June 2026
For something different, this edition of the blog was written in a parking lot, while waiting in an airport, and while on an airplane.
It has been an eventful month, filled with significant events. Taking things in chronological:
Christine has graduated! She finished her Master in Architecture at the UofC this past May, graduating with honors. We attended her graduation ceremony, the first we have been able to attend for many different reasons, the second week of June. She has now started the hunt for a full time job, looking for something in project management. We would love for her to find something in Calgary, but she is hoping for a job somewhere with warmer winters. We are so immensely proud of her and all she has accomplished.
My mother turned 90 on June 12. A significant milestone! A celebration was held June 12, with Mom’s favourite chinese food, chocolocate cake and lots of balloons. A wonderful time was had by all.
Nicholas and Jill got married!. It was a magical ceremony, on the porch of Jill’s family home, in Brant County, Ontario. The ceremony, dinner and dance were held outdoors at the Davis’ farmhouse property. The weather was perfect, the decorations were amazing, the food was the perfect combination of tasty and plentiful, and everyone had a great time.
We took the opportunity for a quick vacation in southern Ontario with Christine and Daniel, visiting Niagara-on- the-Lake, Port Dover, Paris for ice cream, and some even took in a Jay’s game. I managed to sneak a couple hours at Otter Valley Railway in Tillsonburg, what I think if the largest train store in Canada, while Marie found a wonderful quilt store a few blocks over, Daniel came back to Calgary with us, working from home for a few days, before hitting the opening weekend of Stampede for a couple days of western celebration.
On a modelling note, Dave and I headed to Nanton at the beginning of June for the bi-annual Western Canada Rocky Mountain Classic model show. It was a fantastic day, with lots of models, a little vendor shopping, capped by a run up of the Bomber Command Museum’s Lancaster.
Walthers Rebuilt Elevator Complex
The Grain Bin
Work resumed with the grain bin, as it was thought to be the fastest one to finish.
Searching online photos found that a grain bin is typically connected to the adjacent elevator by a pipe, from the upper part of the elevator, down to the annex roof, to allow grain to be transferred. I had found a picture of a grain bin where the transfer pipe entered the bin via a cupola. I liked the appearance so set out to build a cupola.
The cupola started construction using leftover annex scraps. The cupola was half finished when it was realized that the existing grain bin roof design meant the cupola base would need to be notched in several places. The kit came with a metal roof, with a prominent roof ridge and panel seams that would need notches to allow the cupola to sit flat. Appropriate notches were duly installed before it was remembered that the elevator's metal roof had just been converted to shingles. It didn't make sense that the elevator had a shingle roof while the adjacent grain bin had a metal roof so it was belatedly decided to convert the bin roof to shingles. Unfortunately, that made the just finished cupola notches redundant and there wasn't an easy means to repair them. The existing cupola was put aside and a new cupola was constructed from the last few annex scraps.
Photo 2 - The second cupola wasn't any easier.
Photo 3 - New roof is finished, ready to paint.
The Grain Annex
Alberta Wheat Pool colour standards place the elevator complex lettering on the exterior sides of the overall complex. As a stand alone elevator, this put the lettering directly on the elevator walls, On the new complex, the elevator lettering would be placed on the outside annex wall. The existing west side elevator lettering was therefore overpainted with teal in anticipation of adding new lettering on the annex end.
Alberta Wheat Pool elevators had a standard paint scheme. The elevators were an overall teal green, with the roof trim and under eaves trim painted white. Photos showed that the annex trim was also typically painted white, so it was masked and painted.
The annex is narrower than the elevator, so the decals needed to be scaled down to fit the narrower wall. The elevator decals were used, shrunk using the computer, and new decals cut from white decal paper using the Cameo cutter.
Photo 1 - Annex ready for decals
Photos 2&3 - Decals and weathering applied
The newly cut decals are so thin they are difficult to apply. Patience and a sharp toothpick are needed to coax them into position.
With decals complete, annex weathering began. Weathering started with a homemade dark grey acrylic tempera wash applied liberally to all the walls. Once dry, it was refined using a damp brush to remove any overly heavy deposits, evening the effect out. The result was a good start but the annex needed to look older and dirtier. After thinking for a day, an additional wash of heavily thinned starship filth oil paint was applied and blended in. This made the overall colour too dark, so a series of light greens, light blue and white oil paints were worked into the finish to lighten it. Happy with this result, powdered pastels were used to refine the wall weathering and weather the roof. An appropriately patchy finish, visible in the photos below, was the result.
The Grain Elevator
Attention turned to the elevator. The newly painted areas were much too green and shiny. Like the annex, weathering started with a grey tempera wash, followed by a wash of heavily thinned starship filth oil paint. This was then followed by a series of light greens, light blue and white oil paints that were worked into the finish to lighten it. Powdered pastels were then used to blend the previous weathering in, and to weather the roof.
