I'm going to try my first build thread. I have had the SRMW Rugg Manufacturing kit sitting on my work bench, barely started, for probably 10 years or more. For the last year or so I have been working on bench work/track work/wiring and whining that's it's taking a long time and keeping me from building models that I find more interesting. It finally occurred to me that I can control that outcome. So, my hope is that starting a build thread will add a little friendly (or maybe even not-so-friendly) peer pressure to make progress on the kit and have some fun in the process. Here's the state it has been in:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-030418075834.jpeg)
As you can see, I built the base, painted some castings, painted a few windows and "Micro Crystal Clear"ed them, and that's about it. Not sure which primer paints I used on the castings. Not sure where I am in the instructions. I'm not even sure if I lost any parts. I assume no but won't know until I get through the build. I have some Vallejo paints now -- used Polly S to get to this point. We'll see if that matters. Tonight I'll dig into the instructions and see if I can make sense of anything or how much trouble I'm in. I'm hoping that the collective experience here in the forum can help out as I run into problems.
I have zero experience with build threads (and not even that much experience building kits). If anyone is out there watching, please do feel free to provide guidance.
Cheers,
Vince
This is exciting, I'll be following along. Anything you may have misplaced can probably be madeup from scratch. I did a kit the other day and had to make a gib crane hoist thingy, I carved it out of styrene. Take lots of pics , I like pics. ;D
I'll be following along , and try to give you some support.
Following along. Lots of solid help available here on the Forum, so don't hesitate to ask!
I will be following along. Every one of Bob's kits are great. I haven't had any trouble painting over solvent based paints with acrylics. Be careful with alcohol and chalks over the acrylic paints the alcohol will dissolve the acrylic paint. I really like the weathering affect it gives but it needs to be what your looking for.
I'll be watching, Vince.
I love SRM designs. I bought my one and only SRM kit when visiting in 2015 (yet to be started). I did a horizontally compressed and vertically expanded scratch-build inspired by this kit for a steep part of my layout. I was very pleased with the end result - a real eye catcher. Looking forward to your progress. Meanwhile its back to the plasterboard stopping of my future layout room!
Cheers, Mark.
I'll be looking in also Vince..... :)
Hi Vince:
I'll be following along.
Karl
Vince,
I too will be following this thread.
Jim
Vince,
This was my first SRMW structure I ever built. Bob's instructions are first rate and the kit came out first rate. I have built several more of his kits over the years. Many of his kits i modified to fit the location or scene. Best of luck with the build. It looks like you are off to a good start.
Frank / Erieman
Vince,
I've never built one of Bob's kits, have heard the instructions are the best, so count me in, too.
I will also be watching, as I would like to start mine as well, its been sitting toooo long. Keep us posted.
Daryl
OK - looks like where I left off was preparing the castings that have to be installed as part of the foundation. I am starting with the stone retaining walls. Here is how I left them a decade ago:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072100-31007734.jpeg)
Yuck. As I work through instructions, I check things off in the manual (as I am sure most do). I had this checked off. No idea what I was thinking that day. Doesn't come through with the picture very well but it looks like what I did was hit it with a gray primer of some sort and then a little AI wash. The white you see between the stones is uncolored hydrocal. I was pretty unhappy with the effect and decided to paint over it with acrylics. Normal thing to do, anyway - prime the casting with spray primer to seal it and provide a base color and then apply acrylics for the final effect. But, I didn't do that here. Also, I wanted to try to achieve a little variation between stones (as is suggested by Bob). Finally, I wanted to start using the MicroLux paints I purchased a year ago in anticipating of getting back into building. So, to start, here are the colors I'm going to use:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072443-31014858.jpeg)
MicroLux is MicroMark's rebranding (maybe just relabeling) of Vallejo paint. More about that later. In any event, the next few posts will show what I did.
By the way, if anybody is following along that doesn't know what "Bob" means, Bob means Bob Van Gelder, the now-retired proprietor of South River Model Works, designer and manufacturer of kits, writer of manuals, and all-around good guy (should you ever have the good fortune of visiting with him).
Seems like the right thing to do is to break these activities into tiny posts so that they're easier to write and consume. So, that's what I'll do. More in a bit...
Vince
The Undercoat Light Gray looks pretty close to the existing color so I will first paint both stone walls with that.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072105-310091574.jpeg)
The pictures are less than ideal. My shop light is directly over my bench so I have to take the pic from an angle to avoid shadows. Going forward, I'll figure out how to either move my work area or get a lamp involved. I am also using an old Samsung S4 for taking the pics. Autofocus on. Probably need to spend a little time figuring out how to do that better, too.
OK, for the first time I am seeing all of the air bubbles in the casting. Photographs are wonderful at giving brutal feedback. I wish I would have seen this earlier although would be quite a pain to fix them all. I'll leave it alone for now and see how distracting it looks when finished.
Next step, some stone variation. I'll paint a few stones "Earth" color and some others different shades of gray. For the shades of gray, I made three puddles of paint on my glass workspace: one Undercoat Light Gray (my base color), one Reefer Gray (a darker gray), and one Reefer White (the marketing guys kinda phoned that one in, no? Reefer This...Reefer That... Anyway). From the three puddles, I made some more puddles from the base gray and white or the base gray and reefer gray. No science to it. Just looking for slightly lighter and darker variation by eye. Here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072108-31010112.jpeg)
My first reaction is that this looks much better than what I started with but the earth-colored stones look a little stark to me -- too much contrast. I now wish I would have watered down the earth to more of a wash rather than using straight paint. But, won't worry about it for the moment. We'll see how it looks after some chalks are applied.
Also, now that the paint is dry and I seem to have a better camera angle here, the air bubbles are more visible. Disappointing.
Bob now recommended that you hit the castings with Dullcote. Seals the paint and maybe gives some additional tooth for the chalk step coming next. I didn't use Dullcote but rather used Krylon Matte finish. I've seen lots of arguments on the internet both pro and con for Krylon, but the price difference is dramatic as you know. So, I wanted to try it. This is as good a place as any. Light coat over this and let it dry overnight.
More shortly....
Vince,
I'll follow as well. I've always liked the SRMW kits even though they are mainly NE type structures.
I've build three.
Tom ;D
First, a note about the MicroLux paints. When I bought them, I assumed that since they were trying to use the same names as Polly S that the colors would be very close to Polly S. Perhaps naïve on my part - after all, Floquil Earth isn't the same as Polly Earth. But, it is significantly different - much darker and grayer. Same with other colors such as Concrete. In fact, that stick-on label that says Earth is actually on a bottle that says Desert Tan, Vallejo Model Air # 71.122. I don't know if they modified the formula or not. In any event, for those considering those paints, be aware that colors you're looking for may vary significantly from your expectations.
I also am noticing a lot of variety in the viscosity. Some of the paints are very thick, some not. Now, I bought these paints a year ago but all bottles were untouched until this weekend. Perhaps some caps were looser than others and a little drying took place. I don't know. The paints are still fine. I am sure they will work great once I better understand them and get more experience with them. FYI.
OK. Time for the chalk. I have a gray scale set and a color set from long ago when I built my first SRMW kit, Ware Knitters. I'll figure out how to sneak in a peek at that somewhere along the way here. Here's the gray set:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072435-310112452.jpeg)
For the mortar, I'm using the lightest gray - the two sticks to the right of the white on the left-hand side of the pic. I am using the half stick that you can see is missing. Starting by scraping off some dust with a single edge razor blade:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072438-310121176.jpeg)
Then, using a soft brush, I pushed the dust around into the mortar crevices. Scrape a little more. Push a little more. Bob recommends that you also use your fingers to rub it in. I did that. Here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418072440-31013302.jpeg)
Not too bad, I think. The chalk has helped blend the stone variations. Earth is still a little bright to my eye. I am tempted to try a little AI wash on just those stones to tone them down but I am concerned that I'll have additional, unwanted effects by doing that. Perhaps a little darker gray chalk will do the trick. I'll think about that today before doing anything else.
Lastly, if you zoom the picture to full size, you'll see that those air bubbles are filled with light gray chalk. Very noticeable in the zoomed picture but less so when seen on the dio base. Again, for now I'll leave it and look at it with fresh eyes later to see what I want to do. In the meantime, it's time to visit the other foundation castings. Will do that now and hope to post again later today.
Vince
Hey Vince:
Looking good so far. Following along. I never built A SRMW kit.
Karl
A good start on the wall. Looks natural nice job.
Jerry
Good start on the wall, it will be interesting to see where you go with this.
The MicroMark paints are relabeled Vallejo, and my experience with Vallejo products has been very good. I'm surprised you're seeing differences in viscosity, could it be you haven't stirred them well enough? (The MicroMark battery paint stirrer is -definitely- worth the investment.)
dave
The rest of the foundation castings look OK to me. Brick parts were sprayed with Krylon Ruddy Brown primer and then covered with a Polly S brick color (not sure which...will need to play with that). A few individual bricks painted a different color. This was all done 10 years ago. Concrete block walls sealed with Krylon gray primer and covered with Polly S Concrete. I think I will need to add some more chalk and maybe a little dry brushing or AI to bring out some texture but for now I think I will leave well enough alone. Here's a shot of some of the castings standing freely on the diorama base:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418212223-310151737.jpeg)
The next step in the assembly is to start gluing down the foundation parts. Here's a look from above - again, castings just sitting there....no glue:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080418212225-310232297.jpeg)
You can see the placement of the retaining walls that I just finished.
Need to get this right of course or life gets pretty bad - clapboard building won't sit on the foundation properly. Bob recommends test fitting clapboard wall sections along the way to be sure. That requires that they be braced. My desire was to finish the walls before bracing them in case I wanted to do something like use a file card to texture the wood or finish (which might be a little more difficult if the walls were already braced).
So, at this point I want to finish the walls - at least for the main building that sits over the lower level of the foundation. I have seen so many interesting approaches to finishing walls here in the forum. I want to try a few things before committing to my actual kit parts. So, I bought some spare clapboard from my local hobby shop to play with. I will try a few things and report back to show the results...and hopefully get some input. Guessing this will take a few days.
Cheers,
Vince
Karl, Jerry, and Lynnb, thanks for the encouragement. Nice to know some people are looking. Helps provide some additional "pressure" to both make some progress and also have something at least presentable in front of this august group. That was definitely my motivation for trying to do a build thread. (Also, I will document what I'm doing -- the importance of which I am now discovering while trying to pick up a 10-year old project!)
Vince
Quote from: deemery on April 08, 2018, 06:17:42 PM
The MicroMark paints are relabeled Vallejo, and my experience with Vallejo products has been very good. I'm surprised you're seeing differences in viscosity, could it be you haven't stirred them well enough? (The MicroMark battery paint stirrer is -definitely- worth the investment.)
dave
Dave - I am sure you're right - I have seen nothing but good feedback on the internet regarding Vallejo. Either I am doing something wrong or the occasional issue is a rare aberration for some reason.
Also, I just checked MicroMark for the paint stirrer you mentioned. Coming up empty on the search. Do you have a link or manufacturer name of some sort I can use?
Cheers,
Vince
I have 2 of these Vince , I always slide an empty toiletpaper roll over the jar and then stir, that way you can pull out the stirrer while still rotating , thus leaving less paint on the stirrer so more stays in the jar. Be sure to p;inch in the roll to hold the jar.
https://www.micromark.com/Cordless-Mixer-for-Model-Paints (https://www.micromark.com/Cordless-Mixer-for-Model-Paints)
That's a brialliant idea, Janbouli...I'm sure we've all at one time or another experienced the rush of pulling the stirrer out a tad early. 🙄
Thread's really good, Vince...you sure it's your first? Nice rebound on the walls. New England Brownstone has great tutorials on working with these. Hobby on!
Quote from: Dave K. on April 09, 2018, 06:33:33 AM
That's a brialliant idea, Janbouli...I'm sure we've all at one time or another experienced the rush of pulling the stirrer out a tad early. 🙄
Thread's really good, Vince...you sure it's your first? Nice rebound on the walls. New England Brownstone has great tutorials on working with these. Hobby on!
Never done it with a paint stirrer, but definitely did it with a mixer and cake batter :P
Quote from: Janbouli on April 09, 2018, 05:41:23 AM
I have 2 of these Vince , I always slide an empty toiletpaper roll over the jar and then stir, that way you can pull out the stirrer while still rotating , thus leaving less paint on the stirrer so more stays in the jar. Be sure to p;inch in the roll to hold the jar.
https://www.micromark.com/Cordless-Mixer-for-Model-Paints (https://www.micromark.com/Cordless-Mixer-for-Model-Paints)
Cool. Does milk shakes, too, right?
Vince those castings are looking good, I would suggest being sure you have a small square handy and a sheet of glass or something to make sure you're working level. Don't rush, you need to figure out what will work for you. I think Bob is right, keep test fitting with the clapboard.
Finally had some time and the materials to do a few clapboard tests. As I mentioned earlier, I bought some clapboard sheet from my LHS and cut it up to make separate test panels. I would appreciate opinions and suggestions. For all of these tests, I started by trying to do a little texturing of the clapboard by first using a file card and then some scratch brushes.
Picture 1: start with medium AI stain (2 tsp / pint). Then, sponge on some medium gray acrylic paint. When dry, sponge on some white acrylic paint (using synthetic cosmetic sponges from Sally's beauty supply, FYI). I didn't do any board lifting here. If I do it now, I will get a "raw wood" color underneath. Would either need to touch that up with a pin or toothpick or, when I do the real walls, I guess I should do the lifting first, then stain.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-150418112434-31024267.jpeg)
Picture 2: Start with a light coat of Krylon gray primer. After drying overnight, paint with a light, somewhat watery coat of Reefer White. After drying gently use a single-edge razor blade to make light, horizontal scrapes of the paint to simulate some peeling. You can see the biggest example of that toward the top of the panel in the middle. Finally, I tried two different alcohol washes on top. The bottom third of the panel is a medium wash (2 tsp). The top third is a light wash (1 tsp). You almost can't see it (a little better in person). The middle has no wash. When I scrap away the paint, you can again see bright, raw wood. I could use a heavier stain on top, but that would darken the white as well. Perhaps the sequence here should have been dark stain first, then Krylon primer, then Reefer White, then scraping. I am also wondering whether some sort of chipping technique would make sense here between the primer and the Reefer White. I've never done that. Sorry -- forgot to mention -- on this experiment, I also used the file card after applying the Reefer White. Then, used the razor blade to make a few sections a little more bare.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-150418112437-310521828.jpeg)
Picture 3: Start by treating the clapboard with alcohol and chalk a la Brett Gallant (black and burnt umber chalks). Then, use a thin light brushing of the Reefer White on top after that dries. I only did the bottom third. You can see that the paint seems to have mixed with the deposited chalk and turned gray. Not a bad effect, but darker than I was expecting. No scraping here. All of the faded-looking effect is by just trying to go light on the paint when applying.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-150418112440-31053477.jpeg)
Would love to hear opinions and suggestions. I like and dislike each one for various reasons. Not yet sure how to choose. Or, maybe try some more experiments.
