FORD Auto Module


Trucklover

Trucklover

BNSF SD70MAC's
Hi Guys,

so i have been staring at my Walthers Cornerstone Series FORD Auto Plant structures for the past 2 days. I had 2 Stamping Plants, 2 Assembly Plants, and 1 Distribution Facility. I still need to get one more Distribution Facility. Anyways, i was sick of just looking at them sitting in the boxes in kit form, so i cracked them open, here is what i have come up with so far in the past 3 days. Ive spent most of the last 3 days building these 2 MASSIVE buildings

I combined both my Stamping Plants to make a longer structure. I added in 4 Shipping and Receiving dock doors for rail cars, and 2 shipping dock doors for trucks. The Assembly Plant was a bit of a challenge, and i had to arrange the doors in a way that would work for me. I combined both kits, one kit along builds a HUGE building measuring 23-1/8" long x 11-13/16" wide, i doubled the length and kept the width. On the second part of the building, i made the wall go in to half of the 11-13/16" to allow room for the depression of the sunken truck docks for Shipping and Receiving. This way, i can have a full 53' trailer sitting at a dock, and still have plenty of room to pull a trailer out of a dock next to it, make the turn and travel down the side of the building, without having the truck go off the module lol.

The Distribution Facilities will be located in 2 different parts of the modules. One will be in front of the blank wall on the right side of the Assembly Plant, and the other will be behind the Stamping Plant, both will load Auto Rack Train Cars and trucks.

on the very right side of the module, where the "office" part of the Assembly Plant is, there will be a small parking lot. Here are some pics of the start showing the placement of the 2 buildings. THIS IS BY FAR THE LARGEST BUILDING I HAVE EVER BUILT lol


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Showing the overall of the module. its 7' long x 2' wide


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Overall view of the Stamping Plant


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Close-up of the Shipping and Receiving Docks on the Assembly Plant for trucks. The docks are at ground level, and i will have to carve a depression for trailers to be at the right height for the docks


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Assembly Plant has Rail Access too


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Wayne Assembly Plant


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Random FORD Sign lol


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The side of the "office part" of the Assembly Plant


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And here is what the front of the "office" looks like, i couldnt get the camera over there for a shot cuz it was on a tri-pod lol


Whatcha Guys Think? There are some areas on the Assembly Plant that need some touch up painting too....

More pics and progress to come soon
 
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Looks like an excellent work to me, especially with just three days work. The only suggestion I'd make is to hit them with some dullcote to fog the windows and mask the fact there's no interior.
 
Thanks Josh and Jim :D

Jim thats a good idea, ill have to do that. Dullcoat will help the weathering chalks stick to it better anyways lol.

I have to take them outside tho, and doing this with the Assembly Plant might be somewhat of a challenge getting it down the stairs, through the garage, and onto the trashcans on the side yard (where i do all my spray painting, the trashcans are a variety of colors on the lids lmao)
 
Thanks Ryan, I cant wait to get some auto-racks and auto-boxcars!! :D

Bit more progress today.

I started on the Chain-link Fences and the main gates to enter and exit the plant. I also built the 2 Auto Loading Ramps that i had. Here are a few pics:

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Im using the Walthers Chain-Link Fences from the kits they came with. I got a ton from the Loading Ramps Kit and more from a Guard Shack. I begin by drilling wholes into the upper and lower "sleeves" on the posts. I got the idea from an article in last months MR. It makes the fence stronger, but it is tedious and gets rather boring drilling TONS of holes lol. I did about 40 posts i think so far. I figure ill use these first and then if i need more ill do some more.

Im using the wire thats provided in the kits, the closet bit i had that would fit the wire was a #69 drill bit, so thats what im using, its a bit larger then the wire, but it still works great. I then put the posts in place in the foam, and thread the wire through the holes i drilled. Next i put a small drop of white glue on either side of the post where the wire goes through it. This is where im at right now. The wires you see sticking out on either end of each section of chain-link fence will be clipped off after the sections dry. When this is done, it will be easier to see what im modeling with the fences and gates lol. Right now it looks a little confusing lol Next ill be cutting the "mesh" into strips and painting it, then attaching it to the rods and posts. Then ill take the whole thing and spray it "aluminum"

The gates i got from the Guard Shack Kit. They are brass sliding gates, and have motor housings for each gate. They still need to be painted, and im modeling them in the "open" position.

Where the loading racks are right now, there will be 3 tracks to load auto-racks. Behind the Stamping Plant will be another 3-4 tracks to load auto-racks..... Still need to get another kit to do that though lol
 
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Moving right along here, i finally got a good way to assemble and mount the chain-link fence material, so here are some pics of the fences, gates, and the first part of the parking lot for the "office", entrance through the guard gate and into the assembly plant and stamping plant docks, and the auto-loading ramps

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As you can see, the gate for the "office" parking lot can open and close, but the gates for the entrance to the assembly plant and stamping plant docks cannot, they will always be in the open position. I can however raise and lower both sides of the small guard shack with the stop signs on them.... Next ill apply a smooth coat to the roads/parking lots to finish them off and paint them....

