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  • Originally posted by Builder 2010 View Post
    Back to the refinery: The piping is now officially 100% complete with the addition of the gas control cabinet next to the flare. I decided to not modify the relief line on the demethanizer. I started to wiggle it to see if it would come apart easily, and of course, it would not. I decided not to make a mess of a beautifully installed and painted pipe run so I left it alone.
    As long as the little dude by the cabinet is willing to pay the fine when OSHA pops in, its all good.:)

    That looks awesome.

    So what is the secret of keeping the mojo going?

    Comment


    • All I can say is HOLY CRAP that is truly impressive!!!

      Comment


      • True craftsmanship. Very impressive.
        To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

        Comment


        • Refinery: OPs Building Started

          Ops Building construction has begun.

          I'm using Evergreen styrene corrugated metal siding for this building. The patten runs horizontally on the sheet, but it needs to be vertical on the building. This meant cutting the sheet to the wall height and then splicing pieces together to generate the width I need.

          I started cutting and gluing on the ends. Of course I had to design a "simple" rectangular building that has two different roof heights AND both roofs are slanted. This complicates splicing and cutting since I'm no longer cutting square edges. I've changed the front windows due to availability of some Grandt Line products at Scale Reproductions, Inc. It's an "as built" versus "as designed" decision. You can go back to page 78 post #1168 to see my original design. I'd re-post it here, but it would throw me into the "6 images dilemma".

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          One side was made with two pieces, the other with three so I could use up some smaller pieces. I added a styrene strip on the seam to reinforce it. When painted the seams will be very hard to see.

          The front and back are two different heights, so of course I made them the same side... at first. As you'll see in the next picture, my front is too tall. I had set the caliper to the rear height and cut the front pieces to that height. I didn't realize it was wrong until I was test fitting the front to one of the ends and the front was WAY TOO TALL. It was not too big a problem to cut it down to the correct size.

          I laid out the window heights using a surface gauge on the granite surface plate, but laid out their widths using the digital calipers as a marking gauge. I transferred the window measurements from the windows using the same calipers. I went for a slip fit only to maintain a nice alignment. I cut the openings using a #11 bladed knife and then my MicroMark corner cutter. I don't use this tool much, but when needed it's very neat having razor sharp edges at a perfect 90°. I chuck in the drill press so I can provide controlled pressure and keep it well aligned.

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          After notching the corners I would go back and scribe on side a bit deeper until it breaks free and then pop out the scrap piece. Some careful scraping and sanding opened any holes that were too tight. This is the too tall front.

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          The back only gets a door which I'll cut tomorrow. After cutting the front to the proper height I needed to reinforce the width so I glued on a piece of 1/8" square stock. The bits of scrap in this image reinforce the splice.

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          The windows seem a little big now that I look at this, but I'm going to stay with it. If I want to put an interior inside you'll be able to see in better. I'm thinking of mocking up a control panel and instrument board. I'll see how I feel. For the upper level windows into the garage I have some windows left over from the distilleries that could serve nicely.

          A while ago I broke my piece of plate glass that I used as an assembly surface. I hadn't replaced it and was working on the cork surface of my auxiliary work bench. A couple of weeks ago I found a piece of Corian that was stored under the cellar steps. It was the blank that remained when they cut out the sink opening out of counter top in the kitchen. This was done by the previous owner. Well... this stuff is terrific. It's dead flat and tough. I tested it with solvent cement and it had no reaction. I then put some CA on it and after curing popped right off, so CA doesn't affect it either. It's now my new work surface. And like our kitchen counters, it doesn't show dirt at all.

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          • Refinery: OPs Building Underway

            I finished cutting the opening out of the end and back walls and added edge and other reinforcement to stiffen the flimsy sides. I then added corner posts to all four ends of the sides in preparation of joining them to the front and back. Using the angle block on the surface plate, I glued the first end to the back, and the other side piece to the front, and then combined the two halves into a complete building. I took the building to the layout to try it out for size and it will work well. As I noted before, I will add some more Masonite between the refinery base board and the track to support the rear of the ops building.

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            I needed to make a floor (although I may end up not using one) and decided to attempt to use scrap pieces cobbled together. After squaring them up and cutting to size, I spliced two pieces together with an additional piece of Masonite scrap and then used "gravity clamps" to hold them until the Aleen's set up. I then moved it and use spring clamps so it can dry overnight.

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            The floor is necessary if I'm going to put in any interior partitions or detailing.

