I still haven't decided what my industry will be but I am leaning towards a propane distributor that takes in fuel by train and ships it locally by truck. But that doesn't matter yet because whatever I model my building will be the same.
I decided to work on the large steel office building first because to me that is the most important part of the scene. I can always make smaller or larger storage tanks or support structures but this building will firmly plant my layout in the "modern" era. Even my wife commented that scratchbuilding it would be nice as it would make my layout distinctive because there are no O scale structures like it offered commercially. In HO and N scales, Pikestuff makes lots of great buildings that can be easily modified. But not in O scale. That's okay... I love scratchbuilding.
My first step was to see if anyone made O scale corrugated steel sheeting because I would need it for the walls. It turns out that Plastruct does (item #PS-24) in 7" x 12" sheets. They also make Corrugated Rib Roofing sheets (#PS-16) too. I have never seen them in a hobby shop before so I ordered them online.
I also needed window and door castings. Tichy and San Juan Details (formerly Grandt Line) make some stuff in O scale, but nothing suitably "modern". Plastruct had some available but they didn't look like they would work either. Online inquiries resulted in several "just 3D print them" responses which didn't help me.
After scrolling through the Pikestuff website for ideas, I sketched up a building roughly 7.5" wide and 15" long, and about 4.5" tall. I used wall height dimensions from an HO scale Pikestuff kit in my stash. I then mocked it up with posterboard so that I could fiddle with it. I glued pictures of several of their kits on the sides for handy references. This was very helpful.
I decided to go with a one-level structure, with walls that were tall enough to permit a vehicle access door on the side. I went this route because a smaller building probably wouldn't support rail service, whereas a taller one implies a larger industry.
Then, I started drawing it up on 0.060" thick styrene. My lines kept coming out wonky and I switched marker colors several times before I discovered the cause of it all... my red plastic T-square wasn't actually square! I was given it as a gift and never used it before, but after this fiasco I bent it up and threw it away.
The walls were laid out again using a better square and steel ruler. The roof peaks are just intersecting diagonal lines.
One end has some windows and a door which I marked but didn't cut out yet, as I was waiting until I had the castings and corrugated siding in hand.
For the plain steel doors I made four from styrene. I only need three, but it made sense to have extras. They only took about 15 minutes of work to lay them out and cut the window openings.
Once everything was cut apart, I had four doors. Doorknobs will be added later. I also laminated multiple pieces of rectangular styrene with slight gaps between them to look like a roll-up garage door. I later discovered it came out a little wonky but not too bad.
An assortment of files and custom cut filing sticks fit into all of the small openings.
It is best practice to not cut the openings for the windows until you have the castings in hand. They sometimes vary a little from their published dimensions (if you are lucky enough to have their dimensions), and it is difficult to fill in an oversize opening. But the windows I needed would be scratchbuilt so it wasn't a problem for me.
The large garage door opening was cut with a knife and the door was glued in from the back. The steel doors were attached to the front.
The end walls were braced on the sides with 1/4" square styrene, which provided lots of surface area to join the corners. I use a lot of 1/4" square styrene and always have it on hand. It might be overkill for bracing, but I don't like warpage. I later realized I had glued the braces onto the wrong side of the end wall (outside instead of inside), so I had to use it as is. Since I had already glued a door to the outside (now inside) of the wall, and I couldn't move it, I had to use the extra fourth door to correct my mistake.
The wall with the garage door started to warp, no doubt because of the various cuts and glue-ups that had been done to it. I planned to run horizontal braces along the top and bottom of the wall, as well as one at the top of the garage door, to strengthen it all up. However, the garage door's 0.060" thickeness made it stand proud of the inside of the wall, so all my braces needed an extra 0.060" too. I had some 0.060" strips that were 1/4" wide and I first glued them where my braces would go. I didn't bother to measure the exact spot.
Then, 1/4" square braces were glued in place along the very bottom of the structure and at the top of the door. I left everything to cure for a couple of hours.
As I built it up into a rectangle I discovered that by gluing the exterior doors in place I had made it more difficult for the entire wall to lay perfectly flat on my workbench while adding the bracing. So, I had to get creative and have parts overhang or add temporary supports underneath the walls the same thickness as the doors (0.040") to get it all to work. But that is how most of my projects go! In the future, I will glue the exterior doors on after I have built it up into a rectangle.
Homemade corner braces (use a square to ensure that they truly are 90 degrees) with the corners notched to clear the braces were extensively added to the joints. I didn't have them up near the top where they might interfere later when gluing down the roof.
I then broke out the Plastruct #91519 corrugated sheet and got to work. There appears to be a side that is a little flatter than the other so I decided this would be the "inside surface" and ran a pencil back and forth on it to mark it. I then trimmed all the edges to make sure they were truly parallel with the corrugations as it doesn't come from the factory that way.
I clamped a piece to the front of the building and traced the window openings from the back. They were opened up with a sharp chisel blade, and it is important to err on the side of making the openings too small. I fine tuned them to shape by constantly putting the siding on and off to check how things were. They will recieve final adjustments when I am ready to install the windows.
Before I glued it on I did one more thing. I drilled lots of tiny 11/64" holes (that bit happened to be lying around) in the side of the building's styrene core walls. Don't drill holes where the interior braces are. This step is very important when laminating textured surfaces to a styrene core, as it is difficult to get enough of the plastic cement onto the center of the wall to make a good bond before it flashes off. So, I focused on gluing the edges on, and later went back and applied cement from the inside through those holes. I saw that trick in a British modeling magazine and it works a treat.
To attach the corrugated material I first clamped it in place along the top, and then applied MEK along the bottom and gently held it in position. A minute later I removed the clamps and glued up both sides, finally finishing at the top.
Due to the width of my building, I had to use several pieces to span the long sides. I cut it a little oversize along the top and then trimmed it flush later once the glue cured.
Once done, I set it on my layout to see how it fit the space. I liked it. Notice that the back wall has no interior bracing, as I ran out and had to order more. This set my project back a week.
I used Evergreen #156 (0.060 x 0.125) strips to frame along the roof edges, as well as add some vertical support beams. I am not sure if they are structural, or hide part of the gutter system, but I liked the look of them. The ones along the top gave me nice smooth lines to mount the roof styrene too, which was important as otherwise there would be gaps caused by the corrugations. Naturally, I ran out when doing the back wall and had to order more.
To be continued...
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