The Shipyard at Foss' Landing (Diorama) by gjdale (Grant) - FINISHED - SierraWest - Scale 1:87 (HO)

[Edwardkenway]

3 minutes ago, Egilman said:

What is it with veggies? they getting a taste for human proteins now?

Must be the fertilizer used, or they're mutant alien veggies.... Welcome to the Twilight Zone😱

[Papa]

On 3/27/2023 at 11:59 AM, Egilman said:

'll bet it didn't feel anything like "Tiptoeing thru the Tulips" {chuckle}

Actually it didn’t hurt much; it just wouldn’t stop bleeding.  The stitches stopped the bleeding but eventually the flap of skin they stitched back just fell off. The slicers have a special holder for the vegetables so you don’t get hurt. I thought i was too clever for that! Slice, slice, slice, ouch!

[gjdale]

Having had some enforced time off due to the "attack of the killer carrots", it's time to resume  normal programming. 

The Scenery Base

Having read through the instructions several times, including reading ahead to the next section, I decided to do things a little out of sequence and make up some of the scaffolding that would be needed shortly. I wanted to have this on hand and ready to go when it was needed, rather than making it up while watching the clock on setting times for the scenery base.

 

The scaffolding items are relatively simple, and all are made according to provided templates in the plans. These consist of the bow and stern scaffolding assemblies, the scaffolding walkways and two ramp pieces. Here they are ready to go and put aside until needed.

 

 

Not shown here, the keel bracing was also added at this time rather than waiting until the ship was placed in the scenery. These are simply bracing pieces that run from the outer ends of the keel supports to the keel itself. Sorry – no photo of this bit. As it turned out, I was very glad that I installed these at this point.

 

The next step was to mix up some Sculptamold to contour the shoreline and create the pit for the ship. I was very apprehensive about this as I had never done anything like this before and it is also a “point of no return”. It actually took me three attempts at mixing the Sculptamold before I had a consistency that I was happy with. A cardboard template of the ships keel is provided to assist in shaping the pit area. A little AK 11008 paint (in place of the called for Polly Earth) is added to the water before mixing with the Sculptamold. I also added a few small stones to represent rocks in the area under the dock.

 

 

In the picture above you can see the indentation made for the rear pylons of the dock. The instructions say to spread a base layer of dirt over the Sculptamold before pressing the ship down to sink the keel supports just a bit into the Sculptamold. I found that the surface of the Sculptamold had already hardened to a point that made this impossible, so I mixed up a fresh batch, spread it over the area where the ship was to go, and then placed the ship into it. I subsequently added some more dirt over the top. The barge derrick dock was also placed at this time. I was able to create some holes in the Sculptamold by pushing a 3/16” diameter brass rod into the mix. This allowed me to place the supporting pylons at the right depth for the height of the dock surface. A little epoxy was added to the bottoms of the pylons to secure them in place.

 

Once a layer of dirt was added, it was then lightly wet down with “Wet Water” (water with a few drops of dish detergent) sprayed from a plant sprayer bottle. A mixture of 50/50 white glue and water, with a couple of drops of dish detergent, is then applied over the entire surface using an eyedropper/syringe. 

 

At this point, I also decided to change the colour of the bottom of the water area and added that by applying some artists acrylics – a mix of Turquoise, Phthalo Green, and Aquamarine – trying to have the lighter green colour towards the shore, and a deeper blue further out to represent the deeper water.

 

 

In the above picture, you can see on the left-hand side where an errant brush stroke hit the sea wall. I was able to remove this later with the gentle application of an alcohol/ink wash.

Completing the Ship

Once the base had dried, I decided that I didn’t like the plain dark brown of the floor of the pit, so I mixed up some sand and two different light-coloured HO scale ballasts, and sprinkled that over the dirt, again applying a white glue/water mix to seal it in place. 

 

The main scaffolding supports were then added. Once again, I found that by using an awl to make an initial indentation, I was able to push the supports down into the Sculptamold. These were each glued to the scaffolding rib braces previously installed on the ship. Additional keel supports were also added at both bow and stern.

 

 

The scaffolding walkways could then be glued in place.

 

 

The two-part ramp was then added to the port side. As suggested by the instructions, a slight bow was imparted into the lower section, adding to the appearance of age.

 

 

Finally, some bracing pieces were added between neighbouring scaffold brace supports. Two ladders were made up and placed, and a scrap wood chute was made up and placed towards the bow end. Then some small pieces of scrap wood were added to the chute, and more scraps were scattered around the pit. All of these scraps were given the white glue/water mix treatment to secure them in place.

