K.C.'s Workshop - Louie's Lobster Shack (one more time)

[ReadingBob]

Louie's Lobster Shack is one of the kits available from KC's Workshop.  Kenny sent this sample to me to try out.  This is a neat little structure which can be assembled a variety of ways and used for quite a few different things.  I stuck with the original configuration because, well, I'm not very original.     Here's what I received when Kenny sent me this kit, a bag full of parts and the instructions.


Inside the bag were several bags containing parts.  There was a lot of stuff included in that little bag.


As far as doors, windows, glazing, metal castings, etc. here's what I found inside.


I started by giving the stripwood a bath in some Hunterline Light Gray Weathering Mix (I love this stuff and brought back several bottles of different colors from the EXPO).


Before I start a new build I put new blades in my handles and get a new single edge razor blade ready.  I tend to use the single edge razor blade the most so that one's a definite.  The others I may not bother with if I didn't use them very much during the last build I did (in this case I did so they all got swapped out).


I braced the walls next following, for the most part, the instructions.  For this wall I had to leave enough room on the end to allow for the bracing on the wall that would be joined to it.  I glue the stripwood on, weight it down with a marble block (part of an old bowling trophy) and then trim it to fit after the glue dried with my single edge razor blade.


More in a moment (or two)...

[ACL1504]

Bob,

Great start, I'll of course be following along. The Hunterline stains are the best of any premix A&I.

Tom

[ReadingBob]

All the walls have been braced and some of detail parts have been painted.  In hindsight I should have braced the peaked walls a little differently.  I like to a piece of bracing along the top edge to give more surface area to glue the roof to later on.  That's just a personal preference though.  I ran just a little shy on bracing material but I keep plenty of that on hand so it was no big deal.  That's why some is stained and some is not.  Normally I wouldn't bother staining the bracing but I wanted it to stand out in the pictures.


After the walls were braced I brushed them with the same Hunterline Light Gray Weather Mix I stained the stripwood with.


I painted the outside of the walls with a thinned PollyScale Reefer White.  They look much whiter in these pictures than they do in real life.  They're kind of a dirty white because the underlying stain shows through a bit.  I then painted the inside of the walls flat black (any flat black will do) in case I decide to light it up later on.


For a peeling paint effect I take a sponge and dab it in some gray acrylic paint.  Then I dab that on some paper to remove some of the paint.  When it's at the point I like I dabbed it on the walls, doors and windows to transfer some of the gray to those surfaces.  "Dry Sponging" if you will.  It's really hard to see the gray on white but it's quite obvious on the blue doors and windows.  If I over do it a quick swipe with a cotton swab dipped in plain old rubbing alcohol will take it right off.


Next up I used a chisel blade to lift some of the clapboard siding.  Depending on how weathered you want the walls do a lot or a little.  It's also a nice effect to tear off a small sliver here and there.  It'll stand out better after the next step.


Next up is to dip the castings in an A&I mix and brush the A&I mix on the walls to tone everything down.  A&I, for anyone new here, is a mix of rubbing Alcohol (the A) and black ink (the I).  The preferences as to which A and which I to use and the ratios could be debated in depth but for now let's just leave it at A&I.   


That's all for now.  More this weekend (I hope).

[GPdemayo]

Neat looking kit.....I'll be watching Bob. 

[donatode]

Bob,


Just love your presentations and explicit instructions and wonderful accompanying photos.  It is a pleasure and an informative one to follow along.


Please keep them coming.

[Dave K.]

Good start. 👍👍👍

[ReadingBob]

Thanks Tom, Greg, Donato and Dave!     I forgot to include a picture and make mention of the fact that I did, indeed, use a ponce wheel and add nail holes (oh the horror) to the walls before the final A&I treatment. 

Normally I use MicroScale Industries Micro Krystal Klear to glaze the windows but Kenny has include precut glazing so I used the Micro Krystal Klear as glue to glue the panels in place by first putting a small bead around the opening with a needle and...


...then positioning the glazing in place.  The Krystal Klear, surprise, surprise, dries clear so if tiny bit is visible from the outside it won't mess things up.  A big goober would but a tiny bit's okay.   


I started gluing the walls together making sure to keep them square.  I chose to assemble the structure the way it's pictured in the instructions.


The service window has three openings.  The left and right one are covered with a  screen.  The kit includes a mesh material and the back window itself was cutout of peel and stick material so I removed the backing and positioned the mesh over one of the two openings that needed to be covered and pressed it in place.


Then I trimmed the mesh with some Friskar Micro Sheer Scissors (a very handy tool to have on the workbench).


Hard to see it I this picture with the dark background but the screens are in place.


More in a moment... 

