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Alan's O'Neill's Build

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Comments

  • kebmokebmo
    I'll have to take a look at the rafters and see if there is a better way to install them so it's not such a pain to do them. Thanks. Phil

    phil,
    i did my rafter tails by carefully measuring and installing them on the roof card before installing the roof card on the building. i'm too hamhanded to try and hold the model upside down without screwing it up, and i called or emailed brett to see if there was a reason for me not to do it that way, and he didn't see one, so i didn't either. i did the rafter tails on my nortons scratchbuild that way too.
  • KCSTrainsKCSTrains
    Kevin, I never thought of that. That’s a great idea and one I’ll have to try. Thanks for sharing. Phil
  • kebmokebmo
    i hope it works out.
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    I would suggest test fitting the roof first and doing a pencil line at the interface so you know where to stop. I may try this method myself next time!
  • TomMich
    Coming alongnicely!
  • Joel
    Really nice build so far. The siding and peeled paint effect is nicely done. Thanks for taking the time to post.
  • adminadmin
    I am thoroughly enjoying this build thread Alan and am looking forward to your next update! What a wonderful model you are constructing.
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    Thanks Brett! I've sure had fun doing it. Now on to the welding shop. Staining the frame walls was pretty routine. So was framing the door and window openings. All stuff we've done before if you're where I am. The wall frames may warp a little so get them under weight after staining. If you don't, it's probably no biggie as the siding will pull everything flat again anyway. I'm just a little paranoid about this. The siding lumber was work intensive compared to the wood prep we've done so far on this kit, but it's really going to be noticeable on the finished structure because there's going to be so much to see here, so if you get tempted not to go into as much depth as Brett recommends, resist! One thing I noticed: some of the detail seemed to disappear after staining. I added some more, especially saw blade marks. The "missing" detail will reappear when you apply the white paint, and I wound up with more saw blade marked boards than the manual recommends. I don't think this is a big deal, as the story this diorama tells me is that the welding shop was the first building built when the business was established, so methods were a little more crude. My lumber is shown after painting but before dulling down with the wash. I've included a close up of the added detail. The wash will blend and tone it down as it looks a bit stark to my eye.

    Welding shop walls
    Welding Shop Siding

    Lumber detail
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    PS: If I decide there are too many saw blade banded boards I'm going to experiment with removing the paint and turning a few over. We'll see how that works!
  • MountaingoatMountaingoat
    Making great progress. Looking awesome.....Rick
  • brownbr
    The close up on the boards shows off the great board detailing
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    Pretty quiet on the forum this week! I kind of took the week off myself. Last weekend I spend quite a bit of time detailing the siding for the welding shop. It paid off nicely. Tonight instead of yielding to temptation and hitting the recliner after dinner I hit the workbench instead. I began siding the welding shop walls. I won't say this is painstaking work, but it does require a little more attention than the main building walls. I hit the bottom of the boards at the floor pretty hard with the wire brush and #11 blade, going after a rotted appearance, and I like how that turned out. I had to shorten a few boards vertically to get everything to fit, which I noticed Ken Karns did on his build as well. I placed each board carefully and used a 1-2-3 block to keep things square. I still have a small amount of trimming to do, but it looks worse in the photos than it actually is. The side walls have to be taped to a template so I'll do that tomorrow. So far this is quite an enjoyable little building!

    Welding shop front
    Welding shop front 2
    Welding shop front and rear
  • Karl.AKarl.A
    edited February 2021
    Looking great Alan, the heavily weathered boards at the bottom is really well done, but,
    in the last picture I really noticed how well it all comes together. Definitly an old, heavily weathered pair of walls with alot of diversity but, are still consistent and every board looks like it belongs next to the next.
    Nice work.
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    The welding shop side walls are a bit more tricky due to constructing the trap, but not too terribly so. You'll spend some time cutting and fitting individual boards and working the wood. This wall still needs trimming and some additional staining.

