Last spring I picked up an Overland Brass sanding facility at a train show. It was already factory painted a silver/grey color. It came on a brass base for shipping that is fastened to the bottom of everything that needs to be removed before installing.

First I painted all of the railings safety yellow. I also painted all of the concrete bases for the main tower and all of the supporting hose towers. After all of the painting was done I weathered the whole structure using oils and a few weathering powders. When I was happy with the outcome I then gave it a good coat of Testor's Dullcote with the airbrush.

Removing the brass base became way more of a project than I had anticipated. The main sanding tower was screwed the base which was easy enough. The problem was everything else. All of the hose towers, walkway supports and walkway steps had a pin going down through the brass base. With everything being factory painted you couldn't really tell how these pins were fastened to the base. At first it almost looked like they might have been soldered. I tried to un-solder them and had no luck. It didn't melt anything. So then I thought maybe they used some kind of super glue. So I put the whole thing in the freezer overnight hoping it would shrink the glue and crack it so the structure could be removed. Well...no such luck there either, nothing happened. So I finally resorted to the good ole' Dremel tool. I used a fiberglass reinforced cut-off wheel and ground each pin off from the bottom of the base. This took a while and was kind of a pain in the butt but it worked. The problem was each time I ground a pin off that part of the structure was loose and flopping around. After about an hour though I finally had the base off.

To fasten it to the layout was at least a little easier. I set it on the layout in front of the enginehouse where I wanted it. I marked the main sanding tower and drilled a hole down through the plaster and plywood. Found a longer screw that fit the tower and fastened that part on. For the hose supports, steps and walkways I carefully lifted each piece up enough to put some super glue on the bottoms with a toothpick. When I had everything glued I set some weight on the walkways and the hose towers and left it overnight. So far I haven't had any problems with it coming loose. I have even hit it a few times cleaning the track.