a conical bullet, so a gun built for a round ball will be more accurate with a round ball. My first black powder rifle , built from a cheap CVA kit, which I have given to my #1 son; has compromise rifling, half way between the ideal for a round ball and a conical bullet.

My 50 cal pistol (a Pedersoli David 50 cal flintlock pistol) has never been right, the Lock geometry is not right and I had to modify the jaws that hold the flint; also it shot way low. it had a heavy trigger pull, which with the cane like handle , caused the barrel to nose down. I altered the handle, and did some judicious filing on some of the lock parts to minimize that, and it still shot low. My son determined the front sight was too high, and I ground some off of it. we need to test it, and probably grind some more off. Vertically it shoots dead on, and if you put the bottom of the front blade in the notch instead of the top it will bullseye regularly. Once I get the sights modified to get it on target, I can mess with the load. Black powder produces a lower muzzle velocity, and thus a gentler kick than what you would likely get from a similar grain bullet from a smokeless charge, so if the kick pushes you around excessively , likely the gun is heavily overloaded. They do kick, but due to the lower muzzle velocity it should be a slow motion kick; more of a gentle shove . Of course with a rifle or a shotgun you better have that stock tight to your shoulder, or you will regret it.

I also have a reproduction Remington old army cap and ball revolver. I do load it for bear, as I have found that filling the cylinder up to the brim gets a more consistent load than trying to measure for each cylinder. I use 1F (Musket grade) black powder the coarsest stuff normally available, as filling it up with the finer stuff would be pushing it too far. they sell treated wool plugs, called wonder wads you can put between the ball and the powder. the wool is impregnated with a lubricant that helps clean the bore as you shoot, and it seals the powder in the cylinder off so you don't need to grease it to prevent chain fire, which I understand can ruin your whole day.


Bill Nelson

 

[Bill Nelson]

progress, and a change of proceedure.

On the possum hollow side of Union station, I did all the stones on one wall section , between buttresses), and then did the next, later comming in and doing the buttress between them.



I'm doing this other side differently. I started at the foundation, and am working up, doing the buttresses as I go. The buttresses are a pain in the *** so breaking them up with the easier flat wall sections may not be any faster, but it is less painful. It has been going pretty fast so far. I started Thursday or Friday, and am more than third of the way done. Half way done, if you excluded the tricky stuff like window arches

 

[Bill Nelson]

more progress

I have gotten most of the window and door arches carved and in place on the helix side of the station. I think I'm going to start on the back wall before I get much further, and try to get it up to this same level before I get much farther, so when I get up to the tower level, I can do the back side of the tower. at this rate, I may be done with the outside stone work in the next couple weeks, and be ready to move to working on the interior, the roof, and the base and station platforms. While this is taking a long time, It is an epic project that will be the dominate visual feature of the the big yard at the club.



This has been fun. I have learned some stuff about resin casting , and as far as I know invented my foam stone carving techniques

 

[Doctor G]

The Inventor

This has been fun. I have learned some stuff about resin casting , and as far as I know invented my foam stone carving techniques

I agree Bill I have never seen this interesting technique of stone carving done before. Only similar has been "frocks".....rocks made from torn foam and covered with acrylic caulk.

Maybe you could get an article in Model RailRoader or other Model RR mag???

This has been a nice thread "to follow along". Thanks for all the work done in posting it.

Tom:thumb::thumb:

 

[Bill Nelson]

Yes Tom, I am thinking about writing for the hobby press. I submitted an article to the Gazzette on my Surrry Parker project, and was rejected. While the work was awesome (look in the logging, mining and industrial section, on the your unique logging equipment thread) The Gazette had had several southern logging articles @ that time, and the magazine's main focus is western narrow gauge.

Unless I would write something specifically narrow gauge, I think the Railroad Modeler Craftsman would be the best target, as MR seems to be more aimed at what you can buy, with the construction articles much more modern than my tastes.

Todays installment reviews the process of carving the window arches. I had originally planned on making a master for this piece and casting this part in resin. I made four attempts at making an window door arch master in styrene, and was not satisfied with any of them. I carved one out of foam, and while it was not perfect, it was easier than I thought, and I figured if they were not perfect, if each arch had a different error, it would not be a big deal. so here is the photo trail of the arch carving process. I had to document this soon, only two arches left to carve on this model. I'll decribe the process tomorrow.