My 1st project: Teamtrack ramp

[Biased turkey]

I was inspired by DoctorWayne project ( in the trackside industries subforum ) about a kitbashing a teamtrack ramp.
http://forum.zealot.com/t115093/

That looks like an ideal 1st project .

The ramp is made using .030 " plastruct styrene and ... barbecue sticks.
I painted everything with a medium grey acrylic paint ( from Tamiya ) and applied a black wash ( 1 part paint and 8 parts isopropyl alcoohol )

Here are the pictures.

I have a good time building that project.The most difficult part was to cut the barbecue sticks at the right length and the right angle because that cheap wood splits easily.

Jacques

 

[nachoman]

that's really great! I hope you keep scratchbuilding, because you seem to be a natural.

Kevin

 

[nkp174]

Nice job of weathering the deck.

 

[MasonJar]

Very nice job on weathering the styrene to look like wood!

I built my first team track loading dock from matches and popsicle sticks...

Andrew

 

[Ralph]

Yeah! That's it! Looks good to me!
Ralph

 

[Biased turkey]

Thanks to all the nice members on this forum who took some of their time to reply.
Thanks for all the encouragement too.
It's not exactly my 1st scratchbuilding project. The real 1st one is the brick wall just behind the GTW boxcar, but it was so easy that it doesn't count.


Any suggestion to improve that loading ramp? should I apply a brown wash on some planks ? or just let it the way it is ?
My wife like scratchbuilding too, she says that a few sheets of styrene and a couple of barbecue sticks are less expensive that a brand new DCC equiped engine.
By the way ( but I suppose that most of you noticed that fact ) , it is N scale.

Andrew , do you have any pic of your matches and popsicle sticks project ?

Now I need another project to keep me scratchbuilding. I think a trackside shanty would be nice.

Jacques

 

[MasonJar]

Jacques,

Since you asked, I would add some diagonal bracining between the legs of the dock, and also run a scale 2x10 around the perimeter under the decking to give the appearance of a frame holding up that deck.

Here's a link my post: http://forum.zealot.com/t97877/ Bear in mind this is among my first posts at The Gauge! (I have since added a ramp to the loading dock.)

Andrew

 

[doctorwayne]

Looks good, Jacques, and an unusual choice of material. I think that the colour is good, too, but as Andrew mentioned, some 2"x10" around the perimeter would give the impression that there was some serious framing beneath the deck. After all, many of these ramps handled farm machinery and automobiles, too. Nice work, especially in N scale. :-D

Wayne

 

[Nazgul]

Jacques,
I never would have guessed that this was not an all-wood project.
Excellent job on the coloring and weathering:thumb:.

I would just echo what the others have said....it looks great right now, but a little framing would finish it off perfectly:thumb::thumb:

Great job!

 

[cnw1961]

If I had not read your post, I would not have guessed from the pics that you used styrene – it perfectly looks like wood to me. Very good job. I concur with Andrew, Steve and Wayne that some bracing and framing would make it even look better. Looking forward to see your next projects .

 

[Biased turkey]

Thanks for the nice words about my work MasonJar , doctorwayne, Nazgul and cnw1961.
It looks like we have a consensus here and that the ramp should look better with some bracing and framing.
I'll let that ramp the way it is because it would be very difficult to add some bracing and framing on the weak barbecue sticks.
My brother in law visited us this week-end, he is a mechanical engineer. We talked about the ramp. We both arrived to the conclusion that the ramp , the way it is now , is at least a credible one and don't need bracing and framing if the posts ( the legs ) are pushed in deep enough into the ground.
But I enjoyed that project so much that I'll build a second ramp designed right from the beginning to have bracing and framing.
I purchased today some styrene tubes to teplace the barbecue sticks and a mitre box.

I'm puzzled by the coloring because the ramp looks better on the picture than seen by the naked eye. I took the picture at night, with no flash, in manual mode and just using a desk lamp with a halogen bulb. With daylight the brownish color is not there, it is just dark grey with a black wash.

Jacques