After FINALLY finishing the CCK Metcalf's build. It's time to start a new project. On the layout, I'm going to start adding the sidings, since the main line is finished. For a structure, I have a multitude of options. I'm going to try to "populate" one area of structures. This is the area I'm going to work on, as I have some structures finished and have others "in the stack" for this spot. This is a stylized "East Dubuque, Illinois" where the CB&Q ran on the east edge of the Mississippi river on the Chicago/Minneapolis main line. E. Dubuque is pretty much bars/strip joints, so I thought of starting the Red Light District by FOS, as Bob B. has an excellent build tutorial on it going, but I wanted something smaller I could finish quickly, as the CCK build took over a year :-[ . I also received my FOS REA express building that Karl has been building recently, but it's pretty big too. It has a place reserved in the next room. So I recently acquire a Bar Mills' O'Doul's Flop House, and I think if I put it on a slight rise behind the Metcalf's, it will help block the "hole in the wall" where the rails come thru from the other room. I had planned a large structure here (the white mock up in the picture), but I think it's too big and doesn't fit the area. The background will be short bluffs, common along the river, so the town is sort of self contained. The FOS 'Red Light District' will probably be on the back or side street, but I'll have to see how it fits as I build it. But first up is O'Doul's. Here's the kit contents. Clapboards, stripwood, plastic windows, a few detail parts, pretty detailed instructions, a nice scale ruler with some scale conversion stuff on the back, and (HUZZAH!) laser cut windows.
Jeff
As it's a flop house, it would probably not be well maintained. Even though the two foreground buildings in the scene are white, I think this one will be white as well as white paint was cheap (the instructions mention this as well). The Metcalf's and Myer's and Son's in the foreground were painted by dry brushing the walls. It looks great (to me anyway), but takes too much time, especially on this structure with all the railings). So I'm going to stain the wood first, then paint it white, and use grey "sponge painting" to weather it. I started by removing the clapboards from the sheets and sanding the edges to square them up. I then braced the walls, according to the instructions. The instructions constantly note to brace, but there's no bracing instructions/diagrams for the two largest walls. I then spray painted the insides black to help with "not warping later" and, as there's no interior, to show nothing thru the windows. I decided to try some of the Hunterline stains I obtained at the NG convention in KC years ago. I started with 'driftwood', thinking it would grey the wood, but it's more a brown than a grey, as seen in the first pic. I then used their 'light grey'. The two of them made it a bit greyer, but still a bit brown, as in the second pic. I think it looks OK (the lighting in here/flash isn't showing quite the color). But it caused somewhat severe warping as seen in the next pics. I've never had warping in between windows before, and the non braced wall is now an arc. After some clamps/weighting, most of the warping has improved. Next up is painting everything white. I think I'll spray the plastic windows white and hope they match the craft paint white.
Jeff
There's something 'wrong' about naming a flophouse after an Alcohol-Free beer :-) :-)
Did you apply the stain on both sides? Try that and see if that helps even out the warping.
dave
wow, I've never had warping that bad either! I have been using the Hunterline black or light gray to stain walls and strip wood.
Hi Jeff,
We always suspected you might be a little warped. Aren't we all? :D
I like the Hunterline Light Grey weathering Mix. I have experience a little bit of warping with the stains but no more than I encounter when using thinned acrylics or A&I on walls.
I'm looking forward to following along with your build (and seeing the progress on your layout). Thanks for sharing.
Jeff...
Is that warped front panel a mini ply or a single thickness sheet of bass wood?
How to solve this matters. It looks like the wood expanded unevenly when the stain was applied.
For the moment......... try and fit a window casting into a opening that is not seriously warped. My guess is that the openings have not moved significantly. If so the warped areas can be relieved to come back straight.
Another option is to contact the manufacturer for some replacement panels. It may have been a batch or weird wood.
