Thursday 2 July 2015

Cement Works Part Three


After adding the discharge silos in a single afternoon project, the main roof, aggregate bin and vertical supply tower took a few days to complete. Thanks largely to the numerous ladders, hand rails and the amount of drying time required between several coats of enamel paint.

I found FALLER's old concrete mixing plant's pre-moulded colours a little too bland, especially the roof sections.

I started by painting the aggregate bin in the same faded green paint I had used for the steel support beams and the tops of the discharge silos, and followed by painting the main roof in a patchwork of acrylic burnt umber tinged with black paint.

The silver paint pen once more came in handy, this time for the underside of the guttering.

The roof gutters lacked any real presence on the model. So, I turned the roof section over, and used the silver enamel paint pen once more to make the guttering stand out as metal. I also used the silver paint pen to brush over the ladders, handrails and metal walkways. I know it sounds simple, but the end result was still a huge improvement on a blue-grey moulded plastic look.

The main aggregate bin fitted into place on top of the roof.

After once more using my wife's hairdryer to give the turpentine-thinned green paint a quick-dry weather-beaten look, I glued the aggregate bin in place on top of the roof. Then to my surprise, I discovered a second unopened jar of the same Floquil 110040 dark green paint. This gave me the idea to model the concrete plant as though it was in the middle of a maintenance overhaul. So I only painted the top half of the vertical supply tower with the old turpentine-thinned paint, and the bottom half using the unopened jar of the same colour, which gave it a freshly painted look.

The finished result showing the side of the plant that will face the layout edge.

To finish off the appearance of a plant overhaul in progress, I also painted the bottom hand railing on the supply tower in safety yellow. One fault I've noticed with this FALLER kit, is that the stairs actually come from nowhere. Not being a concrete plant expert, am I to assume that the doorway at the top of the aggregate bin actually leads down through the holding bin into the plant itself? It's something I will have to research further, so if you have any ideas, then please share them with me.

And the side that will face the rails in the yard at Philden.

While I never intended to build this model to look like any particular cement plant, the colours I have used are very similar to many Hunter Valley coal loading bins, which has so far satisfied my efforts to make my cement works look more Australian. With the top detail of the concrete plant now finished, all that is left for me to complete on the model are the stairs leading down to the ground, and the line side details in the yard. But as usual, that is a story for another day.


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Thanks for taking the time to visit Philden. I hope you'll book a return ticket soon. Cheers, Phil