FOS Engine House at Caldwell Junction - Build

[ReadingBob]

FOS Engine House at Caldwell Junction

Here's my first build thread on the Modelers Forum.     I'm building this for Cuse (John Mancuso).  John set aside space for it on his HO narrow gauge layout Backwoods NE in Florida.  Well, actually he set aside just enough space for the Engine House and has requested that the machine shop not be attached to the main structure so I'll be building that part as a stand alone structure.

Here are some photos of the kit contents starting with the a scan of a card included in the kit that has a great color photo of the finished model on it.  That'll be a handy reference for me during the build and a great source of motivation.  I sure hope Doug doesn't mind my scanning and posting the card.  Our mantra at work is it's better to ask forgiveness than beg permission.   

The instructions (see photo number 005) also have some color pictures of the finished model on them.  Personally I really like when there are color photo's included in a kit.

Continued in a moment.

 

[ReadingBob]

I began by separating all the parts from their carriers, whether it be the plastic parts or the laser cut parts, and cleaning them up a bit.

For the plastic parts I use a sprue cutter (a very handy tool to have on the work bench) to cut the parts from the sprue and an emery board to touch up the edges.  Some modelers prefer to leave them on the sprue and paint them first.  My preference is to separate them and clean them up prior to painting so I don't have to go back and touch up the edges later on.

For the metal parts I use a set of small files to file away any irregularities.  Sometimes I'll use an old pair of rail nippers to cut off a piece if it's really big but I didn't need to do that for this kit.   

Next I tired something I saw on the Tips for Building Contest Quality Structures with Bob Mitchell DVD produced by FOS.  I bought a plastic tray and poured my stain (in this case Hunterline Light Grey) into the tray.  Then I gave all of the strip wood a bath in the stain.  As I removed each piece I propped it up in an old kit box and let them dry.  I used to stain them by dipping them in the bottle or brushing on the stain.  This was faster and easier.  The only issue I ran into was getting the stain out of the tray and back into the bottle when I was finished.  This tray was really built to pour things out of.  I got the job done but need to think about a better way to do it the next time I try this.   

Finally, we're at the point I'm at right now.  Attaching the bracing to the main walls (I haven't stained them yet).  I use Pink Flamingo glue to glue the bracing in place and a new single edge razor blade to trim it to fit after the glue has set.  I start every build with new blades in most of my tools (occasionally a step calls for a dull blade so an extra handle with a not so new blade in comes in handy).

I weight the walls down using blocks of marble salvaged from old bowling trophies. 

That's where I'm at for now.  More to come in the future as I progress.   

[ak-milw]

Nice indepth start Bob, I will be following along.

[jerseymercantile]

Bob,
Take a look at the soak tank that I built many years ago.
I slotted a piece of 3" PVC pipe.
Glued on the ends.
Drilled and tapped one of the ends for a threaded plug so I could empty and recapture the leftover stain.
Then made a cradle for it.

Jack

[ak-milw]

I like that Jack. Super easy to use.

[ReadingBob]

That's a pretty slick setup Jack.  I'll have to look into making one of those.  Thanks for sharing!   

Thanks for following along Jack and Andy.

[robertseckler]

I am w/ Bob

Need to make me one of those!!!!

[Erieman]

I'm with the rest of the guys regarding the soak tank. It sure beats painting each individual board. I am building a kit that has over 800 pieces of lumber that i hand painted, one at a time, wiping them one at a time with three coats of stain. That's 2700 coats of pigment!!! Where was this device when i needed it!!!

Frank / Erieman

[jrmueller]

I'm off to buy some PVC pipe.  Great idea. Jim

[GPdemayo]

Neat building Bob, it's going to look great on John's layout.

I'll keep an eye on the build.   

[ReadingBob]

Now that I picked up a great idea for a soak tank from Jack I'll move forward with this build.  First things first though, thanks to everyone who's following along and sharing ideas.