 

 

It's a bit hard to see in the photographs, but the white glue/water mix has left a bit of a sheen on the scrap wood pieces. I may need to go back and carefully apply some dull cote to knock that back. In the meantime, that completes the work on the ship and the next step will be construction of the barge derrick.

 

[Glen McGuire]

Excellent decision to change the color of the ground under the pit and give it a gravelly look.  It makes for a very nice contrast to the brown dirt as well as helping to visually identify the work area.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[gjdale]

Thanks Glen and also once again for of the "likes".

The Barge Derrick

At first glance through the instructions, the Barge Derrick would appear to be a fairly simple construction. However, it proved to be a quite challenging element of the overall kit. The barge derrick is made up of a number of wooden parts and quite a few cast white metal parts – some of the latter being both tiny and rather fragile.

 

First up, we gather the pre-cut wooden components – the mast, jib, the laser cut wooden block components, and a couple of wood strips – and grain and stain them after imparting a slight taper to the outer ends of both mast and jib.

 

 

Next, we search through the dozens of tiny white metal castings to identify and extract the ones we need for this assembly. These are then cleaned and chemically blackened. These include the bearings (x2), pillow blocks (x2), gear wheel, pinion, cleat, pulley wheels (x3), crank, hook, clevises (x5) (I would call these shackles), eyelets (x4), length of chain, and 1/32” diam brass rod. In the picture below, I have included the tips of my tweezers on the right-hand side as an indicator of scale. The very first issue I had was losing the tiny pinion gear while cleaning the parts – it pinged off the end of the tweezers and fell straight through the hole in the space-time continuum, never to be seen again. This was unfortunate, as this particular piece was a unique shape. Luckily, I was able to substitute a very similar piece from the additional castings and only the kit designer will ever know the difference!

 

 

Next, we are instructed to lay a piece of masking tape on the bench and colour it with a little Polly Earth (I used AK 11008, Grimy Grey) and some brown chalk powder. A thin strip about 1/16” x 1 1 /2” is then cut off – we need a few of these, so they were all made at once.

 

 

I diverted from the sequence in the instructions a little from here on, just to keep the workflow going. The next step was to wrap the tape around the top end of the mast and then drill a hole for an eyelet to be epoxied in place. Two more strips and three eyelets are also added to the outboard end of the jib. One of the pulley wheels is epoxied to the inside of one half of the laser cut block and once dry, the other half of the block is epoxied in place and two very short brass pins are cut from the length of rod and inserted through the holes in the end of the block.

 

 

Two wood strips, each about 1” long are then attached to the inboard end of the jib, with about half their length overhanging the jib end. Once dry, we are instructed to wrap these strips with the provided waxed thread for about ¾ of their length, leaving about ¼” of the strips exposed. These are what is used to attach the jib to the mast. This is where I ran into two problems. Firstly, the length of thread provided in the kit is insufficient to wrap the length directed. This was no big deal – I have a sizeable stash of high-quality (Syren) rigging thread for my ship modelling, so it was easy to find some of the same thickness, run it through some wax and proceed. The slightly bigger issue is that if the wood strips are wrapped too far, they will not expand far enough to fit around the diameter of the mast (which is thicker than the jib) – in fact, it snapped the wood strips on my first attempt. Again not a huge deal – I simply replaced the two wood strips and this time wrapped them in thread only as far as the end of the jib. I used a little CA to secure the wrapped thread at this point and left a long ‘tail’ hanging until after the jib was secured to the mast. The provided template was used to position the jib and set the correct angle. It was epoxied in place to the mast and left overnight to fully cure before completing the wrapping with the thread.

 

 

Once cured, two holes were drilled through the wooden strips and into the mast and short brass pins were epoxied in place to accept the preventer chain. Here I ran into another issue. The links in the provided chain are too small to fit over the brass pins. Although the instructions advise us to use the ends of our tweezers to force the link open sufficiently, I was unable to achieve this. No drama – back into the ship modelling stash and after a quick rummage, came up with a length of chain with ever so slightly larger links. Problem solved.

 

 

The next issue I encountered around this time was the softness of the white metal castings – specifically the clevises/shackles. The first thing needed to be done with these is to use a drill bit or reamer to open the holes sufficiently to take the axle pins of the pulley wheels, or the brass rod (both are 1/32” in diameter). I managed to destroy two of the five in the process. I was able to find one more of the same size among the myriad of castings, and also found two that were slightly larger, so used one of these as a replacement also.