Cheers,
Vince
Great job experimenting, Vince. I like the first sample. I do my board-lifting prior to inkahol wash to avoid the raw wood peeking through. I'm also a nail hole guy, but let's not go there. 😜
I like the first sample, I think the second sample would look great on a wharf. I also like experimenting with chalks and alcohol, although I'll admit some of my experimenting has got me some undesirable results but at the same time adding too the prefinished results have came out ok. Biggest problem was duplicating the results. ;D
Hey Vince:
Looking great so far. Keep the pics flowing.
Karl
I have been busy bracing clapboard walls and trying more experiments in painting and weathering. I am down to three different approaches that I like and wanted to get some input from anyone that would care to offer some. I am surely overthinking this (one of my many "interesting" quirks) but have learned a lot by playing with things. Here are my three favorite swatches:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-240418152327-31385455.jpeg)
All samples have paint applied with a terry cloth rag. All samples have a little earth- or dirt-colored chalk scrubbed in to the bottom of the wall (some more than others). All walls have nail holes. Tried to keep those subtle. You can also see that I lifted a board here and there, too.
The left one is sprayed with Krylon gray primer and then ragged with white acrylic. After drying, I scrubbed in a little white and gray chalk to soften the edges between paint and no paint. The middle one starts with heavy inkahol (3 tsp/pint). Then rag with gray acrylic. Then rag with white acrylic. The last one starts with chalkahol (a little brown and black chalk powder applied with clean alcohol. Then, rag with white acrylic.
I like and dislike them all for different reasons. My plan is to paint the windows holly green (you can see a couple at the top of the picture. For that reason, I liked sample 1 because it's more homogeneous and seems to show off the green windows a little better (the other two have patterns that are more abrupt and look a little busier). I like the third sample (right side) because it has some brown -- adds a little color. Rugg is a big complex. I thought it might look a little boring if the whole thing looked too homogeneous. But, I'm not sure of that. The one in the middle is a compromise. Not as much contrast with color but still has contrast with the peel/no-peel look.
As I said, I like them all. I am just a little concerned about how each approach might look when viewed "in scale" - that is, when all the walls get the treatment.
Still TBD is whether the corners will be weathered white or the same green as the windows. Thinking green at the moment.
I would appreciate any comments or observations.
Cheers,
Vince
I think, Vince, it depends on how weather-beaten you want your structure to be, and how you can match that beat-up look on your windows and doors. I agree...they all look good depending on the effect you want. 👍🏻
The one on the left looks most realistic to me , but as Dave said it depends on the look you have in mind.
Quote from: Janbouli on April 25, 2018, 03:18:49 AM
The one on the left looks most realistic to me , but as Dave said it depends on the look you have in mind.
Thanks, Janbouli. That opinion is actually very helpful to me. I have also been leaning toward the less weathered effects like the one on the left. I'll save the more "peely" walls for smaller, more run-down buildings.
Time to stop thinking and start doing. Hope to have some finished walls and windows in the next couple of days.
Vince
I also like the one on the left. Each one looks pretty good, though. Again depends if you're looking for mild vs nearly falling down weathering. :)
Jeff
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on April 25, 2018, 10:43:25 AM
I also like the one on the left. Each one looks pretty good, though. Again depends if you're looking for mild vs nearly falling down weathering. :)
Jeff
I would agree with Jeff.....They both look good.
Jim
I go for the left one also. Not a fan of nail holes but those are subdued, you might add a few rust strikes down the row of nail holes because that is what your really seeing from a distance is the rust and discoloring of the wood caused by the rusting nail
rich
The left one.
Jerry
Thanks, everyone. Left one it is. I do like the somewhat less tattered look for this building. I might try to rag or sponge a little heavier as well to give it a little more of a painted look. I can always go back with a razor blade or ragging on a little gray if I overdo it.
I also like the fact that the process starts with Krylon. Helps reduce the tendency to warp.
Still working on bracing. Should have some finished walls to show soon.
Vince
Hey Vince:
I like the one on the left Also.
Karl
Vince,
The one on the left is more natural looking to me. Great job.
Tom ;D
OK - making some progress. First I braced all (or at least most) of the walls and primed them with Krylon gray primer. Also primed the plastic parts (windows and one door) with the gray primer:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100518153728-315451021.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100518153731-315481183.jpeg)
That priming picture isn't all of the walls or windows -- I did it in two batches.
Nice that the weather's a little warmer now so that I can do this in the garage. Those wood sticks are the 1/16" corner posts that I will be painting green to match the windows.
More in a minute...
The instructions call for building the main building first. I painted the windows green and let them dry. Then went back with a light gray and dry-brushed on some weathering. A little light gray chalk after that. These are the visible parts for that main building:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100518154651-315491666.jpeg)
Here's a close up of the main gabled wall:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100518154654-3155034.jpeg)
You can see that I glazed the windows with glue, not styrene sheet. You can see the characteristic ripple. One thing I did here is use Canopy Glue rather than the Micro Crystal Clear. I did a few with the MCC, but then went back and looked at one of my Doug Foscale videos where he recommended using Canopy glue. It goes much faster -- mostly because of the nozzle on the bottle, I think. The liquid itself seems to have about the same viscosity. I have to say, I think I like the styrene glazing better. But, it is nice to be able to glue the windows from the back and not worry about getting glue on the windows. The windows are already glue.
I couple of other things I noticed with the Canopy Glue. My window process was:
1. prime with Krylon
2. paint with window color
3. weather with gray paint
4. add some chalk
5. glaze with canopy glue
6. cut windows from sprue
7. file the burrs
8. touch up the paint from the filing
9. glue into building
One thing I found is that in the process of cutting from the sprue, my fingers would touch the back of the window and stick to or otherwise damage the glue. You can see in the 2nd picture that I missed one of these "ripped" windows (rightmost window, top middle pane). No problem to fix....just apply more glue...but it happened to me a lot. Next time I am thinking that I may not "glaze" the windows until they are installed in the walls.
A couple of other things I see here now that I have a closeup: (1) for some windows, I did a lousy job if filing the sprue connections, and (2) some of the gray weathering looks too much like brush strokes. I'll need to go back and tidy those up.
One other thing to point out - I did nail holes here but I bought the RB Productions Rivet R tool with the .65 mm wheel. Just bought it. It makes very nice holes - much more subtle. I was sort of on the fence with this given previous experience with pounce wheels that left big, square holes and having no marks at all. This seems like a nice compromise.
Earlier in my thread, I said that I wanted to work on the walls first so that I could test fit them to the foundation pieces that need to be glued to the base. I'm there now. I'm a bit scared because I know if I don't do that right I will create some ugly problems in the build. But, time to suck it up and do it. That will be my next series of posts. The good news is that it should start to look a little like a building soon....the fun part.
By the way, I have noticed some errors in the SRMW manual. I'll try to point them out as them come up in the related pieces of the build.
Talk to you soon,
Vince
Looking great Vince . I always glaze after I install the windows , the walls act as a great holder.
Very nice so far Vince.
Very nice job Vince.
Jerry
Sorry, all. I haven't posted in a while. I've been working on the kit but am delinquent in documenting the progress. Trying to get caught up now.
First, a word about the documentation errors I mentioned earlier. I said I would try to specifically point them out along the way. But, as I have been working on this, I am finding several. I think it would be tedious to read if I tried to capture everything (and tedious to write, of course). So, let me try to summarize. Most of what I have found are labeling errors. That is, the kit includes a number of castings (both hydrocal and resin). It also includes laser-cut wall pieces. These pieces are documented on heavyweight paper sheets (that SRMW labels as "Card No. 1 to Card No. 14) in the kit. Each casting and wall section is given a label. For example, clapboard sections are labeled "A", "B", etc. Hydrocal castings are labeled "W1", "W2" (for walls), "F1", "F2" (for foundation pieces), etc. As I am going through the instructions, I am finding several cases where the label referenced in the instructions does not match the label on the sheet. An even more obvious example is on Card 2 where there are two different walls that are both labeled "W8". So far, this label mismatch issue is the primary source of errors I have run into.
There are a few other things that are a bit confusing. The kits includes diagrams that suggest bracing for each of the clapboard pieces. It does a very good job of helping you keep out of trouble in terms of avoiding bracing interference at corner wall joints. But, on "Card No. 8" there are three walls (N, O, and R) that show the clapboard lines on the pieces and the braces on top of them. None of the others do that. Might lead one to believe that you are to apply the bracing on the milled side. Perhaps this might be for the purpose of using the plain side of the wall as a former for a board on board application. But that's not the case. In fact, geometrically speaking, there would be no way to apply the braces to the clapboard side and get the picture you see on the card. But, it did force me to think for a while (and this is usually not a good thing). Finally, clapboard section "N" is shown on the card to have a window but in reality it does not. The sense I get from all of these errors is that the kit evolved over time and the documentation didn't stay in sync. Given the massive amount of work it takes to engineer a product of this complexity, that's not surprising.
I don't want to give the impression that the instructions are bad - they are not...quite the opposite. I found them to be very helpful and thorough. However, the labeling errors require a little care. To navigate through the potential gotchas, look at and cross-check the several pieces of information available for each step:
- Pictures and labels on the Bracing Diagrams (Cards 7, 8, and 9)
- Pictures and labels on the casting cards (Cards 2, 3)
- Layout Diagrams on Cards 1 and 10
- Window application cards (Cards 4, 5, 6, and part of 3
- Verbiage in the instruction book
- Diagrams in the instruction book
- Photos in the instruction book
- Finished kit photos on the two poster sheets and the two color prints (one on box, one on instruction booklet)
Not surprisingly, the photos were most helpful -- both the posters and color print as well as the in-manual photos. Before I do any step I look for an associated photo for guidance. From there I can cross-check to the more detailed information to get the rest of what I need.
In retrospect, perhaps this wasn't the best choice for the next kit for me to build. I have only built one previous SRMW kit and two large FSM kits. This kit is already pretty complex (for me) compared to the previous ones and the errors add to the challenge. But, I do love the structure and am having a lot of fun building it. I am hoping I'll be able to stay out of trouble.
OK. Back to the build. I have a lot of photos to post and document. Trying to get it all out this morning.
More shortly....
Vince
Here is the diorama with the basic foundation and wall castings in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518090305.jpeg)
There's not much to say, process-wise. You can see the template that is glued to the plywood and foam that guides you to the location of the parts.
The castings were finished when I started 10 years ago or so. But, the process was basically start with red spray primer (I don't recall if it was Rustoleum or Krylon) then paint over with a light wash of Polly Scale Boxcar Red. After that, I painted a few bricks with Earth, Grimy Black, and some other red (that I don't recall). What I did recently was add the mortar. That process was just to use a single-edge razor blade and a stick of light gray chalk to scrape some dust onto the casting. Then, spread it around with a light finger touch. Finally, rubbed it in hard with my thumb. The last step helps get the dust off the face of the bricks and reduces the washout effect.
Castings all fastened with Weldbond glue.
You can also see that not all the castings are in place, yet....W7, for example. The instructions do not yet call for that so I haven't done it.
BTW, the end of the diorama closest to you is North.
More in a bit.....
Vince
Here's a view from the northwest. Gives another perspective on the building's foundation.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518092159-31648144.jpeg)
Notice that I have a gap between gray cinder block wall with the two windows and the small brick foundation that sits atop the stone wall. You can see that the brick foundation does not completely cover the slot in the stone wall below it. My recollection is that the paper diagram (that is glued to the base) specifically called for that. Additionally some pictures that I saw also seemed to suggest that. The solution would appear to be that I should have pushed that cinder block wall a little south to close off that gap. But, in my cross checking, I think that created a problem for me on the other side of the building. I was able to place the walls (without glue) on top of this base fairly cleanly so this is the arrangement I came up with. Only afterward did I noticed this gap.
So, to deal the gap, I took a small scrap of bracing wood (1/8" square), painted it concrete color, and glued it into the gap. Looks like this:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518092206-31651484.jpeg)
I think that will look fine. It remains to be seen what problems I have created for myself downstream. If Bob is out there, he's probably shaking his head at this point :)
Notice also that there is some light coming through the joint where the cinder block wall meets the stone wall. I suspect that will be completely dark once the structures are on top but to be sure I ran a bead of glue from behind the joint and painted it black.
One other thing to point out. In the first (top) photo, look to the left of the cinder block wall. Notice the vertical wall painted in red primer. See that is has a little notch? The low end of notch is level with the cinder block wall. The notch is intended to allow the clapboard wall that sits on top of the cinder block wall to extend all the way across onto the perpendicular foundation wall. However, there is interference here because that notch is not wide enough to clear the bracing member on that west wall (that sits on the cinder block wall). So, I had to notch out a piece of bracing to accommodate it. Here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518100119-316522229.jpeg)
The walls start going up next. More in a bit....
Vince
You're doing great.
The main building walls are the first to go up. Here are the first two:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518100125-316552194.jpeg)
A few things here catch my attention:
- If you look at the brick wall facing you with the two eight-paned windows, there is a slight gap between the top of the right window and the bottom of the clapboard wall. Not sure if I should do something about that or not. If anything, I suppose I will run another bead of glue in from the back and paint it black to stop any light from coming through. I want to be careful, though. I have a long history of trying to make things a little better and ending up making them a lot worse.
- Looks to me like that cinder block wall has a bit of a sheen to it -- seeing some reflection of the paper and stone wall. In fact, that whole wall is kind of "clean" looking. I will have to think about what to do about that.
- The cinder block wall seems to be not perpendicular. At least compared to the red wall it adjoins, the top of the wall appears to be slanted in ever so slightly. Could just be the red wall. In any event, I won't worry about this is that seam will be covered up with W8 and the structure that rests on that brick foundation piece.
- The wooden sliding door on the brick extension doesn't seem to have much detail. I am guessing that when I painted this 10 years ago, I applied too much paint and it filled in the casting relief. Either that or that casting is not that detailed. This is a prominent view and I will want to do something about that. In other castings that you will see later, I did just recently scribe in some wood detail to create a little more definition. Maybe the same thing would work here although I again want to be mindful of my ability to make things much worse in an attempt to make them a little better. Maybe dry brushing? Would appreciate suggestions if anyone has some.
Here's another view:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518100128-31656398.jpeg)
Maybe chalks will be all that is needed to work on that cinder block wall - cut down the sheen and make it a little more weathered. Would appreciate suggestions here, too (or better yet, examples).
Here's the last perspective. And, as a bonus, my first action photo!
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518100122-316541173.jpeg)
The instructions recommend that you raise the walls first, then apply the corner posts. I had never done that before. It was always glue on the corner posts before the windows were installed so that you can get a perfectly-aligned fit. But, waiting to install the corners is a much better idea here. with so much going on with aligning foundations and walls in two dimensions, it's nice to have the ability to cheat a little bit on the corner posts. I think it would be very hard to close gaps if the corners were attached first.
I glue in the post before cutting and then use fingernail clippers to trim to length. Props to Scotty Mason for that tip.
Note also that there are two windows very close to the north corner on the east wall. So close, in fact, that you can see the bracing member on the north clapboard wall. I tried to minimize the distraction by painting the outward face black. Not entirely happy with the result. I really should have fogged these windows before gluing in place. I might still try to do that. Shades might also help.