The elevator white trim had not been done previously, even though the kit had the appropriate trim boards moulded in, so it was masked and painted.
Photo 1 - Masked up to paint the white trim
Photo 2 - White trim painted and side lettering painted out
Photo 3 - Finished elevator
With weathering complete, it was time for final details. Photos of the Barrhead elevators showed that the annex was typically connected to the elevator by a short walkway. This was built up using strip styrene. The finished walkway is barely seen once the annex and elevator are joined.
The Elevator Office
Attention turned to finishing the office. A LED was added to the underside of the roof and the roof was installed.
The office door is positioned to match the elevator’s grain loading floor. This required stairs and a small platform to access the office, and connect the office to the elevator. Commercially made stairs simplified the task, while a small platform was scratchbuilt from styrene strip.
Photos showed the elevator, annex and office all had furnace/heater exhaust stacks on the roof. Appropriately looking stacks were created using various diameters of styrene rod and a small square of styrene sheet for the base. The stacks were painted silver, a hole drilled into the roof, and glued into place.
Photos 1&2 - Windows added
Photo 3 - Office to elevator platform finished.
That left a final detail to be aded. The elevators will arranged at the front of the layout. I wanted them to be a key scenic element, in both daylight and at night. The elevator and office already had interior lights added, but the office walkway screamed for a gooseneck light fixture above the door. Something appropriate was finally found from Woodland Scenics, and offers a final touch added to cap off the build.
With that, the raised and expanded elevator was finished.
Approach ramps into the grain unloading shed still need to built but the complex can now take its place back on the layout. Here are some finished pictures.
Eduard P-40 Kittyhawks
Construction progressed quickly with the addition of the horizontal stabilizers and riders, quickly followed by the wings. A little care was needed to ensure the pieces lines up, especially along the top chord, and along the underside in front of the wheel wheels. A little filler was needed at the back of the wing to fuselage joint, and at a couple spots on the upper wing to fuselage joint.
Photo 1 - Horizontal stabilizers and rudders added.
Photo 2 - Wings added
Photo 3 - Detail behind the engine, shown on the left plane, is completely hidden once the cover plate is installed
About all that was left was the windscreen and the canopies. Things started out well but soon came off the rails. Dry fits showed the front of the windscreens fit well, so both were dropped into position and Tamiya thin cement applied to the joints. When I next looked, the windscreen had shifted and steps had appeared along the windscreen front edge and along one side, on both planes. Panicked efforts managed to get the various pieces back into position with only small steps remaining. The front edge steps were deemed "good enough" and left alone while putty was needed along the sides.
Attention turned to large gaps under the rear windows. Several attempts were made to fill these using perfect plastic putty without success. A trial dry fit of an open canopy was tested to see if would cover the gap up when it dawned on me the gaps were intentional! They were the canopy rails, needed so the canopy could be slid open. Feeling extra stupid, the tracks were carefully cleaned out and restored.
Photo 1 - Windscreens and canopies installed
Photo 2 - Masks installed
Photo 3 - Poor fit had meant a lot of work to fill gaps and smooth edges. Ready for the second effort to paint the canopies
Photo 4 - Still not thrilled with the fit, but....
Photo 5 - The gap is supposed to be there.
Eduard Desert Kittyhawk
Time to split the build apart.
Painting began by mashing and painting the black serial numbers, located under the tail. It was noticed just before applying the masks that the serial numbers were applied over a dark green background. (Photo 1 below). Apparently these planes were originally in the RAF's standard dark earth and dark green scheme, then repainted after arriving in North Africa. They must have blocked out the original serial numbers, or painted around the serials, leaving a dark green patch under the numbers.
It was decided to apply all the markings before painting the camouflage. (Photos 2&3 below).
Areas to be painted Middlestone, a light sandy brown, were marked out in pencil. Model Master Middlestone was then sprayed and allowed to dry overnight. I got caught up in painting and masking and forgot to take pictures, so there are no pictures of the Middlestone applied before it was masked over.
Masking for the dark earth brown was done using a combination of Tamiya flexible tape and pink washi tape. The pink tape really stands out in the photos but was part of a bulk buy that was much less expensive than Tamiya tape.
Photo 1 - Serial numbers painted
Photo 2 - Markings in progress
Photo 3 - Markings almost done
Photo 4 - Middlestone brown applied and masked, then dark earth brown applied
Photos 5&6 - Masking removed.
Alaskan Kittyhawk
The underside was painted in medium sea grey - not terribly exciting and I didn't take any pictures. This plane will be progressed further during breaks in the North African scheme.
And that's it for another month. We will be home all of July so I hope to get some decent progress done. Take care and stay safe.
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