Mar 25, 2017

Mancos structures, and real glass

I've decided to experiment with using real glass for my windows, and first up is a couple of Campbell kits.  The windows on this one are using windows and doors from Rusty Stumps instead of the stock ones supplied with kits.

For the glass, I found some old microscope slides, did some research on the web, and developed my technique.  There's photos below - but basically I purchased a diamond-tipped scriber from Amazon, and create the windows by first scribbing the slides firmly with a straight edge:
 


To make the break, it works better (some surface tension issue with the glass) to do it underwater.  I just used a little container and a small piece of dowelrod.  Put the rod under the scribbed line, then press gently on either side to make the break:


Here's what I used, but microscope covers (as opposed to slides) are much thinner and probably easier to work with.  But, I already had these handy...

To install the mullions, I found it easier to apply them to the glass first, then put the glass onto the back of the wall.



The final look - nice reflections!


So - for Mancos I needed (operationally) a mine of some sort.  The layout doesn't have room for the prototypical scene (although coal mining did exist near Mancos).  So - and I think this is the only completely non-prototypical section on the layout - I decided to use Campbell's supply warehouse and Silver Spur mine (both kits I had on my shelf) and build a mine warehouse and the mine itself.

Here's the warehouse. For this buiding, I used roofing from Wild West Models instead of the Campbell shingles.  They worked well!  Rusty Stumps has some nice actual cedar-wood shingles which I might try in the future.






And here's the mine itself - all stock Campbell except the windows:













Hmm - um, not sure how this happened - time warp maybe?  :-)