Märklin Superdetailing the Marklin Z Blast Furnace

kevsmith May 11, 2016

  1. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    Having safely got my new Republic Steel layout back from the Cleckheaton show I decided to keep my foot on the gas and carry on with the scenic development. I know a couple of magazines that will be quite interested for a start!

    Centrepiece of the layout is the Marklin Blast Furnace kit. This is nicely moulded but obviously simplified down a lot from a prototype furnace and benefits from the effort to add the missing details.

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    Now the other thing it is crying out for is some lighting and a bit of animation. A steelworks at dusk is an awesome sight so I wanted to try and recreate that on the layout in some way.

    Starting at the left hand end the first thing you'll notice is the 8BA set screws that hold it down to the layout. It does not want to be permanently fixed because being polystyrene it will be quite delicate and it might need taking off for repairs (It's a hard life touring the exhibition circuit)
    The feed wires coming out of the bottom are for the standard lamps, lift tower and aircraft warning light. These are all LEDS and there are two separate circuits, one for the standard LEDS and one for SMD Leds in the standard lights. The standard LEDS tend to suck all the juice.

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    The stairways are Plastruct 1/200 ones

    The weathered appearance is done with aerosols. We have a firm called HYCOTE over here who do a nice range of acrylics. In this case Red Oxide Primer, grey primer and Matt Black

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    more soon
    Kev
     
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  2. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    Moving onto the furnace itself a lot of detail needs adding to the top of the stack

    Aircraft warning light. access steps and platforms, a trolley crane at the front

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    Mounted inside the exhaust at the top of the stack a high intensity Red LED points straight up, I used enamel coaated copper wire to carry the current up to this to make it easier to thread through.More of this shortly. Seams are put on the downpipe and careful weathering done again

    The base of the stack was drilled for the tapping holes and given 'Krystal clear' lens and a bank of flickering yellow and red LEDS mounted behind, inside the stack The upper and lower decks of the casting house have a bank of LEDS running down them. The kit has the crane rails included but no crane itself so I have added one and the whole crane asembly is picked out in yellow. The big steel plates, that it is used to move over the molten metal and slag channels have been partly added but I have not done the skimmer gates yet. Now there is still a lot to add including the Tap Drill and mud gun.

    I'll take some more pictures this weekend probably but let me now return to the lighting and animation. Steelworks are big, noisy, dirty and smoky. The plan is better demonstrated by the video I've just put on Youtube showing the furnace in daylight and then at night. It comes alive when you see the glow emanating from the top and bottom and gets even better when I fire the smoke machine up!



    Also in the video can be seen the staff carpark also lit up with SMD street lamps and a fine selction of Panis Laszlo's automobiles. Although they look far to clean for an auto regularly parked at a steelworks.

    Next on the list are some lights mounted under the hoists and then make a start on lighting up the Open hearth Furnace shop. This has had the long pipework added

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    Some of this pipework then carries on up and over the running lines on a scratchbuilt pipe bridge

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    More later in the week

    Kev
     
  3. zdrada69

    zdrada69 TrainBoard Member

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    Really great job ! I like your approach.
     
  4. SJ Z-man

    SJ Z-man TrainBoard Member

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    We have the Walthers N scale version at the Niles Depot, trying to be shoe-horned into an area 1/4 the size. So, what used to be 4+ feet (1.5m), is now just over 2' (~.5m).

    This would have been an easier way and not really disproportionate.
     
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  5. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    The cast house floor is pretty bare in the kit so first thing was to add the skimmers on each of the slag and molten metal channels, the big steel plates used to cover them and the barrows seen in photographs.

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    The crane now has a hook but needs some ropes and falls.

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    The tower now has an inspection platform and its associated staircase added. The red item on the cast house floor is the tap drill for the furnace made from a 1/32nd scale handbrake lever from an old car kit! the pipework, which is still under development will be weathered down.

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    In the background you can see the open hearth furnace mill has had its high bay sodium lamps installed and powered up (more anon)

    Cheers

    Kev
     
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  6. Kez

    Kez TrainBoard Member

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    This is so remarkably beautiful and cool! Thank you for sharing it all. It really has come to life.
     
  7. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    I now had two deadlines looming as I wanted to try and get it in the magazines in time for this October's Zedex. It resulted in a real thrash to get as much detail on before I took the photographs to go with the articles I had written.

    Initially set up in 1990s mode we see a string of SD70Ms passing an SD40-2 and a SW1500 in the yard. You'll notice that the foreground seems different. I have made some clamp-on flat sections of scenic board which can be positioned at the front of the layouts to increase the depth. This makes picture composition a lot easier and avoids the baseboard edge being too obtrusive.

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    Behind the furnace a Missouri Pacific GP35 and a Railking switching machine work the high line. Full and empty gondolas and 70 ton ore cars are in evidence
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    A pair of U.P SD40-2s work a short cut of cars past the furnace. really must get round to weathering these at some stage. A Showcase miniatures Ballast regulator waits its next job
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    In this end view you can see where the highline is ready to connect to Cuyahoga in the future. Initially the only connection between the two boards will be the highline but I may re-jig the track to connect at ground level as well.
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    More soon
    Kev
     
  8. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    Santa Fe SD70m passes as an ancient SW1, still wearing Nickel Plate livery switches the furnace. The SW is a Z-Tech etched kit, the NS Bethgons are Freudenreich
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    in 1950-60s mode an AZL 2-8-2 on a coal train is passed by twp AZL GP7s on a caboose hop
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    A busy scene see a pair of Western Maryland F units passing as 'Torpedo Boat GP9 works the ladle cars, two GP35s work the finished product yard and an NKP K class 4-6-2 passes on a local passenger train.
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    The AZL 2-8-2 has run round its train and is coupling up as train 6 passes
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    kev
     
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  9. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    As the 2-8-2 draws forward, train 7, led by an Alco PA1 Blubird slows for the approach into Cleveland. In the consist are as passenger equipped head end box car and some repainted Hallmark and Marklin coaches.
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    Now I mentioned that the other thing this layout is designed to do is to eventually connect to the new 'Tapton Junction' British layout I'm developing so as a sneak preview here it is in English mode. Note that both trains and road vehicles drive on the left over here! A class 47 on a Bitumen tank train passes two class 07s and a DRS EMD Class 66 in the yard[​IMG]
    The Class 66 has a cut of Yeoman stone hoppers in tow. In the finished products yard some characteristic telescopic roof coil carriers wait for despatch
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    Main line steam specials are still common in the U.K. Preserved Southern railway Mechant navy class 4-6-2 passes on an excursion train as an ancient Class 24, still in 'Railblue' sits in the yard. An Intercity branded class 47 is on an intermodal train.
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    There are still things to do. I need to get or make some Torpedo cars and Ingot cars. The layout needs some signalling and there a lot more lights to go on. The experiment with the smoke machine is progressing and to add to the atmosphere I'm going to do some sound recording of one of the remaining steel mills in the U.K to play as background noise at shows. I'll update on that later this summer

    Cheers
    Kev
     
  10. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

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    First two Stonysmith Torpedo cars on site. One has Marklin 6 wheel trucks fitted and the other has a pair of Pope designs buckeyes. These will get replaced with ones with the coupler mounts now I know which bolster height to use. Ladle cars at the back are also Stonysmith

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    In U.K mode a Class 73 Electro diesel runs past
    An IvanF design on Shapeways

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    next up will be some scratchbuilt heavy duty flat cars based on the ones at Wierton Steel

    cheers

    Kev
     
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