Author Topic: Water Tower scratchbuild (Read 11100 times)

Rob_Jedi · « **on:** September 15, 2011, 07:42:40 AM »

Yay I have internet again, my connection has been down a week and I've been stuck home much of that time with a sprained ankle

well I at least got some inspiration to do some modelling. I'd been meaning to add a water tower to my town for a while but was looking for a good tin or something to use as the core of the tower. Finishing up a container of drinking chocolate gave me the perfect tube to start with since it has cardboard sides which are easy to glue to and a tin base good for strength.

I figured it was a bit too tall so measured down to where I'd like to cut it and then used masking tape to give me an even line all the way around to cut along.

next I cut craft sticks down to the height of the can sides. Using heavy duty scissors made this quick work but I wore holes in my thumb and finger

so maybe I need some more comfortable grip scissors.

the sticks were all glued on the side using PVA.

then strips of card were added as metal bands.

next I tried cutting out a few different sizes of circles from newspaper to work out what size to cut for the conical roof. This one seemed to fit about right so I cut it again from Cereal box card.

I glued matchsticks to the underside as supports, it looks a lot like a paper umbrella from underneath.

here it is on the tower after I cut off the top pull off bit of the plastic lid.

after a few hours of cutting out shingles from card and glueing them on one at a time. I had to cut the shingles tapered to make them fit in circles. I cut another cone to cap it at the top.

next up lots of rivets cut from plastic rod superglued in place. Then some legs from ancient balsa wood I had lying around.

I went through a few different design ideas for the cross supports. I initially used some coffee stirrers but they seemed to thick and was difficult to have them cross so instead I went for matchsticks with one set of 4 going on the inside and another set on the outside.

I'm pretty happy with the size and look of it. It still needs a filling pipe though.

If you are wondering the minis are old Deadlands figures.

talagarz · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2011, 07:55:43 AM »

Great!!!!!! This is very inspiring! I know what I'll do next week !

magokiron · « **Reply #2 on:** September 15, 2011, 08:32:07 AM »

Looking more than good.

You have a nice, practical piece of scenery, and your paint job relly make it justice.

Plus, your tutorial is very clear and I'm sure several LAF members will make some similar projects.

I'm sure I will.

Thanks for sharing.

Rob_Jedi · « **Reply #3 on:** September 15, 2011, 08:45:14 AM »

Glad you like it. I'll post it up the finished pics when I get around to painting it.

Calimero · « **Reply #4 on:** September 15, 2011, 11:27:46 AM »

Really nice work, I like it a lot

6milPhil · « **Reply #5 on:** September 15, 2011, 01:45:34 PM »

Great model, and thanks for the step-by-step always like them.

Of course pedantically it's a Choccy Tower, which is the biggest babe magnet you could ever own.

Full marks!

Tom Reed · « **Reply #6 on:** September 15, 2011, 02:00:38 PM »

Heh, I made mine using one of those mini Pringles potato chips containers. I built a large base for it that a man could stand on and I left the top open and modeled water in it. At some point I want to make a woman bathing/swimming in it. I made my fill tube out of one of those plastic bendy straws.

Admiral Benbow · « **Reply #7 on:** September 15, 2011, 10:15:31 PM »

Superb model and step-by-step, thanks for that!

Galland · « **Reply #8 on:** September 15, 2011, 11:01:30 PM »

Really nice, I love the nice and simple scratch builds that comes out of rather cheap material, and then turn out to something so nice like this project!

Cholly · « **Reply #9 on:** September 15, 2011, 11:18:48 PM »

Neat water tower. Cunninng use of the cadbury's pot too. Love the make somethingout of nothing approach as opposed to pre-made scenics, and when it turns out that well I know why.

professorgo · « **Reply #10 on:** September 16, 2011, 02:43:50 AM »

Those are some really nicely painted Great Rail Wars minis too.

FifteensAway · « **Reply #11 on:** September 16, 2011, 07:05:27 AM »

Are those base supports 30 x 30 timbers!? Very nice work - probably could survive a slow speed collision with a scale sized steam locomotive.

Rob_Jedi · « **Reply #12 on:** October 09, 2011, 05:39:50 AM »

Amongst doing some work on my town buildings I got the water tower painted. Basically a heap of drybrushing and some washes over the metal areas. Quite happy with the results.