[ReadingBob]

Oh my! It was at this point I realized I forgot to do something!     after treating everything with A&I I forgot to drybrush the part with an off-white to bring out the detail.  For those who may not be familiar with this step you take a paintbrush (we all find one that becomes our favorite for this step and mourn it's loss when we finally wear it out), load it with an off-white paint (other light colors can be used as well), unload most of the paint (hence the 'dry' part of dry brushing and then lightly brush the parts so the only areas the paint transfers to are the edges and raised surfaces.  With the light color on the edges and the dark color of the A&I in the crevices and recessed areas all the details really pop.  In essence we're simulating light and shadows with paint and ink.

Anyhow, my dilemma was that the glazing had been installed in the windows and dry bushing them now would risk getting paint on the glazing.  So I cut a bunch of tiny little rectangles from painters tape and masked the individual window panes prior to dry brushing everything.  Thankfully there aren't a ton of windows.   

Back to the build..

The roof cards include one that's notched to fit the configuration I chose.  But, when the notch is centered over the building extension the overhang on each end of the roof differs.  No problem.  Too long is easy to correct.     Too short not so much.  But these were too long so I trimmed it so that the overhang on each end was a scale 18".  I cut the card that goes on the other side to the same length.


I decided it would be easier to position the roof cards that go on the extension if there was a truss (?) to support it on the blind wall so I cobbled one together that matched the peak of the end wall. 


I found that the angled end (black) of the roof cards didn't mate well with the roof that was already in place.  I cut two new cards with an angle (green) that allowed them to butt up against the roof for a relatively tight fit.


Here's the extension roof in place.  The seam will be covered later when the roofing material is applied.


That's all for now!  Thanks for following along!   

[Amagic41]

Bob,
   Looks great so far !  Wanted to add that the roof card issue was corrected after I sent that one to you....  as well as a mis cut on one of the end walls 




Kenny

[postalkarl]

Hi Bob:

The roof came out great.

Karl

[ReadingBob]

Thanks Karl!  Time to finish this one up.  Actually it's been finished but I've been delinquent about keeping up with the thread.  I have to skip over the part where I added the rolled roofing material because I took all the pictures without the memory stick being in the camera.     I have the camera on the back of my work bench facing my work and I reach around it to set the time delay function and press the shutter button so I never see the screen that tells me the memory stick wasn't in the camera.  D'uh!

One thing I will point out about the roofing is I used some very fine grit wet/dry sandpaper cut into scale 3' strips as the roofing material and applied it with 3M Transfer Tape.  I also wanted to experiment with a adding some leading flashing like Martin Ojaste demonstrated in his Campbell Grandma's House thread (Thanks for the tip Martin!).  I decided to use the roofing material that was included in the kit to make the lead flashing and rather than spray it with Oily Black I brush painted it.  Then I hit with some white chalk followed by Dullcoat.  I thought it came out looking like a pretty good representation of lead flashing.   

The only problem I had with the lead flashing that I made was that the roofing material included in the kit through me for a loop.  I had painted the non-lined side of the sheet.  You can see in the picture where one side has lines on it to use as a guide when cutting it into strips and is scored to make it easy to peel away from the backing.  Well, most kits I've built in the past have you paint the side with out the lines, flip it over and cut along the lines.  Also the scored side to assist in easily peeling the sticky side from the non sticky side is usually the non sticky side.  Not in this case.  The lined/scored side is the side that has the sticky backing.  Double check what you get in the kit prior to painting it to make sure you paint the correct side.  No big deal for me, I was still able to add the lead flashing to the roof.



I'm guessing a roof covered with roofing paper like this wouldn't have exposed lead flashing like I added but I wanted to see what it looked like.

The roofs have been covered and dry brushed with an off white.



Okay, on to the roof top signs.  I didn't want to use the laser cut supports for the big sign that goes on the roof so I cobbled something together out of strip wood.  There's nothing wrong with the laser cut parts other than they do have a 'sticky' side to them that isn't necessary.  It could be painted over or scraped off and painted over. 



Okay, time for some pictures of the finished structure...







And a couple more in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

That's it.  A fun little kit that can be build in a variety of configurations and for a multitude of uses.  This one has found it's way to the Atlantic and Southern and may find a home there someday.   

Thanks for following along!

[martin.ojaste]

Bob, the structure llooks really good. The lead flashing is spot on. The signs and colouring all blend nicely. I would suggest a very light application of black chalk with a 000 brush along the edges of the roofing, this will give the steams that extra definition.


Marty

[ReadingBob]

Bob, the structure llooks really good. The lead flashing is spot on. The signs and colouring all blend nicely. I would suggest a very light application of black chalk with a 000 brush along the edges of the roofing, this will give the steams that extra definition.


Marty

Thanks Marty!  Another great tip.  I'll have to give that a try.   

[Zephyrus52246]

Nice looking build, Bob.

Jeff