Appalachian Southern

Today, the work continues on the AutoCad drawings for the BB&T building, here in Florence, SC.  As the drawings progress, I am gettting excited about the building process.  Once I complete the rear elevation, I should be able to order the materials that will be required for construction. 

This N scale model is going to be huge. From the scale drawings, it will be just under 12″ wide!

BB&T Building in Florence, SC

Front Elevation

Left Elevation

Revised Right Elevation

For my second scratch building project, I have selected the BB&T building in Florence, SC, my hometown. This building in N scale will be about 9″ x 7″  from  the initial work on the elevation drawings. Quite a large building, but I have plenty of room on the layout to accommodate a building of this size. The first step, I have learned, is to create a set of elevation drawings for the building in AutoCad. I have completed the right side elevation drawings at this point. Please excuse the fact that they are labeled incorrectly in the drawing below.

The best way to scale the photos was to count the actual bricks in the building. Knowing the size of standard bricks and their mortar joints, it is pretty simple to derive the dimensions of the building and windows.  The soldier course of bricks above and below the windows really adds a touch of flair to this building.  While I still have more work to do on the elvevation drawings,  here is where I am currently with the progress.

Below you will find a few of the photos I took of the building to produce the elevation drawings, and the right side elevation drawings of the building.  The brick detail is left out for clarity, except what is found between the first floor windows.  I am completing the drawings in full scale and will then scale them to .00625 of actual for N scale.  We will see how this works out in the coming days.

Have a good afternoon.

BB&T Building in Florence, SC

BB&T Building in Florence, SC

Left Side Rear of the BB&T Building in Florence, SC

Left Front BB&T Building in Florence, SC

BB&T AutoCad Right Elevation Florence, SC

This morning,  I completed a scratch build of Sinclair Station from the original build article at N Scale Limited. This was my first scratch build attempt and the final results are quite pleasing. I hope to do more scratch building in the future and improve my skills even more. In order to provide some insight, here are the final steps that were followed to complete the build.

Clear laser printer decal paper was used to print the Sinclair Station decal on an HP Color Laser Jet. After printing several copies of the decal on one sheet of clear laser decal paper,  a small brush was used to coat the decals with MicroScale Liquid Decal Film. Once the first coat was dry, a liberal second coat was applied. Once the second coat dries, the decal can be cut and immersed in water in preparation for application to the model.

Just prior to placing the decal on the structure, I brushed MicroScale Micro Sol onto the painted surface of the structure. I slid the decal into place on the structure, positioning it with your finger as needed. Once the decal is in the proper position, a small brush was used once again to apply Micro Sol over the top of the decal, being careful not to displace or move it. Once the Micro Sol dries in about ten minutes, you can move on to the final steps of weathering the sign / decal and the model in general.

The weathering techniques consisted of the india ink / alchohol solution procedure detailed on N Scale Limited, and several applications of Bar Mills weathering chalk.

Building this structure was enjoyable and rewarding.  I appreciate the work Chris Brimley did to detail its construction.  Without his excellent article, I would have never discovered the joy of scratch building my own structure. It has opened a whole new area of interest in my model railroading activities. Thank you.

How about something for free? If you would like one of the decals I had left over from my printing, please send me your mailing address and I will drop one in the mail for you.

Sinclair Station

Sinclair Station

Sinclair Station

Sinclair Station

Here is what I have done so far with my  first scratch building effort. I don’t have any weathering done yet, just a little painting. I realized today that I needed decal printing stock, so I ordered that. I also need to pick up some India Ink so I can do some weathering. With a little touch up painting here and there, I think the results are great for my first attempt. I actually built the building twice to improve on some mistakes I made earlier with the first version.  The original build article, with instructions, can be found here at N Scale Limited.

Sinclair Station Version 2

Sinclair Station Version 2

Sinclair Station Version 2

Sinclair Station Version 2

Here are a couple of pictures of my first scratch building project. It is exciting to see it come together from a few small pieces of styrene.   I actually just put the roof on and now I have to get ready to do some initial painting on the trim and construct the front doors.  The original article on this project appeared here at N Scale Limited, as built by Chris Brimley.

Scratch Building Sinclair Station

Scratch Building Sinclair Station

Looking Good!

Here is a photo of how the finished project should appear. Below is a photo of the finished version of Chris Brimley’s original build.

Sinclair Station as Built By Chris Brimley of N Scale Limited

Today I am working on scratch building my very first structure. Thanks to Chris Brimley at N Scale Limited for the encouragement to start. His article, Scratch Building Sinclair Station, is the guide I am using for this project. It is a welcome reprieve from laying track for the past week.

In the article, Chris is kind enough to provide a shopping list of all the Evergreen styrene products you will need along with a few other miscellaneous parts to complete the build. I ended up ordering the styrene and windows from Chuck at Feather River and the metal siding directly from the manufacturer. All the materials arrived in short order, and here I am building away.

Chris also supplied scale AutoCad drawings in JPEG format on his website for the structure. My calculator is getting a workout doing the n scale factor conversion.  The elevation drawings help remove the guesswork when selecting the appropriate styrene sizes. The door assemblies on the front of the structure will provide the biggest challenge for this project and will take the longest amount of time to complete.

I am looking forward to getting to the point where I can being applying some paint. I am going to try to do all the painting with my airbrush, including the weathering.  The vented paint booth I installed about a month needs its first workout. It will be nice not to have over spray settling all over everything in the room.

I don’t really have any pictures to show at this point as the final assembly has not commenced. Right now all the parts are just flat pieces of styrene with window openings.