It’s been 2 months since the last update. All the other things in life have taken precedence - two new dogs, a new vehicle, a leaky roof, and too much work.
Let’s start with 2 new dogs. Riley joined Copper and Shadow early in the summer. A little timid but a really loving dog with way too much energy. Rather unexpectedly, the three boys were joined by a little girl in August. Luna is a bit of a terror, and has proven to be a handful. She is almost 13 weeks old now but a long way from being housebroken. Copper and Shadow weren’t thrilled with Riley’s arrival, but Luna was almost too much. She was everywhere and into everything, and really turned the boys quiet world upside down with her antics. She and Riley are best buds, and play constantly. Copper tolerates them at best, and Shadow just wishes they would go away.
The new Suburban was a surprise. Marie had booked an appointment with the local GM dealer to get our existing Suburban serviced. Out of the blue, they called and said they would provide a loaner while it was in for service. A while after that, she got an email saying they had booked time with the sales manager to discuss the value of a trade in. She declined the meeting but they still quoted her a trade in value for the existing Suburban. The trade in was a lot higher than I would thought, apparently affected by pent up demand from COVID. The local dealer didn’t have any of the new Suburbans in yet, so Marie went online out of curiousity and found one in Sherwood Park. Two days later we were at the dealer discussing price. They met our (high) trade in price and suddenly we had a new vehicle.
The dealer in Sherwood Park has been good to deal with, though getting the new vehicle proved a process. GM didn’t ship the tires and rims with the vehicle, and it took them several weeks to figure out where they were. Two weeks go by, we are ready to pick up the new vehicle, and the tires still weren’t in. The dealer’s initial suggestion was to mount the separately purchased winter tires and rims. We didn’t like that idea, given it was only mid September, so they decided to install tires and rims out of their stock. When we got to the dealer, it was apparent that they hadn’t installed the 3M paint protection yet. They were profusely apologetic, admitting it was their error. Since Marie had a trip to Calgary planned the following weekend, they agreed to let her drop the vehicle off, take a loaner to Calgary, while they installed the 3M protection. Four days later, Marie picked up the vehicle, with the 3M installed, proper tires and rims mounted, and winter tires in the back. Because of all the problems, the dealer gave us a discount on accessories and extended our warranty by an extra 2 months! How’s that for service!
The leaky roof was another adventure. There has been a lot of rain this summer, but it was a monsoon one Saturday. I had gone out to the garage to get something and noticed a puddle. We often get rain leaking under the main doors, but this was in a different spot. As I was standing there, looking at the puddle, a drop fell on my head. I looked up to see water dripping from an electrical socket. A look outside suggested a problem were two roof angles came together. We had a roofer in the next week, who confirmed the problem, then repaired the corner and replaced the wet roof insulation. That left the inside wall. Insurance didn’t cover the damage, so out came a utility knife and I opened up the garage wall. The adjuster had detected water over a large portion of the wall, but I only found a small area at the bottom was actually wet. A couple days to dry out, another rain storm to verify the roof was repaired, a trip to Rona for drywall, and the wall was together again.
Today’s another rainy Sunday - wet snow for most of the day actually - so it seems like a good time to do an update. The grain elevators are finally finished. Not a lot has been done with either the Buffalo or the A220.
I am still not really certain what year I am modelling. It is likely somewhere between 1980 and 2000, when GP-9s and SD-40s still ruled the rails. Regardless of the actual year, one thing for certain is that very few grain elevators were freshly painted and shiny. Time to weather the elevators.
The green Alberta Wheat Pool elevator is wooden, moulded with clapboard siding. It is possible to find pictures showing elevators from newly painted to badly dilapidated, especially in thor later years of service. I wanted them to look used but not like they were going to fall over. I went back to pictures I had of the grain elevators in Barrhead, taken in the later 1980’s and early 1990’s. The elevators were generally in good shape, with obviously dirt and fading, but relatively little peeling paint.
