ITLA was at the EXPO and I picked up one of their kits. I had built a kit of theirs seven years ago on the old forum. I was NOT impressed. They have gotten away from the "zipper" corners, and their finished models looked good, so I decided to give them another try. The kit has walls which are lasered out of 1/8 inch MDF. It smells like when I run Masonite thru the table saw.
Jeff
Walls, windows, some lasered detail parts. Everything is nicely marked on the sheets. Three sets of signs are included, as is some clear window material.
Jeff
The dowels are for smoke stacks. I like the way they fit them on the sheets. There's a few plaster detail castings as well.
Jeff
The structure can be built several ways, I'm going with configuration #8 like the picture supplied on the instructions.
Jeff
The walls are butted up against each other and the corners are covered with wood strips. I sanded the edges of these, to remove the "nubs" when you cut them from the sheets and to make it easier to cover them with paint. It's a messy process. Fortunately, the sanding file cleans up easily with some alcohol.
Jeff
The MDF is a bit harder to get the pieces out of, need to be careful not to let the knife slip or use too much pressure. The window sills have "ridges" on them from the laser, so I sanded these off as well.
Jeff
One reason this kit caught my eye is it's concrete over brick. It makes it a bit tougher to paint. I first painted all the backsides of the walls with rattle can black to prevent warping and to blacken the interior view thru the windows. I then lightly dusted some black in an irregular manner over the outside of the walls. Then airbrushed on a mixture of Vallejo Model Air paints which was close to a bottle of Polly Scale Aged Concrete I had. I tried to make the walls the the corner covers match, but some of the covers are lighter. I suspect with weathering it will all blend in. Unfortunately, after airbrushing the woodgrain still shows thru. :P I tried the backside of the sheet but the effect is the same. Again, weathering will have to cover this.
Jeff
I drybrushed some acrylic terra cotta on one of the brick areas, but it was to orange and I didn't like it, so I tried a brown oxide which I like better. The terra cotta area will probably get covered with a sign. It's too high to cover with a bush. :D I'll spend today masking and doing the bricks and some type of mortar.
Jeff
cool build thread! enjoying your tutorial on building one of these kits.
Jeff
Your off to a great start! I will be following along.
Welcome aboard, guys. I usually use Robert's mortar on bricks, but it spills over and makes a crusty look to them, which I like on brickwork, but I thought it would look weird over the concrete, so I thinned some light grey paint for mortar. The first effort was too thin, so I made it more opaque, which covered the bricks as well, so I then drybrushed the bricks again. This will do. The non drybrushed are on the right side. So I'll slowly continue doing this until all the brickwork is done. Maybe a darker grey for the bottom stone work as well.
Jeff
I'm in! I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with this one Jeff. :)
Two EXPO's in a row I wanted to pick up one of their kits but I'm batting 0 for 2. Too many kits to choose from, not enough dollars to go around. :(
Neat structure Jeff.....I'll be looking in. :)
Another great build on the way , we should have these challenge's all the time.
Cool Jeff! I built ITLA's intro basic kit about a year ago (I think it was last years build challenge?!?) and was really happy with the end result.
Thanks for looking in, gentlemen. Last week I'd finished the basic wall painting. Which got us to this point. I managed to paint over the terra cotta section successfully.
Jeff
Next up are the windows and signs. The windows have a window structure (which I spray painted black and are drying in the airbrush booth). I tried painting the headers without a prime coat, but they were too dark and didn't match the walls I'd already painted, so I airbrushed them with the base concrete color and painted them. Here they are drying. I'll wait a couple of hours before doing the mortar. Might be time to go run the Morning Zephyr over the Empire. :)
Jeff
Wow great brick detailing, off to a good start Jeff
Looking good Jeff. I have 2 of their kits sitting in the wings so your build will be a great resource for me.
Great work on an interesting structure. You can bet that I will follow along.
Very nicely done.
Thanks, guys. I've got the windows finished, but not the glass. I'm going to put the structure together before using washes to weather it, and I don't want to get the wash on the glass. I SHOULD be able to add the glass after without much problem, but we'll see. ::) The door jambs were originally laser cut like the wall, so I just turned them around. Next up are the signs and the doors. The original walls have the window "blanks" in place, so it's easy to paint them to use as window "fillers".
Jeff
Jeff,
Very nice job on the brick walls.