 

Two clevises/shackles are attached to either end of the large wooden block. The photo makes the block look grey but it is in fact brown, as is the mast itself - i just had to adjust some settings while editing the photos to make the parts more visible.

 

 

Two more are used to attach the pulley wheels to the eyelets previously installed.

 

 

The larger replacement clevis/shackle was used to attach the hook. The rigging thread also gets some tape wrapped around it just above the hook.

 

 

The bearings, gear, pillow blocks, pinion and crank are then epoxied in place at the base of the mast. This was quite a slow process as it was necessary to wait for the epoxy to dry on one component before adding the next. However, they were all placed without incident. The rigging line from the hook was also wound around the shaft of the gear wheel.

 

 

And a view from the other side showing where the rigging line from the jib end is secured to the cleat at the base of the mast. I will add a small coil of extra line to the cleat once the derrick is finally placed on the diorama.

 

 

And finally, here are a couple of overall shots of the completed derrick. Note the extra line hanging from the end of the jib. This will be secured to items on the dock once the derrick is finally placed.

 

 

 

A wooden fence and some bumper pilings are next on the agenda…

[wefalck]

Something in the design of the derrick seems strange and that is the jaws that hold the outrigger to the mast. It is essentially designed like gaff, but then either the throat-halliard is missing or a clamp on which the jaws can rest. Like this the outrigger would just slide down and fold against the mast ... normally, on such derricks one would have a universal joint, like the ones used on the booms of some sailing ships or on ship loading derricks.

[gjdale]

The jib is held to the mast by a through-pin. In this case, the modelling simplification is to use two short pins instead of one through-pin. Other than that, I can’t say - it’s just the way the kit is designed.

[wefalck]

Which means that the outrigger/jib is fixed to the mast. In that case one doesn't need the chain and it cannot swing around, unless the mast is turning ... Ther should be also some sort of backstay(s) to counteract the weight of the material that is being shifted around. In quarries and such places sometimes a spar is used instead. Or, there is second bearing on top of the mast, if attached to e.g. building.

[gjdale]

The chain is to prevent the presumably removable through-pin from working its way out. I do agree though that there might be more rigging/support required - especially if the mast is able to rotate (which I think it must do).

[realworkingsailor]

2 hours ago, gjdale said:

I do agree though that there might be more rigging/support required - especially if the mast is able to rotate (which I think it must do).

Not necessarily. It doesn’t look like that derrick/crane was designed to pick up particularly heavy loads (probably just enough to avoid having to hand-bomb items from boat to warf). It does, however, look like it was designed to rotate as a unit, so any stays or braces would only impede its use (unless the mast was way taller)

 

Andy

[Egilman]

8 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

It does, however, look like it was designed to rotate as a unit, so any stays or braces would only impede its use (unless the mast was way taller)

It's a simple barge derrick, for unloading small breakbulk barge cargo...  The hook is a single line pull, so it's capacity is only the strength of a single line no mechanical advantage... they would hook it to the load and take up tension then tie that line off... 

The lifting is done with the jib (boom when mounted ashore) itself, that is where they installed the single pully double pull line, it actually lifts the load off the barge deck, that is where the 2-1 mechanical advantage is located in this setup...

 

The two tag lines hanging from the outer end of the boom is how they swiveled the cargo lifted from the barge to the deck.... Very simple setup and they could easily install braces to the top of the pole if they needed  more capacity/stability...

 

The mechanical joint between the boom and pole only functioned as a simple hinge, the strapping of the hinge sides to the boom was to prevent any twist of the boom in relation to the pin so the pin acted as the handle to twist the pole giving a lot of mechanical advantage to the tag line operation... The short length of the pin reduced the shearing forces inherent in such an operation....

 

Simple and easy to repair with materials on hand...

 

Very efficient in it's day...

Edited April 16, 2023 by Egilman

[gjdale]

Thanks for that excellent explanation Elmer - that all makes perfect sense to me. 🙂

[FriedClams]

Very nice progress, Grant! Looking good.

 

Gary

[gjdale]

A minor update... 

