Finished this kit today. Didn't start a thread earlier as this one has been stop and go. I started it the first week of May.
It's a background kit, so it should go quickly (I say that 3 months later). Here's the kit and the usual stuff. Clapboard and scribed walls, stripwood, two types of roofing materials, some signs and instructions.
Jeff
I start by truing up the walls on the sander as they sometimes have a slant from the laser.
Jeff
Next it's bracing time.
Jeff
I nearly always screw up the bracing, a piece will be too long or just off so when the walls go together, they don't fit. One reason could be the instructions. Here you see the instruction for the bracing, but that's looking from the siding side, not the back. Also note there are two walls #5. ::)
Jeff
Bracing completed, we'll see when it goes together how many mistakes I've made.
Jeff
I stained all the siding and stripwood with Hunterline Driftwood stain. This was done in three applications to the siding. I let them dry in between and see if it's where I want it, if not, add another layer.
Jeff
The stripwood goes into a "bath" of the stain. This olive tray works great for this.
Jeff
Siding stained with Vallejo light grey. I used a sponge and dab and scrape along the siding. Adding layers until it's "done".
Jeff
Between the stain and the paint, this piece got warped, but not the usual way. It needed further bracing to get it back square.
Jeff
I sprayed all the windows and the details with grey primer.
Jeff
I'd hoped to sponge paint the windows so some grey would appear, but this was too spotty, so I ended up painting them and then dabbing a bit of the grey back over them. Turned out OK, but not great. Hard to get grey on the small interior parts, same problem I had with the red paint.
Jeff
Everything then got a wash of black oil in mineral spirits, after a shot of dullcoat. Window glass was cut from the supplied acetate and glued in place. Then some green shades applied.
Jeff
By this time, I'd spent 2+ weeks on the kit. It then went to limbo as I was getting the layout backdrops ordered and installed. Then preparing for the kids/grandkids to visit. Then a trip to Door County for a week. Then more train running and then another week for the airshow. Finally got back to the kit. I'd stopped as I'd forgotten to paint the freight doors. Same technique followed. A piece of microscope cover glass was a perfect fit for the windows. The doors are very thin, so I needed a brace for the top ones to glue them in place to the brace rather than the door jamb.
Jeff
Time to put the walls together. Not a perfect fit as you can see on the top left the wall is short. I should have adjusted the slot in the wall to lower it, but didn't notice it at the time.
Jeff
As it has no back, it's not very sturdy and I made some braces to square it up from leftover siding. There are two cross braces as well which were included, but I added them after the picture.
Jeff
There's two types of roofing, some corrugated metal and tarpaper. I had some leftover tarpaper from another project which was already painted, so I used that. The metal was sprayed with grey primer. I made a piece to help hold the lower roof up. I also made some bracing for the other roofs, as with no "back" to the structure, they had no support. By this time I was tired of the kit and didn't take many more pictures.
Jeff
There was a little add on which went on when the roofs were applied. It was board by board siding. Left in weathered wood as that's how Doug pictured it. The metal roof was done with some weathering powders. A strip of paper was used for the top of them. Some oil wash was used on these, and some splattered on the front and the lower roof. I'll live with it as it's now impossible to remove and it's a background building anyway. Trim added under the eaves and I needed one to cover a gap where the left side was too short.
Jeff
No pics the last two days as I was trying to get this finished. There's a "concrete" loading dock, painted with Polly aged concrete with some oil wash/powders. Some details and a figure (the same Doug used) holding a rope to load the crate (the crate wasn't included). He's waiting for his buddy upstairs to get the other end of the rope. I didn't open the doors as it's a background structure anyway. The sign was framed with 2x6s and applied to the front. There are some other small signs in the kit, but I didn't really feel a need for them and there's really no room.
Tar around the roof edges was a pain today. It's a mixture of Elmer's and black paint. I didn't have much left in the bottle, managed to spill Elmer's on the desktop and then black paint as well. Mixed it several times on my two mixing machines and applied it.
Jeff
Anyway, it's finally done. Not my best work, but for a background structure, good enough. I think it's time to work on the layout for awhile.
Jeff
Jeff nice job on the kit. The colors look very good. When I built my first FOS kit I was initially confused by the bracing diagrams. I don't know why he does them that way.
Jeff, great looking model and thanks for all the pictures.
Nice job, Jeff...I think I have that one somewhere. Good looking build.
John
Thanks Curt. Yeah, I've built many FOS kits and I always have a problem with the bracing. I only had to trim off one small piece on this one.
Jeff
Thanks for looking in, Rick.
Jeff
Thank you, John. I often see a kit and think, do I already have that?
Jeff
Great job on this one, Jeff! I remember building one myself. I think I left it down at Tom's. ;D