Haluku'ilio Water Tower -- Another Triple O Rehab Project

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

Desultory progress continued last weekend. I first tried to tap some small nails into the tanks supporting posts. Nope. Some of the pre-existing holes were too big and too fragile to risk it, so I selected the most solid post, had the 1:24 crew pound a nail into the horizontal beam…

…cut the nail head off and lined it all up to mark where the tank supports need to go…

…and then moved the whole lot to the pumphouse to mark where I wanted to make cuts in the pumphouse to accommodate those beams.

The 1:24 lads and I were not ready to bore a hole to accommodate the pipe that will also serve to align and fix the tank in place, so we stacked up some timbers and used the square to keep things…square.

For the record, yes, I am deliberately avoiding the tank itself at this point. I am still dithering about the roof, and I have yet to even think about some visual improvements I’d like to make, like a level gauge, better bands, improved counterweights, etc. Slow and steady on this project that was SUPPOSED to have been my easy project this year…and last years…

Updates as progress merits!

Eric

[David_Marconi_FOGCH (David Marconi CHHNNG)]

@Eric_Mueller

Slow and steady on this project that was SUPPOSED to have been my easy project this year

Seem that slow and steady wins the race every time.
Happened to see this on a search:

Liked the straight bottom edge and flat sections between. Could be done with metal instead of shingle.

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

First, @David_Marconi_FOGCH , my apologies for my late acknowledgement of the post above! They are binned in the reference column of the brain housing group!

Work and family events finally slowed down enough for me to consider this forever project…again…I wanted to have a nice, level, watertight top to affix the roof. I thought, “Aha! I have FlexSeal!” Guess what I found out…

FlexSeal melts foam. Now I have a watertight but still irregular surface. Ugh. At least I can now use whatever glue I want to affix my craftstick or scribed plaster “roof” to the top of the structure!

Live and learn…

Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

With Kid-zilla happy at the 2/3 point of Triple O – Bachmann 10-Wheeler Salvage Campaign - Modeling / Motive Power - Large Scale Central, I had to return to this project. It has become an albatross. I have held all other RR projects of my own hostage to its completion…

I finally decided to score a piece of styrene for the roof. I began by measuring along both edges and drawing the lines in pencil.

Boy, am I glad you can erase pencil! I got that squared away, literally and metaphorically, scored in some “boards,” textured it by drawing an old saw across it, and took it to the Palm of Spray Painting for some brown paint. This paint being gloss, I waited a day, hit it with clear matte paint of the same brand (Rustoleum), and, of course, the paint bubbled.

Sand and repeat. I’ll let the paint cure for a week or so and try again. I am using this roof as a subgoal with carving the “stone” walls of the pumphouse, something that should be fun, as my reward…

Meanwhile, employing advice from @David_Marconi_FOGCH and others, I sanded the beams of the water tank roof flat to allow for a better gluing surface. I then grabbed our bottomless barrel of craftsick leftovers and planked two faces.

The plan going forward is to Dremel away the excess, plank, and repeat. I figure I can leave it like that. sheet it with beverage can bits, or cover it in “tar paper” (old t-shirt painted black). This is not the project to test my patience on shingles! Once I have this mounted on the pumphouse, I’ll take it out to the RR and see what seems “right” visually.

That placement will also determine the level of effort I will put into the other improvements I mentioned in my previous post. To that end, I have been kicking around the idea of using zipties for the bands, with the lock representing the turnbuckles. I am not sold on the idea, but they would be easy, cheap, and at least no worse than what is there.

Eric

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

When you WANT that effect, it’s hard to get. Always happens when you don’t!

I’ve done a lot of rattle can painting and Rustoleum is famous for this re-coat failure. The can usually states re-coat time as under 1 hour or 48 hours, but as you found out, that sometimes isn’t enough.

[Eric_Mueller]

@JRad

When you WANT that effect, it’s hard to get

Yep…we’ve found that out with a rocket or two. Strange, though, as gloss-on-gloss and gloss-on-matted seem to work fine after 24 hours. Anyway, letting the paint cure for week seemed to do the trick. After a coat of clear matte dried, I smeared black acrylic over the lot of it, wiped off the excess, then wetted it a bit to let it get into the cracks.

It is not that shiny in real light! I will hopefully glue it on the roof tomorrow, and, when that dries, I can start carving the “stones” and install the door.

I also continued to plank around the roof. This will, in fact give me a nice, flat working surface, but it will progress at the speed of TiteBond III. I am still debating the roof covering, and I have to find a topper of some sort, but this, at last, is progress.

Updates as merited!

Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

This interminable project lurched forward. You know it is interminable, because NO ONE wants to help me with it. Good thing I can always count on the 1:24 crew!

The roof is slowly taking shape.

O.D. and I discussed the best way to finish it, and we agreed that “tar paper” from old t-shirts painted black held down with battens made from broken sabre blades are the way to go. I will look for a small funnel to serve as a topper. It will be the first time I’ve repurposed sabre blades for anything other than plant stakes. Yay.

The 1:24 gang helped me turn foam into rocks, gouge out a puka for the door, and test fit it all into place.

!

It was Saturday, and I was tired of paying weekend pay, so I sent the 1:24 Triple O gang home, masked off the exposed roof beams myslef, and gave the lot a good bath of black latex.

It’s finally starting to look like something more than an ugly piece of foam! It’ll get another heavy wash this week to hide any pink spots, after which I can start dry brushing this to make it look like our other “stone” structures. Then I can start fiddling with getting the tank on its new pumphouse even as I contemplate how to detail the finished project to the exacting standards of 1:24-ish PLAYMOBIL scale.

