I finally found an out of production Walthers Pier w/crane, I have had this idea that the crane would fit nicely on the smaller pier. The crane kit design turned out to be another collection of "Walthers" compromises which means I'll have to add to it just to make it look reasonable.
In the above photo we have the lower superstructure assembled with the box it came in.
I'm going to pick on Walthers here. On this kit the space below the crane platform is wide open, the only support structures are on the edges. The support structures are modeled as plate girders on the front and back, and trusses on the sides, thats all. Now I'm no structural engineer, but even I can see that the crane platform would not be built like this, there has to be some sort of structure in the middle. So here is what I did, I only need to make the model
look like it has more structure beneath the deck. The white styrene is what I added to achieve this.
As you can see from this view, you will no longer be able to look straight through the upper part of the superstructure.
Here is how it looks painted, not to bad. I still have to run the cables and weather the entire structure. Above, I have the crane placed on the pier as intended, however the overall effect is not what I wanted. For some reason I got it in my head that the crane was smaller that this in proportion to the pier. In reality the pier is to small for this crane so the crane goes in a box till I have a module with a bigger pier.
O well....
