More on modifying Interstate Oil

I began this series of posts with some background on bulk oil dealer modeling and what I’ve previously written about it, and a start with modifications to the Walthers Interstate Oil kit, their no. 3006. Here’s a link to the first post: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/12/more-bulk-oil-modifying-interstate-oil.html . As I stated there, I had decided to model a dealership for Richfield Oil Company, a familiar name in the Central California region I model in 1953.
     I began with the two structures in the kit, the warehouse and the pump house. Wall pieces for both were painted Reefer Yellow. I also then painted the sprues for doors and windows with a medium blue color. I used Tamiya TS-15. This blue is darker than the molded plastic window frames in this kit, and seems to me more like the dark blue ordinarily used by Richfield. Here is one of the warehouse sides with the blue parts installed.

     I like to make removable roofs for most of my structures, if there is any chance I might later decide to add interior lights or details. This is relatively little additional work, and I think the modelers who I sometimes hear expressing dismay at such a step, have not looked carefully at how easy it is to do. As I have shown before (see for example the roof for my depot at Santa Rosalia, as described at this link: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/05/sp-depot-santa-rosalia-part-4.html ), I make a set of “roof formers,” styrene bulkheads with the correct roof pitch.These are then simply supported with short pieces of square styrene strip inside the roof.
     I begin by tracing the shape of the building end onto styrene sheet, in this case 0.030 inches thick (Evergreen no. 9030). Then I trace the end peak again, now upside down. Cutting out this strip, it looks like this:

There are two full “former” shapes here, along with two halves. The halves I splice together to make a third former, which will be plenty for a short structure like this one. Shown below are the two full formers, as cut out, a third one made by splicing (the splice plate is on the back of what you see here), and the building end for comparison.

     I selected, as I had commented in the previous post about this kit, a standing-seam metal roof to apply to the Interstate Oil warehouse. The roof was to be built from Evergreen no. 4523 material. I made the roof a little longer than the kit roof, since 38 scale feet was exactly a repeat distance on the Evergreen roofing. I made each side of the roof 15 scale feet wide. I used Evergreen 1/8-inch square styrene strip to brace the formers inside the roof. Here is the interior of the roof, with clamps holding it for glue to complete setting. (You can click to enlarge the image.) I find reversed clothes pins like these to be among my most frequently used clamps for modeling.

As all the styrene is white, this view doesn’t show the arrangement as clearly as I might like, but I think the overall idea can be recognized.
     The other decision for this kit is how to position the various elements (tanks, warehouse, etc.). I have enough space for this bulk dealership, but not the right shape space. I will re-arrange the tankage and maybe other elements so it can fit the space. After all, that’s what was done with prototype arrangements of tanks, too. This kit happens to have elements, like the horizontal tanks and the warehouse, which are on separate bases and can be grouped in a variety of ways. And of course the warehouse and truck loading rack both have to have road access.
     Arranging the elements, and more construction variations, will be presented in a future post.
Tony Thompson