Layout In A Box – Demo Micro Layout Project (part 25 ) – Industrial Ladder

Lets get started…

Tools needed are as follows…

• Cutting Mat
• Craft Knife with new sharp blade
• Tweezers
• Deluxe Card Materials Roket Card Glue or Super Phatic Glue
• Sanding stick
• For painting use a Aerosol Can Primer Paint followed by aersol can paint of your choosen colour for the top coat. The likes of the Range sell Plasticote craft spray can paint in suitable colours such as aluminium, black, silver, grey. These are ideal & very reasonably priced. (Always spray paint in a well ventilated room & wear a suitable face mask to prevent breathing in the paint particles whist painting).  

Start by cutting & removing the cage rings from the parts sheet. Any pips that held the rings to the parts sheet, need to be lightly sanded flush with the ring part sides. You’ll notice that the rings have a recess along the rear flat edge. The rings sit on the ladder as shown in the photo right, the four arrows showing the parts of the ring that must sit on the outside of the lader sides. You’ll also notice towards the rear of the photo, the highlighted recesses in the ladder. These are the ladder ring locations.

Next, apply a small bead of Roket Card Glue or similar along the rear recess of the ladder ring as shown in the photo right.

Carefully place the the glued ring on to the ladder at one of the ring location slots. Make sure you hold the ring at 90 degrees to the ladder whilst the glue sets. In the photo right can be seen the first ring glued to the ladder. The ring recess locations can be clearly seen in this photo.

We recommend that you start with fitting the top ring & bottom ring, then work your way inwards to the centre of the ladder.

Once all the rings are glued into place, give the glue time to set before moving on to the next stage. On the rings, you’ll see recess slots on the outside of the ring, these are for the vertical bars that sit on the out side of the rings. we’ve highlighted the recesses in the photo right.

Cut & remove from the parts sheet, five vertical bars. Sand flush any pips with bar edges. You’ll notice that these bars have little sqaure tabs, these are the position locating points for the rings. 

Start by fitting the vertical bar along the top center of the ring, making sure thaht it sits within the ring recess slots. The little sqaure tabs on the vertical bar sitting with the cage ring between them, as shown in the photo right. Once happy all is okay, apply a small amount of Roket card glue on each joint and allow to time for the glue to set.

Now repeat the process with the next vertical bar, & fix & glue into place. Again allow time for the glue to set before fitting the next vertical bar.

Again repeat the process with the remaining vertical bars, fixing & gluing them into place.

Once the vertical bars have been fitted, make sure the top ring sits flush & level with the top of the vertical bars. as highlighted in the image right.

Once the glue has set on the vertical bars & cage rings, turn the ladder over. We’ll now fit the wall mounting brackets. In the photo right can be seen the mounting brackets fitted in place. You’ll see that each bracket has two small recesses for the ladder to vertical runners to fit into. Sit the bracket on to the ladder as shown right, & glue into place. Make sure each bracket sits at 90 degrees to the ladder. Place the first bracket at about the second or third run up. The next bracket around where the ladder cage begins & then at evenly spaced positions untill you get to the ladder top.  

Jumping ahead of the painting stage, the ladder needs to be fixed to the wall of your choice. In our case it’s the 1930’s low relief factory. With the building having a top ledge over hang, the ladder needs to stand away from the wall in order to clear it. With the brackets being long enough to allow the ladder to clear the ledge overhang, it’s a case of gluing the ends of the brackets directly on to the wall. In the photo right can be seen highlighted on one of the lower brakets glued directly to the wall. Make sure the bottom of the ladder sits directly on the floor.

If your building, wall dosen’t have a overhang, mark out on the wall the position of the bracket legs then drill a suitable sized small hole for the bracket legs to fit into. Apply a small amount of Roket card glue to the brackets & insert into the drilled holes.

For the ladder top details, we’re combining the ladder kit with two more Scalemodelscenery.co.uk Kits. These are the short Tubeclamp safety railings from the LX097-OO Safety Railings kit: https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/lx097-oo-laser-cut-tube-clamp-style-safety-railings-oo4mm176-1132-p.asp

And the top section of the LX024-OO Industrial Ladder Kit:

https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/lx024-oo-industrial-ladders-oo4mm176-630-p.asp

The railings have been used to act as a safety walk way across the top ledge, whilst the other industrial ladder allows access from the ledge on to the building roof.

Going back to the painting of the ladder, we gave the ladder a coat of primer spray paint. We’ve used Plastikote Grey aerosol spray can primer paint from The Range Department store. Can be bought online or from in store at The Range.

Once the Primer coat has dried, paint with your chosen colour. Again we’re using Plastikote aerosol can paint, the colour we’ve gone for is gloss aluminuim. Other suitable colours include Silver, Grey, Black, White, Yellow. The choice is down to which suits you best. Again, these are available from The Range.

This concludes our look at the build & installation of the LX205-OO Industrial ladder kit. The kit will enhance any industrial, factory scene around your layouts.

Happy Modelling.