N scale scratch-building: Project 4: Cranes

[kaustav]

Port without cranes is unthinkable! And they look so interesting that I couldn't stop myself from getting my hands on them.

The first challenge is locking on a particular design, as there are quite a few variants. As a first scratchbuilt on cranes I wanted some references and found some really good help in the following site:

http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/12-linind/012-index.htm

I considered a simple over the track quay crane, ideally 1930-1940 design. For this crane I had a very old rusty look in mind.

Started with the basic structure:



The initial few photos are not of good quality-sorry for that, as my camera was giving me some trouble and had to take these photos from my mobile phone camera.

[kaustav]

Next, the wheel housing in the legs...



Then I started with the arm of the crane. First the girders-3 of them...



Then assemble them...

[kaustav]

Then cabin. Drew the plan. Then cut the windows.



Used electrical wires as window frames...

[kaustav]

At this stage I was thinking about the texture of the cabin. I wanted to have them made of corrugated sheets, but didn't want to take 2 dimensional printouts and paste them. I wanted proper 3D corrugated sheets! When I was about to go out of ideas, my wife came with something (again!) that was worth trying. Using white glue and finely ribbed plastic bottle caps to create N scale corrugated sheets. The cap is one like this one...



Apply the white glue on top of it uniformly and let it dry. Then pull it off gently. Now on one side of the glue you will have a perfect corrugated texture.

[kaustav]

Cutting and pasting all those layers took considerably far less time than making them! After the cabin was covered with corrugated sheets, my wife took her brushes and started giving that worn-out rusty look. It started looking great!

[kaustav]

Today morning I finished with the hook and the cable work. After the paint work it looks something like this...

(luckily by this time my camera is back in form )

[kaustav]

As I was uploading the photos here, my wife came up with another brilliant idea about the corrugated sheets, right now. Here are the steps.

Take a finely ribbed plastic cap from some about to be thrown bottle, and a strip of thin aluminum foil



Place it against the cap and press against it uniformly...






Now you have a perfect corrugated sheet! The scale will depend on the distances of the ribs on the cap. Mine seems to be perfect for N scalers-finer, the better...



At the moment we are arguing whether to to put these corrugated sheets in this crane or the next!

[TCWORLD]

Thats a neat little crane, thanks for showing us it.

[Howqua]

Cool!!!!!!!!

[B-17_Fortress]

The aluminium foil is a nice tip, especially if you want battered and twisted sheets, as corregated styrene is always too thick to bend convincingly.

Steve