As part of the 120 day challenge I'm trying to complete the mountain on my railroad.  The section that I'm working on has a retention pond and I remember a overflow pipe in a retention pond near my old home.  I don't have a picture of it; however, the image is still strong in my mind so I'll be modeling from my "mind's eye".

I remember the overflow pipe being made out of aluminum or stainless, rectangular in shape, with a lid to keep rain water from going down the pipe.  I'll start by using some Plastruct rectangular tubing so I don't have to try and assemble the four sides from flat styrene.  The tubing is 5/16" x 1/4".

Here I'm measuring the tubing and see that it is about 2-1/2ft x 2ft which will be just right for the size of the pipe.

Now I could attach four tiny styrene pieces to the tubing to provide the uprights to hold the top, but I know that it would be a pain to attach those pieces.  Instead I'll cut away areas of the tubing to create those four pieces.  Here I mark the areas along with the overall pipe height which will be 1-1/2ft high.

Next I use my Dremel(TM) with a cut off disk to carefully cut away the areas.  NOTE:  Wear safety glasses and follow all safety instructions for your power tools.

Next I use a file to dress up the area and make the final profile.

Here we see the tube with the four corner uprights.  I left the piece on the long section of tubing as it is much easier to handle.  Next I cut at the line to remove the piece from the tube.

Here's the piece cut from the tubing and the end dressed with sandpaper.

For the top I'll use .060 styrene which I cut with a 6" overhang on all sides.  I know that the .060 seems too thick; however, it will also model the sides of the top and you won't be able to see the thickness once it's in place.  I attach the top with a dab of CA to each of the uprights.

Now I need to make it look like aluminum or stainless steel.  I give it a coat of Testors(TM) #1246 "Silver Metallic" spray paint on the outside and Testors(TM) "Flat Gray" on the inside (using a micro-brush).

Of course it is much too shiny and new looking.  I use some of my weathering powders (brown, gray & black) to give it that aged look.

Here's a view of the overflow pipe just sitting in the retention pond with it's final position yet to be determined.  The one I remember from home sat about 1/3 of the way out from the "shore".  I'll make sure that the installed height is such that the water would run down the overflow pipe before overflowing the banks of the retention pond.

And finally a closeup of the overflow pipe sitting on the floor of the retention pond.

This whole project took about an hour, cost less than a dollar, and will add a nice detail to this scene.  Thanks for looking!

Rick