Kit Bashing a Walthers REA for a Muswellbrook “Oak” Dairy (NSW).

From this.

To hopefully like this (May 06 photo), so from what I’ve heard, hasn’t changed much, except the silver tanks were inside the building and the old rusty ones were on a couple of wagons.

Kit Bashing the REA.

Note: The size of the model you are trying to replicate will mainly be determined by the model you are starting with. So the height of the Dairy will be the height of the side of the REA. 

Cut one of the long building sides as shown, down the middle of the windows..

• The larger section with the large cut-outs at the bottom where the grey roller doors fit, will be glued to the “high” and will be where the loading platform is located.
• The single row of windows will be used for the “high” section “upper sides.

Cut the other long side, this time discarding the lower section (roller doors section).

• The double row of windows will be used for the ends of the Dairy, on the ground level.

Using a bit of bulk styrene .040” sheet, cut out a back for all of the Dairy.

Glue all pieces together and you have what looks like a basic Muswellbrook Dairy.

But it didn’t look right. It was out of proportion. In the photo, the left bit is 3 times the length of the “high” bit.

Now is the time to decide what you need to do:

1. Make the Dairy as is.
2. Make the Dairy more like the real thing – in proportion

This could be determined by the space that you have available on your layout and how accurate you want to make the model. Only you can decide.

Option 1 will give you a Muswellbrook “Oak” Dairy that will be good enough with the minimum effort.

Option 2 will give you a more proportioned Oak But requires much more kit bashing. But requires more layout space.

I decided for Option 2.

I cut up a few more of the back and added two bays (4 windows on the top) to the front of my Dairy. I liked it and with the new baseboard on the layout , I have more room for a few “extra” buildings for the Dairy, a store and a Boiler House.

I decided to make the front high bit more like Muswellbrook Dairy by adding the full height brick piers made with Evergreen No 187 strips (.18” x .25”) covered with Slaters brick sheet. My Dairy will be mounted against a back board but the rear of the “high” side can be seen from Muswellbrook Station, so I need to add these piers to the back.

For the Loading Platform on my “extended” version of the Dairy, I did not use the supplied grey roller doors. I used some Walthers plastic brick sheets, similar to the brick walls in the REA kit. I added a roller door to each end, a row of windows below the awning and a “normal” door in the middle that accessed the platform with a landing and steps.

This can be seen in the finished photos.

I painted the building and let it dry for two days.

I tried a couple of different mortar washes on the end of the Dairy but was not happy with the result.

At the suggestion of another modeller friend, I tried “Rustall” No 2 Black weathering wash. While this did not give the colour I wanted for the mortar, I was happy that the black wash bought up the detail in all the walls and the bricks “were separated” with mortar. The mortar lines a very fine in the plastic used for this kit.

I decided to make the “next” building in the B&W photo shown below and called this the Boiler House. This would complete the Dairy as all dairies have a boiler house and a smoke stack. I was going to use a suitable building from a Walthers Greatland Sugar Kit, but I did not like the appearance, especially the ends.

I scratch built a building and added the small section to the top as shown in the below real photos. Made some ventilators to the roof for both.

The reason the two buildings are slightly different in colour is because the Dairy was painted with my two colour wash that made a different base colour when applying the Rustall Black weathering wash.

Last thing to add was the large “OAK” and the “DAIRY FRESH FOODS” signs to the front of the building.

The roof detail.

For the Dairy, I used .040” styrene sheet. I cut the square holes for the skylights using a “Nibbler” I bought from Jaycar ($20), glued some 2” x 8” styrene strip around the edges.

I added AMRI Corrugated Iron sheeting to the roof and painted to simulate a rusted roof.

For the Dairy roof, I painted a little “rust” stripes with Acrylic “Rust” paint and then painted over it with the “Rustall’s” Rust wash. This dissolved the rust stripes a little. The more I added the Rust wash the less pronounced the rut stripes would be.

For the Boiler House, I just added the Rustall Rust wash. Two different finishes to see what it looks like. Anyway the Boiler House roof was newer, hence no advanced rust.   

