Furniture factory building two

I have finished the second building of the furniture factory.  This is a small,  mostly custom furniture builder.  Building two is where the final assembly and finishing of the furniture occurs.  I did not do an interior for this building.  Only the front and rear of this building are detailed as it fits between building one and building three.   I also added a removable roof to building one - that roof has a small skylight window and a vent.

Building two has a raised floor which is why there was a ramp to it's side entrance from building one. There is a small loading dock in front of building two with a worker sitting on it.  The figure had lost one arm so I made a new one from a short piece of brass wire.  The window is by Grandt Line and the door is scratch built.

In the rear view you can see the small loading dock and the smoke stack on the roof.  The rear of these buildings face away from the front of the layout and are track-side, and hard to see,  so there is not much detail.

Next I will build the third building which is the storage and display building and which will contain pieces of completed (mostly cast metal) furniture.

I had planned to post this yesterday evening but my Comcast TV and Internet service were down from late morning yesterday until some time last night - presumably a result of the strong rain and thunder storm.

Furniture factory building one less roof

I have completed the furniture factory building one but have not yet added the roof.  I included a lot of interior details - mostly scratch built - so I plan to try and make the roof removable.  Building one is the furniture construction building and has a number of power tools and various lumber and supplies.  Outside of the building is an  open shed with a scratch built steam engine that supplies power to the factory.

In the above exterior view you can see the steam boiler with a small coal box.

Above you can see the overall inside, other than the front area.  There are two open shelves with boxes and parts- both made from card stock.  There are two figures inside.

The three power tools are scratch built from wood, card stock and plastic parts.

In the view above you can see the ramp and door to the next building which is the assembly and finish building.  At the lower left is my lathe which was time consuming to build.

This furniture factory is a small,  mostly custom manufacturer.  Most of my industries are small so I have room to build more industries.

The next building I will construct is the assembly building.  I intend to build each structure using different styles for variety.

Furniture factory model start

My next model project will be a small furniture factory.  I am finding it difficult to come up with new businesses to model as I have modeled a lot of 1939 period businesses that would be found in my modeling region of western Pennsylvania.  With the furniture factory i can use a lot of the SS Ltd cast metal furniture kits I accumulated years ago.  This factory will have three buildings - the construction shop, the assembly shop and the storage and display building.  I will construct them in that order.  All will have interior detail.

Above is the beginning of the construction shop.  It has board and batten walls and a wide end door which will be open to allow the machinery to be seen.  It is in the early stages.

One factor in selecting this industry to model is that I have a lot of SS Ltd cast metal home style furniture which I have not been able to use.

Above is a photo of a vintage furniture shop which made kitchen cabinets.

Above is a photo of a factory that used lots of wood for their products.

I spent several days this week sorting out my collections of wood track ties and freight car trucks.  I have a lot of both items, way more that I will ever use.  A result of accumulating materials from the estates of friends and my father.  Stuff, stuff stuff!

Dredge barge complete

I have completed the dredge barge - more or less.  I may add more details but I wanted to get a post.  I try to post something at least each week to keep the blog fresh.  The photos show the barge sitting in the water in front of the dredge company but not permanently installed.

The barge is all wood as is the derrick.  The grab bucket is a cast metal kit that had lousy instructions.  Fortunately I have old industrial books with good photos of grab buckets and how they are hung.  The cables are straight, fine brass wire.  I find that better than trying to use thread.  Some of the pulleys are commercial and some I made from card stock.  The two drum hoist is a Cannon Scale Models cast metal kit modified.  I ran two drive rods into the superstructure to be driven by the boiler inside, which also drives the barge.  The only thing in the wheel house is the wheel which can be seen though the front window.

In the view above you can see the rear of the barge which has a door in the lower superstructure to allow maintenance on the boiler and mechanism.  The stack is a plastic straw with a paper rim at the top.  There are four figures on board - the captain on the top deck and three workers, one that is swabbing the deck on the far side of the barge.

Building this was interesting and at times frustrating.

Now I have the usually difficult task of deciding what to build next.