The Wooden Fence

As the kit instructions remind us, fences create a barrier that allows us to define a scene. This is a simple board on board construction using the provided template to define the overall dimensions and placement of key components – the posts and rails. The posts are made from 3/64” square stripwood, and the rails from 0.020” x 1/16” strips. Individual boards of 0.02” x 3/32” are then applied after applying plenty of texture, splits and cracks. I forgot to take any in-progress photos, but here are a couple of completed shots.

 

Overall view.

 

 

And a close-up of the mid-section.

 

 

The fence is now set aside for later placement on the diorama.

 

The Bumper Pilings

The bumper pilings are made from dowels. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be enough dowel of the right diameter (3/16”) provided in the kit to complete this task, so I supplemented the kit stock with some from my own stash. The latter were slightly larger in diameter and of a much harder wood. The harder wood made imparting grain much harder, and for this I used the edge of a saw blade for an exacto knife. Tyres are provided in the form of white metal castings which are blackened, buffed, painted and chalked before being attached. I did not like the look of the provided cotton string, and there was not enough for the task anyway, so again I substituted from my own stash for this. Again, I did not take any in-progress shots, so here are a few of the completed pilings. I tried to follow as closely as possible the distribution/layout shown in the example in the instruction manual, including deliberately leaning some of them.

 

The main dock pilings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Barge Derrick Dock.

 

 

The Steam Box 

The steam box was used for softening the planking, making it easier to bend to attach to the hull. Steam from the boiler was pumped into the steam box and a little while later, it was ready to go. This provides an excellent opportunity for creating a scene that tells a story within a story.

 

The actual construction of the steam box is very straight forward with a solid core of ¼” square stock being clad in some .020” x 3/32” stripwood and 0.020” x 1/16” stripwood. Wrap braces are made from more of the 0.020” x 1/16” stripwood and applied. Finally, the legs and braces are made up from 3/64” square strips for the legs and 0.020” x 3/32” strips for the braces. Thin paper strips are used to create the hinges on the doors and a small white metal cast hose ring / inlet is blackened and buffed before being epoxied in place. Again, no in-progress shots, but here is the completed Steam Box – 3 ½” in overall length.

 

 

Next up will be the boiler to accompany the Steam Box.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by gjdale

[wefalck]

The steam-chest is a nice detail!

[gjdale]

The Castings

 

There are a great many castings included in this kit, in a mixture of white metal and resin. They all need preparation, so I decided that now was as good a time as any to do the initial preparation. Along the way I decided to count them… Including the few castings that are already in place, there are a total of 174 white metal castings and 147 resin castings.

 

Here is a shot of the remaining white metal castings prior to being “processed”. Some of these parts are extremely small, especially the hand tools!

 

 

My “process” for the preparation of these parts is to first wash them all in slightly soapy water, then rinse. Next up is an Acetone bath, after which they are not handled by bare hands again. A quick rinse in distilled water, then a 20-minute soak in Vinegar. Another rinse off in distilled water then left to dry before application of Jax’s Pewter Black, applied by scrubbing the part with an old paint brush. Once the part is totally blackened it is dipped in distilled water again and then left to dry. Finally, all parts are gently buffed by hand using a felt wheel from a Dremel that has been cut in half (a tip I picked up from the kit designer). That took a couple of afternoons work to achieve.

 

The resin castings get a scrub in some soapy water and then rinsed. They are then prepared for a base coat by attaching them to various scrap wood “handles” using double-sided tape. Here is an overview of all the resin parts ready for spraying.

 

 

While most of the resin castings are individual parts, there are a couple of composite castings that pack in an incredible amount of detail – especially when one remembers the size of these. For reference, the castings in the foreground of the above picture are mounted on popsicle sticks. Here is a close-up of the casting of the work bench top (centre casting on the left popsicle stick). Note the open drawer full of “stuff” as well as the clutter on the bench top.

 

 

And here is the open cupboard right next to it.

 

 

Some of the barrels and bins are also filled with incredibly details parts, like this barrel full of spare/discarded parts.

 

 

Although some of the tutorials suggest that castings representing metal should be sprayed black and those representing wood should be sprayed a “wood” colour initially, the kit designer in his own tutorial suggest spraying all parts black initially, regardless. I took that advice and sprayed all of these parts with Stynlyrez Black Primer using my airbrush. Another afternoon’s work….

[gjdale]

The Boiler

 

With all the castings now having their initial preparation complete, it was time to turn attention back to completion of the Boiler for the Steam Box. The boiler itself is a resin casting, but it has a white metal casting Stack Cap and Valve, along with a brass wire Stack Wire. The boiler was painted with AK 11212 (Gun Metal) and then dry brushed with AK 11210 (Natural Steel) before the blackened and buffed metal parts were epoxied in place.