More to come in a while but I need to take a break to run some errands, first. See you later today.
Vince
Looking good Vince! Very good! :D
Like you, I find that when I'm posting photo's on the forum I see things (must be a Sixth Sense kind of thing) that weren't apparent to me when I was working on the model on the workbench. :D
Vince,
Very nice work. The Rugg company was my first SRMW kit i built back when they first came out. I built it just like the instructions. I have built several other SRMW kits since then, many have been modified to enhance the building location. I was sorry to see Bob hang up his shingle and retire, but it happens to us all. One time several years ago while attending the Amherst Train show, I drove over to see Bob's layout and manufacturing area in his barn. Quite a treat. On the return, i took another way back from his house and there at the end of the road, there it was, the RUGG Mfg company. What a treat.
Keep up the great work.
Frank / Erieman
Quote from: Erieman on May 20, 2018, 11:49:46 AM
Vince,
Very nice work. The Rugg company was my first SRMW kit i built back when they first came out. I built it just like the instructions. I have built several other SRMW kits since then, many have been modified to enhance the building location. I was sorry to see Bob hang up his shingle and retire, but it happens to us all. One time several years ago while attending the Amherst Train show, I drove over to see Bob's layout and manufacturing area in his barn. Quite a treat. On the return, i took another way back from his house and there at the end of the road, there it was, the RUGG Mfg company. What a treat.
Keep up the great work.
Frank / Erieman
Great story, Frank. Quite a treat indeed to see the real Rugg. I don't know if it's still standing but if so, I would like to try to do a drive-by next time I am out there (live in Chicago so I don't get out there much).
I have also visited Bob a few times over the years - most recently last September with my wife in tow. It's fun to have a casual chat with Bob - he is such an interesting guy and has applied his creative talents to several other serious hobbies as well. Had a fun moment with my wife while we were there. She noticed the river at the far end of the property. Then, somehow, despite having purchased a kit from Bob almost every year for the last 20 years or so (every year my Christmas present was a yellow box and my birthday present was a red box) came up with the question "Oooo. What river is that?" Bob paused a moment and then politely said, "That's the South River." The light bulb went on. We all had a good chuckle (maybe a little less so for my wife ;D).
I am also planning to build Rugg per spec except for the paint scheme. I need more experience before trying to kitbash these beautiful kits.
Cheers,
Vince
Here are a few more pics. This catches me up with the current state of the build. Please ignore the wall with no windows. That's just a test fit - not glued into place.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518125532-31660369.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518125615-316612247.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-200518125618-316621878.jpeg)
It was at this point that a realized that I neglected to treat the windows in any way (shades, fogging, blacked-out panes). I need to decide what to do there so that I can treat the other walls before I install them where it becomes more difficult. I have a separate thread posted in the Baggage Car thread to discuss that.
I also need to decide if this is weathered enough. My intent from the beginning was not to have a dilapidated building but one that was weather-worn but still reasonably-maintained. I think I still need to do some things here (dirt film on areas near the ground, some additional fading/staining under windows, e.g.) but am not sure how far to go. I would really appreciate opinions/suggestions on this.
I also considered whether I wanted to do some lighting. This is the time to start drilling some holes if I am. I ultimately decided that I would not do that. Probably have my hands full just getting back in the game with the basic build. I can think a little more about additional effects in future builds of other kits.
Cheers,
Vince
Thank you for taking the time to document this build so well, If I ever get to build this one I know where to look for guidance.
As for the weathering , I think there needs to be some dirt and such to comply with the paint , although the paint is not dilapidated , it has been on the building for some time.
Hi Vince:
It's coming along very nicely. Those are tough kits to build from what I've heard. I've never built one. Have fun and I will be following along.
Karl
Quote from: Janbouli on May 20, 2018, 04:07:14 PM
Thank you for taking the time to document this build so well, If I ever get to build this one I know where to look for guidance.
As for the weathering , I think there needs to be some dirt and such to comply with the paint , although the paint is not dilapidated , it has been on the building for some time.
Thanx, I definitely agree. Do you have any places you can point me at for some specific ideas and/or techniques?
Vince
I think weathering with chalks would work well.
Avery simple youtube film from GCLaser
The kit is coming on a treat, Vince!
You are getting a very good fit with all the different mediums and height changes. I did a scratch-built kit inspired by Rugg - I shrunk the base a bit and stretched the height and installed it on a steep hill with a road curving around the back. I remember leaving my vertical bracing hanging below my clapboard walls and gluing my block-work walls to them which made the latter assembly of the walls much easier. Of course I used Slaters plasticard for my blockwork which was pretty much the same thickness as the clapboard. It would be very difficult to use this technique with thick plaster walls. I enjoyed the build immensely - and with all the different roof lines at different heights it is a real eye catcher.
Cheers, Mark.
Quote from: Janbouli on May 21, 2018, 04:20:42 PM
I think weathering with chalks would work well.
Thanks -- I'll give it a try. Also, thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments.
Vince
Quote from: vinceg on May 22, 2018, 04:34:19 PM
Quote from: Janbouli on May 21, 2018, 04:20:42 PM
I think weathering with chalks would work well.
Thanks -- I'll give it a try. Also, thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments.
Vince
Try it first on a piece of scrap wood from the kit , possibly painted in the same way.
Hey Jan:
Thanks for the great video. Looks great so far.
Karl
Vince,
Wonderful build and thread. You have Rugg in my layout colors, white with green trim and windows.
Well do, very well done.
Tom ;D
Productive weekend. Last time I mentioned that I was going to put window shades on all of the windows I forgot to do. Not surprisingly, it is far more work to put in the shades once the walls are raised. Hopefully this painful lesson will serve to remind me to do this when doing the basic wall preparation in the future. I also tried weathering some large doors with just chalk. Here are two examples:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518002221.jpeg)
First, these pics show a couple of examples of windows with shades (done before raising the walls). I simply glued some artist paper strips behind each window. I went with a light color of shade rather than a heavily-faded yellow color. After trying a few different samples, I decided that I liked this best.
Second, you can see how I treated the doors. I think the results look OK but not particularly notable. The steps were:
- Prime with Camo Khaki spray (rattle can) paint (these doors are pewter)
- Paint with multiple coats of very thinned artist acrylic paint (White Wash is the color - same as the walls)
- Scrape on some medium gray chalk dust with a single-edge razor blade
- Push the dust around with a soft brush
- Rub the dust into the crevices with thumb
The Camo primer base coat makes it possible to get some coverage with the watery acrylics. Then, by using many thin coats, the casting relief detail is not filled in. This is different from what I did years ago where I would try to apply the color all in one coat. Requires more patience than I am used to, tho. Finally, I think the chalk is a nice effect but I am not sure how durable it will be. I should have hit it with some matte finish afterward but didn't think to do that. Next time. I also should have done an A/B comparison with a simple inkahol wash. Will definitely do this test on my next kit (or I will try it if the chalk effect wears away while I am doing this build).
Note the windows in the doors of these pics have no glazing. I added that after this picture was taken.
One other note - this is a good example of the nail hole effect that you get with the RB Productions Rivet-R tool and the .65 mm wheel. I do like nail holes and this effect seems much better than the even-more-oversized holes you get from the usual pounce wheels.
Earlier in this thread I mentioned that I am using Canopy Glue instead of Micro Krystal Klear for my windows. The rationale was that it was much easier to apply because of the nozzle on the Canopy glue bottle. I also mentioned that I thought I was destroying the window panes because I applied the glue while the windows were still on the sprue. My belief was that I was ripping the clear rubber while handling the windows in the process of clipping from the sprue and applying to the appropriate walls. I now know that isn't true. I am now "glazing" the windows after they are installed in the walls. Here's an example:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518005237.jpeg)
Note you can see imperfections in several panes. In some cases, holes appear and in other cases the window just appears "ripped." My assumption is that, despite the fact that I apply a fairly liberal glob of glue on the back of each pane, the Canopy glue still shrinks enough that it causes the window to rip in some cases. As I mentioned before, the fix is simple - just apply more glue on the back after the window is dry. The holes and rips are filled in and it looks OK.
I don't recall this ever happening with the Micro Krystal Klear. I am still not going back to MKK for this kit - too big a pain to use a toothpick or wire for each pane. But, what I will do is wait until I empty one of my Canopy glue bottles and fill it with MKK so that I can try using the nozzle with MKK. If those do not rip, then I will know it is just a difference in the shrink factor. If they do rip, then I guess the nozzle technique just applies a thinner film of glue.
All of this said, I do still think I like clear styrene panes better. But, they have to be right up against the back of the mullions to look good. So much more work. Next kit, I will try to give a little more thought to how to make that process a little easier to do. I would love to hear from anyone who has ideas in this area. Probably no shortcuts, tho.
BTW, I have started shrinking my pics a bit before uploading. I was feeling guilty about consuming so much storage and in reviewing the posts, it seemed to be a pain to have to scroll so much to see everything. So, now I'm shrinking by 75% in each dimension. I think they're still big enough to be useful but I would appreciate any comments regarding the new, smaller size vs. what I was doing.
I found that I made a mistake in bracing one of the walls - in particular, the clapboard siding for Wall "M". Here is the suggested bracing diagram from the kit:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518012624.jpeg)
You can see on the right side of this wall there is a 1/8" holdback for the vertical brace. That is, of course, to accommodate the (presumably flush-glued) vertical brace on the perpendicular wall. Well, I saw a "similar" gap on the left side (see the red circles) and naïvely assumed the same 1/8" gap. Rookie mistake. With a little thought, I should have realized that it would not be likely that another 1/8" brace would be slotted in here. I should have thought to look forward in the instructions to see why this gap was made. The reality is that this slot is needed to accept a braced, perpendicular wall. That means that the gap needs to be 1/8" plus the width of the clapboard. So, I had to chip away some of the bracing I had installed. Easy enough with an No. 17 blade. Here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518012126-31817728.jpeg)
Good thing I needed the space on the left and not on the right.
And here's a peek at what it looks like with the wall inserted (birds-eye view looking down from the top of the wall):
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518014315.jpeg)
By the way - one side note: In the first pic, look over to the right for the bracing diagram for Wall "N". This is an example of my earlier post about how a few of the pictures showed the bracing on what appears to be the milled side of the wall. It isn't. As I mentioned before, in most cases, looking at the geometry of the braced wall and looking at pictures will keep you out of trouble.
About to raise more walls. Test fitting showed a lot of unevenness in the top of the foundation castings. I used a flat file to even things up a bit.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518015304.jpeg)
After finishing the filing I went back with my Polly S Boxcar Red paint to make sure I had color near the visible edges of the foundation castings. You can see some of this to the left. I really should have done this when first placing the castings (as is suggested by the instructions. However, it does seems easier to test fit and look at these things after the walls are braced.
Time to raise some more walls. The instructions call for putting up wall "M" next (that's the wall with the notch I had to expand two posts above). I decided it would be a better idea to raise wall "W" instead. See the following picture:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518020925.jpeg)
The wall you are looking at is Wall W. There is very little room to play with this wall. It is fixed on the right side to wall "A" and follows the foundation. It will be glued perpendicular to Wall "Z" (see the red line and the 'Wall "Z"' designation on the photo). Additionally, there is another, same-length wall (Wall "X" that will be located above and "in" toward the building - see the red arrow for where the right side of Wall X will be glued). Wall "X" will also be glued to wall "Z". Therefore, I was very concerned about the positioning of Wall Z. If I were to glue in Wall M first, that perpendicular wall (the one I just expanded the notch for) would determine the position of one end of Wall Z. Depending on how "M" is placed on the foundation, Wall Z's angle will be changed. Imagine Wall Z as a see-saw with a fulcrum at the point where it touches the wall shown (Wall W). The more Wall Z is pushed to the right at the bottom of the picture, the more of a gap I will have with that upper Wall X. And, Wall M's position controls that see-sawing. Therefore, I wanted to place M according to where it needed to be to make sure Wall Z would properly contact both Walls W (shown) and X (red arrow).
(Yes, I thought through all of that but neglected to look at why there was a notch in Wall M two posts back....nuts, eh?)
Anyway, that is why I chose to glue down the wall you see here, first. In the end it worked out.
Another note - if you look at the door here, you can see that it's gray. It is really painted white. I overdid the process of scrubbing on some gray chalk. I subsequently cleaned this up a bit by scrubbing the door with a damp Q-tip. I will later have some pictures that show the resulting effect.
So far, I have to say that this is the most challenging kit I have built -- by far. I love the structure and the kit. But aligning with the foundations and the complex relationships with the additions are much more difficult than the boxy buildings I had previously built. I suspect the ride gets wilder when I get to the roof. We'll see.
OK, enough of the long-winded explanations. Here are some pictures showing where I am at. You will see that I started to play with some more weathering of the walls. Lots more to do there but I wanted to try a few things. You will also see that I am missing some corner posts. Will get to that next.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518023228-318182066.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518023231-31823728.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518023236-318241084.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518023239-318251937.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-300518023241-31826842.jpeg)
Cheers - I'll be back with more progress after raising more walls.
Vince,
Your SRMW Rugg build is looking great. Will have to reference this thread when it comes time for that kit here.
Most factories did not have shades, except the office area, so your are fine to leave them off on your project.
Tommy
I think she's looking great, Vince.👍🏻 I dropped canopy glue for MKKa couple of years ago, although I'll also use acetate sometimes. Just my preference...everyone has theirs. Build on!
Great modeling.
Vince,
I've experienced the same issue with Canopy glue and Krystal Klear as well. I solved the issue as you did by just adding more over the gaps. It all works out fine.
NOTE: The thinner I apply the Canopy Glue, the better chance I have for the gaps to appear as it dries. Over time you'll get the "feel" of what is the right amount to apply to the windows. I haven't had any gaps for about a year now.
Great job on the build.
Tom ;D
Really enjoying this build. Especially the nuances of the kit. Thanks for the photos and updates.
Thanks again for the comments, everyone. Heading out of town for the weekend. I am planning for the next set of pics to be all of the walls put up. But, I'm still a couple of walls short. (Sounds like a thing -- "He's a couple walls short of a building....) Next installment will likely be early next week.
I have been making progress although more slowly than I hoped. In addition to getting busy, I got to the point where I had to populate the south extension shed south wall with the access door and overhead door. Here it is:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080618045857-31966870.jpeg)
This was slow for me because the overhead door and transom windows required framing with individual pieces of strip wood. My first, small taste of scratch building, I reckon. You can see the results. I like the recessed look of the overhead door. It actually looks much better in person (doesn't everything?). But, looking at the cruel, objective picture, you can see the gaps in the framing of the transom windows. There also seems to be a lot of "texture" to the walls when greatly magnified. Next time around (guess that means next kit), I think I will try to use some fine steel wool after painting to see if I can smooth that out a bit. Some rough texture is probably good, but this looks out of scale to me.
I also tried inkahol wash this time on the doors instead of chalk. I don't like the result. I can see some grain relief in the garage door that I would like to have taken a darker appearance with the stain but it doesn't seem to have happened as nicely as it did with chalk on other doors.
