This looks handy for something…

[Mountain]

The corrigated card roof looks most effective! Well done!
It is surprizing what can be done by finding things one has around the house. Scratchbuilding is fun! One does tend to look around the house looking for things one can use!

[Phred]

Mountain wrote:
The corrigated card roof looks most effective! Well done!

Cheers Mountain!

Got distracted yesterday and forgot to post. Here's where I'm up to:
Some balsa strips and bamboo sticks added. The round things in the middle are those wotsits that plug in to disguise the screw holes in electrical wall sockets.

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I’ll add some paint and see how it looks.

Now the wife says the hedge needs trimming. It never ends!

[Mountain]

Very nice! Will look great!

[Phred]

Mountain wrote:
Very nice! Will look great!

I applied a coat of black paint but it looked a bit meh, so I’ve gone over it with a thin coat of brown followed by a wash of home-made weathering solution.

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I thought the grey bits at the top of the ends looked too plain so I’ve added some sort of access hatch things on there. Not sure about them. I can always remove them if they really annoy me I suppose.
Oh, and I’ve put a hatch on the roof as well.
Here is the tank on top of the pump house:

Time to think about an overflow pipe or something coming down the side. There must be a suitable bit of old model kit sprue somewhere around here.

[aleopardstail]

looks seriously good, one thing I picked up doing scale model and gaming painting, basically nothing looks right in pure white or pure black, both are very useful paints but a dark grey/blue/brown works way better as "black" and an ivory or cream as "white"

also it is amazing what a decent wash can do, liquid talent indeed

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
looks seriously good, one thing I picked up doing scale model and gaming painting, basically nothing looks right in pure white or pure black, both are very useful paints but a dark grey/blue/brown works way better as "black" and an ivory or cream as "white"

also it is amazing what a decent wash can do, liquid talent indeed

Cheers, aleopardstail!
Got any photos of your gaming work? I'm sure the techniques, etc., would be of interest to folks on here.

Meantime, here’s the pipe:

Google images has photos of freestanding downpipes like that but it looks odd to me. I might add some support brackets or something.

I’ll start making a ladder out of florist wire while I think about what to do with the pipe.
Coffee first though.

[Phred]

I’ve started making up a jig so that I can get the ladder rungs more or less evenly spaced along the rails/stiles before I apply superglue to fix them in place.

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Should make the process easier (famous last words).

[Mountain]

That's a great idea!

Love how things are coming along!

[Phred]

Hi Mountain.
Haven't tried this before, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Here is the jig complete with ladder bits installed and superglued.

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I’ll leave it to set overnight. I know the superglue tube says it sets in seconds but I’ve seldom found that to be the case. Unless it gets on my fingers, in which case it really is instant set.

[Phred]

I went to remove the ladder from the jig this morning and realised that the superglue has leached along the rails and fixed everything solidly into the wood sides, so I’ve had to destroy the jig to extract the ladder. Que sera.

Here is the ladder roughly trimmed. It looks a bit flimsy I think. I found a piece of plastic angle which I might add to the sides to make the whole thing look more finished and robust.

I’ll also have to make a couple of brackets for the downpipe before I forget. It’s all go!

BTW, Mountain, I got a PM from you and answered it but the answer is sitting in the 'out box'. I suppose it will be delivered eventually.

[Mountain]

Yes, I did get the message and I did reply. I need to check I have room in my message inbox. I love to keep past messages from people but sadly there is only so much space!

That ladder looks amazing! Just an idea... I have a Sylmasta resin casting kit, and when one is making rubber moulds, the rubber can stick to the thing one is trying to copy, so they include a bottle of "Releasing agent" to prevent this from happening.
I have never found the need to use it when casting resin parts. It is more for the making of the moulds themselves I have found, but I do use the easier to remove single sided moulding method.
But what I am saying is that it may also work with superglue, though I have never tried.
Regardless of this, I have had so much success with resin moulding all sorts of things (I use playdough as simple single use moulds and I use the proper moulding rubber if I want many castings of something, hut the resin lasts for ages and is soo useful. Used some for track isolating when scratchbuilding track by placing playdough either side of the gap, and pouring in the resin, wait for it to harden and file away the excess. It worked grreat! So many uses! You will find a resin casting kit really useful and not just for duplicating parts! You only need the smaller of the casting kits with the G26 resin.
Of all the things I have bought, I have been surprized how much use I got from this simple resin casting kit! They did say I would be back for more, but my resin lasted ages before it ran out! (Hint. One only needs to mix a little bit of resin. Make spare moulds of anything else one wants duplicated so when one mixes the resin, the excess can be poured into the other moulds. One can half fill a mould and fill the rest at another date and it will work fine. (Even if the cast part shows a crack between the two casting dates (Rare) one just pours in runny superglue). But yes. One of the most fun and surprizingly useful things I have had!)

[Phred]

Mountain wrote:
'Releasing agent'

Now there’s a thought. I could probably grease the jig with Vaseline to stop the superglue sticking. I know applying it around the outside of the tube nozzle stops the lid getting stuck. Also, you mentioned in PMs that you are thinking about setting up your Unimat gear to making multiple copies. That process would be a really interesting thread on its own.

I made a couple of pipe supports out of a wood strip, applied paint to everything and attached the ladder to the tank:

The camera is being unkind. Looks better in real life, or at least my poor eyesight makes things look better in real life.

[GeraldH]

What a fantastic piece of modelling and an inspiration to us all .

[aleopardstail]

it does look really good I have to say, especially when you look at the construction pics and see how it came together

any plans to add any weathering effects?

[Mountain]

That looks amazing!