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Topics - SteveCuster

#1
Kit Building / Showcase Miniatures Val-U Fuels
January 17, 2022, 08:44:20 AM
Hello everyone,

Next in line to be built is a kit by Showcase Miniatures called Val-U Fuels. This is the first kit I've built from this manufacturer but so far the quality looks excellent. It's very similar to a Bar Mills or Fos kit they only difference I've seen so far is this kit uses all laser cut windows and doors instead of a mix of laser and plastic castings. The kit also included about a dozen decent quality white metal castings. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the castings before I mixed them in and primed them with about 200 other castings I plan on painting at the same time.

The kit was $89.95 w/ free shipping from https://www.showcaseminiatures.net/


The photo of the kit on the box was built by Jason Jensen and he did an excellent job as usual. The kit includes coloring and weathering instructions from Jason as well. I plan on coloring and weathering the kit my own style but if you wanted to follow Jason's example it's very well done.


Everything laid out and ready to get started.


First step is adding these brown backers to support the windows so they don't fall into the structure.


They are peel and stick and get stuck on the inside of all the walls.


The building has a laser cut core made from what I think is called fiber board. I've seen this material used in other kits. It has a little texture to it so it will represent the stucco bottom but the siding gets glued to it for the top half.


All the walls are glued together. So far everything fits together perfectly.




The corners had a really obvious finger joint so I filled it with some plaster. I sprayed the walls with Khaki on the areas that represent stucco and started coloring in the brick.



Thanks for following along.
#2
Kit Building / Builders in Scale Weiry & Sons Drilling
November 18, 2021, 09:43:56 AM
Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I've done a build thread so I decided to do one for the next kit.

Next in line for the layout is Weiry and Sons Drilling from Builders in Scale. This kit came out in 1983 and I believe is the first limited run kit made by BIS. I'm a big fan of BIS kits and I have built a few so far.



First step of course was laying out all the parts and familiarizing myself with the instructions.


All the individual sub assemblies are bagged separately. This kit looks like it's basically a stand alone main structure with the building from Getz Gas and the trailer from Flybynite construction. I've already built Getz Gas so I'll need to make sure I show a different angle than the one already on the layout.


The castings included in the kit are excellent. They are much nicer than most of the castings offered in some of the newer kits and on-par with FSM quality. Clean, crisp with very little flash, I cleaned and prepped all the the castings in less than 5 minutes. All of these are what I would consider "foreground" quality castings.


One of my favorite parts of BIS kits is the blueprints. They are super detailed and if you have a little experience with craftsman kits you can pretty much build the whole kit from the drawings alone.

That's all I have for photos now, I've already primed the "wood" castings and blackened the ones that represent metal last night. I need to spend some time thinking about the color scheme I want but I hope to dig into the wood parts later today. The hardest part of picking a color scheme is making sure I haven't used the same colors too close to the placement of this kit on the layout.

#3
Kit Building / FSM Barnstead Lumber
August 21, 2021, 03:30:21 PM
Hello everyone,
I just finished up Fine Scale Miniatures Barnstead Lumber last night. Here are a few pics of the finished project.

































Overall this was a fun build. Took a little longer than I had expected with all the summer stuff going on. Hopefully I'll get this one installed on the layout in the next few days and I can start working the area around it in.

Thanks for checking in.
#4
Kit Building / FSM Crocker Bros Feed Mill
April 21, 2021, 07:24:33 AM
Hello everyone,

Next project in line is Crocker Brothers Feed Mill from Fine Scale Miniatures. This is one of the first bigger industry kits George put out 41 years ago.


Top of the box photo...


This kit was all the wood pre-bagged by section instead of the usual color coding that most FSM kits have.


Box of castings...crisp and clean as you would expect from George.


These older kits have saw cuts vertically for all the windows and door openings. You have to cut horizontally across the top to finish the opening.


After cutting out the window and door openings the pieces get glued together to close up the window openings.


Here the top and bottom are glued together to finish the wall.


For the castings I followed my usual process. I blackened all the pieces that represent mostly metal, sprayed anything to represented wood with khaki paint and a few of the concrete pieces got sprayed gray. I also washed over all the tan pieces with A&I. This gives me a good base to work with especially on the windows and doors.