I will try to go back and try to apply some chalk. But, of course, I now have the wall glued into the diorama so it will be much more difficult.
I can also see a lot of air bubbles in the canopy glue windows. Again, in person, not an issue but the pictures certainly accentuate it. Think I'm becoming a canopy-glue-window anti-fan.
I used a gray paint for this south shed. In general, I used the reverse approach from the instructions. The manual calls for most of the Rugg structure to be done in gray with the south shed done in white. As you have seen, I did the main structures in white.
The kit also allows for the removal of the garage/overhead door to expose some internal detail. I am choosing not to do that.
I took several pictures of the rest of the progress as well but have to get ready to catch a train to go downtown. I will post them tonight.
Cheers.
Gallery Glass! I love the stuff, never shrinks or tears. bubble issues are rare. I use both the clear and frosted types.
Your build is fantastic!
Quote from: Dave K. on May 30, 2018, 06:37:49 AM
I think she's looking great, Vince.👍🏻 I dropped canopy glue for MKKa couple of years ago, although I'll also use acetate sometimes. Just my preference...everyone has theirs. Build on!
Oops! I meant to say I've been using Gallery Glass, not MKK. D'oh! 🤪
Looking good, Vince.
Re the glue issues - I would have thought a good art supply store would sell nozzles for glue bottles (I know I have bought them before). You might be able to find what you need without having to wait until you finish your canopy glue.
Cheers, Mark.
I would like to try the gallery glass. Where do you guys usually buy it? I have found lots of things online but usually in colored sets or other individual bottles that don't look like the simple clear or frosted version. Maybe you just buy directly from plainonline.com?
OK, as threatened, here are some more pix. I'm not quite done with the walls and there are a few corner posts missing, too, but it's getting close. First, the north side. The empty slab you see is for the north shed. I expect to be getting to that this weekend.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080618052907-320821618.jpeg)
Now a view from the south. Here you can that wall I mentioned above. The grooves that you see under the overhead door are slots for a narrow-gauge rail tram setup that is offered as part of the kit. My current thinking is that I will not be using that. So, for now, I left the grooves empty and brushed in some rust-colored chalk to suggest that rails were previously there. If I change my mind later I can slip in a couple of small pieces under the door. I may also just fill in the grooves. We'll see how it looks once I build up the approach to the door.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080618052910-32083991.jpeg)
Here's a view from the east. I like this view a lot. Really shows off some of the nice lines of the structure. Also, this alcove (and entire area, really) is eventually supposed to be filled in with a deck (else how would you get to those doors that are sitting atop the brick foundation?). I am thinking about whether I want to do the deck now rather than later when the instructions call for it. Seems like it would be easier to do before I have roof overhangs getting in the way. I'll spend some more time overthinking that later. Seems a shame to hide all of Bob's nice brick work with the deck, but alas.... By the way, I used a medium gray chalk to weather these double doors. Much better effect than the inkahol as I mentioned above. Also, regarding the inkahol (used on the south shed doors), I found that it seemed to dissolve the white craft paint as I was working with it a bit. Not sure if I just didn't let the craft paint cure long enough or if the alcohol is a natural solvent for that paint. Either way, care was needed. Chalk was much easier.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080618052913-32084592.jpeg)
A shot from the southeast. The clerestory walls are missing - they will be next to go in.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080618052915-32085689.jpeg)
And finally from the northeast. The other stone retaining wall goes here where the styrofoam ends. I reckon I can put that in now. I don't think anything else is in way. I'll check that out.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080618052918-32086250.jpeg)
That's it for now. Back to work and I'll talk to you soon.
Cheers
Looking good!
Here's one of those "seen but not modeled" ideas, a crack in the brick foundation. Run some black ink carefully along the mortar lines from top to bottom.
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/treehouse-content/uploads/photo_gallery/large/25368-crackingbrick.jpg)
dave
Beautiful modeling.
Wow Vince:
Now that is coming along quite beautifully.
Karl
Vince,
It's really starting to take shape. Will keep on watching your build . You are doing a really nice job !
This will help a lot when it's time to raise the walls up North.
Tommy
Some minor updates from yesterday. First, clerestory side walls are in:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100618231844-32129869.jpeg)
And here is the north shed:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100618232419-321301697.jpeg)
I actually had quite a bit of work to do to get this right. First, the front wall was too long for the foundation. It would have resulted in the side wall being completely off the foundation on west side. To make it work, I shortened the wall by using a wood rasp and my True Sander to take some length off the left and right sides. Here's an overhead picture:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100618232420-32132575.jpeg)
You can see that the 1/8" square bracing on the front wall isn't square any more. I took off a total of about 1/16" combined from both ends, I think. This was actually quite a bit more difficult than I expected. The bracing makes it difficult to file. Would have been nice if I had test fit this first so that I only had to file the clapboard. Not sure why this sizing didn't match. Given where everything is, I don't see how I could have created this problem with incorrect assembly -- you basically just throw the foundation slab down and plop the wall on top. But, no matter. It fits now.
I also had an issue with the side wall. See the following picture:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-100618232420-321311343.jpeg)
Notice how the top of the wall angles up to meet the top of the cinder block wall (W8 in the photo). When I first test fit the wall, the right-hand side (where it meets the cinder block wall) was above the cinder block wall by at least one full clapboard section. I shaved and sanded it down to make it flush as you see it. Maybe that was not the right thing to do -- that is, perhaps the gap needed to be there, but in glancing forward in the instructions I didn't see anything that suggested that the extra height for that wall was part of the design. I'll find out soon when the roof goes on. I have to say that it seems a little odd to have multiple problems with such a small, simple shed after everything else seemed to work so well. Makes me think I did something wrong. We'll see.
That's it. I think it's time to start the roof. I mentioned earlier that I was contemplating doing the deck first. I decided against that -- will just following the instructions as given.
CU later.
Vince
That is some excellent modeling. Weathered just right. Corners nice and square everything aligned perfectly.
Jerry
OK, Spoke too soon last time - not quite ready to start working on the roof. First, there is a support member that has to go in to support the roof for what the kit calls the "middle building. Right away I can see that have a problem. On page 4 of this thread, I mentioned that I used a piece of 1/8" square wood, painted concrete, to fill a gap between one of the west foundation walls and the stone retaining wall. I now see that this creates interference with the new support member:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718150238.jpeg)
This new member (the chipboard trapezoid facing you) needs to be flush against wall "L" in the picture. Can't get there because of the interference of that hole-blocking piece. The answer, of course, is to chip away the interference. A few minutes with a #17 blade and the interference is removed:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718145854-32452934.jpeg)
And now it fits:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718145857-324531855.jpeg)
I could start the roof now, but the instructions call for building the stucco out building. So, I will do that next.
More shortly.....
OK, the stucco out building. At the beginning of this thread, I mentioned that I started this kit over 10 years ago. The two things I did before the long hiatus were (1) build the basic diorama base (cut foam and glue it to plywood), and (2) paint the castings. Here are the castings as I originally painted them:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718151922.jpeg)
I am focusing on the front wall - the side walls are just plain surfaces with a little exposed brick and some windows. Not much to see there that isn't shown on the front wall. I didn't like this wall for a couple of reasons:
- I did a lousy job of painting the door frames and the main door structure pieces (the darker color). Aside from "coloring outside the lines" I think I likely used Polly S paint unthinned and really accentuates the thickness of the wood pieces and looks very out of scale.
- The basic stucco/concrete color looked very green to me. You can't see it well in the picture but it is more apparent in person.
I decided to repaint the doors and frames all white using multiple coats of thinned artists acrylic. I also wanted to try a new color for the concrete. Looking on YouTube, I watched Kathy Millatt's video on painting for concrete. She recommended Using Tamiya Deck Tan as the base color. So, I tried that on one of the side walls and here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718154729.jpeg)
It looked pretty good to me so I did the same thing with the other side wall. I decided not to redo to front wall as I noticed that with some weathering, the contrast is not noticeable. By the way, the back wall of this building is made of wooden planks. More on that shortly.
When assembling the walls, they are first glued together (I used Weldbond for this). Once the glue is set, plaster is used to fill in the cracks. You can also see the doors painted white on the front wall in this shot:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718160225.jpeg)
Here's a view after the plaster patch so that you can see the difference in colors between original and the new Tamiya paint:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718160507.jpeg)
Finally here's the left side wall after painting and weathering:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718160835.jpeg)
The above pictures focus on the left side wall of the stucco building (as you look at the front of the building). I did the same thing on the right side wall. However, when applying the chalk weathering, I was careless about making sure that everything streaked vertically. I decided the solution would be to use a little alcohol (straight, no ink.... no chaser, either for you Thelonious Monk fans out there) to fix the streaks. To my surprise, the alcohol started wearing away the new Tamiya top coat. Here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718161058.jpeg)
I decided I liked the effect so I left it alone. Turns out this side will be invisible as the diorama will be situated on the layout, but that was not a factor.
The accidental chipping is on the right side of the wall. I'm definitely going to have to keep this in mind for future projects. Not sure if it will still work if the Tamiya paint cures for a very long time. Obviously the Polly S that is underneath didn't wear away.
As I mentioned, the back wall of the stucco building is made of wood. The kit comes with a chipboard template to use as a former. I cut it out and drew lines on it with a square to help guide my board placement. They are not there to locate specific boards; rather, they are there to give me a reference for vertical alignment.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718162236.jpeg)
Look above the wall to where the side walls meet the chipboard former. You will see that they are taller than the template. Worse yet, the one on the left is taller than the one on the right. This should have caught my attention -- but didn't. That means more work ahead as you'll see.
For the individual wood planks, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at "Getting my Sierra West on." That is, try the techniques that Brett Gallant demonstrates with his videos. The instructions call for 12 pieces of strip wood. I decided to do 4 pieces with black and brown chalk (dissolved in alcohol), 4 pieces slightly more brown, and 4 pieces with inkahol. I wanted to generate some variation between the planks. Variation is good, right? (anybody laughing, yet?) Here are the 12 pieces:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718163239-324542323.jpeg)
And here is the wall with the planks installed:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718163510.jpeg)
Looked OK, I think, but to my eye had too much variation. Too much zebra effect. I eventually decided to tone it down a bit with some black chalk.
More shortly.
Earlier we saw that the left and right side walls of the stucco building appeared to be at different heights. I verified this by cutting out the chipboard roof and placing it on top. Here's the view:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718165528-324661194.jpeg)
This matches what we saw before - the left side is higher than the right side. I used a heavy file to scrape away hydrocal until the left wall (as you look at the building from the back) was the same height as the right wall. That makes it level but it still didn't fix the problem that both walls were noticeably higher than the chipboard former. I decided that it would be too much work and too risky to try to continue to file off hydrocal to make it fit and decided instead to use a piece of trim at the top to cover the gap.
One more thing. The kit doesn't seem to address how the back wall (wooden) interfaces with the side stucco walls. Having the wood wall just end and seeing the chipboard and wood layers exposed didn't seem desirable. Instead, I decided to shorten the width of the wood wall just a bit and use end posts just as you would normally use at the corner of two clapboard walls. The problem is that the usual 1/16" square post wood isn't thick enough to terminate the wall with both the chipboard and wood thicknesses. However, 3/32" square is. So, that's what I did. Here's a pic of the back wall with both the corner posts and top trip in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718165531-324692079.jpeg)
If you noticed that there are no wood planks under the door, you are correct. My intent is to have a stoop of some sort there so I didn't bother filling that in.
Sorry about the angle - the glare is a little bad here, but I think the idea comes across. You can also see that the roof is glued on as well at this point.
As I looked at this, I still wasn't happy about the wide variation in wood panels so I did a little more weathering after applying the tarpaper roof. Final pics in the next post.
Here's the back wall after toning down the wood with some black chalk and adding some dirt/dust near ground level:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718171257-324701965.jpeg)
You can see that the wood trim is applied to the eave as well.
Here's an angled shot showing the finished roof. Remember that the front wall is its original color whereas the side wall here is Tamiya Deck Tan. They look very compatible to me.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718171258-32471841.jpeg)
Here's a more frontal shot showing all the doors and trim painted white.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718171258-324721276.jpeg)
And finally a closeup of the two side walls:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718171258-32473446.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010718171338.jpeg)
After taking these pictures I did weather the roof a bit more -- mostly dusting with some light gray chalk to tone down the black a bit more. I won't post any explicit pictures of that. I expect we'll catch a view of that in some of the later pictures.
Now, I AM ready to start the roof on the main complex. In fact, As I am typing this, there is some work done. I will try to post a little more tonight if I can. But, I've said that before....
OK, starting on the roof work. As I started to glue down chipboard, I noticed a few things that needed some thought (at least for me). One is the tall smoke stack extension that sits on top of the hydrocal chimney casting. The chimney casting is less than half the width of the stack. Not necessarily a problem - I'm sure it would hold just fine with a good adhesive, but it seemed as though I would have to be careful about holding the stack in place while the glue dried. Something I've demonstrated that I'm not great at. I decided to glue in a small block of wood to make the resting place more secure. Here's a pic:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718075528-324742299.jpeg)
You can see that I am holding the stack above its final resting place. You can see the original hydrocal chimney top just below it - it's the part with the red primer overspray. You can also see the block of wood I glued next to it. The glue hasn't even finished drying, yet.
Here it is with stack in place. It's just sitting loosely on top. Also needs to be painted, of course.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718075528-324761997.jpeg)
Looks a little crooked in the picture. I will work on that when I do the final placement.
More in a moment...
Here was another issue. Check out this picture:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718092523-32478647.jpeg)
The building in the center-left of the picture (see the gables and the wall I labeled "Y" on the inside) is the freight building. If you follow the roof line down on the right side, you can see that it will hit the existing piece of chipboard about 1/2" toward the camera. It occured to me that this angle would then expose a little triangular view under the roof to the freight building wall. But, there is no freight building wall. So, I made one. You see a little piece of chipboard there (again, wet glue). That is meant to represent the wall. I ended up pulling out this piece of chipboard because I recognized that I was missing the green corner post to the left of the adjacent building (glad the glue was still wet). The new piece was painted white and inserted properly. You'll see the result shortly.
I suppose another solution would have been to just run tar paper down to the other roof to cover that gap. But, with that window so close, I felt that might not look right.
One more thing to do. See the following picture:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718092520-32477783.jpeg)
The building to the left is the Main Building, the building to the right is the Middle Building. The roof over the middle building does not end at the point where the wall abuts the main building. Rather, the apex of the roof extends all the way to the main building. To support that extension, the kit includes a triangular chipboard piece. You can see it glued in here. I also glued a piece of 1/8" square basswood along the base on the other side to make it stronger. From the picture, you can see that the top of that triangle continues the peak line of the roof from the left. But there is a gap to the right of the triangle. I am not sure if that is designed that way or if my construction was WAY off. Probably the latter. In any event, when test fitting the roof, I noticed that I could look up under the roof and see this gap. This side of the diorama will actually be facing away from the aisle so it shouldn't be visible but it still bugged me. I solved the problem with another piece of 1/8" square wood painted white. The wood is on the viewing side (camera side) as we're looking at it). Looks like a support beam of sorts. Believable, I think. I did not take a separate picture of that. Maybe I will take an angle to see it in a future shot.
