Hello All,
Today I opened and sorted through the different parts of the kit. I fixed a broken resin wall, and started detailing the wood walls.
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A broken resin wall....maybe ask for a discount from the seller 😊😊😊
terry
You have a lot of work in front of you Curt.
Jerry
Curt that looks like a fun build and certainly enough pieces parts to keep you busy for awhile. Take your time and have fun with the build. I'll be following this one and will be interested to see where you place it on your layout.
HO scale?
dave
Its a long while since I've seen a build of this one. Looking forward to see what you do with it, Curt.
Cheers, Mark.
Howdy Curt,
While there are a lot of parts in the kit, it is much better than a 2"X4" and a razor blade you find in some kits. I'm sure you'll have a blast. BTW, I can recommend a good therapist after you paint all those detail parts.
Have fun,
mike
Curt, congratulations on the new kit.
You already know how great the SierraWest kits are since you just finished one.
Have fun with this one and I'll be happy to follow along.
I love the smell of resin parts in the morning. :) Looks like a fun kit.
Jeff
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on January 30, 2026, 09:14:16 AMI love the smell of resin parts in the morning.
I dunno, the old Magnuson kits stunk pretty badly!
On that cracked corner, consider turning that into a 'feature'. Use a thicker CA so the parts don't mesh quite perfectly, and then weather it as if the foundation shifted and caused the crack.
dave
Curt, I think you have a year of detail finishing on this kit. I'll be following along.
This should be fun. Can't wait.
Curt, my good man, and great builder, especially of SW kits.
Glad to see you rolling out the red carpet for this one! Of all
of the Sierra West kits, this is my favorite design that Brett did.
I will be watching as you proceed. Good luck and turn this into
something special.
Rich
Afternoon All,
Thanks for following along and your comments Terry, Jerry, Larry, Dave, Mark, Mike, Rick, Jeff, Ron, Craftsman Kits, and Rich.
Dave I'll take your suggestion for the crack.
I know it's been awhile but I finally got the barn walls "planked". I used rusty brown, dusty brown, and ash gray for powders. I followed with diluted A&I and straight RA.
I ended up using 2x10's to make up for the strip wood shortfall.
I still need to trim the one wall.
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The square piece is actually 2 sides of a loft that the instructions say not to separate until later due to being very fragile.
Curt great coloring!!
Jerry
Curt,
I really like the appearance of the planks.They appear to have all the knots and irregularities in shades one might expect in an unpainted structure. Great job.
Mike
Curt your off to a great start and great coloring on the wood.
Nice work on display here.
Excellent colouring on the walls Curt.
Howdy Curt,
The coloring is excellent. Did you distress the wood to get the varied grain and knot effect? It is amazing.
Have fun,
mike
Curt,
Love the individual coloring on the boards, well done.
Tom
Afternoon All,
Thank you Jerry, Rick, Mike, Larry, Karl, Ron, and Tom for following along and your very kind remarks.
Mike I use 3 different type of brushes, small brass, small steel, and one that looks like it is intended for pipes. I also did the knot holes, falling apart boards and missing nail holes.
This is a small update. Progress seems to be at a snails pace. The Shelby's barn walls are done. Since the last update I applied the transfer rub off which only about half actually worked. I don't know if it's because the decal was old or I caused it. It is what it is.
The door trim color is blue weathering powder (I don't remember the manufacturer) and the resin doors were first sprayed light gray (didn't like it) then resprayed it a light brown. I then used 3 different shades (powder) with RA followed by a A&I wash and the cracks highlighted. The 2 door handles are flattened solder and painted with aged steel.
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Oh boy...looks real good, Curt
terry
Looking good, Curt.
Typically, the vertical board joins would be cut to line up with the dwang (blocking) lines so that they can be nailed at the ends. There would usually be two or three rows of dwangs per story. Cutting shorter boards at consistent lengths to line up with the dwangs would be more prototypical. Just a small, painless change you could make moving forward.
Cheers, Mark.
Curt, everything has nice colors.
I think the stencil looks nice and faded.
Curt looks really good from where I'm sitting and nice coloring on the wood.
Curt very well done. And the coloring is perfect.
Jerry
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on February 12, 2026, 03:07:00 PMLooking good, Curt.
Typically, the vertical board joins would be cut to line up with the dwang (blocking) lines so that they can be nailed at the ends. There would usually be two or three rows of dwangs per story.
Cheers, Mark.
Looking very good Curt and thanks for posting!
Mark, I figured out the term "dwang" from your context but was curious to look it up further and I saw "nogging piece, nogging, noggin or nog" as synonyms. All fun terms.
I worked for a long time doing 1:1 carpentry in the American Midwest and over the years I observed that different carpenters sometimes have different names for framing pieces, especially from other regions of the country.
