O Scale Dock Hoist Kit

Base Concept

Finishing up the proof build for the Rusty Stumps O scale Dock Hoist .. I needed a place for it. I finally decided next to the pump house. I made a quick and dirty base from PVC Ceiling Tile I picked up from Lowes. Love this stuff..

The idea is that a boat or barge could bring “stuff” to the base and the hoist could pick it up and deposit it next to the pump house.

The problem was .. why go to the trouble of building a large base – made of concrete, brick etc. … for a timber hoist? I thought about it a bit and think can make it something left over from an older structure .. have remains of bricked up openings and perhaps remains of old columns or something like .. meaning they re-purposed the base for the hoist.

Fitting in place

In the past I have used this procedure to pretty good effect – use some plastic wrap over the surface you want to fit .. and glob on the plaster to the object to be fitted.

I decided that I wanted something stronger than plaster so opted this time to see if I could use Durham’s Water Putty for the job.

I may also use the Water Putty for the texture since as I indicated it sticks well and dries hard. That is a bit down the road though.

Sketchup Design

Like I suggested earlier, it makes no sense at all (to me) to build a large cement base for the wooden hoist. If instead, we are reusing an older structure then that problem simply flies out the window.

The plan then is to have a door and two water level openings bricked up with a rusted grill/door up higher. Everything will have a rotted feel .. the concrete, brick, wood behind the grill, the grill rusted.

Up top I will have indications of remains of old structure .. perhaps column bases or something like.

Cementology

Here I am attempting to create old, decaying concrete. I took some Acrylic Gel and mixed in a little powdered grout pigment for texture. I applied this mixture to the surface of the base and let it dry. I then came back with more of the gel and squeegeed over the rough surface to level it out a bit. A couple coats of a gray primer, then a craft store acrylic ‘Linen’ dry brushed across the gray and finally a wash of thinned craft store white acrylic.

This is “good nuff” for now .. I’ll come back later and tweak it .. probably with a thin wash to give a slight yellowish tint .. but that is for later