Curt thank you; much appreciated.

Mike thank you; it was a fun build.

Ron I like your idea; Amy have to tinker a bit more and thanks.

Good Morning,

I see Rick's here but I'll get us breakfast anyways. Coffee and the usual morning beverages are ready and waiting. Breakfast will be cheesy scrambled eggs, toast w/ butter, pan sausages and/or crispy bacon, and hash browns.

What's everyone up to today.

It's a whomping 8 with a high of still too damn cold. Have the usual morning errands to run then a few more tweaks to the Challenge build. Not sure about the rest of the day.

Have a great day!! Be well, keep warm, and be careful out there.

Michael the bracing should make a nice strong and straight building.

Jerry thank you. Good observation on the sign; that's an easy fix.

Jeff thanks so much.

Mark thank you. No I never thought of adding any purlins.

So I'm going to call this build done. Here are some final photos:









Dave had mentioned the gravel was too clean for the theme of the build and suggested adding some rust. I add that then went one step further and also added some black chalks.

 Thanks to everyone who followed along and left all those great comments and/or suggestions; they are greatly appreciated. So now this build is done it'll be back to Hank's Machine Shop build.

Ok, getting towards the end here:



Wanted to add an old tarp over the end to look like someone at some point tried to cover the open roof area. I've used a tissue before but it's way to fragile and hard to work with. I decided to try something new. I grabbed a used dryer sheet, since it's now soft and flexible, and cut it in half. I folded it over on itself then added a thin layer of white glue and worked it through the material. I then made the fold I wanted and added more white glue then clamped the fold to hold it until the glue thoroughly dried. Cut a hole so it would go over the pulley. Spray painted it with a rattle can of red oxide primer then went over that with a coffee color while the primer was still wet. After that dried then the tarp was glued in place.



This is the back of the diorama with the roof, what's left of it, in place. The metal roof is a Northeastern product and I used some scaps I had from other builds. These were spray painted with a grey primer then when dry weathered with a lot of rust.



This is the front of the diorama but I need to dirty-up the gavel that Dave so kindly pointed out. As you can see there's not much left of the original roof and what is left is badly rusted. I'm going to end this here but I'll be back with some final photos; stay tuned.

Mike and Phil thank you both so much.

Dave great suggestion so thanks; I'll give it a shot.

Jeff good looking building; should be a nice addition to your layout.

Ron nice closing on the walls. You assemble buildings the way I do and they come out nice and square. Nice trick for doing rafter tails; I may have to borrow that idea since I hate doing those.

Mike very nice coloring on the walls.

Tom the tower looks excellent and love the color combo.

Mark even though that looks like quite the process the end result is really worth it; great job and tutorial.

James neat project and certainly something different.

Good Morning,

Philip safe travels.

Rick thanks for the coffee and breakfast. That photo looks to be a lot warmer than it's here. Hope the heater repair goes well and travel safely.

Tom have fun with the tower.

Dave I was actually surprised Louis never made it over to here; although neither did Roland/Hopeless both are great modelers and miss their work. Speaking of wood shingles I make my own using either 1x10's or 2x10's then I can color them exactly how I want them. The only drawback is it's a very tedious process.

Karl you're a little warmer than we are here. This weekend is going to be brutal w/ the Arctic air returning.

Ron my sincere condolences concerning the loss of your Aunt. Hope you get some modeling in soon.

Mike have a great modeling day.

What's the rest of you doing.

It's a sunny 18 with a high of 23. This weekend the Arctic air returns and the temps drop right into the basement. Saturday they're saying -25 with windchills and sn*w; doubt I'll be going to my Daughters...too darn cold. The Challenge diorama is done so I'll post an update after here.

Have a great day!! Be well, stay warm, and safe travels.