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The Mine Office


The last major component on the L&SE diorama is this Banta Modelworks Miner's Cabin next to the ore bin. I had to do a little surgery on the hillside to make a spot for it.

The Banta cabin is a nice little kit. I made/am making a few modifications. Because the building is going to be on a hillside and partly on piers, I added some 12x6 scale timbers underneath -- this is similar to how the cabins are built at Camp Three Falls in Lockwood Valley, where I have spent a lot of time. I believe part of the idea is that if the building needs to be moved, it could easily be skidded onto a flatbed. That would make sense for a mining structure as well.

We don't want anyone falling off the elevated porch, so I added a railing on the front and one end. The stairs will go down the other end.

Banta makes this kit in several scales. The O scale and smaller versions come with simulated tarpaper roofing, but the F/G scale version has corrugated metal. I like the look of the metal roofing better, and it's more typical of buildings in Lockwood Valley, so I have ordered some corrugated roofing material and am awaiting delivery. The kit also has a roof over the porch, but I kind of like it without -- you can see more of the detail on the front of the building, and it feels a little more industrial. I left the porch roof off and covered up the slots in the front wall where the roof would attach -- a plank across the front doesn't look bad, and the sign also covers most of it.

The Frazier and Columbia borax mines were owned for most of their active years by Frazier Borate Company, which was in turn owned by Stauffer Chemical and other investors.

I followed the manufacturer's suggestion and rather than paint the cabin kit, I just weathered it with some diluted black, grey and brown acrylics. This caused major warping of the siding. Next time I'll try enamels thinned with paint thinner. 

When I placed the cabin next to the ore bin, the ore bin didn't look great by comparison -- I stained it with, if I recall correctly, MiniWax Provincial stain. This gave it a color similar to the color photos of the kit online, but it looked too red and clean on the layout especially next to the cabin. So I weathered it heavily, drybrushing it with grey acrylic, followed by some black, mostly vertical streaking. Looks a lot better now. See the pictures below for before and after.






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