Rolling Mill completed

The rolling mill for the steel mill complex was completed today.  I glued the roof sections together during the week, and today I put together the roof vents and installed some decals on the ends.  I haven't thought of a name for the mill yet, when I do I may put up some signage.  Actually, I still have to put the slab stacks back together, the wood glue I used didn't hold.  Otherwise, I'm really happy with how this turned out.  I didn't glue the roof sections to the support girders, so I can take them off as needed to access the inside.

Rolling Mill and Passing Tracks

To know how to arrange the trackage in the steel mill area, I had to know exactly how the buildings would fit.  Thus, I had to at least start constructing the buildings.  I built the blast furnace a year and a half ago, and now I'm working on the rolling mill.  I decided to install some details at this point, since it would be easier, and since the mill would be close to the front these would stick out.  Part of me keeps wanting to be thankful for Walthers making kits of these things - it's a heck of a lot easier than scratchbuilding them.  (At least until we all have 3-D printers).  Part of me wants to curse them for how often the parts don't seem to fit right, or the directions are difficult, or for the non-existent advice on painting them.  The mill's support girders are sometimes warped, so you have to hold things in place as the structure glues.  I painted the sides of the mill Rustoleum flat primer grey, and gave a moderate spray of flat primer dark red for that rust color to the beams.  I like how it came out, I may try to do the same to the blast furnace.  I finished constructing a Walthers heavy duty crane for the inside, and this was another complication.  First of all, while the craneways on the sides are built for this, the crane beams are too long.  Hence you have to cut these, and then fiddle some more if they're not quite right.  Then glue, and putty the gaps, and install a piece of styrene to stabilize it.  Aesthetically the crane wouldn't pass under the beams, so one has to ignore that little detail.  I arranged the wires holding the hooks (pieces of thread) as practically as I could.  This was an exercise of mumbled four-letter words and trial and error, in the end I tied the thread pieces each in a loop, fit one end into the hook assembly, and looped the other ends around the holding piece.  It's not quite right but it's good enough.  And there will be a roof over it so no one will notice.

On the layout, in between waiting for paint and/or glue to dry on the mill, I put down the roadbed for the passing sidings.  I'm trying to sand down the one so it looks prototypically lower, but it's been a slow slog so far.  All those switches together are going to be an interesting wiring job in a little while.