A Signal Tower For East Branch -- Part 2

Workbench on Christmas Eve

Between the last post and Christmas Eve I made some progress with the Atlas switch tower. The tools, materials, and status of the tower are seen in the photo of my workbench. To get to this point during the buildup towards the holiday, I did manage to spend a few minutes on the tower on a number of different days. Since things had to dry and this was my only project, that schedule worked out fine. I will use a bullet list format with each bullet point representing a different day to document the progress.

• I scrubbed the plastic walls, base, and roof with 70% isopropyl alcohol using a toothbrush. After the alcohol dried, I painted the edges of the base with my standard "earth brown" latex paint. 
• I took the second floor walls out to the garage to paint with 2X Ultra Cover "flat gray" spray primer. As it was in the 30s, I brought the wall sections back into the basement to fully dry after spraying both sides of the walls. I lightly sponged a red and brown craft paint onto the bricks of the first floor.  
• I applied a control coat of Vallejo Wash "dark gray" to the brick walls of the first floor.
• Using Vallejo 70.992 Model Air "neutral gray," I painted the first coat onto the windows and doors of both the first and second floors of the tower. After measuring the thickness of the blue plastic door with calipers, I added .040 X .080 styrene strip to the top and base of the scrap box door in order to match the opening on the first floor wall. 

Today, as I write this a few days after Christmas, I returned to the tower revamp, but I will wait until I have made even more progress to discuss it in my next post.