Experiments with Lighting

About a week ago, during our sump pump failure*, I started my experiments with lighting the brick building that I have been working on for the fruit and produce company. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I planned to have interior lighting on one side of the building. I found a photograph from a Google search for warehouse interior images to use. I decided to cut and paste parts of two print outs of the photo to form a collaged image without the people in the original image. I  resized, photocopied, and colored the resulting black and white image with colored pencils. 

I created the shadowbox by hot glueing some black foam core sides and a top together. One cutting trick that I learned from this experiment involves the surface on which it is best to cut foam core. My tempered glass base on the workbench is much superior to using the self healing cutting mat. The hard glass provides for a smooth cut on the bottom paper surface, while the softer cutting mat allows the bottom paper layer to tear. I found the difference to be remarkable. After the shadowbox joints were set, I glued the paper image to the top of the back of the box, leaving it loose to roll into place. 

The next step was to mount the two LEDs. I had decided to order the Pico Z mini lights from Evan Design and try them. I drilled a hole through the wall above the window between the garage doors on the right hand side of the building. Then I glued the LED in place on the underside of the dock roof with canopy glue. For the shadowbox, I poked a hole in the roof of the box and reamed it out so a straw would fit. After placing the straw through the hole and extending into the shadowbox about a quarter of an inch, I snipped it off flush with the top of the foam core roof. Next, I glued the LED wires to the roof with canopy glue, with the LED chip in the straw but not exposed below it. 

Today, I checked the two LEDs and they worked, so I went ahead and started figuring out the wiring. It is not that tricky at all, but I don't have much experience. The LEDs come with resistors wired in on red and black wires. My plan is to wire the two LEDs in parallel and extend the length with some 28 gauge twisted red and black wire. I have a scrap piece of wood on my workbench, and I have it set up so that I can tape the wire in place for soldering. I stripped the end of the extension wire and slipped some shrink tubing over it. I have the first connection in place, so in my next session I can get out the soldering equipment and make some connections. 

*Wet Basement Issues

We have had a really wet May here in the Poconos and our infrastructure failed. While the French drain and associated "dry well(?)" that it flows into have worked, the sump pump burned out with water spreading into the basement/train room on the opposite end of the basement last week. Luckily, we found a company that came out the next day to replace the pump, and most of that flood has since dried up. We do, however, have two apparent artesian well or heightened water table "faucets" from the base of the wall into the exposed French drain . They are both still flowing steadily, and along one section of "French Drain Canal  (FDC)" we need to fashion some kind of levee once this situation dries out. The flow of water is greater than the depth of FDC there creating a floodplain on one section of the basement floor. This is located where TOMA phase two of the railroad will be located.  The Nooksack or TOMA phase one section and my workbench area floors have remained dry. Having managed water flowing around the edge of the basement in FDC is one thing, accepting a potential floodplain is problematic. Theme song for the last week or so: Levee's Gonna Break
 

Fruit and Produce Company -- Part 4?

In my last post, several weeks ago, I left off with a punch list for the main building. During the past rainy week, I have tried to return to working for a little while on the model most days, and it has led to some progress.

One of the first steps from last weekend was to clear off the plate glass on my workbench so that I could make clean cuts in clear acetate. I found some clear stock in my plastics drawer, and after measuring started cutting pieces for the windows. I used Formula 560 canopy glue, applied to the back of the window and door inserts with a micro-brush, to mount the window "glass." Knowing that I was planning on adding interior lighting later, the smart move would have been to paint the interior walls with black acrylic while the building was upside down. I did not make the smart move. 

Having checked off one task from the list, I moved on to the roof. I cut some strips of three scale feet from black construction paper. Before returning the canopy glue to its shelf, I coated the styrene roof with the glue and applied the black paper to represent tar paper on the roof. After the glue dried I tried painting with roof brown acrylic paint, but didn't really like the look. I later painted the tar paper roof with flat grimy black. After two coats of that, I was happier with it. 

While it was not on my original punch list, I decided to add the medium air conditioner from the Walthers Roof Details kit in my stash. I cut the appropriate pieces from the sprue and sanded the edges to remove any tiny nubs left by my nippers. I assembled the detail kit with liquid solvent cement, managing to only have one slightly crooked wall with my shaky hands. After the air conditioner dried overnight, I filled the small open joint at the top of that wall with Tamiya putty. While assembling the air conditioner, I sprayed the sprue with the tile coping from the original grocery distributor kit with a red primer rattle can. After that had dried, I pieced together the tile coping on the brick walls. 

Over just the past couple of days, I continued to make my way through a few more items from the punch list. I struggled to add the roof over the loading dock. In hind sight, I should have not used the plastic hangers from the kit, but instead fabricated new ones from wire. But I went ahead, using the kit supplied ones. First of all, my shaky hands exacerbated my apparent need for three hands to hold and glue the hangers, roof, and structure wall together all at the same time. Thank goodness no one was watching or listening to me during that ordeal. Because one of the hangers was missing, I also had to deal with the extra holes. I planned to hide the hole in the wall with the building's sign. I filled the hole in the roof with putty. That meant that the roof needed to be painted after it was installed. I had sprayed it a gray color previously, but now I brush painted it a darker gray Vallejo color. While it looked kind of awful wet, after drying overnight the color and brush marks both flattened out. Today, before taking the photos, I applied some weathering with chalks and pigments as well as finally cutting out and gluing on the paper sign that I had designed and printed out on my inkjet printer weeks ago.

I still have a couple of items from the punch list. Looking at this photo from an observer's point of view, some kind of lighting is definitely needed. My plan is to fashion a light under the dock roof on one side and to place an interior light on the other side. I have some LED lights and supplies from Evan Designs to experiment with, so I might as well get on the ball. Along with lighting, I plan to add some simple interior details: window shades and black paper view blocks if nothing else. 

Looking at this scene from this angle, two things spring to mind. One is that I should attempt a more accurate mockup of the adjacent building than the blue scrap wall flat. The other idea is the possibility of starting some first layer of scenery around this scene. 

Before starting any of that, I will work out the lighting for this building in order to wrap it up. Seeing the progress I have made recently should keep me motivated. Beyond scenery here, I have a photo/collage in the works to experiment with on the backdrop that goes to the right of the green-roofed warehouse in the photo. I want to include that in a presentation that I am giving in June, so I have a goal/deadline for scenery along the backdrop here after this major building for the Nooksack Fruit and Produce Company is completed.