Build Challenge 2016: Bar Mills Dock House at Cundy Harbor

[madharry]

Bob,
I have this kit to build so I will be following with interest.
Mike 

[S&S RR]

Bob


Thank you for explaining how you get those great pictures. I'm enjoying the build thread.

[ReadingBob]

Thanks for all the interest gang.  I really appreciate the comments.  I should have some updates soon.  I made some progress yesterday and I'm hoping to make even more today.     Afterwards it's just a matter of taking the time to crop, resize and upload the photo's. 

[ReadingBob]

Holy Cow, there are sure a lot of builds going on! I'm on here everyday (if briefly) and I just discovered pages of builds pushed down the active list. This one, in particular, I've gotta keep an eye on 


Such a cool design by Bar Mills. I can't wait to watch it grow!


John

  I sure hope you're keeping your eye on this one.     I'm trying my best to make it worthy of your new layout.    

[ReadingBob]

Time an update.   

Some of the walls had some minor warping (no big deal) so I was checking to ensure that would be corrected when I started gluing them together.  The end of one wall, where there is no bracing, will butt up against the bracing from the adjoining wall so that should straighten it out.  However, as I was looking at it I noticed that the bracing was going to be a problem.  I braced the walls the way the templates in the instructions indicated but if you look closely at where the tip of my X-Acto knife is pointed you'll see that the bracing runs behind the slots cut in the walls for the rafter tails.  There's no way to install the precut rafter tail components with that bracing in the way.   


I figured out how much of the bracing needed to be removed so the rafter tail pieces could be installed.  I'm lucky I stumbled across this before I glued the walls together.  It's a lot easier to cut off a chunk of bracing from just one wall as opposed to when it's already been glued to two walls and inside the building.   Don't ask how I know that. 


Since the walls need doors, windows, etc.  I took the time to remove all the parts from the sprues and clean them up in preparation from painting.  This is normally something I do first but on this build I jumped into the walls first.  I did this for a all the components in the Cundy Harbor kit.  Not just the Dock House.  I have a nifty sprue cutter that I really like for plastic stuff.  I also use an old pair of rail nippers for cutting metal castings from sprues but I didn't need them for this kit.  I know lot's of people like to paint stuff like this while it's still on the sprue so they can use the sprue as a handle while painting.  That's fine too.  I just prefer to remove them from the sprue prior to painting.


I clean up the edges of the plastic castings with an emery board.  If there's an flash on the mullions of the windows (where the emery board doesn't fit) I use the tip of the X-Acto knife to gently scrape it off.  For the metal castings I use a small set of files to clean up any unsightliness.      


Once everything was cleaned up I taped some strips of blue painters tape, sticky side up, to an old jelly roll pan and started lining up everything to be primed.  I'll skip the actual priming part.  I just used a rattle can of gray primer from one of the big box stores.  My preference is to airbrush them with Floquil Primer but a.) my compressor is acting up and b.) I'm out of Floquil Primer and they don't make it anymore.   


Next I started painting the walls.  I applied a thin coat of Hunterline Light Gray Weathering Mix first.  Then I started brushing the main walls with Polly Scale Reefer White.  Normally I dip my brush in water first and then the paint to thin it a little bit but the bottle of Polly Scale Reefer White I opened was already pretty thin so I didn't bother this time.  It went on as a wash so it wasn't solid bright white.  Some of the underlying light gray stain was barely visible and toned it down a bit.  There's going to be a lot more toning down added though.   


I'll add more to this thread in few moments.   
   

[ReadingBob]

The office walls got a coat of "Yellow Ochre" Americana Craft Paint.  I like the paint scheme used in the pilot model so I'm trying to match that.


I painted the inside of the walls black because I plan on installing some LED's inside (and outside) the structure.  I don't want the walls to 'glow' when the lights are on so this helps prevent that from happening.


Now it's time to figure out which windows, doors, etc. go where and paint them.  The doors made up of layers of laser cut components.  The instructions make it pretty easy to locate them.


I did some test fitting of the windows and doors.  Only one window didn't fit into the opening in the office wall.


I have an emery board that I trimmed off a chunk of with a heavy duty wire cutters for just such occasions.  It fits into the opening so I can sand away a little wood until the window fits.