I am almost excited about this project now. Almost…

Eric

[David_Marconi_FOGCH (David Marconi CHHNNG)]

Coming along nicely

[Eric_Mueller]

A belated “Thank you!” @David_Marconi_FOGCH ! I have since given it another wash of black acrylic and glued on the remaining roof material. I should be able to shape the roof this weekend. I might be able to drybrush those walls, too.

Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

The sub-roof is done and awaiting “tar paper” (old t-shirt painted with black acrylic) roofing.

I still have to find / craft a peak. Battens will be craft sticks, my thinking that the tarpaper would go over the subroof to minimze evaporation and then nailed down with battens for looks and durability. That’s my story, and I am sticking with it! The broken sabre blades will wait for another project…

Meanwhile, I also stained the door and roofbeams and dry brushed the “rocks.”

Given the humidity, I should not have attempted to use the concrete patch on the lowest inch, the standard Triple O simulated concrete foundation. It was so slow to dry, it was hard to use, and it was still soft today, precluding further progress. It is going to requires some clever washes and weathering to fix some of the mess, but it’ll pass.

I am now at the point of thinking how much work to put into making the water tower look better without losing too much of my father-in-law’s folk artistry or detailing it beyond the demanding requirements of 1:24-ish PLAYMOBIL scale. Food for thought…

I don’t like the bands, as they hardly show. The simulated counterweights are cool. I figure at least a level gage and pull-down chain are appropriate.

We’ll see.

Have a great week!

Eric

[Hines (Bill)]

Eric,

I’m loving look of the volcanic rock of your building!

Depending your ability to hide the locking mechanism, you might consider cable ties. So far they’ve lasted one season outside. Easy to remove as well. Difficult to paint though.

[Eric_Mueller]

@Hines

I’m loving look of the volcanic rock of your building!

Thanks! We came up with it a few MIKs ago as a way to make walls expeditiously. Lava stone was used pre-contact to make heiau / temples among other things, and, based on pictures, served for at least part of early sugar plantation construction and other buildings.

As for banding, thanks. I think “cable ties” are synonymous with “zip ties.” I can arrange them such that the locks are out of sight of when viewed from the primary viewing angles.

Eric

[Hines (Bill)]

I got my best results by zipping the zip tie whilst on the barrel then slipping the tie off and tightening one click at a time then sliped the zip tie back on the barrel. It got rid of most of gap.

At some point you’ll know you got it right because it won’t want to slide off at all. Go too far and it won’t slide back on.

PS: Do you have a link to how you did your lava stone?

[Rooster]

Zip ties also work great for wrapping around a driveshaft making sure they slap off the muffler and heatshields while paying back a buddy that played a prank on you first!
Just saying…this is why you don’t try an prank an old mechanic.

[Cliff_Jennings]

I love that prank!
We should have a thread on “favorite pranks”…

[Eric_Mueller]

Bill,

Many thanks. I think this is the way forward. Because of where I am in the project, though, and the need to work around what is already in place, I will likely take a zip, tighten, and pray approach rather than the iterative approach you tried!

As for our lava stone, we tried the idea a couple of MIKs ago: Mik 2022 - Hale o Waihona Lanahu. In essence, here are the steps:

1. Use a foam engraver to carve irregular shapes into a sheet of insulation foam. You would be surprised how hard it is to keep things random over time! Our engravings are 1/8"-1/4" deep.
2. Scour the surface with a wire brush.
3. Paint the whole thing with a thick wash of latex paint in the same color as the real lava you are trying to copy (or the rocks in your garden formed from the off-railroad 1:24-ish PLAYMOBIL scale volcano!). We cut the paint about 50/50 with water to ensure it gets into all the crevices and pores. Much thicker, and all the texture will be lost; too much thinner, and you’ll be doing multiple washes!
4. Create a pallet with your base color and white. Dry brush the wall. Take the time to make sure that each stone looks just a little bit different!

It’s pretty easy and it does say “lava stone” which, for us, helps to give a sense of place.

Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

I found the t-shirt we used when we mixed and spread concrete for the railroad, cut off a bit of sleeve, and used TiteBond III to secure it to the subroof.

A bit of trimming and some black latex later gave me this:

This puts me in a position to add the bands and level gauge as I look for some sort of conical topper. The end of this interminable project is in sight!

• Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

Sometime since the last update the 1:24 gang and I added the battens, which are leftover bits of craftsticks from various projects:

I also stained the concrete base, touch up the “lava,” and installed the door.

It’s starting to look like something!

The banding still befuddles me. I like Bill’s ( @Hines ) zip-tie idea, but I am not sure if I can slot them under my father-in-law’s rig to hold the pipe and pulley system.

I am still trying to retain as much of the original look as possible, so I’d prefer to avoid removing this. I am considering bands made from a beverage can, painted black, and glued in place. We’ll see.

We have all been scratching our heads on how best to top the tank. While pondering this over a semi-conical liquid holding device, it struck me…

With a bit of hammering, that’ll do, and it’ll provide a nice sight gag, too!

Updates as required!

Eric

[Hines (Bill)]

Eric

This is I thought I would send this video that came up as an ad, just in case you have a friend with one of these metal zip tie tools. Clearly not the budget option.

How to use the Stainless Steel Cable Tie Tensioning Tool With Auto Cut Off

[Eric_Mueller]

Cool! Overkill, but cool! In all seriousness, I had a good “think” on this issue today. The gantry is glued on too well to remove it without making even more work than this project merits. I do think I can safely drill between it and that tank to get the banding through. Zip ties are thus back on the agenda!

I also banged the bottle cap into shape.

Functional and fun. Perfect!

Eric