Factory Complex (4 Viewers)

[fmethorst]

Hmm educational and interesting .. now that's a thread.. One thing I would like to know about is painting a building hopefully this does that.

I am following along, just amazed at the progress. I can't wait to see how the building comes together!^&cool^&cool^&cool^&cool^&cool

I always enjoy watching Frank's builds, and curious to see how the cardboard works out.

You and me both.....

It's not like we have a lot of diorama build experience so we're learning as we go. Some of our ideas may not work.

 

[fmethorst]

Adding some grass along the track and lanes.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Looks absolutely amazing so far!:salute::

 

[fmethorst]

Adding a lighter mix of grass to make it it look wilder, more patchy.







Painting the vertical corrugated steel that will cover the ends of the roof of the work halls.





A little bit of "testing"








The color modulation helps the grass not look like a lawn. There is also variance in height. We used 7mm and 12mm static grass.

 

[fmethorst]

Working on the ramps for the railway crossing. We applied two layers of celluclay over the cardboard, allowing time to dry in between. The biggest problem with celluclay is shrinkage and warping so we tried to keep the amount to a minimum for any given application.



Applying a coat of paint



Adding the corrugated sheets to the ends of the roof.



Mocking up ideas for windows for the work halls







Adding grass to the remaining non traffic areas



We went for a patchy look in the larger coverage areas

 

[fmethorst]

A final coat of paint for the main dirt section. While it looks quite different from the dry sections the acrylic paint we are using drys much darker.

 

[villagehorse]

The testing is of course the pinnacle of what this project is all about. The vehicles and figures will bring this amazing work to life, the end goal. Robin.

 

[fmethorst]

Building the work halls. So many windows.



Playing with scraps





Mixing a Fall leaf mix. Birch Catkins mixed with Hudson and Allen leaf litter.



Cutting windows in the foam core.

 

[fmethorst]

Mocking up the building

 

[mestell]

This has been an amazing thread to view and see how everything developes and comes together. It's been enjoyable to follow along.
Mike

 

[Louis Badolato]

This has been an amazing thread to view and see how everything developes and comes together. It's been enjoyable to follow along.
Mike

I'm with Mike . . . fascinating tutorial!:salute:: I am really excited to see how you complete the buildings.

 

[fmethorst]

So we settled on using 0.030" styrene for the window frames with balsa casings around the outside. We purchased a deep cut blade for the Cricut Explorer Air 2 and set about hours of cutting. After a little trial and error we found that 9 passes with maximum pressure were required to make it through the styrene sheet. Even then, it required snapping out the cut pieces. I would recommend the Cricut Maker which can cut thicker material if someone is purchasing this tool for modeling, but we made do with the tool we had.

Cutting the 0.030" styrene sheet















Priming

 

[fmethorst]

Continuing to produce windows, so many windows. Testing fit in the work hall walls





The plan was to have support pillars between each window



Painted window



Painting more windows





As we continued to produce windows we turned our attention back to the work hall walls and the support pillars.





Seeing how things look and fit

 

[OzDigger]

Very accurate and detailed work there Frank, those windows must be a pane to make ^&grin

 

[fmethorst]

Very accurate and detailed work there Frank, those windows must be a pane to make ^&grin

Fortunately the machine does the bulk of the work, and the precision is kind of ridiculous. It would be a non starter to do it manually.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Amazing work, Frank!:salute:: It is really coming together!

 

[fmethorst]

Painting the underside of the roof white. We used 1/16" balsa sheet for this.



Working on the upper row of windows. Like the big windows, we used 0.030" styrene cut on the Cricut.





Weathering the corrugated steel on the ends of the building





Test fitting the upper windows and doors

 

[fmethorst]

Detailing the doors. We used 1/16" balsa sheet doubled up for the main doors.





Weathering





Painting the floor. We used 1/16" plywood for this. Like all the thing we paint, the wood tends to adopt a curl. This disperses somewhat as it dries but the plywood still has a curl that will need to be dealt with.



Starting work on the roof trusses. We used mixed media of styrene i-beams and balsa

 

[fmethorst]

More work on the roof trusses



Test fitting



Added some reinforcing to the corners of the truss





Laying out the ribbed seam metal roofing



We used card stock to join the center sections, the V section, of the roof together.



The center section of roof with the ribbed seam metal roofing attached.

 

[fmethorst]

Cutting out the "glass" for the windows. We used 0.005" clear styrene for the glass and cut it on the Cricut