            For the clerestory wall and windows, I spliced together five pieces of scrap all cut to the correct height on the Duplicutter. While drying I installed two pieces of Plastruct I-beam to provide support for the upper works and a place to which to glue the clerestory wall.

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            I temporarily clamped the clerestory wall to the to the supports for a trial fit. Once the splices dry completely, I have to cut all the upper window openings. This will be a bit tricky since it could all fall apart. The laser cut windows fit nicely and are actually the lower sash portions of the distillery windows. I had Andre cut two lower sashes for each window mainly because it was easy to balance out the drawing and give me some spares. Now they're going to come to good use. I didn't throw out any extra laser-cut parts since they can find other uses.

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            Since I have these sashes as drawings, I can bring them into the ops drawings and do a good layout and fitting BEFORE I actually cut any styrene. Tomorrow will be a good long work session and I should get a lot of this building done. I may also draw up a control panel diagram that could be used to mock up a small control room for the plant.

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            • Refinery: OPs Building Cont.

              More work today on the ops building. Got the clerestory constructed and installed along with the overhead garage doors. Prepared the building for roofing and realized I'm out of Evergreen Standing Seam Roofing and will have to buy it tomorrow. Came up with a better way to mount the building with a larger Masonite base which solves a couple of problems while creating a few more of its own.

              I drew the clerestory design in Adobe Illustrator to get the window spacing and hole sizes. Since I already had an Illustrator version of the clerestory wall AND an accurate set of the laser-cut windows I was able to combine both in one drawing. I tried two ways to do it and chose the top drawing.

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              I then cut this pattern out and with a little spray glue attached to the clerestory wall. The butt joints in the wall were very weak since the surface area was almost non-existent. I cut out the entire window opening including the material between the windows since I felt it would be next to impossible to just punch out the window spaces without having the in-between pieces fall apart.

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              I glued the windows with a couple of drops of medium CA starting at the left end, and then added back the in-between pieces until I got to the other end. It needed just a very small amount of material removed to get the last window set in. The window sets were also glued to each other using Medium CA. This assembly was glued with solvent cement to the Plastruct cross-pieces. When set I added some 1/8" Evergreen styrene angle to trim off the corners.
              I also added the same angle to all the corners.

              For the overhead doors I'm using some Evergreen 1/2" spaced Standing Seam Roofing leaving out the thin plastic strips that simulate the seams. These look like very convincing overhead doors. Before installing I trimmed out the opening with angle. The doors themselves needed some internal adjustments to clear some of the reinforcing material inside the walls.

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              To better support the roofing I made some I-beam rafters (on their side) to fill out the inner portions. This is when I realized that the roofing material was absent. To keep the beams from interfering with the roof, I coped out the ends so they just sit on the 1/8" square wall reinforcement. It took solvent and CA to get these pieces to stay put.

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              I didn't like the floor idea I made yesterday. Instead I'm going to use a larger piece of Masonite under the whole deal and running back to the track. I'll fair this into the rest of the site with Sculptamold when I'm ready to install it. This will give me a better surface upon which to do roadways and landscaping. I'll cut this piece to shape when I do the filler piece for the fascia when #1 isn't home since the saber saw makes a terrible racket. In looking at the picture below, I'm realizing that the roof supports might be better if they're attached to the roof not the building since they're now going to get in the way putting in interior details and lighting. I would also need the same thing on the rear roof. I'll pop them out and do it differently stiffening the roof from its bottom.

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              During today's work I received an unhappy phone call that we were expecting. A very old and dear friend from Pennsylvania passed away last night after a terrible fight with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He was under treatment for over a year and half, which by itself is remarkable since from its detection it had already spread to the liver. As it was he had survived lymphoma for over 12 years. The two cancers were unrelated. So... we're heading back East on Sunday to attend the funeral and spend time with family and friends. I may get some work done tomorrow, but if I don't I be back is a while.

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              • Refinery: OPs Building Control Panel

                Very short work session today and then we're on the trip.

                Last night I drew a scale model control panel and graphic based on the piping of my plant. I did it in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out on glossy photo paper. I then coated it with Grumbacher Final Fixative to protect it.

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                The base was cobbled together from some left over 0.040" thick styrene (Standing Seam Roofing) with some 1/8" square corner reinforcements. The graphics were attached using MicroMark Pressure Sensitive Adhesive applied to the styrene backing. The bottom was painted Tamiya Sky Gray. The instruments are basically controllers with needle readouts and switches.

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                This will be viewed from 15 feet away behind some windows. No one's going to see it, but it will make for some interesting photography. At the angle the instruments are displayed, you won't know they're there either. Crazy, eh?