To weather the walls a bit further I use a sponge that was dipped in some Khaki paint and then dabbed on some paper until most of the paint was removed from the sponge.  Then I started dabbing it on the walls to leave 'flecks' of the Khaki paint on the white walls.  This is supposed to represent spots where the paint peeled off and the wood underneath is exposed.


More in a minute or two.   

[ReadingBob]

Next I repeated the 'dry-sponging' technique with light gray craft paint.  This flecks of gray are supposed to represent where the white paint came off and a coat of primer underneath was exposed.  It doesn't have to be gray.  You can use any color that the structure may have previously been painted in by it's owners.


Using a ponce wheel and a steel ruler I applied rows of nail holes.  I try to space them 2 scale feet apart but I also try to line them up with the major doors and windows on the wall.  Obviously I fall on the "I like 'em" side of the great nail hole debate and I don't mind that they're square and out of scale.     I do this before I hit the walls with a final wash of A&I because the A&I will settle in the holes and the wood will swell up slightly to shrink them a bit.  Plus I want the added darkness in the holes.


Using a chisel blade in an X-Acto handle I pry gently slide it under some of the clapboards and lift them up a bit.  Depending on how run down you want the structure you can twist it a bit and break off small slivers of the clapboard here and there.


Finally I apply a wash of A&I to the walls.  I have a bottle of straight "A" handy to thin it down if it looks too dark as I'm applying it.  With white walls it needs to be fairly toned down.  As I mentioned before this fills in the nail holes but is also stains any raw wood that was exposed by splintering the clapboards in the previous step.


Time to add signs to the walls.  I cut them out with a nice, sharp X-Acto blade and steel ruler.  One of the really nice things about Bar Mills kits is they always supply plenty of signs (duplicates) so if you mess one up you have a back up handy.


I gently sanded the back of the signs to thin the paper a bit.  Then I applied a was of A&I to the back.  It's darken the front of the signs.


More in a few minutes.   

[ReadingBob]

I thinned some white glue with a little water and smeared it on the back of the signs.


Then I positioned the sign on the wall (but first I wiped the glue off my 'smearing' finger before handling the sign    ).


I gently ran my fingernail along clapboards to push it down into the surface of the wall.  If you cover it with a piece of clear, thin plastic it's a bit safer.  You reduce the chance that you'll snag a rough edge of your fingernail on the sign and tear it.  But I chose to live on the edge here.


Another thing that can be done to really give the appearance that the sign is painted on is to slice it, board by board, using a sharp knife and the clapboards as a guide.


Finally I drybrushed some off white over the sign to fade it a bit and highlight the raised edges of the clapboards.


I added the doors and window frames and was ready to start gluing the walls together.  Well, here's another place where bracing needed to be removed from one wall.    


More in a moment.   

[ReadingBob]

I lopped off enough of the bracing on the side wall so the peaked wall could be glue in place.


Then I started gluing walls together using clamps, magnets and a square.


When the walls were assemble it was time to install the precut rafter tail assemblies.  I used the roof as a guide to figure out how far out the rafter tails should extend before gluing them in place.  I didn't stain them yet.  I'll do that later on with a small brush and I'll just do the exposed pieces.  I figure (hope) that'll keep any warping to a minimum.


I braced the roof card so it'll fit in the opening like a plug.  At this point I don't plan on gluing it in place.  I hope to keep it removable so the lighting can be accessed for installation and future maintenance.


Here's the roof in place and that's about where I am with the build at the moment.


By now you may have figured out that my evening and weekend attire consists various Expo and forum t-shirts.      

Thanks for following along!

[Polux]

Mmmmm.....errrrrrh......what I can say?
A simple.....WOW maybe?

Excellent and detailed jod and thread Bob

[deemery]

Great photos, as always! 


dave

[Mike Engler]

No question that Bob is the King of the Build Threads- his step-by-step presentations are the best. He not only takes the time to post the large photos, his message is in the form of a caption to each photo- much easier to follow. Way to go Bob. Give that man more forum shirts!

[Powersteamguy1790]

Coming along nicely Bob.

Stay cool and run steam........

[jimmillho]

Bob,

One word  "Awesome, Fantastic, Superb"   Well OK, maybe three words

Jim
   

[Zephyrus52246]

Looks great, Bob.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who has occasional bracing issues.   


Jeff