For now....... let me know if it is a ply or solid wood.
see ya
Bob
Hi guys! Thanks for checking in. Dave, the backsides of the wall were spray painted black after I braced the walls, which is one reason I was surprised they warped so badly. Bob, they are basswood. Even though they had dried about an hour before I took the pictures, I put them under some weights and braced and clamped the window areas and it's all pretty flat now. Maybe it wasn't quite dry. The windows and doors fit OK as well. I think I'll brace them some more before applying the white paint. I need to study the instructions more to see if I can brace the "unbraced" walls without interfering with some future construction item. The stain is shoe dye in 70% alcohol, and I've used A&I with 70% alcohol and not had this issue. But again, it's all back to pretty normal. Time for more bracing and starting the white paint!.
Jeff
Jeff
Glad to hear you got the warping fixed. I have switched to 90% alcohol after having a similar experience a few years ago. It seemed to be a random thing for me but I haven't had another problem since with the 90% alcohol. My 2 cents.
The time I had the issue it was so bad that the bracing also warped. I have always wondered if I got a batch of alcohol that was less than 70 percent.
Looking forward to following the build.
Thanks for checking in, John. I've been dinking around with this for the last week or so. I painted the sides with white craft paint, diluted with some water, which caused some slight warping again, but after it dried they were flat again. I put extra bracing on the walls to prevent further problems. I started adding nail holes to a wall and was nearly done when I noticed it's the wall between the structures. No one will see it! After some deliberation I figured the porches will make the nail hole details pretty moot on the front, and no one will see the back or one other side, so I only did one wall. I added a sign to the "visible" side and added the nail holes and lifted a few boards. I painted the windows with white spray paint and sponged the sandstone/grey on. They were still a little grey as you can see on the wall on the left in the picture. After an A&I wash, the wall has a monotone grey color, which is what I'm after here. Time to add the glass to the windows. The "glass" is laser cut for width, but no length, so I had to trim them. Then I'll add some shades and then glue the walls together.
Jeff
Quote from: Candy on May 28, 2016, 09:21:56 PM
I have switched to 90% alcohol after having a similar experience a few years ago. It seemed to be a random thing for me but I haven't had another problem since with the 90% alcohol. My 2 cents.
The term, " My two cents " is from the late 19th century, New York. All the great newspapers of the time, like The New York World, sold for the same price. Two cents. So if a person wanted to quote a different newspaper he would say , " Well here's my two cents."
Interesting, I have been using that term all my life and didn't know where it came from.
John...
That is why we keep Candy around........
But ! ! !
Right after that............
Candy..... where have you been? ? ? ? ?
see ya
Bob
Here and there. Good and bad. :( But things are going well these days.
Windows/corner trim painted and installed. The buildings don't abut this way, it's just for the picture. Glass is in and made some shades and a pair of tissue curtains for the side wall with the Oreo sign.
Jeff
Jeff,
Wall coloring looks great along with that neat sign. Will follow along. 8)
Tommy
HI Jeff:
It's looking good so far. Like the white paint and light weathering.
Karl
Jeff,
Any updates on this project?
Vilius
I wish. I've been busy with getting out of the old job, starting the new job and working on The Empire. I really should get back to this. Thanks for the poke, Vilius.
Jeff
Very Nice start. Looks like the warping is now under control
Mike Sigmon
Last weeks updates were lost, so here is where we stand, the front porch bases had been placed and the stairs added.
Jeff
Next are the supports for the roof. The outer posts line up inside these, so place them first. The left one needed trimming as the bracing blocked it. Then place the front piece over the supports so they line up when you glue the middle 3 in. I place the front piece just slightly lower than the tops of the supports so the roof will over hang this without trimming. I then fit the posts, as these seem to line up under the middle 3 roof supports. In the last pic all the roof supports and posts are in place. Yes, there's a little bit of an offset of the lowest porch. The parts don't quite line up 100%. I can live with this, it's an old ramshackle building, after all. ;D
Jeff
Jeff, This looks like a great one to duplicate for the backgrounds.
