Finishing Diamond Plastics

I always find it interesting how a scratch building structure project seems to really come together once it gets painted.  Before paint, it's just a collection of white styrene without much character but after it's basic paint job it begs to be finished and I find it hard to put it aside until it is finished.  The basic paint colors I used for this project were a pale green for the building sections and a sand color for the bins both from the Testors acyrllic line of paints.  While I have not been particularly happy about what Testors did combining all their paint lines and eliminating some colors I have been happy with the results I get with this paint and have found that it cleans up more easily.

Prior to painting the 3 building sections I had added some details of the pneumatic piping to the side of the section that would have the storage bins for the plastic pellets.  Piping such as this would be secured with steel uni-strut and clamps.  I simulated this with plastic channel and copper wire.  The copper wire goes through holes drilled through the channel wall and is twisted and glued on the inside of the building.

When building the structure I had aligned the pins on the bottoms of the bid stands with holes in the base, the discharge piping at the bottoms of the bins with holes in the side of the building, and drilled holes near the top of the bids to match the position of the input piping.

With the base held flat on a steel plate with magnets, the bins are eased into position.  Some adjustment was made to to intake piping at the top by bending it so that the bins would fit naturally.    After everything was aligned, the three points were glued.

On the two sections of the building that are where the covered hoppers would be spotted for unloading, I added some vacuum hoses put up on hangers and feeding into underground piping.

On the internet I captured the image of a sign on the side of one of this companies buildings and printed my own paper sign.  I sealed both front and back with Scotch tape and glued to .020 styrene.  This was then glued to the side of one of the building sections.

So here is the newest industry on the layout.  Next I will be adding a bit of weathering and maybe some safety signs to the building and also work on the foreground scenery.