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?!