Tom ;D
Jeff,
regarding the brick walls, are the mortar lines deep enough to paint them by first painting a mortar color on the entire wall and then lightly sponging brick color over the bricks?- or do you think that would be problematic? I was thinking of picking one of these kits up but they will not be at the Springfield Show.....
Thanks, Tom. Bob, I painted the bricks, then "mortared" them with thin grey paint. I then drybrushed back over them, so I think the sponge technique would work with them.
Jeff
Very interesting build Jeff, looking good as usual. Can't wait for the finale ....
Jeff
Looking good! I like the brick work.
Thanks for looking in, Donato and John. I've been configuring the walls and decided on this model. At the ITLA display at the EXPO they had this model finished in several different configurations, and I like the way this one turned out for them, we'll see if I can make it look as good. I notice I missed painting some of the exposed brick on the one wall, so that's up next. Also need to pick a color for the freight door and still add the signs.
Jeff
Hey Jeff:
Never built one of their kits so I,m kinda interested. So far it looks great. Nice job on the bricks.
Karl
I like it. A fine looking thread so far and I like the brick-coloring tutorial.
Thanks, Karl and Mike. The windows are in. As the sashes are flat to the back of the wall, no need to custom trim the windows. 8) The doors and signs are on as well. I added some bracing across the pieces that will be one "wall" and had to brace the backs of the doors as they were just a little small to fit in the openings. In the second picture the weird grey under the windows is just a shadow from lights above the pieces. Tomorrow it's wall assembly time.
Jeff
Looks great.
Beautiful brick work Jeff
Jeff,
The brick really turned out nice. Great job on the signs as well. Looking good.
Tom ;D
Dr. J~,
Well since it's more than obvious that you can't lay brick straight or spread stucco evenly or use concrete without cracking. I guess I'm corralled like all others to continuously view your incredible building modeling skills of fantastic artistry. Of Course I'm sure your crap weathering talents will not disappoint or fail to inspire either while your pictorial tudeledge skills entertain. ;D Thanx Thom...
Thanks for the nice words, guys. Thom, remember I'm always on the lookout for a sister engine to #4981 for you to work on. ;D Walls are going together.
Jeff
J~,
Don't threaten me with a sister. ;D T...
While assembling the walls, the joints seemed kind of weak, so I used some large stripwood in the corners to reinforce them. After taking this picture, I realized I should have prepainted them black. ::)
Jeff
It looks like a building! Next up are the corner covers and cornices. Instead of using one of the "covers" on the front wall, I painted two pieces of spaghetti black to represent pipes to cover the joint. You can still see one of the joints on the lower "concrete" area. It's too high to cover with a bush, maybe will have to use a tree. ;D
Jeff
Added a small brace inside on the bottom to keep the "short end" square. The top is squared by the roof. The corner pieces have a small gap, but I can live with it.
Jeff
Nice modeling. I'm glad I'm not the only one that does stuff like that. :o
Sounds like Thom is on his third double scotch for the day.
Just an observation.
See ya
Bob
The next one is dedicated to Mr. parrish. :D
Got the cornices finished. Each piece must be custom fit and there are three layers. I'm waiting on the cap until I have the roof finished. I put some spackle in a couple of spots on the roof where the table saw took out a bit too much. Doesn't everyone use a table saw working in HO? :o it was the easiest way to cut the 1/8" material to fit. Need to start working on some of the roof details. The edges of the cornices need touch up as well. I'll wait on that until I have the caps on.
Jeff
Continuing with slow progress. The roof is repaired. Used some blacker paint to simulate tar at the edges and over the "repairs" as well as some random spots.
Jeff
There are several interesting details in the kit. This one is a set of pieces that make up the base of a large stack. It's glued to a dowel for painting.
Jeff
Looking good Jeff.....patches on an old built-up roof are perfect. 8)
Thanks, Greg. This is a vent. I airbrushed it aluminum. But the aluminum is too shiny. I used a dark grey Panpastel on the right side (knocked off one of the "holders" as well). Used grey pastel chalks on the left side (the far left is the original aluminum). Similar effect, but the Pan Pastel went on a bit smoother, and since there was some rust on the sponge, a mild rust effect is on the right. I'm going to try to replicate this on the rest of it as well.
Jeff
This is a roof entryway. The pieces fit together perfectly. The brown siding is their "corrugated". It's more embossed on the paper than raised. I prefer the Northeastern product, but will use this as it's in the kit. Need to remove the glue smudge on the door. ::)
Jeff
looking real good Jeff! You gotta love the pan pastels for weathering, I could never achieve with paint the weathering/rust effects that I can get with the pastel colors.