Since the walls were made up of a top and bottom section I made sure the glue had dried both on the butt joint between them and all the bracing before I started working the walls. In this photo all the bracing is done and I've added some grain to the walls with a wire brush. I also pulled some of the clapboards with a razor. The section on the bottom that isn't finish will be a small strip of vertical siding.


I wanted a darker gray base for the walls so I colored them with 2 washes of A&I. This gives me a good weathered wood color for under the peeling/missing paint.


The walls were washed with mineral spirits then color with Folkart Linen paint before the mineral spirits could fully dry. This keeps the paint from fully adhering to the walls.


Once the paint was mostly dry I attacked the walls with a wire brush horizontally to pull the paint up and weather them. This same technique was used for all the walls. The wire brush can only go horizontally with the clapboards, if it's used vertically it looks terrible.


This is the before for this wall prior to weathering.


After wire brushing..

That's all for now...

Thanks for following along.







#5
Hello everyone,

Next up is a structure based on the FSM castings of Sewall's Foundry from Railroadkits.

This will end up being about half the size of the FSM kit. I plan on using the main stone structure but I'm not really sure about the rest. I have no plan as I start except I know I'll be starting with the main stone building and I already know the size of the space I'm going to be installing it on the layout.


I laid out and started sorting the castings. The quality of the castings are excellent and pretty much no different than what I would expect from George's original kits. The only thing I found a bit tedious is the castings are polished with walnut shells and they really get imbedded in the cracks. I used a dental pick to clean the remnants out but it did take a bit of time especially on the stonework. I bought these from Jimmy so I'm not sure if Bill is using the same process. It does make them look nice, shiny and clean.


I primed all the walls with gray auto primer.


I washed over the stones with A&I, touched up some with chalks and added the doors.


The side wall.


First step was gluing the bottom together. No rear wall is provided so I just made one from cardstock and painted one side black.


I glued the top 3 walls together on their own then I glued them on top of the bottom base walls.


The lower brick section will be covered with decking so I didn't spend much time weathering it.

While these walls were drying I did spend some time working on the detail parts.

I'll be working on the roof tonight or tomorrow hopefully.

Thanks for following along.
#6
Kit Building / Monster Modelworks Machine Shop
March 01, 2021, 10:22:33 AM
Hello everyone.

I started a new small kit last night. It's a machine shop from Monster Modelworks. This is my first experience with one of their kits. I have seen lots of the brickwork completed from other modelers and it's always excellent.


Picture from the bag of the completed model.


This are most of the contents of the kit.


I started by bracing and gluing the walls together. So far so good...everything fit together perfectly and the kit came with mostly precut bracing so it went very fast.

That's all I've got done so far. It's a pretty simple kit so I don't think it'll take me more than a few days to complete.

#7
Kit Building / FSM Branchline Bucket Coaling Station
February 10, 2021, 06:24:14 AM
Hello everyone,

Next in line is an old one-  Fine Scale Miniatures Branchline Coaling Station.

I started this kit this week. I managed to get all the castings primed or blackened and most of the stripwood colored.


Just a picture of the box.


All the stripwood as been colored. The kit has several bags of wood each labeled "Right and Left Walls, Rear Wall, Floor etc.." which makes it easy and a good portion is precut as well. I stained the wood with alcohol and powdered chalks after I added some grain with a wire brush.


The framing for the walls is done. I made a copy of the templates and used some double sided tape to stick the wood to them.


Both side walls and the rear. I would've liked to add the siding while the walls were stuck to the template but the inside framing is facing up.


The framing for the floor is complete.

That's all so far. Next step is attaching the siding.

Thanks for following along.
#8
Kit Building / Sierra West HO Scale Morton's Foundry
December 22, 2020, 03:14:56 PM
Hi everyone.

I finished Sierra West Morton's Foundry last night. Here are some pictures of the completed scene, ready to be installed on the layout. All the details are included with the kit and I followed the instructions pretty closely.


The overall scene from the front.


Close-up of the office.





Close up of the crane area.







The table saw cutting area.



This is the backside of the scene. It won't really be visible when placed on the layout so I didn't go crazy with the details.


Close-up of the blacksmith shop.








This is the left side of the scene if facing the front.


Close-up of the coal bin area.




Lots of cool detail in this scene. The boxes represent mold boxes for the parts the foundry manufactures.







