Wordless Wednesday #1

 

Curtis Cannery Continued

Since my last post I have continued to work on the main parts of the cannery, starting with the Walthers background kit and some blocks of wood. Two friends from the Alleghany Western Division influenced me here. Dick Bradley sent me an email about my last post suggesting that he wasn't sure about the proportions of the warehouse size to the main cannery building. In his view the adjacent warehouse appears too large compared to the main structure. While the size of the brick portion of the main structure is settled with my choice of kit to kitbash, I did increase the size of the wooden portion. If after the main portion is completed I agree that the warehouse is too large, I may change it. My criticism of it is not it's size, but that it is one of the ubiquitous Walthers kits that everyone recognizes as a model railroad building. Bill Schopf, also from my old division, popularized using wooden blocks as the core of models in several clinics when I was still in Division 12 of the MCR. While I haven't decided exactly how the scratchbuilt structure portions will come together, I am pretty sure of the size and shape depicted by the wooden blocks depicted here. After cutting the two blocks I started on the brick portion of the cannery.

My first step was to make a few adjustments to the Arrowhead Ale background kit to increase the depth of the building. As I was planning to scratchbuild a wood loading dock I cut off that portion of the supplied plastic base. I also cut out a portion of an extra wall piece included in the kit to model the deeper exposed end. For the other end, I cut a section of plain styrene sheet to match the depth. I cut some strip styrene to extend the base under the deeper sides. Having a supply of various sizes of styrene on hand made the fitting of kitbashed parts easier than if I had to order online or drive for hours to shop at the nearest brick and mortar train/hobby store. 

After assembling the building with Bondene, the next step was painting. Heading out to the garage, I sprayed the walls with a gray rattle can primer. At the same time I removed the doors and windows from the sprue and mounted them with blue painter's tape on a paint stick before spraying them with a green rattle can primer. After the building had dried overnight, I started painting the brick portions with three or four different red and brown craft paints over the gray primer with a small piece of natural sponge. It looks like a mottled mess until several coats have been sponged on. I also painted some of the individual blocks of the foundation with a mix of gray and tan craft paints. I applied Vallejo's dark gray wash as a control coat and mortar color to the bricks and foundation. 

Once the paint had all dried and set up, I glued the door and window castings in place. The one finished side that I had scavenged from the extra casting had several issues. The appropriate door casting with a transom was not included, so I ended up using one without a transom and boarding up the gap with strip wood. Also, because the two upper windows at that end were aligned with the roof, I trimmed some brick wall scrap to fill those openings. I then measured and cut a heavy piece of sheet styrene for the roof, sprayed it with the gray primer, and glued it into place. As seen in the photo, I made sure that it was square and braced it with some heavy strip styrene to ensure that this portion of the building was stabile in spite of being a three-sided flat.

This photo shows the brick portion of the cannery in place as it currently stands. I have a couple of scratchbuilt additions to add: the wooden loading dock, as well as a water tank and a stair bulkhead on the roof. Also, the roof needs some kind of "texture" beyond the paint. The windows need glazing, and I need to decide if I will add any lighting to this portion of the building. Finally, in looking at the photos, I see the need for some touch up of the trim/concrete sills.

Nooksack Structures - The Cannery

Sketch of possible cannery at Nooksack

So, I have started a new project, planning and collecting information and materials for the proposed cannery at Nooksack. Last week I started sketching some ideas during the Thursday modeling Zoom I attend, and since then I inked it in and started some mockups. Some background: Everson, Washington had a fruit and vegetable cannery called the C. S. Kale Canning Company. I am relocating it to nearby Nooksack and renaming it the Curtis Canning Company. It and other Whatcom County canneries canned beans, beets, carrots, raspberries, pears, cherries, and in the 1950s a lot of green peas. My intension is for it to be a major industry for the 4th subdivision, definitely the largest in Nooksack. 

In this snapshot from today, some mockups tentatively locate parts of the cannery. Starting from the left is a ubiquitous Walthers warehouse, the one building already constructed. Next is a paper mockup of parts from the Walthers Arrowhead Ale background kit. Without kitbashing, it is not deep enough, but by using an extra wall part included in one of the sprues I can make it work. I plan to scratchbuild a wooden loading dock instead of using the plastic one from the kit. I may also scratchbuild a water tank for the roof. Moving to the right or to the east, I have a couple of scraps of wood and my team track dock sort of suggesting the scratchbuilt section seen in the initial sketch. That section needs more planning and  a cardboard mockup.

In this photo, I have a cardboard mockup of a possible additional building located beyond the boiler house drawn in the original sketch. I have DPM modular parts for the boiler house, so it could be started at any time. I have several street view photos of the Carnation plant (that is still standing) from Everson that I may use to create a background photo flat as seen approximated here. If I do, I plan to attempt a couple of techniques from Paul Dolkos: 3D visual foils on either side and layering the photo on matboard. Testing with the NMRA gauge for clearance along the track is critical as I build mockups or buildings. I have ordered the Juniper Freight House kit from Fos Scale Models, thinking it will fit on the other side of the spur, perhaps near where the gauge is sitting in the photo. 

To move beyond some scraps of wood, cut out paper photocopies, and cardboard mockups in a reassonable amount of time, I need to modify my modeling practice. Some possibilities include:

• Focus on this project
• Daily time - a little bit every day
• Maybe more than a little bit - an hour?