I've worked on a lot of older homes dating from "balloon framing" days and the blocking (in the Midwest) is often referred to as "fire blocking or fire stopping". Post-war platform framing styles changed the need for fire blocking and none of the contemporary tract houses I worked on called for it, although we did sometimes install diagonal wind bracing, depending on the sheathing used.
Curt, the front wall looks great.
QuoteI worked for a long time doing 1:1 carpentry in the American Midwest and over the years I observed that different carpenters sometimes have different names for framing pieces, especially from other regions of the country.
Hi Mark.
Even in New Zealand, with a population of only some 5 1/4 million, the term dwang is used in the South Island while noggin is used in the North Island.
Cheers, Mark.
Curt,
Your build is looking good. That front wall is nice with the added knots and coloring.
I saw a note by Brett that mentioned the decals in older kits like Blue Sky and the Backwoods Work Train
are so old that they shouldn't be used. I received a tip from modeler Carl Alessi on the old Railroad Line Forms,
that he said to buy some lettering decals from I think Woodland Scenics. I think the one's I purchased were Roman ones.
I will have to look for my packet.
Rich
Good Morning All,
Thanks Terry, Mark, Rick, Larry, Jerry, Mark (IL), Ron, and Rich for following along and your kind comments.
Mark of course you're correct and will be something I pay attention to in the future.
Rich thanks for the info.
Here are the photos of the Blue Sky walls I have been working on. Note on the 3rd and 4th photos that the front void will have another structure built on the front and the door positioning will be on a freight dock.
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Great colouring, Curt.
Those doors and windows look fantastic!
Cheers, Mark.
Curt,
Very well done. Wall coloring look great.
Tom
Curt everything looks really good including the signage; very well done.
Curt, very nice colors on those walls.
Signs look very good too.
Afternoon All,
Thanks for following along and your very kind words Mark, Tom, Larry and Rick.
Since the last update I have assembled 7 of the walls and added the roof cards to the barn. I added extra bracing for sturdiness.
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Curt, looks great.
Wood color even looks better in these photos than the last set you posted.
Looking great Curt! Sorry I missed this thread. :-[
Curt great job, and the wood coloring looks even better after assembly.
Great work on the wooden walls and the signs indeed! Following along with interest!
thanks for sharing these!
Yannis
Howdy Curt,
Blue Sky is looking great. The wood color is spot on and the sign work is fantastic.
Have fun,
mike
The walls look good, Curt. Using 2x10s enhances the randomness of the board widths.
Vagel
Curt,
Well done Butty. The different board colors really adds to the character of the warehouse.
Tom
Curt everything is looking great. Nice coloring on the walls and windows.
Signs look nice to.
Jerry
Just got caught up on this build Curt, great progress, I'll be looking in..... :)
Afternoon All,
Thank you Rick, Philip, Larry, Yannis, Mike, Vagel, Tom, Jerry and Greg for following along and your kind comments.
Since the last update I placed a board by board roof sub floor on the barn and attached the store to the office. Next up is the office and store roofs (have to wait on barn roof materials). Instructions say to tar paper both, but I will do something else. The water tank is not attached (just showing placement).
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Curt that is coming along very nicely!! Nice work.
Curt, you're showing great work here.
I really need to check in more often.
Your making great progress but more importantly, that is great modeling there.
Wow! Just, Wow!
Wonderful work Curt.
Jerry
Howdy Curt, the subroof looks terrific. Persist and have fun! ~mike
8) Likey!
Pieces of work like this, make me sometimes wanting to revisit my On30 endeavors and 19th century era. Thanks for sharing!
Yannis
Looks real, Curt.
Afternoon All,
Thanks for following along Larry, Rick, Ron, Vagel, Jerry, Mike, Philip, Yannis, and Michael for your very kind comments.
The instructions called for random boards on the barn and tar paper on the office and store. I used shake shingles from Wild West models for the barn and 3 tab asphalt shingles that I already had from previous projects on the office and store.
After applying the shingles and rafter tails I felt the provided roof cards weren't long enough requiring a redo for both.
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Curt good roofing job.
Good progress, Curt, and interesting roofing materials.
Do bare in mind that the lower the pitch of the roof the less the types of roofing that can be used. Wind blowing against the pitch can blow water up under the course above and into the building. Tiles are generally not used on pitches lower than 15 degrees and corrugated iron on pitches less than 5 degrees.
To save on timber and time when scratchbuilding I cut small sections out of my black roof card and replace by gluing in weathered 6x1 stripwood. I then create holes in the roofing above to expose the sarking underneath.
Cheers, Mark.
