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Home > B&CCRR_CascadeRefining
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Cascade Refining

Construction

Walls are built from a 4"x6" wood frame covered with Plastruct rough brick (I went ahead and used O scale which is catalog PS-92, rather than HO scale - catalog PS-91, but that's because I was lazy). The framing is glued with white glue and the Plastruct sheets are glued by spraying them with 3M Super 77 adhesive and then bonding to the wood frame.

However, before assembling the panel, the panels need to be detailed. Mortar is added to the sheets by applying Floquil’s Mud paint to the panel and removing the excess with a paper towel. The result is various mortar shading, along with a slight patina on the brick itself. The cutout will be for a multi-pane window (see the section on windows below).

Wall panel

To detail the individual bricks, I used Sharpies in two different shades. Now, there are two ways of detailing the brick face: either before or after having added grout by the above method. The difference between these two approaches is in the resulting contrast between the base brick face and the detailed bricks. Detail after grouting leads to a higher contrast and is what I decided to use for Cascade Refining.

Windows

Building windows

The picture above shows an example of one of the multi-pane windows used in Cascade Refining. These windows are constructed by cutting 5 mil clear plastic sheeting to match the opening in the brick face. (For stiffer windows, use 10 mil sheeting). The outside trim is 3”x3” stock cut to size and painted before gluing to the sheet with CA. The plastic sheeting is then positioned in the opening so that the outside trim sits “proud” to the brick face. Finally, unfinished 3”x3” stock is cut and used to back the plastic sheeting so that it won’t fall out.

 

Chimney

 

Chimney I used the Octagonal Chimney from Cibolo Crossing (I haven't been able to find a web page, this item is available from Walthers as catalog number 231-7. The same mortaring and detailing techniques used on the walls were used on this piece. A 3/8" hole was bored into the top of the chimney, with the top being painted Floquil’s Tarnished Black and the inside of the hole being painted with Floquil’s Grimy Black.


Assembly and Roofing

Once all brick walls are completed, CA was used for bonding the individual wall sections together. The two main building sections use slate paper shingles from Northeastern Scale Lumber. The smokestack attachment roof was constructed from Northeastern’s corrugated metal roofing. Since the smokestack is octagonal, I first did some rough measuring of the sides of the smokestack and then created multiple templates designed to be the size of the roof with an octagonal cutout that varied by half a millimeter between each template.

Template

Once I determined which of these fit best, it was used as a template for cutting out the corrugated roofing (I used double-sided tape to temporarily attach the template to the roofing). After assembly, here's what the smelter looks like:

Almost complete

The next stage was to construct the attached coal shed. It is built from 6"x6" used as posts and beams, 2"x2" for diagonal braces, and 2"x4" for rails. These were painted with dark brown enamel. The shed roofing is more slate paper shingles, with a 1"x12" board cut to shape and edge glued as a fascia.

Finally, the coal pile is an angled box constructed of 1/64" plywood and covered with mine run scale coal from Woodland Scenics (catalog number #B92) attached with their scenery cement (catalog S191). The solid core door was created using the techniques on the Doors and Windows page.

Completed structure

Last Updated ( Monday, 06 September 2010 15:02 )
 
 
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