Rooftop water towers have been something that has interested me for a while.  In N-scale our choices are limited with commercially available towers.  I have tried everyone that I know of, but with exception to the one made by Wathers, all fall short in quality and realism.  The major issue with the one Walthers makes, is that it is only available with some of their kits and it is a bit large, they do however sell them in two packs in HO.

So I am left with scratch building them, but how?  My first attempt is visible on top of the yellow storage building next to the Steven’s Hotel.  I built that one from styrene and brass wire, and the method worked okay but was very difficult to do.  I won’t go into detail how I built it (if you want to know just leave a comment and I will post about it later) but the conical roof was a challenge.

Construction

The Core

The way I did this may not be an option for most people; my brother has an amazing toy called a Legacy Mill.   It uses a router to shape very complex shapes and designs for architectural woodwork and furniture.  I was going to use my wood lathe but this thing makes it easy, fast and accurate.  I had drawn up some very basic plans, mainly for dimensions (figure 1).  We then squared up two 16″ pieces of scrap maple at 7/8″.  Than we shaped them into a 7/8″ and a 3/4″ dowels, next we cut them to a ruff 1 3/8″ length.  We put a 30-degree bit into the router and the small dowel into the chuck on the mill and shaped the cone.  We shape fifteen of these in about twenty minutes, so I could have plenty extra for future projects.  Another option that would work is using an oil tank from Model Rail Stuff, the tank is too tall but it could be easily cut down and then you have your core.

Simulated Staves

Now that I have the core complete I could begin work on the tower.  We need to create what are called staves, these are the vertical boards that make up the tank.  You could go about this two ways, apply strips of wood or styrene one by one or the faster way that I used on our example.  I began by cutting some 3/64″ spacing clapboard siding from Northeastern Scale Lumber, cut it just shy of the bottom of the cone (figure 2).  It will take a few tries to get it at the right length.  Once sized correctly glue it on with wood glue, white glue would work as well.  Once glue has setup (about a half hour) I applied a wash of india ink/alcohol, I did this first coat early because when you apply the straps, you wont be able to stain the wood if you get to much glue on.

Roofing

I filed down the tip slightly so I had a flat surface to drill a .015″ hole for the finial, on some water towers these are more ornate than others, I used a piece of .015″ brass wire.  The next step I should have waited on, because I fought with the roof throughout construction.  For the roofing I wanted something thin, plastic was too thick and wouldn’t conform to the cone, paper just didn’t look good, so I used metal.  The material I used is a scrap material that Builders in Scale sells for fairly cheap, it is basically a heavy gauge tin foil and it can be a little difficult to cut, but as long as your blades are sharp you will be okay.  I used my chopper to cut little wedge shaped pieces; they have about a 1/4″ base and are about 9/16″ long.  I then used CA glue to attach them one by one (figure 3).  So once that is finished I added a little cap on the tip by using a hole punch to make a little circle, then cutting out a small wedge to get our cone shape.

Hoops

I used .015″ brass wire for the hoops (next time I may use a thinner gauge of wire).  To begin with I drilled two .015″ holes on either side of a board, one for each end of the wire.  Then in the gap I glued a little piece of .025″ styrene rod for where the ends of the wire join to form the hoop.  Before this you need to add the wire, I began by bending about a 1/16″ tip of the wire at a 90-degree angle to insert into the first hole and then glue using CA.  Bend the wire around the cylinder until you reach the other hole (make sure the wire is TIGHT), cut the wire a 1/16″ longer than the distance to the second hole.  Then bend the extra at a 90-degree angle and insert and glue.  If you kept it tight no other glue is needed.  Then glue in the piece into the gap (figure 4).

From what I have seen the hoops are usually bunched three to four at the bottom and then spaced fairly evenly on up.  I have seen some when hoops have loosened and fallen and so being exact on your placement isn’t critical.  Also the joints of the hoops are also staggered uniformly, but again I have seen some towers that this rule didn’t apply.  Once all hoops are done I applied a coat of paint and allowed it to dry.  I also painted the roof and stained the tower with thinned washes of paint.  The roof may not look painted but it is, even when its painted it has a very realistic metallic look that you can’t get with plastic.

Pedestal

Now that the water tower is basically done we can begin the pedestal or base.  The base  that water towers reside on are incredibly varied; they work around the rooftop landscape to fit in any kind of spot.  I decided for the first one to keep it simple but I plan on doing some of the more complex ones soon.  I began by cutting six .060 I-beams for the beams that the tower sits upon.  Then I cut two .080″ I-beams for the other beams to rest on.  The four vertical beams were cut from the same .060″ I-beam material.  Once the glue had set I cut the .015″ brass wire for the webbing to support against lateral forces (figure 5).

Final Details

I then painted the base for the tower and then weathered with india ink/alcohol and dry-brushing with white paint.  I had an extra ladder from a Gold Medal Models fire escape, so I used it for access to the top.  They sell a set of etched ladders that I will order for use on the other towers when the time comes.

So all in all this was fairly easy build and can be done in a evening, next time I will do the roof after the straps to save many headaches.  I hoped you enjoyed this and please comment or email me if you have any questions or if I didn’t explain something very well and I will be happy to answer.