I started scratch building a water tower in February. The basic tower is complete but I need to create a water reservoir.

First, I made a simple frame from foamboard.

Then cut some bass wood (lime) pieces to size and aged them with paint and ink.

I arranged the pieces, grouping those with similar appearance next to one another.

Then I glued them onto the frame with PVA (white glue).

For the metal bands I painted some plasticard strips a rusty colour and stuck them onto the cylinder. I wasn’t sure what glue to use. Epoxy can be messy, so I chose Glue and Glaze because it dries perfecly clear.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work. The glue didn’t hold the strips and they started to peel off.

Instead, I glued them with high viscosity super glue, holding them in place with my fingers until everything had set. Remarkably, I didn’t manage to glue my fingers to the model and I didn’t leave any excess glue on the wood. I’m not normally that successful with superglue!

To attach the reservoir to the tower I used PVA and I placed a weight on top of the model while the glue dried. The tower proved to be surprisingly strong!

I created a cover from a piece of scribed bass wood and stuck it in place. (Yes with that weight again!).

Here’s the completed model.

I’ve added a pipe to supply the water to the reservoir. I’m not sure if this is prototypically correct. Modern water towers seem to have these, but I’m not sure the wooden ones did.

If you’re an expert of water towers I’d welcome your advice.

It’s not glued in place and it can be removed easily….