Curt,
It's been ions since I have been here, due to an ongoing family dispute over
my late mother's estate. I'll be looking in from time to time over the next two weeks.
So far, catching up on your build, its becoming a nice structure overall and this kit
has been a favorite one of mine since it came out at Sierra West. I have scratchbuilt
this too, but I didn't ask to upload mine, because I still have to finish my foundry,
and it just wouldn't be right.
I like the coloring of your wood, as mentioned earlier and those knotholes is something
I will try on a future build. You're a brave man and they do look great. Thanks for the share.
Rich
Roofing looks great Curt, I'm assuming that the roofs will be weathered.
Afternoon All,
Thank you Larry, Mark, Rich, Ron, and Mark for following along and your kind comments.
Mark what kind of roof would be recommended for that slope?
Rich I will probably have similar issues from one brother when Dad passes.
I've finished weathering the roofs and installing smoke stacks and a roof water tower.
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Next up is painting and installing a 3-D printed (3 walls) cook house that attaches to the back of the barn.
Curt the roof and stacks look great! This is coming along nicely.
Curt, what a difference a little weathering makes, the roofs look great.
Curt, the roofs look very good now that they've been weathered.
Are the gray and green roofs paper?
Curt,
The roofing looks realistic. The variety in roofing adds a lot to the structure.
In the real world that flat roof would present a big problem.
Mike
Hi Curt.
I can't tell what pitch that roof is, but if it is 5 degrees or more you could use corrugated iron with a flashing up against the side wall. Butnoyl has used in NZ since the 1970's. It is a rubber membrane and far more resistant to UV than tar and bitchimin (which would be other options). I'm not sure if butnoyl is used much in the US, and not until the 1970's. Honestly, I'd just keep this as knowledge for upcoming builds.
During the 1970s it was clear that the conventional flat roofs of tar and bitchimin could not cope under New Zealand's harsh ultra violet climate and major lending institutions refused to lend to these buildings. It was during this time that butyl membranes came to the forefront, establishing itself as the dominant product in the market place. It can be found in Japan, Shanghai, South Korea, Los Angeles, Siberia and the Pacific Islands.
Cheers, Mark.
PS - the weathering looks great!
Howdy, Curt. The roofing looks good. The variety of weathering and shingle types adds a lot of interest to the model. Have fun, mike
Afternoon All,
Thank you Larry, Ron, Rick, Michael, Mark, and Mike following along and your kind words.
Rick the 3 roofs are paper.
Michael I dislike that type of roof.
Mark I did attempt flashing (paper painted aluminum) but I didn't make it thick enough.
Today I finished the cook house. The walls are 3-D printed with 4 shades of gray on them and brown on the wood elements. I made a standing seam roof out of a styrene for sale sign with 2x3 seams. The roof was initially sprayed a red oxide then heavily weathered to match the other roofs.
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Curt, that looks excellent, both the model and the coloring/weathering.
dave
Curt, I agree with Dave, it all looks excellent!
Curt great job on all the roofs. I really like the metal standing seam one; looks very lifelike.
Curt,
And I also agree with those before me, the wall coloring is accented by the roof coloring, it all looks great together.
This is a fine structure build.
Rich
Very nice, Curt.
Curt,
Great job on the stone cook house and the standing seam roof looks like it belongs there.
I like that beat up look!
Great work there, the roof is amazing!
Good Afternoon,
Thank you Dave, Rick, Larry, Rich, Mike, Ron, Philip, and Yannis for following along and your kind words.
I finally finished the exterior stairs. I added some additional structural braces and modified the guard rails to what looks correct to me. I also added a bunch of NBW's where the kit uses only 1 on the stairs.
The stair components are colored the same as the structure in a dusty brown and ash gray. The NBW's are from Tichy.
The stairs aren't perfect but they turned out better than I expected.
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Looking great, Curt
terry
Dang Curt! Now those are some serious stairs going on there. Very well done.
Howdy, Curt. The stairs look terrific and complement the structure. Great work! Have fun, mike
Great job on the stairs, Curt!
They look terrific, and are fiddly little beggars to get that nice. The NBW castings look good. (I put nearly 1500 in my large timber trestle, and now, unless I put my glasses on, I can't see any of them!)
Cheers, Mark.
Curt,
You say you don't like doing stairs, but they look fabulous to me! Nice work!
Rich
Curt, stairs look very good to me.
The patch on the water tank is an interesting detail.
Curt wonderful job your doing on this model.
Great coloring all around.
And the stairs came out perfect.
Jerry
Looks good. That's a lot of steps, but they look sturdy with all those nuts and bolts.
Mike
Curt,
The outside stairs, landing and structure looks great. The final result was definitely worth the effort involved.
Really, really nice job!