                I made a partition wall between the shop and control room using some 3/16" foam core. And then cut a hole in it for the shop doorway. The wall needed some strategic notching to clear the reinforcements.

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                Before cutting the door opening I placed the control panel in its future position to see how it works.

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                Lastly, I cut partition walls for the future restroom. This will be a black box and just be a door visible through the front windows. It will not be lit, nor will it have any bathroom appliances, even though they're available from Plastruct. Walls are glued together using Aleen's PVA.

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                I wiped down the exterior with alcohol in preparation for priming and metallic paint, but ran out of time. Doubtful I will do anything on it tomorrow (Saturday) as we'll be preparing for the trip and we're leaving early Sunday.

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                • Refinery: Back at Work

                  I'm back from the trip Back East to celebrate the life and passing of a very old friend. It was very sad since this was a very special person. There were literally hundreds of people at the memorial service. He was one of those people who never had a friend leave him. There were friends from elementary school, high school, Army reserve, and the places he worked. We were friends for 45 years, but didn't give a eulogy since only those folks that knew him longer than 50 years were asked to contribute. Otherwise, we would have never ended.

                  It was fun getting back in the basement today. My wife was out for a while so I was able to turn on some saws, make some noise and sawdust, and cut the remaining pieces needed for the refinery site.

                  The wedge-shaped piece fit nicely and I was able to get the fascia to fit tightly. I removed the bit of fascia behind the new piece so I could fasten some supports to the underside of the existing platform.

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                  And I added a piece to fill the other end of the refinery space. In this case the curve was too tight to bring the Masonite in totally, so I brought it in as far as I could without breaking the piece. I know since I already broke one trying to do just that. I'll fill the unsightly spaces with landscaping. A little wadded paper and some Sculptamold can do wonders.

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                  I cut the new base plate for the ops building area and another filler piece behind and joining the Masonite under the loading rack. The elevation transitions will be softened with Scupltamold also.

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                  After the heavy work, it was time to get back to the ops building. I glued in the partition wall using Walther's Goo. I don't know about you, but I find removing the cap very challenging after the tube's been in use for a while. When this was in place, I decided to add a floor to the entire building to reinforce the shape and keep it nice and square. I used 0.040" styrene butt glued together to get enough depth and reinforced with another piece of the same material.

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                  I wanted to spray the bare metal paint outside, but it was too cold today. It should warm up a bit more this week so I'll be able to do it. Still really want a spray booth, and my 40 year-old Badger air compressor is finally starting to make some funny noises so I'm in the market for a new one. I want to get one with a reservoir that has a pressure regulating valve so I can vary the pressure for different paints. Instead, I started making the two entry doors. I'm going to make all "Glass" commercial doors that neither Tichy or Grandt Line seems to have in their catalog. They're crafted from 0.040" X .100" and 0.020" X 0.060" laminated together and then some slightly wider stock for the bottom. I had to do a bit of final fitting to get the doors to fit the openings. I'll add a center mullion and a metal push bar tomorrow and this will be painted before adding the glazing.

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                  Till tomorrow...

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                  • Refinery: Refinery Ops Bldg Roofs Begun

                    Today, I tried to figure out why 1/2 of the LEDs lighting the substation suddenly stopped working. I couldn't find out why and don't want to remove the model from the layout to do so. I do it, but someday when I want a real challenge.

                    I glued a small backing piece behind the center seam of the refinery's fascia boards to tie them together, and then got to work on the building.

                    Finished the two entry doors and started on the roofs.

                    After fitting the doors to their respective spaces, I added some trim framing to the perimeter, added a center piece and then bent and installed a 0.032" brass wire as the push/pull handle. Finally I glued the doors into the building since they will all be painted aluminum and then glazed.

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                    Looks kind of grimy, but primer and finish coat will make it look good.

                    The roofs are Evergreen "metal roofing" which is a piece of 0.040" styrene with thin grooves cut in, plus very thin styrene strips that are glued into these grooves. The grooves run lengthwise so the roof is pieced together with two pieces butt glued with a reinforcing strip behind.

                    After measuring the width, I set the duplicutter to this dimension and cut the two pieces making up the lower roof. Since the lower roof butts up against the clerestory wall, it only overhangs on the building's front. I then set the cutter about a 3/16" wider and cut the two pieces for the rear roof which does overhang on front and back. I then added a piece of angle glued to the clerestory wall which trims the roof joint and provides a bit of faux flashing. I carefully glued it to the walls and not the roof since I'm not ready, by a long shot, to put the roofs on.