Thanks for checking out my work.
#9
Kit Building / Sheepscot Structure Kits.
October 13, 2020, 02:53:26 PM
Has anyone completed any of the larger Sheepscot structure kits? I looking at maybe picking up Beanfield Siding but I can't get an idea of how it looks or what's included from the ground level pictures on the box. Google search comes up with very few completed Sheepscot kits and no completed Beanfield Sidings. Just really interested in the quality of the components included with those kits.
#10
Scratchbuilding / Penn Mechanical Scratchbuild
September 08, 2020, 11:30:59 PM
Hey everyone,

I finished a little scratchbuild for my layout. I bought a Sewalls Foundry and Wilfred Brambell casting sets from Railroadkits. I used some of the stonework from those kits as the base. I also used a few of the doors and windows. Its not really based off any building or model in particular. I did use the length of the stone walls as a limit to the overall dimensions of the main building.


I already set it in place on the layout. I need to finish the scenery around it of course. Im not sure where all the castings came from. The crane is from Wiseman. The pulley over the door is from BEST.














The front is pretty difficult to see from the front of the layout so I kept it pretty simple. The road still needs some work to cover the seams and tie it all together. The sidewall is a metal casting from FSM Brambell I believe.


This is how the whole scene is starting to unfold.

Thanks for checking in.


#11
Kit Building / FSM Brownsville Depot
June 14, 2020, 11:09:17 PM
Hello everyone.

I recently completed my version of FSM Brownsville Depot. I knew my time would be limited building this kit so I didn't do a step-by-step. I chose a different color scheme than George.





















Thanks for checking in.
#12
Kit Building / FSM Chippy Hollow Hardware
December 07, 2019, 05:52:35 PM
Hello everyone,

My next kit in line to be built is FSM Chippy Hollow Hardware Co.


I figure most everyone knows this kit but here is a photo of the box.


Lots of lead castings in this box. Most of the work with this kit will be painting all of them.


This is all the wood included with the kit.


Primed and sorted the castings that mostly represent wood. I used Rust-Oleum Khaki for these.


Anything that represents metal is blackened with Jax Pewter Black.


I primed the walls with gray auto primer.


Next I washed the walls with A&I.


I wanted some variation in the different stones but still keep is subtle so I used alcohol and powdered Rembrandt chalks to color some of the stones. The colored the walls with A&I before this so it didn't wash away all the chalk. The A&I really helps create some depth between the stones.


I used a thin brush to wick some A&I between the stones to give some shadow to them.

I dry brushed the walls with a very light tan color.


I liked the Floquil Depot Buff color for the windows but I substituted it for Apple Barrel Khaki.


2 washes of A&I really helped tone the trim down a bit.


The kit calls for gluing these wooden spacers to the bottle of the cast walls. I primed them with gray just incase they were visible somehow but I don't believe it is necessary.


I started working on the windows and doors. Still need some work before I installed them.


I'm jumping around a bit with this kit while I wait for things to dry. While the epoxy was drying between the walls and the wood filler pieces I painted some of the castings. I'm a big fan of these fuel canister castings. I haven't seen these in one of George's kits before. I use double sided tape and a tongue depressor to hold the castings while I paint them. For metal castings the 3M double sided tape from Staples or Walmart won't hold them so I use carpet tape from Home Depot.

Thanks for following along.

Does anyone have any photos of Brian Nolan's build of this kit? I remember seeing his years ago but when I google it I only find a thread on the railroad-line forum and the photos are super small.





#13
Dioramas / Bar Mills Gritty McDuff's
November 28, 2019, 12:49:28 PM
I recently mostly finished my version of Gritty McDuffs from Bar Mills.


I condensed the design a bit to fit the area on my layout. I changed a few small things on the kit but mostly I kept to the original design. I did choose not to use the shutters for the main taller building. This photos was taken with the structure placed on the layout.


This shot was taken on the workbench. The main change I made to the kit was I removed the rear section from the taller building. I built it and then found out it wouldn't fit the area. If you follow my layout thread I repurposed it on another smaller building.


This shot better shows how I condensed the area a little.

Ignored the gap between the road and the scenery.

I didn't get too crazy detailing the yard area because it will be very hard to see once it's installed on the layout.



The kit came with 2 tanks but I only had space for one. In the original design this tank sat behind the yellow/ground building but my yard area is much more narrow than the original design so I placed it between the 2 buildings.