    Welding shop side wall 1
    Welding Shop Side Wall 2
  • brownbr
    The extra staining will tie it all together.
  • adminadmin
    Looks fantastic! Weathering is wonderful and certainly fits the subject matter.
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    edited February 2021
    Something I'm not happy with: I was blending the walls and couldn't get the dark stain at the floor I wanted for rotting boards. I tried a little black chalk. Bad idea! That stuff is strong. It got way too dark. That's Rembrandt. No binders, no fillers, all pigment. I was able to get some of it back out by additional wire brushing, but it's still not where I want it. From here I'll probably try a little Folk Art Barn Wood wash. That should lighten it up. Other than that, the walls turned out well. (Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?) It may lighten up a little more as it finished drying, but this is black we're talking about. We'll see.
    All Walls Stained
  • ALCOALCO
    No worries. Just start planning how you’ll use the castings to minimize the effect. Otherwise, really nice old, weathered wood.
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    ALCO said:

    No worries. Just start planning how you’ll use the castings to minimize the effect. Otherwise, really nice old, weathered wood.

    Thanks for the kind words! I did find a way out if here though. I hit the walls with 234.3 chalk and rubbed it in with my fingers. It has a tendency to fill in seams and detail when you do it this way so after I got the color lightened I brushed lightly with the wire brush shown to clean out the detailing. Things look a little more reddish brown than they are due to the lighting. I may add some of the other two basic wood staining colors to even things out a bit. After that, I'll use the castings accordingly.

    All Walls Fixed
  • Alan_HAlan_H
    I think I'm there. Based on previous experiences with "If I just do this one more thing" screwing up the entire process, I'm going to stop here and begin detailing the walls. Disaster averted, at least until the next step! That little wire brush is awesome.
    All Walls Fixed 2
  • MountaingoatMountaingoat
    Great recovery. That is a true mark of a good modeler. This is looking really good.....Rick
  • KCSTrainsKCSTrains
    Great recovery Alan. I seem to remember Brett warning us to use black chalk very sparingly. Now you see why. I usually just use A/I. It takes several applications, so I can control how dark I want it. Phil
  • TomMich
    Nice save! turned out very well!
  • Karl.AKarl.A
    edited February 2021
    Nice recovery Alan, the walls are looking great. You are dead right on a couple of points, one, sometimes its best not to take that extra step and just sit back and think for a while. two, black chalk can be a very powerful force, handle with care.

    Looking forward to more.
  • ALCOALCO
    Those wire brushes are great for getting the right balance between grain and stain!
  • brownbr
    You made it work
  • mikemettelka
    I dont know about a save..... that looks like it was on purpose. Good job
  • kebmokebmo
    Alan_H said:

    I think I'm there. Based on previous experiences with "If I just do this one more thing" screwing up the entire process, I'm going to stop here and begin detailing the walls. Disaster averted, at least until the next step! That little wire brush is awesome.
    All Walls Fixed 2

    nice save! besides, the welding shop is up on a deck and doesn't touch the ground at all, so it'll be a different kind of shitty. details hide almost all of it anyway.

  • Alan_HAlan_H
    I had to take a pause this weekend because of a problem I had. A couple of wood bundles got put back into the wrong bags. While this can be confusing, it's not a catastrophe. At this point in the build there are several sizes that appear close to each other and are the same length, so I had to spend some time with the caliper. The good news is we've used a bunch of wood, and there aren't many sizes left. The correct sizes appear on the templates, so I measured everything and got it all resorted and in the right place. The templates themselves are also a useful sizing guide to check yourself with. Chalk this one up under "lessons learned" Also, if this happens to you remember that strip wood does expand and contract with humidity, so you are OK with "close enough".

    I've now begun to detail the welding shop walls. I tried mixing paint to resemble oil on the oil bottles with less than satisfactory results. Maybe when Brett gets those clear plastic 3D printed bottles ready I'll do better!
    Detailing The Walls
  • TomH
    really starting to look great!
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