Chemical Dealer scene (concrete foundation)

As I mentioned in the first post, when I designed this scene I was concerned about cramming too much stuff into it. It is bad enough how small everything else appears once you part a true 1:48 scale freight car on the siding. It would only make things worse to then force additional things into it and really make the freight car stand out. Besides, part of my vision was to model a small New England town, not a busy industrial area. 

So while I considered installing two large horizontal propane storage tanks (like those made by Plastruct), and I even mocked it up with cardboard to see how things would fit, I just wasn't convinced it was the right decision. But I had to make up my mind soon, as I wanted to custom order decals for it and that was being held up while I figured it out.

In the meantime, I still needed a tank car unloading area with some pipes and such. I remembered that the Atlas "Deep Rock Gas & Oil" kit had this component in it, and also a small shed and some small tanks that might work. But its normal $80+ price was too high. However, on a whim I searched Ebay one morning and found the kit brand new for under $30. Huh? I confirmed it was O scale and still sealed... and then jumped on it. Actually, I offered a dollar less and the seller accepted. Hazaah!

With that in hand, and my steel building complete, I started mocking up the rest of the scene. I considered a gravel base around the building but instead went with a poured concrete foundation. I like making them, and my usual method is scribed styrene. And while I had a ton of sheet styrene, I didn't have enough styrene strips for the edges. So, I pulled out some Gatorfoam that originally had been part of the backdrop on my HO layout. 

One piece was too small, so added a second and glued (actually J.B. Welded) a splice made from thin styrene on the back. I shimmed the edges with more thin styrene so it would lay flat once flipped over.

Then, I used a metal yardstick and a sharp scribing tool to add lines making up a scale grid of 12' by 15'. This seemed reasonable in size. I also scribed some expansion cracks and wear, but they didn't show up much later on once everything was painted. 

To clean up the edges, I used a course file. This created a lot of dust that I had to get off with wet paper towels (and they left residue that I had to remove too).

Finally, I took it outside and painted it Rustoleum "Flat Sand" camouflage paint. I thought it would easily cover the pencil lines but they really stood out as being dark. At least I didn't use red marker to lay them out! It took a lot of paint to cover, but thankfully it dried super flat and the perfect concrete color. Then, I added an oil paint wash which had a lot more burnt sienna (rust orange) color than I preferred. 

So, I tried to correct it by blotting out the oil paint with mineral spirits and paper towels but in the process I also lifted some of the Rustoleum concrete paint in the process. As a result, I had to mask the area and spray it again with more concrete color. This was followed with a lighter brown oil paint wash. Finally, it looked good. (The blotchy area in the middle was my testing area and will be hidden by the structure).

Cinder ballast was added along the front edge to fill the gap and hide the Gatorfoam edges.

While this was going on, I quickly assembled what Atlas considers to be a loading facility for trucks. Apparently, various pipes and hoses stick out of the building and trucks drive near them to be filled. I planned to use this building as a support structure for unloading the tank cars, so I assembled it a little differently. I had to do this early to help mock up the size of the concrete foundation. 

I glued it together and sprayed it all flat white. The metal accents and galvanized roof were done with cheap FolkArt brand silver metallic paint, which works surprisingly well for this sort of thing. I later determined that the white with rusty weathering made it too decrepit looking so I repainted the sides gray and weathered them with a more restrained hand. 

It was at this point that I had to place my decal order... which meant committing to whether this was a propane dealer or something else. While I wanted a propane company, it would have required the obligatory large propane tank(s) and I couldn't find suitable O scale models that I liked. It would require building propane tanker truck loading facilities too. I just didn't have enough space to include all of this without cramming the scene. 

A chemical supplier on the other hand is a bit more vague and doesn't necessarily require a large exterior storage tank. In fact, I just need connections to unload a railroad tank car into something (perhaps a non-visible underground storage tank) and some areas for trucks (not necessarily tanker trucks) to arrive and purchase the chemicals. 

I spent a bit of time designing my own graphics for the company name. Perhaps I could have used an online AI program but I did it myself, which is why they are bit amateurish. Names I considered were "Northern Propane", "Northeast Propane" and "Northern Chemical", but I settled on "Northeast Chemical". I thought it fit best with the pine tree. So, decals were suitably ordered from Bill at Precision Design Company, who has helped me in the past with other projects.

With the decals in hand, I could attach them to styrene plaques and then glue them to the sides of the building. It was official... Northeast Chemical was open for business!

The entire structure was test fit once more to make sure it sat level on the foundation, and then it was glued down with tacky glue. Along the edges, I applied little amounts of glue and sprinkled on ground foam to look like weeds. The same was done in the pavement cracks. Not too much to look neglected, but enough to show the effects of time. I showed restraint because I can always go back and add more later.

Now, it was time to add the final details.