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                    Note that the roof is notched to fit over the corner trim so it snugs up against the clerestory wall.

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                    I've made these roofs before and didn't have any difficulty getting the thin strips into the grooves. Today that didn't happen. I was having a terrible time getting the strips to settle in so I could glue them. After spending close to an hour to put in five strips, I took a razor saw and opened them up a bit and the problem seemed to be solved. The grooves appeared to be just a hair too tight. With the slightly enlarged grooves the rest of this gluing job should be easier.

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                    I think I'm painting the roofs green. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit so I can paint the metal spray since it's Tamiya solvent-based paint.

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                    • B2010,

                      You're really doing a nice job! Quite the detail on all this.

                      Comment


                      • Refinery: Ops Building Painting

                        Thanks... more to come.

                        Exercise day... I've started watching Stranger Things 2 on my iPhone while using the bike. I have the Bose sound cancelling headphones that have amazing bass response and the sound effects in this Netflix series are amazing. In fact, nothing can be happening at all, but the sounds and music make you feel the suspense directly.

                        It was much warmer today so I sprayed the building with Tamiya Primer and Natural Metal. I had some runs on the back wall with the primer and tried to smooth it out with a gloved hand, but as you all know, once you have a run (and in corrugated styrene yet) it's nearly impossible to get it right. I should have stripped off the paint and re-shot it. But it's the face facing the back of the layout and will be invisible to all except for an occasional train with the GoPro camera mounted on it.

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                        I took the premiered building inside and force-dried the paint, then went outside again to spray the silver. I sprayed the interior primer gray, and then masked the windows, covered the roof with construction paper and then sprayed the top coat. I wanted the interior to remain gray.

                        While the exterior was drying I went back to work on putting the seams into the metal roofing. The idea of re-cutting the grooves with a razor saw worked perfectly and I was able to lay in all the remaining strips in half the time it took to the first batch.

                        When the strips were sufficiently dry I trimmed the excess using a sharp pair of flush-cut pliers. I lightly sanded the remaining edges so they were flush with the roof edge.

                        I held the roofs in their final position and marked the wall edge on the outside. Then I took the calipers and measured the various wall thicknesses between the outer wall edge and the inside edge. This varied depending on the thickness of the material I was using as a wall stiffener. In some cases it was 1/4", 1/8" or none. I then added this distance to the wall edge mark on the bottom of the roof and scribed a line denoting where I needed to glue cleats so the roofs would stay aligned without being glued in place. Here they are in final position.

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                        With the roofs fitted I could paint them. I used Tamiya Flat green. When I first sprayed the green I was getting a lot of spatter... large drops. It turns out that the air brush really wasn't clean so I stopped, disassembled it and cleaned it all in acetone. It's the only thing that will dissolve old acrylic paints. The gun then worked perfectly and I was able to spray the roofs. I then attached the windows to some masking tape looped back on itself and painted them the deeper Japan IDF Force green that I used for the refinery's structural steel components.

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                        I put the windows in and shot another status pic. I can't help myself. While it's all drying at least it can sit on the layout. I'm trying to decide whether (or not) I want to paint the overhead doors white. It's not difficult and will require some masking.

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                        Tomorrow I'll finish the interior, do the lighting, mount the windows and do the glazing. I'm going to frost the clerestory windows so you can't see anything in the bare workshop. I need to add some more furniture to the insides and then start working on fairing all that Masonite into the rest of the base. And then it's onto the chain link fence. Should I put on gutters and downspouts? I also have to add a chimney and a plumbing stack vent. Lastly, there needs to be a power feed into the building. I have some miniature electric meters and utility hookup kits. As a matter of fact, I need to add this to every building on the layout. Ugh!

                        Comment


                        • Refinery: Ops Building Detailing (part A)

                          Glad I did the painting yesterday since it rained again last night and was a bit damp out today.

                          Spent the whole day getting into the details. Added stack and vent to the roofs, glazed all the windows and installed them, added some more interior details, made some gooseneck lights for over the garage doors, and painted said doors semi-gloss white.

                          For the heater flue I used one of my extra resin castings I made for the distilleries. I painted it Tamiya Dark Iron and added some gloss black at the base to simulate some pitch caulking. For the plumbing vent stack I used a piece of brass tubing that I aged with some chemicals to blacken and then patina it, and again used some gloss black for caulk.