Attachment 1: Saturday, after I finished bracing the walls I stained them with the same Hunterline Light Gray stain I dipped the strip wood in.  After that dried I then brushed them with Polly Scale Reefer White.  More on that when I get back to the walls in a future post.   

Yesterday I painted the doors and windows with my airbrush.  Here's a quick summary of the steps I take.  Using strips of blue painters tape that are taped upside down (sticky side up) onto some old jelly roll pans I laid out the parts to be painted.  These pans are oft times incorrectly referred to as cookie sheets by most of us - jelly roll pans have a raised edge which comes in handy to keep loose parts from rolling off or blowing off.

When the trays were ready I started prepping my paint.

Attachment 2: I mix the paint with my handy dandy little electric paint stirrer.  Make sure to mix it really well and, even more important - turn off the stirrer before lifting it out of the bottle.    

Attachment 3: When the paint was well mixed I used an eye dropper and to transfer three eye droppers full of the paint into a stainless steel measuring cup I keep on the work bench for this purpose.  Sometimes I'll use and old piece of nylon as a strainer to make sure I don't have any crud in the paint that may clog up the airbrush but yesterday I was feeling lucky and skipped that somewhat messy step.

Attachment 4: Next I added on eye dropper full of thinner.  That gave me the recommended (Floquil) 75% to 25% mix of paint to thinner.

Attachment 5: Using my mixer I carefully gave the paint and thinner a quick mix.

Attachment 6: Next I poured the mixture into my airbrush.  As you can see the cup on mine is on the top.  That scared me when I first got it but I'm long since over that.   

A little more in a moment.   

[ReadingBob]

Okay, the first two attachments are really, really bad pictures.  Sorry about that but they'll do for the narrative.

Attachment 1: I spray the parts from left to right.  I don't worry about getting full coverage on the first pass.  I just want to hit the top, inside edges of any thing that's raised and get a light base coat started.

Attachment 2: After the first light spray I rotate the tray one quarter turn and repeat the process.  I do this two more times to make sure all the inside edges have been painted.  Then I check for anything I may have missed (it really stinks when you find something that wasn't completely painted after you've cleaned up).

After the paint has dried to the point where it can be touched (working the Florida sun speeds the process up a bit, I'll just set the tray on the top of my van in the driveway and they dry really quick). I flip over any parts that need to be painted on the reverse side.  I even do doors and windows that won't be seen from the inside.  Don't know why.  I just do.   

Attachment 3: When I'm finished the next step is the most important step in using a airbrush - cleaning that sucker out so it'll work well the next time you pick it up.  I break mine down almost completely and drop the parts into my little metal up which I've since wiped out and put a little clean thinner in.  You didn't see me do that did you?  The only part I don't disassemble is the air valve that the trigger presses down on.

Attachment 4:  After wiping the needle with a paper towel with a little thinner on it I use a pipe cleaner dipped in thinner to clean out the tip.  I check, using the needle, to make sure the pipe cleaner didn't leave any little bits of fuzz behind inside the tip.

Attachment 5: I then run the pipe cleaner through the body of the airbrush and also wash it out using thinner and my eye dropper.  Once everything has been cleaned I reassemble the airbrush and it's ready to go the next time I need it.

Final note - I keep a small metal garage can with a metal lid next to my work bench.  The thinner soaked paper towels and pipe cleaners go in there until it's time to empty it and take out the trash.  I feel a little bit safer that way.

That's all for now!

[Zephyrus52246]

Pretty brave using the stirrer with that little cup.  I'd have paint everywhere!  You should try airbrushing outside here in below zero weather!   

Jeff

[ReadingBob]

Pretty brave using the stirrer with that little cup.  I'd have paint everywhere!  You should try airbrushing outside here in below zero weather!   

Jeff

  If I'm really careful it doesn't splatter.  It's a good idea to clear the work bench of any that may not look good speckled though, like structures, detail parts, etc. 

I'll take a pass on airbrushing outside in below zero weather thank you very much.   

[MAP]

Bob,
Great build thread!  You're doing a really nice job on this kit, and I'm picking up lots of excellent information.  Keep it coming.