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Comments
Real small update today.
I took a break from the walls to paint some castings.
The structure comes with a nice resin casting for the concrete loading dock. I primed it with gray automotive primer, painted the wood decking with SW Earth and weathered it with a wash of A&I followed by some chalks. It has some great detail in it.
I have a little gap between the stone casting and the concrete casting I'll have to try to tighten up when I glue everything together. I'm sure the dock castings will cover most of it.
I colored and weathered a few barrels. Nothing too exciting. Brett's techniques described in the videos really make it easy to color and weather barrels and tanks. After I paint them once they are dry I dip them in rubbing alcohol and smack them with a wire brush while turned the casting. The alcohol loosens up the paint and it works great. Then I weather with chalks.
The videos are here if you haven't seen them.
http://sierrawestscalemodels.com/videos.html
I like to color a few barrels with yellow or brighter red. This is Reaper Pale Saffron. I think it adds a little life to the filthy industrial scrap piles I like to model so much. I added a little oil right around the cap in the top. I've worked in shops that used old manual crank pumps for transmission fluid or oil and they always have oil all over the side and top of the barrel. I just used a little bit of Reaper Adamantium Black for the oil.
Thanks for checking in.
-Steve
This is looking really good! Great job matching the green siding to the doors on the casting. I also like your brick and mortar coloring on the side wall. Concrete pad is well done as are the barrels. Spot on with your observation--a subtle hint of color here and there makes the scene pop.
If you're concerned about the gap between the castings, those are perfect spots to add stray weeds and vines. It'll disguise the gaps and look natural.
Good job!
Robert, I'm going to try to steal your tarpaper technique for the roof of the main building. Hopefully I can pull it off half as good as you did. You just used the single ply of a tissue correct?
Carl, I'm really enjoying the kit so far. I'd love the see what you do with it. Your Engine House is a masterpiece.
Joel, These complete subassemblies really make this kit come together quickly. I only spent about 30 minutes coloring and weathering the dock.
Ken, Brett really has the best castings in the business. These castings are really great but the ones from O'Neill's are even better than these. The resin is so much easier to work with. Those old kits with the lead castings are much harder to work with and the lead dust from cleaning the flash isn't good for anyone.
Bill, I was a little concerned because the gap is over the loading dock planking. I figure I'll just have to hide it with castings and maybe a little bit of vegetation or a newspaper. Even a couple pieces of scrap wood piled up will cover it up nicely.
I'm at a standstill with the walls because my kit was missing the laser cut outer window frames. Of course that's the risk of purchasing kits on Ebay. Brett was nice enough to cut me a new sheet, I'm just waiting for it to get here. Until then I'm going to try to get all the details done and do some roof experimentation.
-Steve
Thanks Ed.
I painted a few more castings today.
I find these big gang castings to always be a little overwhelming to paint at first.
Half my problem is I really don't know what some of the smaller parts in the bins are or what color they are supposed to be. If I don't know it's usually black or rusty.
Geezerbill
I added a bit of color to the one casting as Ken suggested.
I added a few rags for some color and drybrushed a few of the crates with some different browns. I always have a tough time finding the balance between monotone and adding so much color it takes away from the natural blending of the different pieces. I made the rags using single ply tissue crumpled up, dabbed with rubbing alcohol and touched with Garnet Red. Once it dries I dusted them with some 408.3 chalk to make them look dirty.
I only have a few more smaller details to paint and I'm done with that portion of the build.
-Steve
I got the replacement window pieces from Brett on Saturday. He really didn't have to replace these pieces, I didn't purchase this kit directly from him. I bought it second hand several years after he manufactured it. Not only does he make the best kits in the hobby he's also a great guy.
Now I can move forward with the walls and start really putting the building together.
These laser cut windows are really the most fun to put together. You have so much freedom to weather and modify them to your liking. I colored them with Apple Barrel Khaki and weathered them with A&I and chalk.
Thanks for checking in and thanks to Brett for the great customer service.
-Steve
The walls look great as well as the windows.
I was curious have you ever tried caulk over this kind of siding? I tried getting a nice gray on some clapboard using caulks on untreated clapboard siding and cant seem to get it to absorb in like you can using stripwoods. How much do you thin if any on the paint. I am use to using enamels that are thinned and brushed on like you do on the passenger station and fuel depot from Logging essentials and get really great results but plain grey weathered siding is eluding me.
Jim
Jim, I haven't tried to do weathered gray siding using any of the newer techniques yet. I used to get a decent sunbleached gray using floquil paints heavily thinned. Tru-Color makes a flat grimy black that might work well. I'm not sure what the thinner would be for those. They have pretty weak coverage right out of the bottle so they would make a decent gray stain.
I tried a new technique to me using tissues to simulate curtains. Brett describes this in the manual and it's pretty easy to do. The technique is based off an old Lane Stewart article in the Gazette.
I'm assembling this kit a little different than the instructions. The instructions have everything glued to the diorama base at this stage with a good amount of the scenery and detailing added. I put everything together a bit out of order.
I ended up painting the wood cap on the top of the stone wall green to match the walls. I weathered it with black chalk to blend it a bit. It also started to pull off the stone foundation a bit so I pulled it off and reglued it with some heavier clamps.
Thanks for checking in. Tomorrow I'm going to start figuring out the base and working on the roof.
-Steve
Jerry