Getting Real Column - 6
With these elements in mind – tanks of various sizes and kinds,
a warehouse, an unloading spot with pump house, a truck
loading platform, and piping between elements if desired –
let’s turn to modeling. It should be evident even from the small
sample of prototype photos included here that arrangements
of the elements in bulk oil plants are quite variable, and thus
can be realistically modeled in a variety of ways. My focus here
is a particular bulk oil plant which I freelanced using prototype
information, but I will show also a couple of other models to
indicate the range of possibilities in this kind of modeling. And
it should be evident that this is not one of those industries you
can model by building one structure.
The Model
For this project, I began with the Walthers McGraw Oil kit. I
wanted to change it in several ways, however, so it is mostly a
kitbash. First, my space is longer than it is wide, so I needed to
modify the arrangement of tanks from the four-square pattern
provided in the kit. Second, I wanted to alter the look of the
kit in any event, so it is not so obviously a commercial prod-
uct. I used my knowledge of prototype bulk oil dealers to do
the rearranging and selection of details. Here is how I did all
this, starting with
building the vari-
ous storage tanks.
The tank
base
I set out to con-
vert the tank base
in the Walthers
kit to a lengthwise
configuration. The
berm surround-
ing this base looks
good, so I wanted
to include it in the
new arrangement.
10 and 11 show
the original base,
and the six cuts I
made in that base.
9: This oil dealer, in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, was
photographed in May 1985. The stairway leads to a mini-
mal platform, and loading pipes come directly from tanks.
In the background can be seen the top walkway on a
four-tank set of vertical tanks. – Author photo.
9
10: This is the tank base as provided
in the Walthers McGraw Oil kit. It is
about 6.75 inches square. –All model
photos by author.
10
MRH-Mar 2014
