Paper Mill, No Clamps!

Still needing the details, but tried the paper mill on the layout without clamps.  Gee, seems it takes up a lot of space.  Some readjustments for woodyard to digesters will be needed, but like the look in general!

Paper Mill Roof Repair

Nope, Plastruck glue did not work.  Two parts of roof with long edges did not stay glued.  So, pulled out the old fashioned tube of model glue and tried again.  Even added a couple of clamps to keep things together.  Hope this works. . . .

Final Assembly of Paper Mill

Well, not exactly final assembly of the paper mill -- lots of detail still to be determined and affixed.  But, this seems to be a major step!

Gluing end walls was not quite as straightforward as anticipated.  First try the walls were so lightly glued that they came apart on first movement.  Still, just added lots of cement and adhesion seemed much better; also may have given more time to "dry" than first go-around.

Ensuring walls were perpendicular was not as easy as suggested in the instructions.  The balusters or columns on the exterior and gluing reinforcements on the interior did not leave a large flat surface to work with.  Still, seemed to be some plumb.

Used flat sheet styrene for rooftop.  Inside dimension turned out to be just about 5 9/16 inch.  Turns out, this left a piece that exactly fit between two widths of sheet.  Plastruck glue doesn't seem to stay wet quite long enough on the extended sides of the roof.  When things dry a bit will probably try to turn the building upside down and add some glue from the inside.  Hoping the roof pieces will help stabilize the whole mill.

Flat black and glued in. . . with some weight to help!

Blackened Windows

 Windows are not really that important for a paper mill, so let's blacken them as well as interior walls of the mill.  No real need to be able to see out of the windows nor to see into the windows so we can "hide" the interior.

Looking pretty good with walls just leaning against each other.  Next step is gluing walls together and then adding a roof.  The roof should add some stability to the structure.

Sure hope it fits the layout, even though it still comes up short (in two ways) versus the actual paper mill in Panama City.

Picture quality is not so good, but the length of the paper mill is evident.  Actually, the last part of the building is probably warehousing, so we can work around that a bit.

Adding Windows and Doors

Next step seemed to be adding windows and doors to the paper mill walls, but an astute observer will notice that two more panels have been added to each of the long walls!  The two added panels are totally blank but will give the building a bit more of the VERY elongated paper mill structure.  About all there's room for on the layout!!

More Grands = More Trees

 A couple of grandkids were here for my birthday weekend in mid-September.  They like to help out a little on the layout and making trees seems to be an area of interest!  We might have a forest after the next visit. . . .

Grape vines, netting, hair spray, and a couple of ground turf sizes/colors make a good start:

Then you have to plant them.  We'll let the rails run off into the "infinite" on the far end. . . through a grove of smaller trees.

Hmm, may need a few more, but that will give us something to do for the next visit. . . just as we figured.

A side view. . . showing at least one tree needs straightening, but the whole area needs some ground goop!

Painting the Paper Mill

 Another "step" along the way.

Chose flat red for the walls of the mill.  Added a light overspray of darker color, Expresso saitn used with windows but hard to tell:

 Chose a lighter color for most doors, Nutmeg satin

Large door with gray and spattering of Canyon Black flat

Set aside to dry before assembly.  Will need to do a bit of weathering, but may look pretty good as is. . . .

Will probably add "glass" and then spray flat black from the backside.

Walls, Bales, and Headstones

Sorta finished construction of fourth wall of paper mill -- still needs windows, painting, gluing together, and roof.  But, it felt good to get this far.

Another HO modeler had some leftovers.  It's the little details that count. . . sometimes:

Headstones for three of the most influential parishioners at the little Baptist church -- Mr Jones, Mr Tyler, and old What's-His-Name (couldn't read the tombstone).  Hoping white glue will dry clear: or strategically bushes will need to be planted:

And a few hay bales behind the tobacco barn to be hauled up to the cows later in the afternoon:

 

Wall 3

 Started working on Wall 3 of Paper Mill.  You'd athunk that with all the parts I had, I could just pick out the ones I wanted without any modifications, but nooooo.  

Premods:

After four cuts:

But it's progress!!

Progress (?) at the Paper Mill

I found second ebay offer for DPM parts:

   To go along with the first

 Seems there’s enough to keep me busy for a while!  But I got a start:

Gluing up second design with additional section.

Even with all those pieces, I needed to trim a piece for the extra section to get:

Taking shape, but lots of work left to do! 

 

 

 

Paper Mill Ideas

So, the May, 2024, Model Railroader Magazine had an article by Charles Trevey that featured a paper mill in the Southeast -- sounds familiar to me!  I inquired of MRR if there were more photos (since the article didn't really show any) of the paper mill or if they could put me in touch with Mr. Trevey.  Well, by the next day I had an email from Charles and pictures of his paper mill!

I liked what I saw, so I asked where he had gotten the structures and piping -- DPM and Walthers piping were the answers.  Then, off to ebay to find some deals, maybe. . . .  One was a package of DPM (Design Preservation Models) modular parts.

This was 1 2/3 kits for about the price of one.  Even though the "era" and number of windows may be off a bit, maybe we can work out something.

Pulp and paper mills are pretty large -- the Panama City, FL paper mill measures about 700X100 feet via Google Earth -- Charles suggestive a good bit of  "selective compression".  This setup measures about 100X40 feet!?!?!?  Oh well, what the heck.

The piping arrived yesterday,

That ought to get me started.  Again, on ebay, this gave me two Walthers Cornerstone Piping Kits, 933-3105, for about the price of one at retail.  The decal for one set was a little dirty and the staples on the packaging for the other were rusting!  Didn't hurt the pipes.

Just gotta find time to work on these new parts. . . and figure a way to close off some of the windows on the paper mill.

Another Grandkid Recruit

 Over the Easter weekend, another grandchild has shown interest in the Blacktop Crossing extension.  We had a few instructions while his uncle worked on the Element:

Then we made a few trees out of grape stems, polyfiber, a little course foam, and hair spray.  Maybe the best place might be on the shores of Watson Bayou?!