Over the past weekend I spent some time making the Flin Flon smelter area look more industrial.  A few years ago I bought a CD of steel industry textures and kits from Clever Models < http://www.clevermodels.net

I printed everything on the CD in multiple copies and set them aside until I figured out how I wanted to proceed. The February 2018 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman has an article about placeholder buildings.  Reading this article got me to thinking that now was a good time to do my own placeholder buildings with the prints from the Clever Models CD. 

I had mocked up some cardboard flats for the zinc loading dock and mill/concentrator so I started there.  Clever Models has quite a few variations of corrugated sheet metal siding, so I used a few of these to represent buildings of varying levels of repair.  One nice feature was white sheet metal, which is fairly close to the colour of the main mill/concentrator building.  I cut out the loading dock doors on the zinc storage building to give some depth and chopped up some roll up doors which I taped to the back of the opening.     

I also put some fresh sheet metal on a few sections of the building to show some repairs to the building.  A variety of steel doors come on the CD so I added a few access doors at various spots.  One location on the mill/concentrator is not the safest location to have a door as it exits right onto the lime plant track.  Let’s just say that there is a big warning sign on the inside of the building at this location. 

The prototype mill/concentrator had numerous windows when it was built, many of which have been covered over in later years as interior lighting improved.  I decided that a row of windows high in the walls would add some visual interest to the mill and zinc buildings.  I chopped up some of the large industrial windows into smaller ones and glued them to the mill and zinc storage buildings.  I also added various vents and duct work at what I thought would be appropriate locations.  I'll be adding more details as I get inspiration and time.  I also used some rubber feet off of a discarded rotary cutter to represent roof vents until I get some proper ones added.     

The copper smelter building is wrapped around a post in the corner of the room so I used a foamcore sheet with a weathered sheet metal texture.  Unfortunately I didn’t print enough of this specific texture so I need to get a few more sheets printed to finish the building.  I looked at using different sheet metal but decided it would look a bit odd. I still need to add some windows, vents and perhaps a loading door on the copper smelter.  One exit door has a really big first step outside the building.  I’ll be fixing that soon so no one has a nasty fall when they go outside.  More buildings remain to be added at this location as well. 

I used two sided dollar store tape to mount the paper on the cardboard and foamcore.  Unfortunately this tape doesn’t seem to be able to hold the corners of the paper sheets down as some are pulling away from the backing.  I borrowed (with permission) some of my wife’s quality Sook Wang 2 sided tape to hold these spots down.  You get what you pay for with two sided tape apparently.  I used clear packing tape and scotch tape on the rear of the buildings to secure the edges of the paper around the cardboard and foamcore. 

Overall I am quite happy with how a few hours of work have turned out to make my smelter look more like a smelter.  While the actual smelter has numerous differences from my stand ins, they will do quite well until I get around to kitbashing the correct structures.  And as we all know, on our model railways quite often our temporary scenery and building can be more permanent than we plan.  I won’t be too worried if my temporary buildings stay in place longer than I plan.  A few more photos in the following comments.

Marc Simpson