OK. So right about now, I'm realizing that this kit is quite a stretch for me. I still think it will look good but there are many little issues that I assume are caused by my relative inexperience in building complex kits. You become an experienced pilot by studying and doing a lot of hopefully-not-fatal stupid things that you learn from. I reckon the same holds true for modeling. Need to do a lot of stuff wrong but not so wrong that it ruins the kit.
Enough philosophy - next post will show some shots of where the kit stands and the end of Sunday.
Sunday was a good day. Lots of work done. Here's where I'm at. A pic from the northeast:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718092626-324791210.jpeg)
The stack is still not glued in. It's painted and I added a little chalk, but not finished. Need lots of black soot near the top. I was happy to see that the transition between the hydrocal chimney and the resin stack isn't too bad, color-wise.
From the southeast:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718092628-324801552.jpeg)
From the southwest
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718092630-32481774.jpeg)
If you look closely under the freight building roof, you can see that little piece of wall (painted chipboard) that I discussed a couple of notes ago. You can also see that the roof isn't quite level - it slopes up a bit as you move away from the door. I was careful to use a level when setting up the supports for that roof. I think the better approach would have been to cut out the roof and test with that since how the scored chipboard folds and sits on the support can cause some variation. I'm not too worried about it. The instructions actually suggest that the tar paper run all the way to the flat roof. I think this won't be very noticeable.
Finally, a view from the northwest:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-020718092632-324821797.jpeg)
If you look under that middle roof extension I mentioned earlier, you can see the gap-filling post I mentioned. Also, the chipboard from the main building doesn't reach all the way to the middle building. I'll have to clean that up a bit.
That's it for now. I have to finish a couple of roofs on the north side, add a coupla cupolas, and then trim the eaves. I'll report back when I can.
By the way, thanks to everyone for the supportive comments. I should have acknowledged earlier but was heads down try to dig out of my picture backlog. Sorry.
Also, if anyone is wondering where the stucco building is, I set it aside for the moment. I haven't yet decided how to work it into the scene so it is sitting elsewhere on the bench.
Excellent modeling and trouble shooting.
Coming on nicely, Vince.
Cheers, Mark.
Hey Vince:
Progress looks just great.
Karl
Curt, Mark, and Karl -- thanx for the support. Thanks also for following along. I started this build thread so that I would have a little extra pressure to make progress on the kit knowing that people were watching. The comments definitely help that cause.
Coming along great, Vince, and a top-notch build thread. Continuing to follow your progress.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Very impressive Vince..... 8)
Quote from: vinceg on July 03, 2018, 08:34:39 PM
I started this build thread so that I would have a little extra pressure to make progress on the kit knowing that people were watching. The comments definitely help that cause.
Vince,
I agree with your comment 100%. It is the one reason I pay so much attention to the details in my Atlantic and Southern RR build thread. I find the thread and the comments keep me focused on the task.
Supporting and commenting on each others builds is great for the forum as well as the builder that takes the time to document the progress.
Also, if I comment on one thread and don't get any comments in return, I no longer follow that thread.
Well done on your build.
Tom ;D
Quote from: ACL1504 on July 04, 2018, 05:23:54 PM
Vince,
I agree with your comment 100%. It is the one reason I pay so much attention to the details in my Atlantic and Southern RR build thread. I find the thread and the comments keep me focused on the task.
Supporting and commenting on each others builds is great for the forum as well as the builder that takes the time to document the progress.
Also, if I comment on one thread and don't get any comments in return, I no longer follow that thread.
Well done on your build.
Tom ;D
Thanks, Tom. It is a little weird. I actually feel some guilt if I'm not moving the thread along. Kinda funny.
Bought my cool gray markers from Michaels today. Getting ready to try some slate shingle work. I'm buying some extra shingles from SRMW for when I mess them up :)
More updates. I am at a point where the effort goes in but there isn't much in terms of visible results. You remember above that I was missing the roof chipboard for the two sheds on the north end of the complex. Of the two, the one on the masonry extension is a little tricky in that it has a little zig-zag in it to allow it to serve two roofs. See below:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718121540-325371880.jpeg)
That little rectangle in the middle (that the two arrows are pointing to) is supposed to end up vertical. The other two are roof sections. You'll see it in the next pic. I was having trouble getting that piece to be vertical because everything was connected so I made a copy of just that section that you see on the left. In the end, I was able to make it work so I didn't need it. I painted that little vertical "wall" section white and installed it. Here it is in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718121542-32551902.jpeg)
The other shed is straightforward. I glued it in and put in the rafter tails. Here's where it's at:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718121544-325521031.jpeg)
Speaking of rafter tails, I mentioned earlier that I was a fan of the fingernail clipper as tool to chop off excess wood trim. I tried it here as well and it was not quite as effective as I remembered. Rather than getting a nice satisfying click when trimming the tail, it took a bit of twisting. Perhaps the clippers are dull or perhaps it was excess Canopy Glue at the joint, but I didn't like it. Instead, I trimmed these tails with my Xuron sprue cutters. Worked very nicely. You can see a few trimmings on the ground there. Clippers are history for me now.
More shortly....
The freight building has a small clerestory on top. It sits directly on the roof apex (no hole). The position of the windows on both sides make the roof clearly visible. To obscure that view I wanted to put a thin wash of Tamiya Deck Tan on the back of the windows. Because I wasn't sure how the Canopy Glue would react to that, I first hit the windows with some Krylon Matte finish. In fact, I was hoping that the Matte finish might be enough to block the view. But, it wasn't. Here's the window after fogging it:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718133353-325542097.jpeg)
I also painted the are black to make the roof less visible. Here's the end result.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718133355-325551186.jpeg)
The clerestory is just sitting there at the moment -- not glued down. Will get to that shortly.
More in a moment....
There's also an elevator tower atop the Middle Building roof. Nothing noteworthy there....here is it. Again, just sitting there for now, to be glued shortly:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718133726.jpeg)
Time to trim the eaves. More shortly.
The eave treatment is pretty elaborate (for me....have only done a few kits). The kit supplies some strip wood for soffits that get glued under the chipboard and then the eave is faced with a step-edge detail that is a 1x4 on top of a 1x6. My inner lazy guy was leaning toward blowing most of this off. I wasn't sure how visible this would be. Then I remembered that I had previously built another SRMW kit, Ware Knitters, and decided to look at it to see if the same roof detail was there. It is. Here's a look:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718134303.jpeg)
You can see just under the tarpaper the profile of the 1x4 glued on top of the 1x6. I like the look so my inner lazy guy loses. The soffit is another question -- especially as I painted the bottom of the chipboard (in effect, the soffit) white -- but, the 1x6 is pretty big. Gluing that to the edge of the chipboard roof wouldn't be as solid as if the edge were thickened with the additional strip wood. Plus, the soffit will help make sure the 1x6, 1x4 assembly lines up nicely. So, that goes in, too.
More shortly.
So, I wish I could remember how I did those eave assemblies on Ware Knitters -- Looks pretty straight/uniform. But, I left my time machine in my other blue jeans so need a plan. I started by using inkahol and thinned white artist's acrylic (after the inkahol dried) on the individual 1x6 and 1x4 strips. I then notice how hard it is to keep the 1x6 in place when trying to glue down the 1x4. So, I decided to tack down the 1x6 to my glass work surface right next to a straight edge. Here's the pic:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718144829-325561036.jpeg)
The little white dots are Canopy Glue and I have a significant weight on top of the straight edge to try to keep it stable. If I am going to be doing more of this on future kits, I need to build a jig. This seems kinda belt-and-suspenders to me.
But, it seems to work. After the glue dots dry, I glue down the 1x4 on top like so:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718144831-32559866.jpeg)
Once that dries, I was able to easily pull up the "assembly" with a single-edge razor blade and a little care. There's another one gluing now as I type this.
After the 1x4 overlay dries, it's ready to apply. Here's the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718144833-325601165.jpeg)
Man, I gotta remember to use some steel wool on the strip wood. Leaving fuzz all over the place as the close-up pics painfully highlight.
BTW, I would LOVE IT if someone out there that knows how to do this much better would weigh in here. This process is tedious and somewhat clumsy. Please offer insights if you have 'em.
More shortly.
That leaves the soffits. I wanted to experiment with some other, quicker methods. Since the soffits will largely be out of sight, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try spray painting them with flat white primer and then weathering that:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-080718144835-325612191.jpeg)
No picture, yet, but after these strips dried, I hit them with inkahol. Interestingly, They didn't seem to fade as nicely as strips painting with acrylic do. Also, in a couple of places where the primer was a little blotchy (I was careless and got some thicker paint build-up on a couple of small spots on a couple of strips), the paint seemed to resist the wash. We'll see how it all looks after everything is dry. Perhaps a little chalk will be needed....or another coat of wash. In any event, I am experimenting with something relatively out of sight so it will be good learning.
That's it for now. Will post again when there's more to say.
Hi everybody. It has been a lot of weeks since I posted. Finally time to catch up. As of now (Sunday night), I am almost finished with the roofing.
In my last posts, I mentioned the fascia and whether I was going to go through the effort of installing it, given that I thought it would not be very visible. I ultimately decided to install the fascia for three reasons: (1) I think it will be visible when I take close-up pictures, (2) I should be striving to improve my skills and this would help that, and (3) It seemed silly to not do everything possible to make premium kits such as those from SRMW the best they can be.
One exception to this is that, in some cases, the fascia called for is a scale 1x4 to be used instead of the tiered 1x6 / 1x4 combination. In some of those cases (such as the clerestory roofs), the thickness of the chipboard is about the same as the height of the 1x4 so I just chose to paint the edge of the chipboard instead.
I didn't take any specific pictures of the fascia work while I was building it. Instead, I expect there will be a chance to see some of as part of some other picture posting.
OK - first pic. I started with the tarpaper roofing. I wanted to start with something simple so I started with the south shed. Here it is:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818180411-330132161.jpeg)
I couple of notes. First, these pics are pre-weathering. i am expecting to do a lot more work on the roof surfaces before it's complete. Also, you will notice there are several shiny spots - especially on the south addition (the gabled roof) - that's actually a reflection, not
white paint as it appears in the picture. The shine is actually on purpose. The instructions have you drag a single edge razor blade over the tar paper to give it a bit of a sheen.
Also, I attempted to follow Bob's lead and use some gray tarpaper to represent repairs that were made with a different material. You can see some black substance on the gray tar paper - that's the result of my burnishing the tar paper down and pulling paint from the black paper to the gray paper. I don't mind the effect but I'll have to see what it looks like after the weathering is complete. I may decide to touch it up.
By the way, for all of the tar paper, I used Elmer's glue sticks for the adhesive. With the big, flat roofing sections here, this would have been a good candidate to use the 3M transfer tape, but I wasn't quite ready to give that a try, yet.
Next up, some experimentation with the corrugated aluminum roofing.
The last time I did some corrugated metal, I Floquil paints available. Time for new techniques. I read the SRMW instructions and also checked out other Internet resources such as Bar Mills Craftsman Kits 101 document. Here are a couple of sample panels. These are just sitting loosely on the roof, not glued:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818182601.jpeg)
The process I used was:
- Cut the roofing material into 3' wide sectdions
- Using painter's tape for a loose holding, spray the panels with Rustoleum gray primer
- Scrub black, brown, and rust colored chalks to taste
Two examples here - one heavily weathered, one medium weathering or so. Bob recommends very light weathering. I think both of these samples are more heavily weathered than the pilot model that is pictured in the instructions and on the kit box. At this point (and even now), I'm now sure how much weathering I want. More on that later when I post some other pictures
Not much more to say at this point. Next up, the slate roof.
The kit comes with laser-cut shingles. The shingles are cut out a thick, gray paper that has a very nice appearance. The paper is of a uniform color. Instructions have you install the shingles on the roof and then go in with coloring markers to randomly change the color of some of the shingles. Intuitively, this feels wrong. Much easier to do the coloring before you install the shingles. In fact, in newer SRMW kits, that's exactly what Bob has you do. Here's a picture of the shingle sheets after "random" coloring:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818180411-33103592.jpeg)
I did my coloring with three different Copic Sketch markers that I bought at Michaels:
- C3 Cool Gray
- C5 Cool Gray
- W3 Warm Gray
The warm gray has a bit of a brown tinge to it. Nice contrast if not overdone. You can probably see which ones are W3 in the picture.
Once they're colored, it's time to apply.
More in a bit....
Time to use the transfer tape. No way did I want to use a glue stick as I am sure I would get glue all over the place - especially with the gap between shingles.
I bought a roll of the 1" stuff. This is the perfect application for it. Here's a pic:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818180411-331041767.jpeg)
Not too interesting - everyone reading this has already done this hundreds of times. But, it was new for me. It's pretty handy that the adhesive doesn't obscure the guide lines.
Now, apply the shingles:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818180412-331051471.jpeg)
I like the effect but you can see that I made a lot of errors. This is my first time with this kind of shingle, too. Everything I have done before this has been the good 'ol Campbell strips. One mistake I made is to try to get an extra two shingles on each strip by cutting past the laser cuts when singulating the strips. Truly a rookie mistake. Results in shingles that are too big or too small. Bob gives you plently of shingles. There's no excuse for this kind of silliness. The other mistake was just the basic failure to line things up properly when I have to join two strips in the middle of a course. I did clean some of this up after taking the picture but, in general, I left things along -- Vince rule #1: don't make it a lot worse in the process of trying to make it a little better. I think it's true that the picture is much more brutal than looking at it live. Now that slate roof is finished (you will see that shortly), those small errors tend to "disappear" from view.
One other thing to point out. Notice that notch in the middle of the ridge of the roof. That is for the cupola. The instructions suggest that you apply all of the shingles and then cut out the shingles and notch the ridge to site the cupola. I was pretty sure that I would not be able to do that without ripping up shingles at the cutting site. So, I notched now with the intention of installing the cupola first and then shingling around it. Now that I have completed those steps, I am happy with that decision. I'll post those pics shortly.
Next up, some pictures I just took that show where I'm currently at.
Here's a view from the north:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818191722.jpeg)
A couple of notes:
- You can see the cupola here. I haven't finished the tarpaper on the roof, yet. The corner strips are not yet applied and I need to come up with something to do at the top. A finial of some sort would be nice but nothing comes with the kit. Will have to give it some thought (would love suggestions!)
- You can see a gap in the shingles at the base of the north side of the cupola (facing the down sloping roof). I tried to "hide" it a bit by drawing in fake shingle divisions in pencil, but the reality is that it doesn't matter. The kit includes a dormer that attaches to the base of the cupola. This will be hidden.
- The dark coloring below the cupola is not chalk -- it's a shadow being cast because my workbench light is on the other side of the diorama.