First step was to seal the paint and decals with Alclad Aqua Gloss. I like using Aqua Gloss as a sealant because it is an easy to use acrylic that protects the underlying paint from oil washes. Once dry, I applied a dilute wash made with Payne’s gray oil paint and odorless turpenoid. I let the wash sit for a couple hours and then started removing it with a paper towel. The wash settled nicely in to the nooks and crannies, and dulled down the lettering and logo. I liked the effect, but it was still too uniform. The Barrhead elevators showed variation in colour, from both fading and light effects showing on individual boards. I mixed up some new washes, this time with white, light grey, and several greens, and applied it randomly to the sides. I let it sit for a couple hours before using a paper towel to gently remove most of the color. I did something similar for the grain bin, but found that the initial Payne’s gray wash was too light. I decided a darker wash was needed and it was suitably reapplied. The darker wash brought out the details, but now the walls had become too uniform. I noticed that pictures showed that the horizontal reinforcing beams were typically lighter. It looked like the paint faded at a different rate. I mixed up a light green wash and applied this only to the horizontal beams. It gave the result I was looking for, but now the moulded anchor bolts didn’t look right. A dark grey pin wash was made up and applied directly to the cast anchor bolts. This made the bolt heads stand out, as if they had collected more dirt than the beam around them.
Here are some in progress shots, after the first was has been applied. The wash gave depth to the boards, most noticeable in the logo.
Here the second round of washes are in progress. The lighter colours are applied but not wiped off.
I decided to try and apply some chalk pastels to selected boards. I selected a color that was slightly lighter than the paint, and applied it selectively to parts of the building. It really didn’t have much effect, and was a lot of work. Instead, I pulled out my pencil crayons to try showing wear on the edges of some boards using a grey pencil. This worked okay but proved a lot of work for the effect it gave, and I stopped after a few boards. My pictures showed the areas around the door, where the grain was loaded, looked dusty. I sprayed a very diluted mixture of red brown over parts of the doors and the grain loading area, as well as along the foundation, to represent dirt and dust. I decided that I had done enough and called it finished.
The Pioneer elevator needed a different approach, as it was moulded with corrugated siding on the elevator, and board on board for the shed. Digging thru my pictures, I found pictures of wooden Pioneer elevators in Nanton, and what I think is Stettler, but no corrugated elevators. I did find a picture of a shed that was almost identical to the kit.
The elevator was moulded with corrugations that were deeper at the bottom of the panel than the top. This created a natural depth, and made the bottoms look darker. Pictures I found online showed that the tops of a corrugated panel tended to be lighter in color than the bottom. I assume that this was the result of dirt and grime collecting along the bottom of the panel. I wanted to enhance the kit effect and add some variation in color. Out came the trusty Payne’s gray oil wash, applied along the bottoms of each panel. unlike the clapboard, the vertical metal corrugations didn’t stop the wash from running. I quickly realized that the thin wash naturally collected along the bottom of each panel if the elevator was on its side, but ran all the way to the bottom if I sat the elevator upright. The only way to get the effect I wanted was to do it one side at a time. I applied the wash to one side, let it dry completely, rotated 90 degrees, and did it again. This proved really slow but the result was what I wanted.
I applied the same Payne’s grey wash to the shed, but it came out too light for my liking. I mixed up a darker, thicker wash and literally slathered it on. It looked pretty horrible and way too thick. I resisted the urge to wipe it all off, and instead let it sit for a couple hours before wiping most of it off with a paper towel. The wash that had settled into the nooks and crannies remained, adding definition and shadow to the shed walls and doors.
For some reason, the wash didn’t stay in the doors. I repeated the wash a third time, focused on the doors and the door hardware to get more shading. Finally happy, I got out the pencil crayons, and highlighted the door hardware using a light grey to represent wear. The last step was to spray the dilute red brown mixture to represent dirt and dust. Deciding less was better, I declared them finished.
Now for the fun part. I took the models over to the layout, and cleared a space for them. I knew they were going to take up a lot of space but was still surprised by just how much. The other surprise was comparing them to the existing elevator Dad had made for the old layout at home. I knew that elevator was small, but the new ones dwarfed it. I tried a number of combinations before deciding that the Pioneer and Drye Grain would go to the front, and the Pool elevator would go to the back. And now I have finally have a purpose for my grain cars.
Comments