Off to the left in the first picture, you can see the beginnings of the Air Filter building that i am going to be adding onto the Assembly Plant
 
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Jim, thanks buddy, the chain-link fences are turning out pretty good now that im using super glue :D

I finished the Air Filter and Duct Work building for the Assembly Plant. Working with Resin pieces can be somewhat of a challenge, especially when the pieces dont quite line up right, maybe thats why Walthers never has re-released this kit. all in all its a nice detail, and if i could get my hands on another, i would buy it in a heartbeat. I payed $30 for this one alone :eek: lol

I also added chain-link fence around the Air Filter Building, and made a little space where i can add in some pallets, drums..... things like that. I added a working swinging gate in. I also added rails in for the Auto-Loading Ramps. They are now able to move back and forth, and either one of them will be able to service the middle of the 3 tracks these ramps will be loading auto-racks on :D

Thats about it for now, ill post some more when i get some more work done, but for now, here are some pics of what i just described above....

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Looks good, Josh. With the way things are going, it's a good thing you didn't pick a GM plant or there probably wouldn't be much but the building and blacktop to model. :(
 
Tonight i cut the loading docks out and lowered them so when trailers back up to the docks of the building, there at the right height. I just cut 2 squares out of the foam, 6-5/8" wide x 9" long and then lowered the back edge down the appropriate distance, keeping the front at "street level" while the back sunk down and created sorta a ramp. I taped it in place with masking tape, then put glued a cardstock base down (thanks to a Honey Comb Cereal Box lol) which will be painted after its dry. After that, ill be installing small retaining walls on either side of both docks. I will later pave the area with WS Smooth-It which will tie the ramps and yard together, i will not be paving on the ramps themselfs, just around them. If i did, it would throw off the height of the docks and the trailers would no longer line up at the right height....

Here are a few pics

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Been a little over a week since i worked on the module, i worked on it for about an hour last Wednesday when my girlfriend was over at my house, she was helping too, it was fun LOL. She had spring break last week, so pretty much for the past 9 days, i have spent all my time with her :D Well she went back to skool yesterday, and i spent all day yesterday and a few hours this morning working on the module. Ive gotten a few things done, and im really happy with how this Assembly Plant is turning out.

First, i layed out some more Smooth-It for the Assembly Plant truck docks and "yard" around the building. I also paved the area where the 2 Auto Loading Ramps will be. Painted all the areas i poured, and i also weathered the rails that the Loading Ramps roll on. Loading Ramps for the Shipping and Receiving docks for the Assembly Plant were painted with "Concrete" Color, and the rest painted with a custom mix of Gray i mixed using the WS Asphalt Top Coat and some White craft Paint.

Retaining Walls for around the Loading Docks were painted and a yellow stripe was added atop all 4 of them. I also installed a section of Retaining Wall next to the Auto Loading Ramps to separate rail traffic from truck traffic and keep loading separate from normal truck traffic around the plant. Ive installed yellow Bumping Posts around all 3 large cargo doors on the front of the plant. Cadged Laddes were painted and installed in a few locations (2 of them from ground level to roof level, and 2 from roof level to the tops of the rectangular structures on the roof. I also added ladders on the "office" part of the roof)

Various Piping was added on the roof, and a rather large horizontal storage tank was set in place on the ground next to the plant and just in front of the large Receiving Cargo Door. The top rear of the Tank has a pipe coming out and leads to the roof where it goes into the building just past the cooling buildings ductwork, which is also located on the roof. 3 Pipes next to the large storage tank lead from ground level from an underground storage tank up to the roof and are distributed to various locations in the plant via wholes in the roof. One pipe goes to the front rectangular structure with the stacks. Another goes to the rear rectangular structure with the stacks. And the third drops down in the roof just past the last support on the roof for the piping.

Ive also added a large and small vertical storage tanks to the roof in front of the rear rectangular structure with the stacks. The pipe from the storage tanks drops into the roof. A small pipe was installed from the front rectangular structure to the rear rectangular structure with the stacks. Air Conditioner Units were added to the roofs of the "Office" portion of the Assembly Plant.

I also decided to change the color of the ducting for the Cooling Building. Ducting, pipes, tanks, and supports were all painted the same color to match.

One last thing, the roofs will all be covered in a layer of gravel when im finished detailing the roofs and such, so the paint you see on the roofs will not be visible when im done :D

Here are a few pictures i snapped off a few minutes ago of the recent progress i have made:

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An Overall shot of the Assembly Plant


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Shipping Truck Docks and the large Shipping Cargo Door


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Receiving Truck Docks, Large Receiving Cargo Door, and the large horizontal storage tank with bumping posts


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Cooling Building and Ductwork, Large Cargo Door, Piping, and some Auto-Racks waiting to be loaded with some new cars out of the plant


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The right side of the plant, near the "office" of the plant. This is the entrance to the loading docks and such where a guard shack is located with chain-link fences and gates. In the upper right of this picture is the entrance to the "employee/customer" parking for the plant which also has a guard shack and chain-link fencing with gates.


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Auto-Loading Racks on rails. 2 of the 3 tracks will be used as loading tracks for autoracks, the third, closest to the wall, will be used as a unloading track for flats and such, as it wont be a long enough siding for auto-racks.


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The rooftop piping


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Roof-Top Storage Tanks


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"Office" Air Conditioner Units


And a few random pics:

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Sorry for the "fuzzy" pictures, this is right in front of my window, and its hard to take pictures during the day, but i wanted to snap some off and post them before i do any more work lol. Even with the blinds closed, the light is still bright and shines through, making the pictures kinda fuzzy.... :eek: lol
 
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