- I decided that I wanted to go with a copper ridge cap. I mixed up what I thought would be a reasonable green patina using Microlux Signal Green and a little Reefer White
- You can see that the north roof does have a little chalk weathering on it (particularly on the left side). I'm experimenting there. More to come
Based on my experience doing things, you are right on by putting in the cupola and shingle around it. This way you can but the shingles up to the sides and work out towards the roof end.
Here's a view from the northeast. From this view, you can get a glimpse of the tiered fascia on the west gable of the main (slate-shinged) roof.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818193304.jpeg)
You see I am also missing some tar paper on the east shed. I won't finish that until I install the chimney stack. Of course, I didn't want that in the way while I was doing the rest of the roofing.
You can also see that I threw some gray chalk on the far end of that east shed roof. Softens the stark black effect. As I mentioned a few notes back, I know I have a lot more work to do on the roof weathering.
There's also a lot of bits and pieces of roof clipping lying around from trimming shingles and such. I didn't notice that until now as I'm posting the pictures. Sorry about that.
Thanks, Bob. Yes, I'm very happy with the result. You can even cheat a little bit by propping up the roofing material so that it covers the gap (as long as it's not too obvious).
I should have done the same thing with the dormer that has yet to be installed. Not sure why that didn't trigger in my mind.
View from the east:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818194334.jpeg)
One thing I want to mention. See that tower on the far (west) side of the building? That's the elevator tower. The instructions have you glue that in fairly early in the game. I decided not to do that as I thought it would be in the way as I was applying the slate shingles to the south side of the main building. In retrospect, I am glad I did that as I believe it made the roofing job easier.
As you're looking at it here, it is now glued in. There's a gap at the bottom that will be sealed with tarpaper shortly.
It's kinda funny. As I am building this thing, I find myself actually concerned about virtual water leaks. Probably a good thing, but pretty weird when you catch yourself doing that.
View from the southeast (or east/southeast):
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818195122.jpeg)
I'm not loving the color of the corrugated roof. You can see that I also managed to get some Walther's Goo on the one panel just under the clerestory. I won't do anything with this for now but definitely want to put more thought into how to best weather this section. You will see in a couple of pics that I am experimenting with a somewhat less weathered look for the west side of the Middle Building. Need to sleep on it.
There's also a lot going on with the tar paper where the main building (slate shingles) meets the middle building (to the right of the elevator tower). Need to think about whether that is a credible application of tar paper or if I could clean it up somehow. This particular view is the view that will be facing the aisle so I want to be as meticulous as possible with the details here.
Here's a top view to give you a better look. Definitely would like suggestions from anyone following along.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818195806.jpeg)
Here are a couple of views from the south:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818200329-331142191.jpeg)
And, continuing to walk around the complex:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818200331-33115911.jpeg)
From this perspective, you can see the other side of the corrugated roof we looked at above. this is weathered more heavily. The east side was like that before as well but at the time I thought it was too much so I lighted it up a bit. One or the other of these (or both) will need to change before I am finished. As I said, need to sleep on it for a while.
I would love to get suggestions from anyone out there.
Last picture and you're up to date. This is the view from the west:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-120818201531.jpeg)
Here I wanted to try a much more moderate weathering level. On those panels, I actually used alcohol and chalk as a thin wash, not plain chalk scrubbed into the finish. I also used a single edge razor blade to erode the end of the panels a bit. My initial thinking is that I like the effect but again, I want to walk away from it all for a while and look at it again with fresh eyes.
Vince
I finally got caught up on your build thread tonight. Great work and great thread - I will be continuing to watch your progress. I agree with your comments about build threads helping to motivate the build process. Bob sure produced some nice kits.
Thanks, John. I would appreciate any suggestions you (or anyone else) might have regarding my questions on the tarpaper and the corrugated metal roofing. I'm definitely struggling a bit to find the sweet spot on a couple of these decisions.
This kit has been significantly more challenging than the few I did before. Humbling but rewarding at the same time.
Really excellent modeling and how to.
Thanks, Curt and John. It's good therapy to do a thread, I believe. Not only is there pressure to make progress, but I feel pushed to try to do at least a little better than I might have normally done because people that are much better at this than I am are watching. Healthy tension. Should result in some improvement....
Looking terrific, Vince!
In regards to your 'I made a lot of mistakes' with the shingling - I had to go back a second time to find them - they don't stand out. I think the roof valley with the change of roofing materials signifying repairs where you say 'there is a lot going on here' will tone right down with weathering. I went to the SRM page and found the pictures of the original pilot model - your roofing changes are fairly similar and those changes don't stand out on the pilot model. I'm afraid all my corrugated iron roofs have been done with Floquil paints - so can't help much there. I did find if I put a coat of metallic paint over the primer and then my colour over that, the metallic paint gave the effect of rust just starting to 'bubble' through the top coat.
Really enjoying your build thread.
Thanks, Mark. I'll give the metallic paint thing a try on a spare panel. Sounds interesting.
The roofing doesn't really jump out at me when I'm looking at the model (same thing with the shingles). It's just when you take a picture that all those sheets pointing in so many different directions look somewhat out of place to me. I may experiment by placing, without gluing, a patch or two in that area to see if I can lessen the effect. As you said, some more weathering will help. Might need to be careful, tho -- dry brushing in that area might make it worse if it highlights the edges of all of the different pieces.
Vince,
I think you did an excellent job on the roof. I, like Mark, went back and didn't see anything that really caught my eye as a mistake.
Well done, very well done indeed.
Tom ;D
Thanks, Tom. I appreciate the positive comments.
Vince,
I am getting caught up with your build and am very impressed with your detailed roof work. The irregularities shouldn't concern you too much--it looks great despite being a pain in the artichoke. All the different angles add a ton of visual interest.
Thank you, George. I have purposely stayed away from the kit for a few days so I can look at it with fresh eyes. It definitely looks a little better when I walk away for a while. And I agree, this kit in particular has a lot of visual interest with all of the interesting roof lines and textures.
Your modeling is great! I find that it really helps to get away from a build for a few days before I start going in with the eagle eye for changes or fixes. Thanks for sharing your build with us.
Thanks, John. I should have some more updates this weekend.
Still enjoying your thread, Vince. Busy with back-to-school but following along...👍🏻
Thanks, Dave.
Is that you going back to school? Kids? Or maybe you're a teacher?
Vince,
Following along on your model build, the photos will be a helpful reference, can't wait to raise the walls on Rugg here too, walls & castings painted and the windows were just glazed....
Tommy
Quote from: vinceg on August 18, 2018, 03:09:40 PM
Thanks, Dave.
Is that you going back to school? Kids? Or maybe you're a teacher?
Teacher...just three more years!😜
I finished the roof on the Middle building. As I said earlier, I wanted the weathering to be a bit more subdued on this one. Here's the result. First, looking at the building from the west:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-190818130519-332951870.jpeg)
and now looking from the east:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-190818130517-332942222.jpeg)
I do think I like this look, including the "frayed" edges at the bottom of the panels. I think I discovered at least part of my problem: I'm an STBG (Single Technique Binging Guy). A few months ago I discovered the technique of using a suspension of chalk dust in alcohol to color strip wood and other materials (Props to Brett Gallant at Sierra West). Bingo. I had a new hammer and everything looked like a nail. So, I first tried using this technique to do all the weathering. And, it does seem to have some good use. The problem is that the low surface tension of the alcohol causes the color to spread far and wide quickly. That's fine if you're coloring strip wood. But if you're looking for localized rust effects on a metal panel, not so much. I think it's also worsened by the fact that the metal panel is also a relatively smooth surface, even with the primer coat on it.
So, the answer was to weather with paint. Duh. You can weather with paint. Who knew? The second picture above (view from the east) is done that way. I used a couple of different rust colors - some old Polly S Rust that I still had lying around and some newer Microlux Rust. In some places I also sprinkled on some rust-colored chalk powder while the paint was still wet to give it a little texture. I also tried thinning the paint in a couple of places as well. It's good for some contrast but in general, seems to create the same sort of problem as the alcohol. For example of thinned paint, look at the second picture, start at the elevator tower (slate-shingled clapboard box), and look at the third panel to the left. That's thinned. Very muted. Nice effect for rust-impregnated runoff from a rusty thing of some sort, but too subtle for my taste for an actually rusted metal thing.
This picture also shows the roof on the elevator tower is finished. The oxidized copper ridge cap is there. It need a little more work as it isn't quite as varied as the ridge on the main building roof and it is coming up a little bit on the right.
Finally, you can see that I have been doing a little more weathering on the roof. All chalk here. For the tar paper, I just brushed in a lot more medium gray chalk. I'm also starting to add a few more streaks with white, black, and rust chalks. The second picture shows this pretty well.
Here's an updated view of the Main Building from the north:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-190818130522-33296833.jpeg)
A couple of small things to notice. First, I finished roofing the cupola. Second, I weathered the slate a bit more including a couple of rust streaks coming down from the ridge cap. I see a few shingles coming up on the right side of the building. Need to go back and glue those down. There are also some flecks of chalk dust on the shingles that haven't been brushed around, yet. I will fix that. Also, recall that the dark spot under the cupola is a shadow, not weathering. The light source is behind the diorama.
Notice that the stack is in place for this picture. It's not fastened, yet -- I just wanted to see what it looked like.
I need to finish off the tops of those two brick walls on both sides of the brick extension at the bottom of the picture. Getting tired of seeing that unfinished scene.
One last pic for now. Here's a close up of the angle between the Main Building and the Middle Building:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-190818130524-3329799.jpeg)
You might recall that last time I posted, I wasn't happy about some of the tarpaper lines in this area - sheets from the middle (left) building wrapped to the Main building and ended up angling up the Main Building roof because angle between the roofs. I decided I wanted to fix that (violates Vince Rule 1 - "If you try to keep making small improvements you will eventually make it much worse" - but it bothered me a lot. So, I decided on a single patch in the area. It's the trapezoidal piece on the Main building. The left side is cut at an angle to exactly match the roof line and the other three lines are parallel to the basic roof shape. This patch covers the areas that bothered me....I think it's a bit more believable.
The other thing to point out here is the bottom of the elevator tower. Previous pictures showed a gap here. All sorts of HO scale water pouring into the building. I have another small tarpaper patch here. To be as inconspicuous as possible, I cut the piece from the bottom of a junk mail envelope and then painted it the same tarpaper color. It's thinner paper than the craft paper supplied with the kit and it already has a nice crease ready to go. I got that idea from someone else on this forum but I can't remember who it was. My apologies that I can't cite and thank the source explicitly.
That's it for now - getting to the point where some interesting details get applied - the stack, a dormer on the front of the Main Building, and a variety of other roof stuff. I'll be cleaning up and adding some more weathering along the way. Will post when there's something to look at.
Looking good, Vince.
I think the improvement by getting rid of the angled pieces of tar paper roofing was definitely worth the effort. The flashing also looks very good. I've seen Greg Shinnie do some pretty flash flashings in the past - I don't know if that is who you might be thinking of? His 'Troels Kirk cannery' build thread showed some pretty extensive flashing work. The flashing 'how to's' start on page 8.
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26677&whichpage=8
Cheers, Mark.
Great reference, Mark, thanks!
I have to admit that I don't take sufficient advantage of the railroad-line.com forums. For some reason, I have a hard time finding things there (search doesn't work well on any of my Mac browsers, e.g.). Probably just me but the forum software seems a bit wonky to me. So, the direct link is dandy. Thanks again.
You can use Google, DuckDuckGo, etc, to search railroad-line.
Just add "site:railroad-line.com" to the search, and it will limit the search to that site.
dave
Hi Vince,
If I may make a suggestion on the use of the alcohol and pastels, don't use so much alcohol on your brush. Blot some of it off on a paper towel, then dip the tip of the brush in some of the powdered pastel and blot or brush on the metal panels. What I do is work off a piece of glass and have a pile of pastel dust on the glass. I have the alcohol in a small container nearby where I dip my brush and then blot some of the alcohol off and them dip the tip of the brush in the pile of pastel dust and then apply it to the metal panels by blotting or brushing.
Thanks, Steve. I will definitely try that out. Same thing with the fan brush technique in the note Mark referenced. The roofing is such a significant aspect of any model. I want to make sure I get practice on the weathering methods of all the different materials.
Becomes second nature at some point, I expect (hope).
Vince
I have this problem - I can't drive by a barn without taking a picture. I'm sure the doctors have a name for this problem - I just tell people I'm a model railroader. I thought you might like a couple pictures of rusted roofing to use as a model. The thing to remember is that you will usually have old and new panels on the same roof. The older rust is very dark. Anyway here are the pictures. Yes - there are a lot more where these came from.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/18-190818212444.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/18-190818212515.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/18-190818212554.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/18-190818213528.jpeg) (http://modelersforum.com/gallery/18-190818213528.jpeg)
This is a very special, very old barn with a relatively new roof. It was built by my Great, Great Grandfather around 1850.
Nice - thanks, John.
Some minor updates. First, the dormer on the north side of the main building is on:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818150603-333341059.jpeg)
Also added a little more weathering to the slate roofing tiles. Doing it a little at a time so that I don't overdo it. Just a little rust chalk coming down from the roof ridge cap and a little white chalk coming down from the dormer.
You an also see that I have capstones on top of the brick side walls fo the brick extension. The instructions called for painting some strip wood a black color. I wanted a little more contrast and decided to go with a limestone look. The color you see there is Tamiya Deck Tan - the same color I use for aged concrete. Needs a little weathering but I think it looks pretty good in person. Those pieces are painted card stock cut from leftover kit scrap. They're not glued down, yet. I just wanted to see how they look.
You can also see casting W7 is in place on the left of the brick extension (as we're looking at the picture. There's also a small card stock roof section on top. This isn't glued yet, either, but I wanted to test fit how this would all work out. That casting eventually has a fairly tall steel stack coming out of it. It will need to be vertical, of course, but the roof is slanted. Not sure how best to drill a hole into this hydrocal casting to hold that stack. Would appreciate help/suggestions. BTW, I don't have a drill press.
Not shown are a couple of tarpaper sheds that I cut out of the card stock and glued the roof on. These are small, three-sided structures that attach to the main complex in a couple of places. I'll post pics of those once I tar them up and have them in place.
Notice that I still haven't glued in the big brick smoke stack. I am waiting as long as possible to do that. There's still a lot going on in the kit and I just know I'll accidentally hit it with my arm as I'm working and break something. A man's gotta know his limitations.....
Next up, a major wooden deck structure.
Here's the site for the wood Deck:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818150613-333621221.jpeg)
The deck goes in and fills the cubby hole surrounded on three sides by structures. It also comes out to the door you see on the right (bottom right of the picture) and also extends to the left in front of that double door and another door that is mostly cut off by this picture (to the left fo the double door).
I am realizing now that I could have spent less time preparing the brick foundation in these areas. Would still prime it but no need to paint individual bricks and fuss with mortar. It will all be hidden. I'll be a bit more efficient on the next one of these I build :)
Here's the card template for the wood deck. The instructions call for putting the template under a piece of glass or plastic and then assembling the deck on top of that. That seemed problematic to me. My glass top is very thick - more than 1/4". The parallax problem is significant for something that thick. I decided instead to use the technique George called for in the couple of Fine Scale Miniatures kits I built, namely, lightly tack gluing the structure to the card template and then cutting it off when you're finished. Before doing that, I scanned the card and printed a fresh copy on regular letter paper:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818150607-333592338.jpeg)
The card is on the left, the copy is on the right. I held them up to the light with the copy on top of the card to make sure the copy was properly scaled. It was. My plan is to build my deck on top of the copy, leaving the original card intact.
