Flour Mill

 Hello folks - more work was recently completed on one of the 2 main industries on my revamped portion of the layout. The as yet unnamed flour mill is essentially completed except for some weathering and a few more detail parts added to the loading dock and around the facility. I added some of the Woodland Scenics Just Plug goose neck lights to the loading bay area and entry way door as well as an interior light to the recently added loading bay interior . It does indeed add an extra dimension to the look of the structure. The flour mill is a kit bashed Walthers kit - I took the kit which was meant to be put together as a four sided structure and turned it into a shallow relief version, splicing the 2 side walls together. Searching the internet, you can see that this is a very common bash of this kit. As well, I added a Walthers Surge Bin  and a Rix Grain Conveyor to join the 2 pieces. It was  a fun build and I like the look that it gives -i.e a significant sized structure that will be able to accept a couple of different car types for this part of the layout. Till next time.

The "Mill"

Parking Lot

 Hello folks - this past month, I created a new parking lot /roadway on the layout. It was built in such a way so that a new structure (brick walled factory) I am planning will be sitting on it as well - You can see the wall parts being test fit in the pictures below. The first step that I did was to remove the existing ground cover materials followed by using N scale cork roadbed to build up the area of the parking lot. Then I used balsa wood "forms" to create the outline of the parking lot area. The next step was to use premixed joint compound as the "poured cement". A couple of skim coats were needed after the initial "pour" in order to get it as smooth as possible  - I did use fine grit sanding paper to smooth it out even further. The road did have a few small cracks in it, but as it turned out , they actually enhanced the look after I painted the parking lot. For that first I used Woodland Scenics "Asphalt " stain and once this was fully dry.. I used a small sponge to apply the Woodland Scenics cement color. This was done in a manner almost like dry brushing i.e. most of the color was blotted off on paper towel before I used the sponge to blot on the color over the asphalt color - you want very little cement color left on the sponge when applying. You might have to apply multiple coats in this manner to get the effect you want. Doing this caused the initial black layer to stay in the cracks and show through the blotted on cement color - I was pleased with the results. Afterwards, I assembled Rix Products guard rails and applied them to a couple of areas of the parking lot and alongside the grade crossing. Finally Woodland Scenics "Just Plug" street lights were added in a couple of places. One last thing I want to do is to apply a small wooden person crossing from the factory area across the rail siding to the main area of the parking lot. As they say "details make the difference" Till next time....

New parking lot

Parking Lot/Grade Crossing