I glued the skylights from the REA kits to the openings. The real Oak most probably did not have these, but I thought fitting these to the model would give a little bit extra detail. It’s all about appearances.

At 1:30 am Saturday morning prior to the presentation, I thought I should mount the whole model on a board and do one thing that Ian Thorpe talked about to me – the rail head detail.

I made the area in front of the Dairy’s Loading Platform with styrene sheet simulating the “Wash Pit” to collect the spilt milk from when milk was loaded into wagons. This had to be collected as I heard during the Clinic, so as not to make a mud area of congealed milk that was a real problem.

Last thing to add, some ballast. Never done this before. Another first. Good thing some time ago I bought some Ardglen Ballast and PVA Ballast Glue. Ballasted the track.

On the Main North layout

Muswellbrook is 1420 mm of the floor over the top of the Boss’s car that is unmoveable from my layout. Hence the double deck layout design. Muswellbrook is just the station/location before Murrurundi at the base of the Liverpool Ranges, where trains will have a loco attached for banking over the Range.  

Hopefully this “shot” looks a little like the B&W photo below. I think it’s not to bad if I say so myself. Not bad for a Novice first timer. The clinic will determine how well I have done.

The Muswellbrook “Oak” Dairy Co-op in 1965 that I am trying to get my Dairy to look like. Photo courtesy from the 59 Class book by Harry Wright. The caption under the photos says:

“The Oak Dairy at Muswellbrook generated a lot of traffic and a train was run daily to the Processing Centre at Hexham, the same train picking up along the way. 5914 shunts a milk pot at Muswellbrook in July 1965. Photo: Dennis O’Brien”

Materials.

Dairy:

Walthers Cornerstone REA Kit.
Brick Sheet – Slaters Plastikard Brick Red “OO” Scale – 0401.

Rear Walls and Roof - 060” Styrene sheet.

Loading Platform:   Wall - Walthers Styrene Brick Sheet.
                              Windows – Tichy Train Group “6/6 DBL Hung Window” - #8057.
                              Door – Tichy Train Group “Door & Frame Masonry” #8118

                              Railings – from REA kit.
Corrugated Iron – 3 sheets of AMRI Corrugated Iron sheets - AA 016
Skylight supports.
Chimney – .5” Evergreen Rod.

Ventilators - .312” and .5” Evergreen Styrene Tubing.

Railhead Wash Area - .015” Styrene sheet painted with Tamiya Deck Tan.

Evergreen Strip Styrene
          Brick Piers – No 187 – .125” x .156” (3.2 x 4.00 mm) covered with Slaters.
          Window Awnings – No 169 - .80” x .250”

          Loading Platform    Awning Facia – No 168 - .080” x 188”.

                                        Landing - .015 Styrene sheet.
                                        Landing Posts - 4” x 4”
                                        Landing Stairs - 10” x 2”
          Brick Wall Capping – .080” x .188” – No 168 – Covered with Slaters Brick sheet.
          Roller Doors - 080” V-Groove Styrene sheet.
Paints:
          Red Brick - Humbrol Nos 82 & 100 Matt mixed 50/50 then thinned 50/50 with Humbrol Thinners.

          Windows – Tamiya Spray Paint for Plastics – TS-7 Racing White.
          Awnings:       Window - Humbrol No 148 Matt.

                              Loading Platform – Tamiya S-7 Racing White.
          Mortar – Complete building painted with Rustall No 2 Black weathering wash. (Rustall “Rusts” Anything Kit from MRC)

          Loading Platform – Tamiya Acylic Paint - Deck Tan XF-55. (Great colour for aged concrete)

          Ventilators – Humbrol No 41 Gloss thinned 25% and air brushed.

          Roof Rust effect – Hobby Colour Rust paint H344 for the stipes then completely painted with Rustall’s No 1 “Rust”.

Boiler House:

Walls – Walthers Brick Sheet.

Windows:     Side – Two left over from Dairy

                    Front and other side – Grandt Line HO #5097

                    Roof Top Skylight – Left over from the Dairy’s Platform windows.

Roller Doors - .080” V Groove. As per Dairy.

Ventilators, Roof and Paint – Same as the Dairy.