Hi Vince:
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so far. Love it.
Karl
A fear I have had since starting this kit is that the dimensions of the cubby hole would not match the dimensions of the template. There was another template that is glued down to the base that guided my original placement of the foundation castings, but I didn't expect that to work out right. (In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to cut out a copy of the footprint of the deck when first placing the castings to make sure they are situated properly. Not sure if that would have caused other fit problems or not.)
So, I started with a test fit of the beam (4" x 8" lumber) that goes all the way into the cubby hole (up against the middle building). It turned out that this beam needed to be notably shorter than called for by the template. See the following pic:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818150609-333602169.jpeg)
The beam I am talking about is the topmost of the four horizontal beams on the paper (the shortest one in the middle of the page). Look closely and you can see that it is cut shorter than specified - Almost half the width between the two joists. I didn't take any pictures of it, but I also test fit that same beam at the "mouth" of the cubby hole - basically just above the long beam you see below it. It fit well there, too. So, the space is narrower than expected but it is square, not trapezoidal. That will make my overall framing a little easier.
I'm a lot less worried about the rest of the deck - the left side and front (closest to you as you view the picture) do not abut anything. Dimensions not critical
By the way, the beams here are tacked to the paper. Just 2-4 dots (depending on the length of the beam) of Canopy glue holding them down on the paper.
Here is the deck with all of the joists attached.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818150611-33361617.jpeg)
Notice the cubby area is narrower. That caused my to have to make some joist spacing adjustments. I did that by eye. I don't expect that to be a problem once it's planked. We'll see.
Once the glue sets on all of the joists, I cut the deck off the paper template with a single-edge razor blade:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818155450.jpeg)
Need to be a little careful - despite all that wood work, it's still not that strong an assembly.
The moment of truth - test fit the frame back into the diorama:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818155225-33363409.jpeg)
it fits! Still not out of the woods (wait "woods" .... wood deck .... is that funny? probably not). Need to make sure that it still fits after the planks are installed.
Here you can also see that I needed to touch up the ends of the joists that face you - they're "bright" wood color, not gray. My wife even noticed this. I have taught her to be very picky and point out flaws.
(great)
Something else to note here. Notice that even though there is no planking, yet, you can see that the deck will be significantly below the level of the doors. The overall structure will need to be propped up when it is complete. I am assuming some collection of scale 4x4 short posts will do the trick. Will fret over that when I get there.
Time to do the planking. Notice that the card says you should do the planking in the cubby area first ("Plank and test fit this section first" on the card). I want to do that, too, but I wanted to make sure that the planks didn't end up skewed with respect to the building - especially in the bigger part of the deck that is closest to the view. So, I put in one long plank first to make sure it is square with the South Office and Warehouse (the closest buildings with the clerestories). Then, I'm planking my way into the cubby. Test fitting every couple of courses. If something is too big, I can flip the deck over and use a single edge razor blade to trim it down.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-260818155228-333642212.jpeg)
There are no guide lines to help you make sure the planking is square. So, I'm using the joist array to help with that as you can see in the picture. What you can't see is that I have a very heavy rectangular weight at the bottom of the picture helping me keep the deck registered to the paper template. Normally I would tack this down again but since I want to do frequent test fits, I'm not doing that.
BTW, to color the wood, I'm doing two different things: (1) Inkahol (2 tsp/pint) - multiple coats, and (2) black/brown chalk with clean alcohol wash. I'm using a lot less brown this time so that I get less of a zebra effect. (Look back several pages to the discussion on the back wall of the stucco building to see what I mean).
So, we're up to date. I'll be back when the planks are all in.
Quote from: postalkarl on August 26, 2018, 03:43:00 PM
Hi Vince:
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so far. Love it.
Karl
Thanks, Karl. Gettin' close. Can almost taste it.....
Need to start thinking about the scenery part. I already have a frame set up where this dio will go. But, I am expecting that I will go back and put in a backdrop and perhaps rework the land forms. Might have an impact on this scene. Soon, I'll post a couple of pictures of what is going on there to see if I an solicit some help.
hey Vince:
I'll be watching.
Karl
Vince,
Very well done and documented. As far as the decking, isn't there a template/narrative on how high to cut the deck support posts? I see on the template where it shows stairs. Of course, if there is no support post template, it would still be an easy fix.
Tom ;D
Quote from: ACL1504 on August 27, 2018, 04:43:02 PM
Vince,
Very well done and documented. As far as the decking, isn't there a template/narrative on how high to cut the deck support posts? I see on the template where it shows stairs. Of course, if there is no support post template, it would still be an easy fix.
Tom ;D
Thanks Tom,
Maybe I missed it, but the only thing I noticed in the instructions is that the example build has the deck up "on pebbles." I didn't find anything formal that described a repeatable process.
Since I wrote my previous note last night, I have discovered that the deck seems to be low by about 8" or so. I can easily raise the deck that amount by placing it on another set of 4"x8" beams (or fragments of them) set on edge. I'm considering whether I want to have the view under the deck open or blocked off. If open, then I need to put some dirt or gravel under there. Another option would be to have the supports stacked so that it looks like a cribbing sort of thing and the space under the deck would be invisible.
I'm continuing to play with this as I finish the planking. Quite a bit of work -- especially when you can only do a couple of courses at a time during short work breaks.
Here's the finished Deck:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-270818225042-333892112.jpeg)
I experimented with a little gray chalk to represent wear at the door entries and at the top of the steps. I don't like the effect - the color isn't right....need to try something else. Maybe a little light sanding to bring out just a little more of the natural wood color. I will probably also try to put a little more chalk across the entire deck to tone down the color variation a little bit.
You can see that I rounded off the edges a bit where two plank ends butt up against each other. Without that, the individual planks were a little difficult to see unless there was a large color variation. I do think I like that effect. I think I overdid it at a few joints but like the effect overall.
Finally, I have a little more sanding to do to square a couple things off in key places - in particular, the short right edge at the bottom of the deck where the small set of steps (2 maybe?) will go.
Here's the deck in place. Note that I have also temporarily put in some 4"x8" spacers underneath to prop the deck up. I think that level looks OK.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-270818225045-333931.jpeg)
As I mentioned a couple of notes back, I have to decide how to do this permanently. I think that no matter what, there will be a little visibility under the deck. So, I'm thinking that the best bet will be to keep it simple -- using these 4x8s, for example, only more of them. I can glue them down to the base and then put dirt/gravel in between them. Then I won't have to worry about an uneven base making it difficult to site the deck (a problem I had in the past when putting short leg posts on decks first and then trying to glue them down on top of a base that already had dirt on it).
I'll sleep on it and figure something out tomorrow. In the meantime, I see that I still haven't touched up the ink wash on the board ends where they were cut. I'll clean that all up and report back.
You could what I do,,,,, I put weeds/foliage/ barrels/ junk in front of my decks! Cuts down on the visibility of areas! Great work, BTW!
Great idea, Bob. I need a chance to try out my shiny new static grass maker, anyway. NNGC should be a good opportunity to buy some good junk.
Hey Vince:
Looking good so far.
Karl
Thanks, Karl.
And, thank you for giving me the opportunity to make my 500th Post!
I don't think Modeler's Hero is appropriate -- maybe "Spends Too Much Time On The Forum Guy" works.....
Vince:
You are quite welcome. Enjoy your build.
Karl
Congrats on #500 Vince.....and I really enjoy keeping an eye on all these great builds.....neat corrugated roofing. 8)
Thanks, Gregory. And thanks for following along.
Vince,
Deck looks great and the slightly rounded board ends here and there are a novel touch (and look really good). I particularly like your idea of gluing supports to the ground and applying dirt/ground cover around them to get a better fit to the ground. Don't know why I never thought of that, but that's the reason I follow the experts on this forum.
Time to install the deck. I decided to have the deck rest on another set of beams that are perpendicular to the ones that support the joists on the deck. That means the viewer will be able to see a little bit under the deck so I will need to have at least some dirt under instead of having pink foam visible. I started by painting the relevant area a dirt-ish color:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918083928-334911206.jpeg)
You will notice that the white paper template that appeared in previous shots is no longer there (look back to the last few pictures). This is because when I started painting over the paper, it immediately bubbled and separated from the foam. So, I ran my hobby knife around the perimeter of the building (on the foam half of the diorama - the plywood half is fine) to cut the paper and then pulled it up. It came up easily. You can see the outline of where the paper was. Something tells me it would not be a good idea to turn this diorama upside down. Fortunately, all that hydrocal is pretty heavy and I don't think there is a problem long term.
Once the paper was up, I painted those areas of the foam that I thought would be visible around the deck.
Once the paint dried, I glued down the five beams. Definitely wanted to do the beams before the dirt so that I have a nice, smooth surface for gluing.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918083931-334932024.jpeg)
The dirt I use is a mixture that I made probably 20 years ago or so. It is just light clay that is ground up and mixed with some white powder (sorry -- don't remember what I used) to lighten it up a bit. I bought the clay from a local building supplies dealer...you know, the guys with bins of gravel and dirt and lots of other stuff. This looks like baseball diamond sort of stuff. It was -- dare I say it -- dirt cheap. My recollection is that it was only a couple of bucks for 100 pounds or so.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918083932-334941281.jpeg)
I sprinkled the dirt on the visible areas by hand. I didn't sift in this case because I thought a rougher texture would be OK. After sprinkling, I applied alcohol using an eye dropper to help flowing and used an eye dropper again to soak the dirt with a solution of 25% Mod Podge Matte and 75% water. There's some soap in there, too, but with all the alcohol it isn't really needed.
Since the area is so small and the adjacent area is not porous (it's foam), a lot of glue ran around outside the dirt area. I used a paper towel to sop most of that up and let it dry overnight. Here is the result:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918083934-334951570.jpeg)
The glue solution darkens the dirt considerably -- too dark to my eye. So, once it's dry, I go back and "dry brush" more dirt on top:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918083936-334961214.jpeg)
Some people use paint - others have sanded. All those techniques seem to work well but brushing on more dirt seems easiest to me in most cases.
With the foundation ready, I glued down the deck. One more treatment I gave the deck was to scrub in some of my dirt mixture onto the top. It helped tone down some of the stark variation caused by the inkahol and chalks. Here's a long shot of the deck in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918090424-33497780.jpeg)
And here's a closer shot. I also added a little bit more light gray chalk in the high traffic areas to represent wear. That is, in front of the doors, at the top of the steps (yet to be installed). I will probably do a bit more of this - particularly in the cubby hole area.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-010918090426-33498446.jpeg)
Getting closer now. Have to install some roof stuff and other details. Like most super kits, there are some metal ventilators, stacks and other parts included. I started by "priming" them with a blackening agent recommended by Brett Gallant of Sierra West fame:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918224246-336142354.jpeg)
I apply the blackening agent with a cheap testors paint brush and let it work a while. Once everything is pretty black, I toss it in a yogurt cup full of plain water to wash the acid off. Then set the castings on a paper towel to dry. Here are a few:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918224533.jpeg)
Once they dry, I use a Q-Tip to scrub off some of the black. (Didn't think to take pictures of that -- sorry). The result is a nicely-weathered metal casting. You'll see them in place shortly.
The large ventilator (the wider metal piece you see in the picture) also comes with a brass etching stand to hold it up. I think this acid works on brass as well but I just trimmed it off its sprue, folded it into a square, used CA to hold it together, and painted it engine black followed by some liberal dust powder. Pics coming shortly.
The last thing I wanted to do here was to make a ramp to the double door on the east side of the brick extension. It is fairly high off the ground. I could bring the terrain up to solve the "high door" problems but that would cover up a lot of the kits beautiful brick foundation work. I want to finally put in that W7 casting now because I need it to locate one of the stacks. Since I'll be doing that, I want to do the ramp first so that it is easier to access. Here it is:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918224250-336512428.jpeg)
In this picture you can see that I installed one of the stacks coming up from the brick extension building. Also, if you look closely behind it, you can see a short piece of piping that comes out of the Main Building that goes to one of the ventilators. That was a pain. It is a small metal casting glued to the brick wall. I used Canopy Glue that had to sit a while until it was set up and tacky enough to hold the cantilevered piece on the wall. After a while, it worked. Fortunately, it's pretty light. Any heavier and would have needed to build a stand of some sort to hold it while drying.
More shortly....
Here's a shot with everything in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918230706-33652685.jpeg)
Most things are in place here. A couple of things to point out:
- There are two stacks here the bigger one (on top of that W7 concrete block casting) is straight and has a couple of guy wires supporting it. The instructions call for using a very fine wire to do that (.008"). That wire was too thin in my opinion. Very difficult to get a straight, taut look for the wire. So, I used .015 steel wire instead. Happy with the result
- The other stack coming up from the brick extension has a bend in it. The kit actually includes a second pipe that is to be attached at an angle, making the vent look like a two-tined fork. I didn't like it so I left it off. I may just use that vent elsewhere on the roof as a standalone part.
- This picture gives you a good view of the polished, blackened metal effect. I do like it -- looks worn but not broken.
- In addition to the ramp, you can see that I have two small sets of steps. Again, this is because the doors are so far above the ground and I did not want to hide any more of the foundation than necessary. The steps are "scratch built" using commercial stringers from Banta Model Works and some strip wood I had on hand. The Banta stairs kit comes with treads as well but I felt they were too out of scale. When installing the steps, I first glued in the stringers and then glued down dirt between and around them. Once that dried I glued down the treads. All of this was to make sure I would not have a problem gluing down dirt that would be visible but hard to install because the steps would be in the way. Same thing for the ramp. A total of 4 sets of steps are needed. You see two here (brick extension, north side) and on the east side of the complex.
- This shot also shows that I finally have the main brick stack glued in place. That also allowed me to finish the roof in that area.
Here's a direct shot of the ramp that's a little closer. I didn't mention it earlier but i made the ramp with two skinny triangles of chipboard and then stripwood for the planking. Took me a while to get things straight. I have no idea how people scratch build big stuff.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918230709-336542393.jpeg)
I tried to clean up some flaws on the small roof over that concrete block casting next to the ramp but what I did looks horrible. I'll probably repaint the entire piece and re-weather it.
One more stair shot - here's the set that gets you up to the deck from ground level:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918230711-336551061.jpeg)
The complex has a skylight over the garage door in the south extension. Like many kits, it's a piece that just sits atop the roof - there are no holes cut in the roof to create a "real" view. So, as everyone else does, I fogged the windows. I took the piece of acetate that comes with the kit and sprayed it with Krylon matte finish. Went to bed and found this in the morning:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918232715-336562242.jpeg)
I guess this is what they mean when they say "it attacks the plastic."
No worries, though. I just cut out a piece I needed and pulled it tight over the edge of my workbench (sort of like buffing shoes with a shoe shine rag). You can see the rectangular window pane there at the bottom of the picture. It's straight enough to be usable.
