Stuckum Glue Works | Water Tank

Introduction

In this post of the Stuckum Glue Works seires, I will be adding the wooden water tank to the roof of the boiler room. This tank would have been used to store the water to be mixed with the raw materials used to create the glue. Water would be pumped up into the tank at a slower rate and be available on demand at higher rates when glue was being created.

Support Platform

The tank is supported by a wooden platfom that sits directly on the roof of the boiler house and the water tank sits on top of it. The platform is built up of multiple pieces. I started with a square piece of 0.010" styrene from Evergreen Scale Models scribed on both sides into six scale inch boards. The surface was then sanded with coarse sandpaper to simulate wood grain.

Then I cut Evergreen styrene I beams to the witdh of the floor and fastened perpendicular to the scribed boards. Strips of 0.010" styrene were then fastened across the ends of the I beams. Finally, strips of 0.020" styrene were assembled into a "W" formation to match the pitch of the roof and fastened to the bottom of the platform as shown in Figure 1.

Water Tank

The water tank started out out as a sheet of 0.005" styrene scribed with four scale inch boards. The surface was then sanded with coarse sandpaper to simulate wood grain as was done on the support platform. This sheet was wrapped around a metal socket wrench socket that was close to the inside radius of the tank. The ends of the sheet were fastened together and held it in place with a piece of tape.

After it was dry, I sanded both ends square on a flat surface, using the metal socket wrench socket to keep it square. Finally, a square piece of 0.010" styrene was fastened to the bottom and trimmed to match the outline of the tank as shown in Figure 2.

The top of the tank started out as a square piece of 0.040" styrene sheet. This was cut to fit the top of the tank and sanded to the correct profile as shown in Figure 3. This piece was then fastened to the top of the tank.

Tank Details

The access hatch for the water tank was created from a piece of 0.005" styrene sheet cut to the size. Then I fastened it to the top of the tank near the edge as shown in Figure 4. Two small pieces of 0.005" styrene strip were fastened to the edge of the hatch to represent hinges.

I fastened strips of 0.005" styrene to the outside of the tank to represent the metal straps that keep the wooden walls of the tank together as shown in Figure 5. The ends of the strips were attached first and the strips were rolled around the outside of the tank, fastening them as I went and cutting them to length where they met the other end.

Not shown is the supply pipe that goes up the back side of the tank and connects in to the top of the tank. This pipe was made from a piece of Evergreen stuyrene rod and was carefully bent to shape. You can see it it you zoom in on Figure 7 below behind the left safety rail then ladder.

Ladder

A ladder from the support platform to the access hatch on the top of the tank was created from individual stips of 0.005" styrene as shown in figure 6. The side rais of the ladder were cut longer that the ladder and taped to my cutting board. The steps of the ladder were then fastened across the rails. Safety rails were added in a simlar manner. The ladder was then fastened to the side of the tank.

Painting

The tank was painted with DecoArt Americana acrylic paints as shown in Figure 7. I started with a medium base coat built up with multiple thin, almost watery, coats of paint using a wet pallete consisting of a damp paper towel covered with parchment paper.

After this dried, I used a thin wash of dark colors that settles in the scribe marks and inside corners where shadowas natually appear. Highlights of lighter colors were dry brushed onto the edges that catch light. The ladder was painted yellow and the tank was weathered with powdered pigments.

Conclusion

After everything was painted, the water tank was fastened to the support platform and the completed water tank assembly was fastened to the roof of the boiler house using canopy glue as shown in Figure 8. The safety rails on the ladder were eventually removed, leaving the ladder ending at the edge of the tank like the original E. L. Moore model.