Thanks for looking in, Marty. The second building is similar construction to the first. The bottom is the "storefront", basically two laser cut pieces and some "glass". This fits between the outer walls, I glued a 1/8 inch square piece to aid in it's installation. The top piece went on and I noticed it was taller than the sides, so my corner trim pieces are too short. I don't recall seeing this in the instructions, in fact one of the drawings shows the top as flat, though the pictures show it taller. Speaking of the instructions, this isn't a kit for a beginner. The instructions aren't step by step, think "minimalist". Fairly easy for someone who's built a few of these. Not that my vast experience made me leave the corner trim short. ::) My bracing was too tall, and had to be cut back to fit the roof. The supports for the front roof also stick out the back and will impede the roof as well. I didn't notice this until I had glued two of them in. :-[ Pulling one out broke the little piece of clap board to the side of the hole, it was easily fixed. But now the back of the front wall doesn't look too cosmetically pleasing. I think it will be hidden on my layout however. :) otherwise I'll cover it with something.
Jeff
The center post doesn't go to the main floor. It's easy to just put a piece here, put on the roof supports and trim it back as needed. Here's two pics of where I stand today.
Jeff
Looks Great Jeff! I love the colors and the complexity of the levels. Winner!
John
HI Jeff:
Great job. Love the paint and weathering.
Karl
Looks awesome Jeff! I've never left corner trim too short (or too long). ::) ::) ::) ;D ;D ;D
Thanks, guys. Next up are the balustrades/railings. In the first pic, you see these come as short pieces (for the sides) and long solid pieces for the fronts. This makes it much easier to build. You don't need to fit the front ones. Just glue it behind the posts as in the second pic. I used some stripwood pieces to make sure they were all at the same height. Note that in the instructions, the pictures show that the original build had these all custom fit. I suspect that was a real pain to do. It's pretty well engineered, but the pieces aren't perfect fits. Some of the railings on the sides needed slight sanding to fit, and one of the balustrades needed a shim. I placed the railings forward on the balustrades so they stand out more between the posts so it looks more like the pieces are fitted. The balustrades aren't symmetrical top to bottom, make sure you put them in so they all look the same (don't ask how I found this out). I think it looks pretty good. Now onto the second building.
Jeff
Hi Jeff:
Really looking good. Ballisters/Railings are coming out well.
Karl
Thanks, Karl. I ran into two problems while doing the railings on the second building. First, I only have two left, and I need five. I haven't lost any, that's all that were supplied. Even the part diagrams only show twelve of them, and you need fifteen. The second problem was that they didn't fit, anyway, they're too narrow for the way my first floor turned out. As this will be at ground level, I'm going to leave them off. There's three sheets of the roofing paper in the kit, and I didn't even use half of one for the front porch roofs. I did the back roofs with tar/gravel. For one it was quick and easy, and I want to save the rest of the roofing paper for use in the future. I have no idea where the signs are, so I made my own bakery sign. I think there was some brick paper for the foundations, and if I find it I'll use it or some other paper brick/stone. There were chimneys in the kit, and a cool telephone pole with hanging laundry, but I'll put those on when the kit is installed on the layout.
Jeff
Anyway, I'm calling this one finished. It's a pretty well engineered kit. The instructions are kinda vague. There's plenty of materials in the box (except for being short 3 balustrades). Another winner from Bar Mills. Thanks for following along, folks. And thanks again to Vilius for reminding me to finish this one.
Jeff
Here's where it will reside on The Empire. Notice how it blocks the view of the hole.
Jeff
Great build Jeff, the Town is really coming together, will look awesome once you get some scenery in.
Hi Jeff:
I completely agree with Jan.
Kafl
Quote from: postalkarl on August 26, 2016, 07:47:05 AM
Hi Jeff:
I completely agree with Jan.
Kafl
Jeff,
Ditto from me also. Great job.
Tom
Jeff
Very nicely done!
Quote from: ACL1504 on August 26, 2016, 10:11:02 AM
Quote from: postalkarl on August 26, 2016, 07:47:05 AM
Hi Jeff:
I completely agree with Jan.
Kafl
Jeff,
Ditto from me also. Great job.
Tom
I am here also and another "ditto"
Jim