 

 

The boiler is mounted on a wooden sled – another resin casting. This was first painted with AK11008 (Grimy Grey) and then dry brushed with AK11110 (Leather Brown). A couple of the tiny hand tools had their handles painted - AK11095 (Dirty Red) for the large wrench, and AK11110(Leather Brown) for the wooden handle of the hammer. In the photo below, you can see part of the toothpick that the sled is mounted on for painting.

 

 

Two barrels are given the same treatment as the sled (again mounted on toothpicks here).

 

 

A Steam Hose is then made from a three-inch length of 1.2mm diameter solder. It is painted with AK11147 (Olive Green) and one end is then wrapped in masking tape to simulate the lagging. It was then dirtied up with light dusting of (dry) black and grey chalk powders.

 

 

 

The boiler was then epoxied in place on the sled and four “supports” were made from paper, painted with AK11210 (Natural Steel) and then dusted with some (dry) rust coloured chalk powder. The barrels were then epoxied in place and once dry the feed-water pipe was made from some 0.5mm diameter brass wire, blackened and buffed, and epoxied in place between the barrel and the valve on the boiler. The two hand tools were then epoxied in place, and finally the steam hose was epoxied in place on the side of the boiler.

 

 

Here it is with the steam hose temporarily attached to the steam box.

 

 

Finally, here it is temporarily in place on the diorama. I had to play with some post-processing adjustments on the photo as the original was very dark. More details will be added to this scene later.

 

 

Now it’s back to painting all of those casting detail. This could take a while….

[Canute]

Super job painting and detailing the castings. Really brings them to life. The boiler on the skid is spot on. 👍

[kurtvd19]

As you found out painting the parts with the Badger STYNYLREZ works wonders on the appearance when you add the final colors.  Good of the designer sharing that tip with you.

 

STYNYLREZ is a great primer, but many are also using it as a final color with the line of colors now at 18.

 

I like to vary the primer color depending on what the final color will be.  An example is using Stynylrez Black as the primer and  Under hull Oxide Red as the final color - a much better final result, in my opinion, of the lower hull below the waterline, than using a gray primer.  Paints appear differently when applied of different colors of primer - lighter final color, apply over a light primer.

 

[BobG]

Fantastic detailing, Grant, and a excellent explanation of how to prepare white metal and resin castings!

 

On 4/29/2023 at 6:01 PM, gjdale said:

Finally, all parts are gently buffed by hand using a felt wheel from a Dremel that has been cut in half (a tip I picked up from the kit designer).

Why was it better to cut the felt buffing wheel in half? Can you post a photo of it? 

[gjdale]

Thanks Bob,

 

To answer your question, it gives you a semi-circular shape which simply gives you more options on which part of the felt to use. If you need a sharp corner to get into a crevice, then you have one, as well as both a straight section and a rounded section. No photo to hand, but I think you can get the idea?

[Brucealanevans]

I am really enjoying your detailed account of this project. I will be building this as my fall/winter project later this year when we return to Minnesota from our Massachusetts place (where I will be finishing my Amati Fifie build and a Model Airways Fokker Eindekker) and your documented experience will be an enormous help. 
I hope if you go on to the Foss Landing you do the same!

 

I don’t have room anywhere for any more ships. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Brucealanevans

[Brucealanevans]

Sorry for the digression, but I thought I'd briefly show why I will be working on these dioramas rather than more ships (I really am out of room):

 

[Jack12477]

My problem also ! 🙄 

[BobG]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:49 PM, gjdale said:

No photo to hand, but I think you can get the idea?

Well, not really, Grant. I think I must be getting dense in my advancing age!!

[Brucealanevans]

I agree. Can’t get my head around it. 

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, BobG said:

Well, not really, Grant. I think I must be getting dense in my advancing age!!

 

30 minutes ago, Brucealanevans said:

I agree. Can’t get my head around it. 

 

It's really simple, it functions the same way a half round file or a round nosed chisel does, except for it polishes rather than cuts...

Edited May 4, 2023 by Egilman

[Brucealanevans]

So not on the dremel tool to spin?

[Egilman]

Yep, strictly a hand tool at that point.... glue it to a scrap of plastic sprue and/or mount it in a pin vise for a handle.....

[Brucealanevans]

Got it.