Looking good Dr. J. Oh, I mean looking terrible, just terrible. Keep it up, go ahead, keep it up. ;D Thanx Thom...
Thanks for looking in, guys. Minor problem with capping the top of the walls. The pieces they give you aren't wide enough (first picture) . This may be due to the different ways to build the cornices. Putting it to the front (as they did on their model) exposes the top of the wall at the back. I preferred exposing the front top piece, so I used left over wall seam cover pieces and they fit just right (second picture).
Jeff
Each piece had to again be custom cut, but it's finished. Now time to weather the walls.
Jeff
Excellent job, Jeff. Looks great.
Thanks, Vince. I'm not ambitious enough today to weather the structure. Built a couple of pallets that are included as details. The "runners" are a bit too long, as the first pallet seemed too big, especially when I compared it with some others I have here. Plus, I only had 3 top boards left. So I cut the one back to size and the second will be a couple of boards short.
Jeff
Your build is look great Jeff.
Nice work Jeff!
John
Well done Jeff..... 8)
Thanks Greg and John and John. :) Using some of the pictured raw umber, I weathered the outside lightly. The oil paint mixes with water or oil (I don't understand it, either). If you put a small dab on the wall and drag it down with a wet brush you can get some interesting effects. I've attached the outside ductwork as well. Working on the detail parts, like the brick stack and the small coal door in the one picture. An interesting and usually neglected detail. I was horrified that the sign with the frame around it wrinkled up when I washed the sides with the umber/water mixture. It flattened out afterward. 8) I attached all three signs with a glue stick, and the other sign stayed flat.
Jeff
Very nice modeling.
Jeff,
This really turned out great. You did a great job on the paint and I especially like the weathering of the raw umber.
Well done Doc, very well done.
Tom ;D
Thanks, Curt and Tom. I placed the "tall stack" in place. glued the top attachment on so I could space the bottom two evenly. Then needed to figure out how long to make the stack.
Jeff
Trimmed the stack and glued it in place. Next up were the roof details. The flash washes out some of the weathering. The A/C and vent aren't that shiny. Added a trash barrel, one of the ladders and a pallet up against the roof access.
Jeff
There were some pieces I didn't use. The detail parts bag has some plaster parts (trash can/barrel/crates/sacks) would look better on a loading dock. I didn't use the two pallets, either. There's another piece of ducting like the one on the roof and one of the small curved ducts as well. I'll save these for another project. There's also two of these small fire hose hookup pieces. I thought they needed something on the front to make them three dimensional. I didn't use the sheet with the meters and electrical boxes. They're on very thin wood (like the fire hose piece) and would need at least another thickness of wood to raise them enough to make them believable. There's also some thin wire to attach to the tall stacks to secure them to the roof. I skipped these as I've been looking at this structure on the bench for long enough. :)
Jeff
Well, I finished the structure in less than two months. Pretty good for me. 8) Final steps were adding the steps/railings and the small roof over the main entrance. The flash washes out the weathering a bit.
Jeff
The build was fun. This ITLA kit was much better than the one I built years ago. Better design and execution. The only negative was that the wood pieces still had grain to them after painting them making them less believable as "concrete". The extra stacks/vents/ductwork really add to the model. I'll definitely build more of their kits in the future. I gained some confidence with the airbrush spraying some of the parts. Might be time to try a Sylvan vehicle. :D I also used the Pan Pastels pretty much exclusively versus my usual powdered pastels. They seemed to adhere better, especially after spraying with matte fixative. Overall a good learning experience.
Thanks to Raymo for challenging us.
Jeff
Congratulations! Looks good.
Great build Jeff, does the wood grain show from 2 feet? Would you coat the wood next time.
Thank you, James.
Jeff
Thanks, Jan. The grain is hardly noticeable at two feet. Perhaps a primer coat would have hidden it more. I thought airbrushing the paint on would help versus brush painting (plus I wanted a more even coat).
Jeff
Vey nice work on this kit Jeff.
Eric
Great work Jeff.....I like the change of pace you got with a masonry structure...... 8)
A great looking building.
Hi Jeff:
Great looking kit. And A Beautiful job you have done.
Karl
Jeff ....
Absolutely Outstanding!!!