I still need to add some vehicles and some little people to the scene. I'll complete it once I add it too the layout.

All in all this was a fun little project and I feel like it works well in the overall feel of the layout.


#14
Seeking Kit... / Bar Mills Gritty McDuff Instructions
September 19, 2019, 10:30:34 PM
Hi everyone,

I recently picked up Gritty McDuffs off Ebay and it's missing the instructions. Does anyone have a set of instructions for this kit?

Thanks
#15
Kit Building / Builders in Scale Getz Gas
August 07, 2019, 11:16:04 PM
Hello everyone

Next in line is Builders in Scale Getz Gas. I enjoyed building Pitkin City Hall so much I decided to build another BIS kit. This will sit in the foreground area on the layout in front of city hall.


First step was sorting the castings. As with the Pitkin City Hall kit the castings are all excellent. Very little flash and very little cleanup. I sorted everything either wood or metal. Wood will get a Khaki colored primer and the metal will be blackened.


All the wood components laid out.


I roughed up the siding with a wire brush and gave it a base color of A&I.

These cast pieces will represent the legs for the decking.

The decking consists of this piece of scribed siding.

I cut the decking down into 3 sections for the 3 individual docks.

This is the decking template. All the BIS kits I have include these excellent blueprint type templates.

This is the skirting that does around the base of the building.

I stained the decking material and used double sided tape to attach it to the template face down.

I glued the skirting to the bottom of the decking first. I used a piece of wood to keep the skirting at a 90 degree angle. I painted the skirting with Apple Barrel Tuscan Teal. That's the color I will be using for all the trim. Next I glued the joists and then finally the metal supports.

Same with this little dock.

The walls are painted Apple Barrel Granite Gray. I coated them in Mineral Spirits before I painted this coat on.

I used a wire brush to pull up the paint. The thinner keeps the paint from really adhering to the wall so this technique works well.

Same thing with the rest of the walls.

The rest of the skirting is a tiny bit taller than the skirting that goes under the decking. It all gets glued to the bottom "floor".

Here it is with all the loading docks and skirting attached.

The loading dock doors are built from scribed siding. I primed with A&I, colored with Granite Gray and weathered with another coat of A&I.

These are the door handles. I bent then with a small pair of needle nose pliers.

Here they are installed in the door.

All 4 doors are done.

I painted all the doors, windows and added the trim pieces.

The walls were weathered with A&I.

Added some signage.

I started to glue the walls together.


All the walls are together and I tried to make sure all the corners were true.

I glued the walls onto the first floor assembly.



Thanks for checking in. Next step is the roofing and some details.

#16
Kit Building / Builders in Scale Pitkin City Hall
August 05, 2019, 09:41:08 AM
Good morning everyone,

I just finished up building Builders in Scale Pitkin City Hall. Here are some photos of the completed kit.














This whole scene will be removable from the layout to allow access to the rear track. This is how it fits into the scene. I'm still working out the front area but I have the diner from FSM Roadside Delights and maybe another small building that I may use in front of the road. I'm not really thinking of this area as an access hatch but more something I can remove if I really need to with minimal damage. Obviously this picture was taken while the ground cover was still wet and most of the details hadn't been added.

This was my first kit I've built from Builders in Scale. I always thought of them as something similar to Campbells or one of the other older kit manufacturers but they are really closer to Fine Scale Miniatures in quality of components and kit design. The castings were all excellent and all the parts fit together very well. I'm not sure why I overlooked them for so long. Most of the kits can be picked up for a good price on Ebay too.

I already picked up BIS Weiry and Sons and Getz Gas to build for the layout. Getz Gas might fit in front here next to the diner.

I have more step by step of this build on my website at https://scalemodelworkshop.com/builders-in-scale-pitkin-city-hall/

Thanks for checking in. I'm going to start Getz Gas today. It looks like a easy quick kit to build.

-Steve
#17
Kit Building / RailroadKits Firehouse
July 11, 2019, 06:11:19 AM
Hello everyone.

I just finished RailroadKits Firehouse. Pretty straightforward hydrocal kit. I ran into a few issues mainly the bell tower got broken off and I had to fabricate my own. I used pinking shears to make the roof shingles.











Thanks for checking in.

