.	Something from Nothing Southern States Auxiliary Silos out of Crystal Light containers Click any image to enlarge
To begin simply position two of the CL containers onto the 040 thicker piece of sheet styrene, then trace them.  Cut out  a small rectangle around the traced marks. This will be your concrete foundation. Glue these  into position. The top sections can done the same way as the bottom except you cut out the circles leaving a walkway in between. Using the thinner styrene I was able to cut most of this pattern out with a pair of scissors.  Once the top and bottom have been glued into position you can paint to your liking. I chose model masters camouflage gray spray paint for the silos, and then hand painted the foundation with foundation paint.  While this was drying, the cage ladder kit was assembled and painted grimy black, as were the hand rails. The piping pieces were measured, cut, then installed, along with the cage ladder, followed by then the railings. The small detail parts on top were painted separately and glued on last. The rod was predrilled for, then glued into place.	How do you help a brother n law with his layout when you are four plus hours away? Well thank God for cell phone cameras, text messages, and email. My brother n law has been contemplating getting back into model railroading for the past couple of years.  Lots of planning, discussions etc.   Well the time had come and the actual work was beginning. One of the things that I knew I could do from afar was to build buildings. This by far is the most fun part of the hobby for me.   He resides in rural VA right smack in the New Market Valley with the Appalachian Mountains all around. It was decided that the layout would be early sixties in that same area. This meant that many of the industries would be smaller.  Even today while the larger NS trains head to Harrisburg there are smaller local trains still pushing grain, fertilizer, feed, concrete etc. It was also decided that this new layout would offer up operations versus simply running trains in circles. To help get operations up and running quickly I decided to pitch in and build a medium size Southern States facility that would be serviced by rail and truck.  This facility in turn would push product out locally to the surrounding communities as well as the nearby cities. Now I don't have a very large model railroad budget and I certainly couldn't jump right in and start spending my brother n laws money. Especially given the start up cost of a new railroad!   I decided to build as much as I could using whatever I had laying around and or leftover parts from other projects.	Materials list: 2 Crystal Lite containers 2 zap and gap glue lids 2 small zap and gap glue plugs 1 small piece of brass rod 1 partial sheet of 020 white styrene 1 partial sheet of 040 white styrene 1 safety caged ladder from Walters  kit 933-3515 A few pieces from a Walters refinery piping kit #933-3114 2 small left over pieces from a Plastruct railing kit.