Another "cut-out" from a 1950s issue of Toy Trains magazine, the fuel oil storage shanty:



With nothing but a single sliding door, this little shed is a pretty simple build. I scanned it from the magazine, then printed it on a sheet of cardstock. I then glued it onto some matt-board scraps I have laying around, cut each wall, then glued them together with basswood "corners" behind. My construction methods leave an exposed edge at each corner, so I have to cut out paper corners from the pattern and cement those on. Getting the "block" pattern to line up was a challenge, which you can see in the photos. I'll chalk that up to poor "lithography", lol.

The colors are pretty ghastly...who has ever seen cement block with a blue tint? I've gotten pretty competent at pixel art using MS Paint, so I could have recolored it into something more appropriate, but that was going to take way too much effort, so I left it. The deck had a wood surface drawn for it, but again, the color was way off, almost pink. I bagged that and decided to use a bit of my Floquil "concrete" stash to fashion a slab for the top of the platform. I used the timber-deck pattern to make a sliding door, recoloring it to a light-brown. A few signs printed from the internet completed the walls.



If Carstens included a roof for the shed, I couldn't find it in the magazine (I might be missing a page or two). No problem, we made one from a bit of corrugated from a USPS shipping box and a few strips of cardstock. I had a can of textured spray paint left over from another project, so I gave the roof a shot of that, then two coats of satin black. I wanted it to look like rolled-roofing, and this seemed to work. A couple more basswood strips for a glue surface, and the roof was cemented on.

The bit that bugs me is how would one get up onto the platform? A ladder? A ramp? A few steel rungs on the wall? I'll need to figure something out.

Anyway, that's it for the fuel oil storage shed. With these projects, I have to be careful to try to maintain a tinplate look. I don't want it to be too realistic or scale (if that makes any sense).

I've got a paper model for a yard tower printed years ago...might try that next.

How about a ladder made from 1/4" grid galvanized hardware cloth?...see the ladder on the silo...I cut with flush cut tin snips and filed the sharp edges off...and you could bend top like a caboose ladder...
Howard...

Another great idea, Howard...I might even have some 1/4-inch hardware cloth here in the shop. I was also thinking of trying a few staples to use for rungs/hand-grabs mounted on the wall.

Paul

Yes...staples will definitely work...like other guys who have been "making things" for decades and decades...we used what we had...I seem to remember using very small sequins, one on each staple leg, to represent the flange that touched the body of the car side or building side...no fancy CA glues back then...just that "buzz-inducing" Testors model airplane cement in a tube with that screw eye plug...

Howard...

The 1/4-inch hardware cloth idea was brilliant, Howard:



I didn't make the big loop on the top, thinking that might look weird (although it would certainly have made it easier for someone to climb up there).

I have a bag of Rusty Rail's 55-gallon drums that have been looking for a home on the layout...figured I'd use a couple here. Stained up the "concrete" a bit, then gave the whole thing an overspray of Krylon clear matte. Looks okay, I think.