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                          All the main windows were glazed with 0.010" clear styrene. I measure the space with calipers and cut using the Duplicutter. I glue the glazing in with a very judicious use of solvent cement so it just wicks under the plastic edges and onto the window frame. I was able to do all seven with only one tiny glue smear and that window is on the left side (restroom) where I've blacked out that room so no light will come from that window. I also added an empty bookcase (Berkshire Valley resin) a table and chair, the control panel and two interior doors. These doors were printed on manilla file folder stock, cut and laminated to another piece and some strip wood around the perimeter to frame it in. I didn't bother with door knobs... enough is enough.

                          The black out area is black construction paper held in place with pressure sensitive adhesive. It was easier than slopping flat black paint into that space.

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                          The clerestory windows were glazed with a single piece of styrene held with some strategic glops of Walther's Goo. But before I glued it in I sprayed the inner side with Testor's Dullcoat to frost the windows. This work really well.

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                          Here's the frosting. It will just glow showing no details.

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                          For the gooseneck lights I went the old school route. I bought some case lamp shades, drilled them large enough to accept the butt end of a grain of rice bulb, twisted the leads and then coated them in CA (thin first and then medium all accelerated).

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                          • Refinery: Ops Building Detailing (part B)

                            I decided to paint the garage doors after all and did so by masking the frame with narrow Tamiya masking tape and then cutting a larger mask out of heavy paper and held with regular blue tape.

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                            Two light coats of white did the trick.

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                            And another status shot. I went over the main part of the entry door with a brighter silver paint since it would be stainless steel or a more shiny aluminum. Almost ready to do some weathering once I finish the electrical stuff. The main light will be a blue-white LED in the control room to make it look more like florescent. The outdoor lights will be incandescent. White LED light in the shop will add the glow coming out of the clerestory.

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                            • Refinery: Ops Building Complete (Part A)

                              I had my annual medical checkup this morning, but worked on the building this afternoon and got it finished. I did some very mild weathering on the roof and garage doors and installed all the lighting.

                              I fastened in the gooseneck lights with a small #55 drilled hole, and then added a shaped piece of styrene on the outside to give it more mass. Thin and medium CA held it all in place. After this pic, I painted the lighting Tamiya Medium Gray.

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                              The control room lighting was built on a piece of strip wood CA'd to the roof supports. The garage light was also held with the same strip wood supported by a ledge made from some more substantial basswood stock. I CA'd one ledge to the foam board mid-wall and the other ledge to the plastic back wall with Walther's Goo. The cross piece was also held with CA. This picture also shows some reinforcing blocks that back up the goose neck lights on the outside.

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                              As you can see I add shrink tubing on my LEDs to ensure that they never short out. The LED's wiring is in series with a 330 ohm current limiter, and then the two grain of wheat bulbs are connected in parallel with the LEDs. The leads are tied together in two ferrules. Notice I'm using the white ferrule inside the larger ones to compensate for the small gauge wiring. This was a suggestion made by one of my readers and it's a good one. Notice too that the current limiter goes on the minus side of the LEDs. I don't why, but this is how it's shown on the schematics.

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                              These two combined leads are brought into a Euro-style junction block and then led out of the building with a length of zip cord that ties into the bus bars under the refinery. This particular junction block is a plug-in type that I used when building the modular layout in Germany. It allowed me to separate all the subroadbed panels without lousing up the wiring. It's held to the wall with servo foam tape. I stuck it too close to the back door and you can see the wires, but it's facing a wall and no one actually will ever see it.

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                              Here's the lighting being tested on the bench. I placed the shop light below the windows so it would just glow which is the look that I was seeking. The control room light is over towards the control panel so you can see it. The white/white LEDs do look light florescent lighting.

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                              As I was setting this picture up, I knocked a small container of Dirty Black Dr. Brown's weathering powder, upside down on the floor. What a freaking mess!! It took 15 minutes to clear it all up. Ugh!

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                              • Refinery: Ops Building Complete (Part B)

                                Here's the building on the layout. I drilled the two pieces of Masonite and wired it into the refinery system.

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                                So... the ops building is complete. Tomorrow I'll do some terrain work. I'm going to use acrylic-based tile grout for the roadways to the two garage doors. I discovered this material in doing the distillery base. You can tint it with india ink or W-S tinting products and it dries looking very much like asphalt. It's not rigid and doesn't crack when dry. I may also use it to do the contour work from one piece of Masonite to another. I may also go with Sculptamold. I'll how I'll feel when doing it. And then comes the chain link fence. Notice how I keep saying that. I think I'm procrastinating...

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