Bar Mills Cundy Village Hotel

[Jim Donovan]

Dave you are going to have to post that build when you do. I am hoping just to get it together and looking right!

Jim

[Jim Donovan]

Karl;

Welcome. Hope I can show you some of the stuff you have provided in your build threads. Hop in with suggestions anytime.

Jim

[Jim Donovan]

Hi John;

This kit is to be right in center of the main street action for my little layout. It really looks cool and perfect for period I am modeling.

Jim

[Opa George]

That is a sweet looking kit, Jim.  I'll certainly be following along.
--Opa George

[deemery]

Dave you are going to have to post that build when you do. I am hoping just to get it together and looking right!

Jim

Don't wait up! :-) :-)  It'll be quite a while before I start on the city structures.  I'm working from the ends of the RR towards the city in the middle, it seems...

dave

[Rail and Tie]

Popcorn is locked and loaded for this one!


Here is a video build that I was watching that might give you some tips etc. if you are interested and have not already seen it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivbbJWAt8g4


Cheers!

[Jim Donovan]

Welcome George good to hear from you. I have grandkids coming and going so the pace of the build is going to be slow for a while.

Jim D

[Jim Donovan]

Daryl

Thanks for the video, that is going to be very helpful. From the video I think I will make sure the weathering is a lot less, I want the building to the star of City Central. I learned a lot and I am sure will watch several more times. I have found the directions very haphazard, in the video you see the tips on building the kit, on page 26 of 38. I guess they want to make sure you read them before starting.

Well back at it, thanks again.

Jim D

[Jim Donovan]

I finally found time to get the foundation finished. For painting I am going to be sticking primarily with airbrushing. I like the control and fine smooth application. I use craft acrylic paints that I mix with a homemade paint thinner. The thinner is 70% cheap vodka, 25% Clear Armour All Window Cleaner (any clear window cleaner works, just don't use the blue stuff it contains ammonia) and 5% Golden Brand Paint Retarder. Usually I find 1/3 paint and 2/3 thinner provides the 'skim milk' look needed for airbrushing. In the past I would filter the paint after mixing the thinner using a badger paint stirrer. I have eliminated this step, instead I upped the air pressure to 30 psi from the 20 psi I normally like to use. The added pressure keeps the paint flowing and for general painting the extra pressure does no harm. For fine airbrush detailing, or painting on nonporous materials I only use airbrush paints and lower the psi back down to 20-22 psi.

I first used a gray primer from Badger to spray paint both the outside and the inside of the foundation. By keeping the strokes light and building up the color it dried about as fast as I applied it. I let it sit overnight to completely dry. Next day I spray painted the brick first with Delta Ceramcoat Barn Red and then with Brick Red. I varied the amount of the spray to create some contrast in the bricks though the wood sucks the paint up, even after priming. Finally, I used Yellow Ochre for additional contrast. I let this again dry overnight. The next day I airbrushed the entire brick foundation with Dullcote. This step is very important as we will be putting water on the foundation in the next step and do not want the paint to run. When done this is how it looks:



The next step is to make the grout lines stand out.

[Jim Donovan]

With the foundation completely dry (I waited another day) I moved on to grouting the bricks. The laser cuts forming the bricks are nice and deep. This allowed me to use a technique I have done in the past for brick roads. Using sanded tile grout, a soft cosmetic brush, a small cup, a tray to catch the excess grout and lens cleaning solution we will mortar the bricks.



This step is messy so I suggest you wear your painting apron. In addition, if I was to do this again I would first tape off the top and bottom of the foundation. This will keep any grout adhering to it and eliminate the need to carefully sand it off these surfaces afterwards. I did not use the tape and DID get to carefully sanded the grit off  .

Fill the small cup with two tablespoons of the tile grout. You don't need much, a little goes a long way. With the foundation on its side I carefully tapped out of the cup a small line of grout across the surface. Taking the soft cosmetic brush I gently spread the grout into the cracks between bricks. The excess grout I dusted off the surface so the vast bulk was in the cracks or had fallen into the tray I had placed under the foundation to catch it. It will look something like this:



Once in place I lightly sprayed the lens cleaner fluid onto the bricks. Wet water would most likely work as well but somewhere in the past I used lens cleaner and liked the fine spray produced along with the quick bonding that resulted. I repeated the process another two times replacing the excess grout into the cup that had fallen in the tray until I was satisfied with the look. Make sure the catch tray does not get in the line of the lens cleaner when spraying. When all of the foundation was completed it looked like this:



Once dry (about an hour) I again airbrushed the bricks with Dullcote to lock the grout firmly in place. I used a hairdryer to speed up the Dullcote drying, took about two minutes this way. Then I used three different colored fine point markers and at random, colored individual bricks. I had a light brown, a dark red, and a gray. I only did a few on each side of each color and kept it as random as possible. I did the marking after the grouting as it makes the individual bricks much easier to see and color.

If I had taped the top and bottom the only thing left would have been to remove the tape. Instead I sanded all the grit off where it did not belong. It only took about a half hour but... SO here is the finished result. Next off to building the front tower.

[ReadingBob]

The brick foundation looks awesome Jim!  Thanks for sharing the step by step.  I've always wondered about airbrushing craft store acrylics.  For the homemade thinner you mentioned retarder.  I'm only vaguely familiar with that term.  Where do you find it?  Cheap vodka and distilled water are easy to locate.    Nice tip on the mortar lines as well.  I'm learning new stuff on this forum all the time!      

[Opa George]

Very nice results on that foundation brickwork, Jim.
--Opa George

[WigWag Workshop]

Foundation looks great Jim.


-Steven

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice job on the foundation.

[Oldguy]

Damn, that looks really nice.