-Steve
#18
Kit Building / Bar Mills The Gravely Building
May 16, 2019, 02:41:02 PM
Hello Everyone,

I just got finished a quick build up of The Gravely Building by Bar Mills. It will be part of a group of storefronts for an area of the layout. It was an easy and pretty quick build, overall a nice kit.

Here are a few photos.








Thanks for taking a look.

-Steve
#19
Kit Building / Bar Mills Gibley's Furniture Co
April 15, 2019, 11:58:07 AM
I decided for the next kit I'm going to build Gibley's Furniture from Bar Mills.



First step of course is to separate and prime the castings. I always use double sided tape to stick all my windows to a sheet of paper.


The shingles for the upper portion of the siding come off this sheet.


The walls are made from this composite paper board. Similar material came with FOS Darnell's Autobody. It requires a different approach to weathering because it really reacts poorly to moisture.


Windows are primed. I also gave them a wash of A&I.

I primed all the shingle sheets with tan spray paint and I also gave them a wash of A&I.

I'm going to be using one of these makeup sponges to apply the paint. I bought 100 of them on Amazon for $7.

If you rip them in half they give you a nice rough texture to apply paint.

I used the sponge to color the shingles. I wanted a slightly inconsistent color but I still wanted them to represent painted shingles not sunbleached cedar shakes.

I used the same technique and color for all the windows.

I painted all the walls Krylon dark gray automotive primer. I did a little test first and it didn't cause any warpage to the board material.

I used a few A&I washes over the shingle sheets.

I started adding the shingles to the walls.




I did some antique white drybrushing on the shingles and very lightly the gray lower portion. I started installing the windows.

I colored the storefront area with the same gray and a sponge.

The laser cut pieces get sandwiched together to make the front doors and windows.

All of the front pieces are put together.

All of the acetate pieces are laser cut.

I added the window glass to the front door pieces.

This is the front door/window area all glued together.

I added all the window glass and dirtied it up a bit with some brown chalk. I won't add the tilting windows until I glue all the walls together.

The kit comes with laser cut wood pieces for the vertical battens on the lower portion of the walls. I decided to use some scale 1x2s I weathered with A&I.
I ran the board over the edge a little bit. I'll trim them once they are dry.

Thanks for following along. I'm almost ready to glue all the walls together.

-Steve


#20
Hello everyone.

Next up in the build pile is an old Master Creations kit "Blandings and Gallard Cement and Construction Co. Ltd". I'll be heavily modifying the configuration of this kit because I have a specific place I want to put it on the layout and it's pretty narrow. I bought the kit from Ebay and the taller brick building is missing from the kit also.  I've not heard great things about the Master Creations resin walls either so maybe it's for the better.



The kit originally went for $134.95 in 1988. I think that comes to around $300.00 today.


I found it difficult to get a feel for how the kit was going to look from this picture. I also Googled the kit and found nothing.


Instructions are 2 huge front and back newspaper style sheets like older FSM kits. Going over everything it looks like during this time Master Creations was trying to make kits very similar to FSM. The only other large Master Creations kit I built was Minerva Casket and it was very different from this. Minerva Casket was a big box of laser cut parts and confusion.


Lots of lead and stripwood.

I built the small stone office a little while ago as a separate kit. I always liked the building but this one will need to be heavily modified to install on the layout. I might cut the top off the peaked walls and use it as a lower floor for a building.


All the castings are good quality. Not a ridiculous amount of flash either. The windows have a nice wood grain texture. 


The kit came with enough parts to assemble a few trucks.

Looks like this brass sheet goes with the lead vehicle parts castings. Looks like maybe 3 trucks total. I'll probably wait to tackle these.

The kit came with a bag of about 15-20 windows but I'm not sure what they go to. Might be the resin brick building. I'm going to set these aside for now.

I cleaned all the flash from the castings.

I separated all the castings into either wood or metal. These are the castings that represent wood. I stuck these to a sheet of paper with double sided tape and I'll prime them Khaki.

The rest of the castings got blackened with Jax Pewter Black.

In a little while I'm going to flip the castings I primed over and spray the other side so I can start painting them tomorrow.

I like buying older not real popular kits on Ebay when I can get them for cheap enough. I paid $80.00 for this kit and I think it's worth more than that in castings alone. I wish I had all the parts but I'll do my best to turn it into something halfway decent regardless.

-Steve
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