The little half moon in the middle is to make room for a vent that comes out of the middle of the skylight. As you can see, I used a hole punch to cut it out.
Here's the installed sky light with the vent in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918232717-33657140.jpeg)
A couple of tarpaper sheds are also included. Here's one on the west side of the building:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918232719-336581524.jpeg)
That door to the right of the shed will get the fourth and last set of stairs.
And, finally, one on the back of the stucco building:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-130918232721-336591954.jpeg)
Again, the stucco building is not fastened down, yet. That back door is also very high. For that, I'm planning concrete slab steps, not wooden ones.
So, at this point, I'm pretty close. I still have a few pipe vents to put in as well as poles and transformers to bring power into the building. But, at that point, it will be ready for scenery. If any of you are following my "Illinois Central Monee Rebuild" thread, you know that this diorama is located at the north end of that town. Because I am about to make some dramatic changes to the town including some of its land forms, I am thinking that I will not finish the scenery on this diorama until the topography of north Monee is figured out. I want to make sure I have the maximum flexibility in planning the town and not restrict my options because I prematurely chose a road location on the dio that doesn't match up with where it goes.
Still a while before I get to that. Have some basic construction to do in Monee first. We'll see how it comes together. In the future, I will hopefully not have this problem again. I will be planning scenes and building dioramas to fit, not the other way around.
Looking great, Vince! A real show stopper!
I do think that Rugg has about the best lines of any kit design, ever! That view of the roof is spectacular!
Cheers, Mark.
Wonderful Vince , is the oxidizer the same thing as Patina?
Great looking build Vince! That's quite a structure. :D
Quote from: mark dalrymple on September 14, 2018, 12:14:07 AM
Looking great, Vince! A real show stopper!
I do think that Rugg has about the best lines of any kit design, ever! That view of the roof is spectacular!
Cheers, Mark.
Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I love the "busy" look of the complex with the variety of extensions over time. Bob did a fabulous job capturing the complexity.
Quote from: Janbouli on September 14, 2018, 03:31:43 AM
Wonderful Vince , is the oxidizer the same thing as Patina?
Thanks Janbouli - I hadn't heard of a "Patina" product until you just mentioned it. I looked it up on the web and found this product at Home Depot:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Modern-Masters-Green-Patina-Metal-Effects-Paint-Oxidizing-Finish-Kit-204336/206483628
If that's what you mean, I think the answer is no. That product appear to be a special effect paint kit that you can use on any paintable surface to achieve a faux oxidized copper patina on any paintable surface. Looks like maybe they supply you with a metallic paint for a first coat and then a subsequent coat or two to react with that coat? Not sure. But, they do say you can put the effect on any paintable surface. They have a rust version, too. The stuff I used is an actual acid that reacts with a couple of different metals, including pewter. Actually dangerous stuff. if you don't wash it off, parts will eventually dissolve away (although this doesn't seem to be as harsh as the old Radio Shack etchant that some people use to weather their corrugated roofing...there was no "sizzling" when I used this stuff)
Quote from: ReadingBob on September 14, 2018, 07:13:37 AM
Great looking build Vince! That's quite a structure. :D
Thank you, Bob. Appreciate you looking in.
Quote from: vinceg on September 14, 2018, 11:06:01 AM
Quote from: Janbouli on September 14, 2018, 03:31:43 AM
Wonderful Vince , is the oxidizer the same thing as Patina?
Thanks Janbouli - I hadn't heard of a "Patina" product until you just mentioned it. I looked it up on the web and found this product at Home Depot:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Modern-Masters-Green-Patina-Metal-Effects-Paint-Oxidizing-Finish-Kit-204336/206483628 (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Modern-Masters-Green-Patina-Metal-Effects-Paint-Oxidizing-Finish-Kit-204336/206483628)
If that's what you mean, I think the answer is no. That product appear to be a special effect paint kit that you can use on any paintable surface to achieve a faux oxidized copper patina on any paintable surface. Looks like maybe they supply you with a metallic paint for a first coat and then a subsequent coat or two to react with that coat? Not sure. But, they do say you can put the effect on any paintable surface. They have a rust version, too. The stuff I used is an actual acid that reacts with a couple of different metals, including pewter. Actually dangerous stuff. if you don't wash it off, parts will eventually dissolve away (although this doesn't seem to be as harsh as the old Radio Shack etchant that some people use to weather their corrugated roofing...there was no "sizzling" when I used this stuff)
Thank you for the info Vince , I'll have to keep looking what the Oxidizeerr equivalent is here.
Coming along very well Vince.
George
Beautiful build, Vince, and a very well- thread. I've enjoyed it every step of the way.👍🏻
As you might have seen in my layout build thread, I'm gutting the minor scenery I had in the town of Monee so that I can put in a proper backdrop and also upgrade the basic scenery techniques. This diorama will ultimately be sited at the north end of that town. Even though I am not finished with Rugg, yet (some stairs, power poles and lines, soil pipes, and some misc detail/clutter to be strewn), I thought I would do a test fit of the dio in the frame I have built for it and shoot a few pictures so that I can think about how I want to portray that in the final scene. These are the last few pics I have of Monee now before everything was ripped up (posting that next on the layout build thread).
Here's a wide shot of the diorama in place:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-160918220455-33832131.jpeg)
The land forms that I previously created took into account Rugg's two-tier structure. That will continue with the new scenery as well. Some hills will be necessary on the dio to blend it in with the surrounding area. Here's the blind side of the diorama:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-160918220459-338431257.jpeg)
BTW, if anyone is keeping track, I now have east and west reversed. North on the diorama as specified by the orientation of the real building is actually facing south on my layout. So, the real-life west side of the building is now the east side of the building in Monee. It's just the way I placed the kit because of what I wanted to see from the aisle. Probably no one is even thinking about that....shouldn't have even brought it up, but just in case.....
Here's the aisle-facing interface:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-160918220502-33844380.jpeg)
Again, a downward sloping hill will need to be brought onto the diorama somehow. Over the next couple of weeks, I will give some thought about how that will need to look in its final form. Where are the parking areas, paths, roads, etc. I want to make sure I have a plan to make sure it mates with the surroundings believably.
Finally, here's where the diorama is near the rail service:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/760-160918220457-33842149.jpeg)
I would *really* like to get suggestions for this. My original thought is that this would just be a team track type of style - some road from Rugg would lead up to the tracks and things would be loaded and unloaded in very manual way. Since then, I have had the additional thought of perhaps scratch building a loading/unloading dock. The track is curved so this may not be too easy but seemed like it was worth some thought. Again, please offer some pointers, suggestions or, better yet, pictures if anyone out there has some ideas that might fit well.
Those of you that know the Rugg kit know that it comes with some parts to build a small tram -- a mini narrow gauge system of sorts with a turn table and some cars to carry things around the complex. See this URL for a picture on Bob's web site:
http://www.southrivermodelworks.com/page170a.html
I didn't include that because I didn't find it that interesting. At least I didn't when I set aside the real estate for the diorama when I started it a lot of years ago. Not sure what I would do if I started from scratch again today. In any event, it won't be there.
Hey Vince:
Looks just great so far.
Karl
Thanks, Karl. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the finished environment without some decent scenery around it.
Vince,
Have you considered removing the stucco building and then cutting the base in a way that would allow you to pivot the diorama at about a 45 degree angle? Then it would be relatively easy to add a loading dock to the rear of the structure along the existing siding. I think that would better display the more attractive proportions and elevation changes in the structure than its present orientation. That's kind of a major change, but you asked...
Quote from: jerryrbeach on September 25, 2018, 11:48:34 AM
Vince,
Have you considered removing the stucco building and then cutting the base in a way that would allow you to pivot the diorama at about a 45 degree angle? Then it would be relatively easy to add a loading dock to the rear of the structure along the existing siding. I think that would better display the more attractive proportions and elevation changes in the structure than its present orientation. That's kind of a major change, but you asked...
That's a really interesting idea, Jerry. The stucco building isn't my favorite part of the diorama, anyway. And, since I just tore up all of Monee to put in a backdrop, this is the best possible time to make such a change. It would be a snap to find a new way to seat the dio. I'm going to think about that seriously.
The only thing that gives me pause is whether I would have to cut the existing base. I remember discussions I have had with George Sellios about sites where he cut "dioramas" out of his finished scenery (with structures attached) and all of the ensuing damage he had to fix up. Not sure I'm up for that. On the other hand, Probably not too hard to just cut out the existing track and turn the existing base as-is and relay track over it.
Very interesting, indeed. Thanks!
Vince,
What a journey with this SRMW Rugg construction thread. You started to give us updates in April, and started doing the stucco structure and foundations prior to that.
The 6 or 7 months it takes , give or take 300 or 400 hours plus to put each of these large kits together is well worth the end result. Great Job Vince !
Thanks for sharing this build and hope you start another one soon for your layout.
Tommy
Vince,
I'm in full agreement with Tom. Very good tutorial and build. Looks fantastic in the location.
Tom ;D
Quote from: vinceg on September 25, 2018, 12:55:44 PM
Quote from: jerryrbeach on September 25, 2018, 11:48:34 AM
Vince,
Have you considered removing the stucco building and then cutting the base in a way that would allow you to pivot the diorama at about a 45 degree angle? Then it would be relatively easy to add a loading dock to the rear of the structure along the existing siding. I think that would better display the more attractive proportions and elevation changes in the structure than its present orientation. That's kind of a major change, but you asked...
That's a really interesting idea, Jerry. The stucco building isn't my favorite part of the diorama, anyway. And, since I just tore up all of Monee to put in a backdrop, this is the best possible time to make such a change. It would be a snap to find a new way to seat the dio. I'm going to think about that seriously.
The only thing that gives me pause is whether I would have to cut the existing base. I remember discussions I have had with George Sellios about sites where he cut "dioramas" out of his finished scenery (with structures attached) and all of the ensuing damage he had to fix up. Not sure I'm up for that. On the other hand, Probably not too hard to just cut out the existing track and turn the existing base as-is and relay track over it.
Very interesting, indeed. Thanks!
Vince,
I have cut down a couple plywood diarama bases. I used my table saw and worked the base past the blade slowly. I also set the blade about double the height of the piece as it seems to cut more smoothly at least IMO. I have never had any damage to anything except the edge of the base. I would not dare try cutting a base with any other type of saw. I think it depends on what tools you have available and your comfort level using them.
If it seems easier to you to remove and relay the track, I would encourage you to use that approach. The nice thing is that right now you can adjust the position of the diarama on the layout and live with it for a while before you make your decision.
Hi Vince.
As I said in my last post:
I do think that Rugg has about the best lines of any kit design, ever! That view of the roof is spectacular!
Your response:
Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I love the "busy" look of the complex with the variety of extensions over time. Bob did a fabulous job capturing the complexity.
So it seems to me that perhaps capturing this view is the most important? And as it is set now I think this view is not possible? So I am inclined to agree with Jerry - in particular spinning the diorama anticlockwise to bring this scene down the roof line into view. I agree also that removing the stucco building would help in opening this view up. I think the other great view is the stack with all the changes of material in cladding around it - so spinning the diorama so far as to bring the scene down the roof line into view, but not so far that the view of the stack is at too much of an angle for the viewer to clearly differentiate all those material changes. Also - after spending many months on such a build, I would move heaven and earth to display it at the best possible angle. In fact to me this would be the single most important thing of the whole build process. This is why I typically start each build with a complete mock-up before I build the structure. In this way I can make all these decisions before I start - and also alter the structure slightly (or not so slightly) to compensate for any quirks the site might present.
Cheers, Mark.
Very well done Vince.....a great addition to the layout. 8)
Vince,
Since "meeting" you online last week, today I stumbled upon this construction. I must admit the structures
and surrounding scenery looks rather good to me. I think you are an exceptional builder. Once you figure out
your anticipated placement, I'm sure that the buildings will look perfect along with the surrounding scenery.
I enjoy building structures, but scenery is my downfall. I need more experience. I will continue to follow along.
Keep up the great work.
Rich
Hi guys,
My apologies, guys -- I let the thread sit too long. I have been focused on fixing up problems elsewhere in the basement. More detail on that in my Monee rebuild thread (which I have yet to update.).
Rich, thanks for the kind words. I also love structures. And, as you can see in my Monee thread, I haven't exactly hit it out of the park on the terrain side. But, that's all ripped up now and a nice backdrop is going in. I have been watching videos from people like Luke Towan and others. I have a static grass applicator and a new awareness of some more modern techniques and I'm ready to take a chance again (wait....is that Barry Manilow I hear off in the distance?). Will probably be a couple of weeks before I can start making some progress there.
In the meantime, I do need to get back to Rugg with some of the basics like a few more vents in the roofs and lights over doors, etc. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post I will hold off on finalizing the diorama until I know exactly what I'm going to do with the positioning of it. More on that soon.
Greg, thank you.
Mark, you're right - spinning the dio is the right thing to do if I can improve the view. My favorite side the north side - the side with the brick extension with all the roof stuff on it. Nice shot of the shingles, the brick stack, the dormer, etc. I also like the wood deck on the side, though, so I wouldn't want to rotate it so much as to make that difficult to see. It also occurs to me that rotating it to see more from the front (which would be clockwise as a bird would look down on it) would then make the "back" more parallel to the spur track and perhaps create an easier loading area layout.
Even if I don't rotate it, it seems like the stucco building crowds the main structure. That doesn't happen on Bob's diorama (the SRMW web site) because he made his base much bigger. It just occurred to me tonight that I could put the diorama in place and them move the stucco building further away (off the current base). Of course, I could just delete it as well. More to think about.
I wish I had the discipline to try a mockup as you do. Even the drawing you posted is amazing....I can see how it would help with planning. Since I'm about to undertake the design of an entire town, it seems like a mockup or at least a drawing would be a necessity.....especially since there's some topography to consider.
Jerry, I don't have a table saw - only a radial arm saw and a few hand power tools (saber, circular, reciprocating). But, it just so happens that I'm getting some help on my backdrop work. and HE DOES have a table saw. So, if I'm going to do something, now would be the time. I need to hunker down and figure out what I'm going to do.
Not sure where I'll head with this but I do appreciate your report on having success with the table saw (as well as your concern with any other type of saw).
Tom Langford, thanks. Yeah, I think it's going to look nice when it's in place. I'm hoping that six or 12 months from now, I will have a nice looking town (Monee) that includes several of these kits and some decent terrain modeling. After seeing all the great modeling on this site and in-person at NNGC, I've gotten very "hungry" with respect to scenery.
Tom Boyd, thank you. The build has taken much longer than it should have, of course. Some of that because of my day job, some because I don't work on it every night (need to spend time with my sweetie), some of it because I spend a lot of (too) much time practicing new (to me) techniques, and some of it because the kit was probably a little too difficult for my current skill level so I spent a lot of time test fitting and refitting and thinking and rethinking because there were many things about which I wasn't sure. I am hoping that going forward, I'll be able to bang these babies out in a few days.
Kidding, of course, but I do expect build speed to go up significantly.