FSM Seafood Emporium Diorama

[Kimkatkim]

Hello!

So, as mentioned before on another thread, I am in the midst of building FSM's Seafood Emporium into what will be a sea port diorama combining several different structures. I finished the billboard that goes atop the main building. This is an intricate, beautiful detail. Not easy to build though - but, it's a great addition to the rooftop. I followed George's instructions fairly closely. The only deviation I made from his instructions was the painting of the entire piece. I felt that it would have a more weathered look if I allowed the natural wood to remain on the rear part of the sign. I further embellished it with staining and weathering using powders and light stains. I also decide to add some NBW castings as that would give me more detail/color in the rusted bolts. I loved the idea of slightly scoring the pieces that would make up the actual sign. The peeling effect was a great idea. It's a nice, subtle detail that adds to the realism. George thinks of everything.
I used Aged Driftwood stain, then A & I after lightly razor saw distressing the wood. I went back and used a pine stain to give a bit of color and then retouched certain areas with A & I to give contrast. After assembly I used a very light stain of Teakwood (which is the base color for the main building), on the front frame, being careful not to color too heavily. Then I sponge-dippled (that's my own term now ;-) a light gray to give the peeling-paint effect over the front of the billboard frame. I love this technique as it is the perfect way to give that aged look to anything. I want to thank Doug Foscale for introducing me to this technique. He may not have thought of it first, but his is the work I saw first! It has made all the difference in achieving the look I am striving for.
Then after thinking about it I decided to add the NBW castings. They are a real pain to work with, but the finished look makes it worth it. Add rusting at the various bolts and nail holes and then detail stain the back of the billboard with various colors of powdered pigments.
All in all, this structure is coming along nicely when I am able to find the time to work on it. More pics to come as things progress. Promise. 
Have a great 4th everyone!
Kimberly

[bparrish]

Kimberly....

This is great stuff. 

Tell me / us again.  You build mostly dioramas.  Do you have a railroad that you build these into?

We have an incredible structure modeler on the forum here that does not have his own railroad.  I think they turn up on a local friend of his' railroad. 

We have a rather eclectic batch of crazies here

Again .... Thanx

Bob

[S&S RR]

Kimberly


Your modeling looks great. I will be following along.

[Kimkatkim]

Kimberly....

This is great stuff. 

Tell me / us again.  You build mostly dioramas.  Do you have a railroad that you build these into?

We have an incredible structure modeler on the forum here that does not have his own railroad.  I think they turn up on a local friend of his' railroad. 

We have a rather eclectic batch of crazies here

Again .... Thanx

Bob

I don't have the room for a layout. Actually, I don't have the room for the dioramas either, but I'm making that work.  I collect Disneyana as well, so I am using every spare inch of this tiny place.  I need a bigger house!

[GPdemayo]

Nicely done Kimberly.....I'll be watching. 

[SteveCuster]

Looks great Kimberly. I like your color scheme.

When I recently built that kit I had placed the billboard on top of the main structure to see how it will fit and I left my workshop to go do something, I came back down and the billboard fell off the building, on to the ground and I stepped on it. I completely destroyed it, I had to rebuild most of it. I told the story to George Sellios, he told me a story about leaving a prototype diorama for his Super Sawmill kit on the top of his car on the way to a NMRA convention and driving off. Even he couldn't salvage that one he said.

-Steve

[Kimkatkim]

Looks great Kimberly. I like your color scheme.

When I recently built that kit I had placed the billboard on top of the main structure to see how it will fit and I left my workshop to go do something, I came back down and the billboard fell off the building, on to the ground and I stepped on it. I completely destroyed it, I had to rebuild most of it. I told the story to George Sellios, he told me a story about leaving a prototype diorama for his Super Sawmill kit on the top of his car on the way to a NMRA convention and driving off. Even he couldn't salvage that one he said.

-Steve

Thanks Steve 
Ouch! I guess we've all lost some of our hard work through accident/clumsiness... 
I've had my share as well. Happens to the best of us!  :

[postalkarl]

i Kim:

built this kit many year go for a friends layout. Unfortunately it was before I started to take photos. It is one of my favorite FSM kits as is that waterfront scene on The F&SM. It has the lighthouse scratchbuilt by Paul Silenas and a PYRO Skipjack Oyster boat.
I will be watching your build closely. So far it looks great. Love what you did with the billboard. I really like the back. 

As I used to have a Model RR sign company I have a tendency to change the billboard signs that are in kits with what I think are more interesting ones. I have quite a collection of early advertising.


Keep the photos coming.

Karl

[NEMMRRC]

Kimberly,

Good job on your FSM kit. They are great kits and loads of fun.

Looking forward to more of your work.

Jaime.

[Zephyrus52246]

Very nice job on the billboard, and the rest of the structure as well.


Jeff

[Kimkatkim]

Hi everyone!

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend.  As promised, here are pics of the Emporium Seafood build thus far. The wharf is next, but I need to figure out my base first to see if I want to change the layout of the wharf area at all. I have been thinking about having this main structure more elevated for dramatic effect. Not sure, still in the planning stages.
Enjoy!

Kimberly  

[Janbouli]

Great weathering and colors Kim, thanks for sharing.

[MASIGMON]

Kimberly,  I have been following along on your build.  Most builders of this kit stay with the weathered gray look however it nice to see a weathered beaten red for a change.  If I am not wrong did I see some photo's of you Mckenzie build?  If so where can I find them for future reference.  I am thinking about building Mckenzie!

Mike Sigmon
Jacksonville, FL

[Kimkatkim]

Hi Mike 

Thanks for your comments - As far as the coloration goes, I wanted something different and the teak color looks great weathered. I was originally thinking about going with a two-tone color scheme - a light green being the other color - but I dropped that idea after I did some color tests. The teak and gray works fine.
You can find my Mackenzie Milling build in the FSM threads. It's a fun build. I tend to gravitate toward heavily weathered, dilapidated structures because you can have a lot of fun taking them as far as you want to. The next FSM kit I have my eye on for that reason is Cartwright's Machine Shop. It looks like it even has a swayed roof, which would be a real challenge to model.

But first I need to finish this project!

Kimberly

[Mike Engler]

Kimberly, I like your work and weathering a lot. The NBWs on the platform below the tank look great. I don't know how you applied them but you mentioned they were a pain to work with. I struggled with drilling holes and trying to pop the castings in for years until some one on a long gone forum said to snip them from the sprue flush with the bottom of the washer after first weathering them. Make a tiny dot with a .05 pencil where each is supposed to go on the model, and put a tiny speck of Formula 565 canopy glue on the mark with a sharp round toothpick. Then get the right tweezers to pick them and put them in place, and give them a light tap with the other end of the tweezers. I've done hundreds and I think they are all still in place. Easy-peasy and fast even on very small NBWs.


Looking forward to more of your structure building.