Superior & Seattle Railroad Build (Volume 2) Started 2/25/17

[S&S RR]

The windows for the Locomotive Works are taking over my workbenches.

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Today, it was more window production and I started playing with the Monster brick material that I plan using for the floor in the Locomotive Works. I have some experimenting to do before it will be ready for pictures.

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I started gluing the roof top sheds together today.

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The inside bracing for the sheds will not only hold the sheds together, but will serve as bracing to give the entire roof some rigidity.

[S&S RR]

The other project for today was the brick flooring for the inspection side of the Locomotive Works.


I decided to color the entire sheet of brick material and then cut it to the sizes I need for the floor area.


Here is the sheet I started with.

[S&S RR]

The color I'm looking for is a very weathered version of the same brick that is used for the inspection pits.  So I started with painting the brick sheet with the red primer I used for the inspection pits.

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You can see the different shades from the laser burn showing through the paint.

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On the inspection pits I used the pan pastel application with the eraser to remove most of the light grey mortar color.  I like the way the mortar shows off the individual bricks. I can get all the weather I need by using chalks and A&I.  I decided to try the same technique on the wood brick material.


I tried just a corner to test it out. I've done this many times with resign and plaster castings because it's very easy to recover with the eraser if I don't like the results.

[S&S RR]

Here is what it looked like after some very heavy erasing.  This usually works very easily with resign and plaster.





The bottom line is that the eraser doesn't perform the same magic on the wood walls.  The combination of the wood texture and the primer paint that I'm using holds the pan pastel chalk so well that the eraser is almost removing the paint to lift the chalk - which spoils the look of the chalk we want to leave behind in the mortar cracks.

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I finally decided after numerous trials with the eraser to abort the mission and remove the pan pastels with an alcohol bath and a brush. This got be back to having a primer colored wall with a darker corner from all the work.

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I decided to go back to the paint and sponge technique that I have used on both plaster and resin castings for years. It's getting late so I will describe this process tomorrow.

[deemery]

Every roundhouse floor I've seen (in person or photos) is a pretty uniform greasy dark grey, regardless of what the floor is made of.  That makes sense with all the oil in the air from the steam, coal or even oil ash/dust, spills, and general crudliness.

dave

[S&S RR]

Every roundhouse floor I've seen (in person or photos) is a pretty uniform greasy dark grey, regardless of what the floor is made of.  That makes sense with all the oil in the air from the steam, coal or even oil ash/dust, spills, and general crudliness.

dave

Dave


I agree,  as soon as I get the floors installed I will be getting out the chalks and creating the correct patina for a working shop. I'm using the brick floors to practice using the laser cut wood brick walls.

[S&S RR]

So, as promised, here is the process I used to color the bricks. After the prime coat of oxide red primer I applied a terra cotta over paint with the sponge technique.  This adds a lighter color to the brick.

[S&S RR]

I then used some of the pan pastel grey mortar color powder.