Afternoon All,
Thank you Terry, Larry, Mike, Mark, Rich, Rick, Jerry, Michael, Ron, and Vagel for following along and your kind comments.
Rick I painted the patch with a tarnished steel paint which makes it stand out.
I have been working on a 4 wall open shed that had one side with a floor and the other side dirt but I decided to put a floor on both sides after putting a thin cedar sub-floor on first mainly to give strength to the structure.
I built the wall framing from scale 2X4 and 4X4's. This was followed by individual boards colored with Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Gold Ochre, and Ash Gray followed by RA.
The shed is supposed to be dilapidated so that's why the wood is distressed in different ways. The roof will be added later.
The back wall is laid down to help take the first photo.
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Looks weather-beaten for sure.
Curt, those boards have seen a lot of nasty weather.
Draftee! ;D
The end walls look more amber colored than they really are. It must be the background lighting.
Curt nice job achieving the distressed look. Are you sure it's safe to walk inside?
Curt, if that shed was any more dilapidated, it would be falling down, great job.
Looking fantastic, Curt.
Cheers, Mark.
Howdy Curt, that structure definitely looks "road hard and put up wet"! Have fun, mike
Afternoon All,
Thank you Michael, Rick, Philip, Larry, Ron, Mark, and Mike for following along and your kind words.
I finished the shed roof today. The corrugated roofing is from Wild West Models that is is 27" wide and and cut in 1" length.
The coloring has a spray Red Oxide base with the following powders:
Rusty Brown
Light Rust
Dark Rust
Ash Gray
and edges highlighted by Tamiya Line Accent
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Curt great coloring!!
Glad I won't be underneath them when it rains!! :)
Jerry
Curt,
Love the rusty roof.
I assume this shed has no practical function.
Mike
Curt,
I've been late to respond but I'll say, fantastic job on the build. Weathering and coloring look spot on for the structure.
By the way, that roof look really crappy, but in a good way. ;D
Tom
Looking great, Curt.
The rusty colouring on the roof looks spot on.
Cheers, Mark.
Curt, great colors on the roof.
It's weathered look matches the weathering on the boards.
Nicely done.
Is this going on the layout?
Amazing work on the rusty roof!!!! Thanks for sharing!
Howdy Curt, the roof matches the structure perfectly. It's gonna leak! Have fun, mike
Curt great coloring on the roof; I think it's definitely seen it's better days.
Practical function. Raindrops keep falling on my head Mike ;D
Nice work Curt!
Afternoon All,
Thank you Jerry, Michael, Tom, Mark, Rick,
Yannis, Mike, Larry, and Philip for following along and your kind words.
Just a short update today. I have finished the fencing that goes around the shed and by the cookhouse. After that I figured out placement and placed dental sponges (on a thin plastic shaft) into the diorama base to preserve the mounting holes during landscaping. I can't take credit for that idea, it came from Brett at SW.
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Next up is working on details.
Oops! I forgot the second photo.
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I can see why the fence took so long to build, that is a lot of work. All that effort was worth it is they look great.
That fence is going to fit right into that scene.
Very rustic, Curt!
I suck at rustic! The roof from above looks very cool.
Dental picks are second only to potatoes in their usefulness! ("people are smoking them, they're building houses out of them. They'll be eating them next!")
Cheers, Mark.
Curt beautiful job on that fence. Actually the whole thing is beautiful.
Jerry
Curt great job on a very unique looking fence. The scene is really starting to take shape .
Curt,
Nice work so far, everything looks super!
Rich
Howdy Curt,
The structure looks fantastic. The helicopter view shows how massive the structure is and how unique the variety of roofing materials is. Great job!
Have fun,
mike
I like what you've done with the place!
;D
Afternoon All,
Thank you Ron, Rick, Mark, Jerry, Rich, Mike and Karl for following along and your kind words.
I finished the oil tank today. I added a walkway, ladders, NBW's and a valve on the exit pipe. Obviously the drums still need painter and weathered.
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Looking at that tank, I wonder if there should be some sort of contraption that would allow the operator to open an air vent at the tank dome, without the hassle of the ladder?? Without that, just turning the spigot for the drain hose wouldn't let the oil flow very well. Just a thought...
dave
Great job Curt.
Jerry
The stand and tank turned out well.
Will there be a pump to get the oil into the tank?
Curt the tank looks good, nice work.
Curt,
The tank is nice addition. Looks very good.
Mike
Howdy Curt, excellent job on the tank. Have fun, mike
Curt nice job on the tank.
Butty Curt,
Well, I guess you and Kathy (MOH) are well on the way. Enjoy the vacation.
Very nice diorama and the tank looks great. Looks like a sizable diorama.
Tom