Restoring E. L. Moore's Water Wheel Mill, Part 2

I think one needs to have some sort of guiding philosophy in place before attempting any sort of restoration work. Mine could be summed up as: Do the least. The idea is to let the original work speak for itself without too much intervention on my part.

Believe it or not, I did follow that principle when restoring the HOJ POJ manufacturing company, even though there was a lot of work on that project. There turned out to be less work on the water wheel mill restoration than I expected, but the principle was nevertheless important to apply here too.

I decided that I wasn't going to attempt to recreate and reinstall any missing parts, just build a simple base to support the model - Mr. Moore accomplished this by setting it in a diorama - for displaying it with any detached parts glued back on. The model was in pretty good shape as is, so I thought this was a good approach. It also means that I avoid the problem of trying to exactly match E. L. Moore's building style when it comes to making missing parts. The purpose of the display is to show Mr. Moore's work, not to ask the viewer to assess how well I can copy it. 

The base is made from 0.060" sheet styrene, and the various supports are cut from 0.040" sheet. When finished is was glued to a piece of artist grade foam board, and then the whole thing was painted flat black. 

Circle marks location of missing flume / crib support pieces

The biggest reconstruction problem was that the components that support the flume on the cribbing were missing, as were the pieces that model the mechanism that opens the flume's gate. However, it was possible to support the business end of the flume on an existing crib cross-piece - and secure it with two small dabs of Weld Bond - so as to achieve the correct look and positioning of the flume over the wheel. 

Also, the two trusses that support the far end of the flume were missing. Their function was provided by two pieces of 0.040" styrene I cut and glued to the base. Since I wasn't installing the model in a detailed diorama I didn't feel a need to create trusses to mimic the originals.

The front door and steps had come loose and fallen off. Luckily they were still in the packing material, so it was a simple job to glue them back on with a little Weld Bond.

You'll notice a missing roof beam in the upper left corner. I hummed and hawed about replacing it, but in the end, in accordance with my philosophy, I decided to leave it be. Anything I could make would stick out like a sore thumb and detract from the overall look. Just because I have a philosophy doesn't mean I don't test it often during the course of a project, because as a model builder myself I have a desire to make things right, even if it isn't always to right thing to do.

I should note that I didn't glue the model to the base. The model is just placed on. The plastic base supports around the crib, and the styrene foundation support on the opposite side, more-or-less lock the model in place without the need for glue.

In this view you can clearly see the gap between the bottom of the flume and the crib. The building has a light in the ground floor. The wires for which I've loosely curled up under the model and are hidden from view by the black foundation support. I need to test the light to see if it still works, but if it doesn't there's no way to replace it without damaging the model.

I think the 'water' gushing from the bypass might droop over time, so I may need to rethink how I've supported it with the arty little oval pedestal.

The model's got a nicely detailed interior and I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how to get photos of it. The top floor is easy as the roof comes off, but the ground floor can only be seen through the exterior doors and down the stairs from the top floor. Anyway, fun little problems like that are good to have :-)