Fos Tower Two Kit

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Jerry and Bob C. thank you for posting the videos. I feel comfortable now attaching the trim before connecting the walls together.

Dave K. thank you for your comments.

Today I hooked up 2 yard lights to SPST switches (obviously not building related ). I also painted the wood trim and I'm happy with that and put a coat of green trim paint on the plastic doors and windows. Talk about tedious! The picture shows how they look after 1 coat. Should I leave it like this or put another coat on? I'm not sure if it looks close enough to wood.

[rpdylan]

One thing that I do with plastic doors/ windows is that I use a #11 blade and/or a fine tooth saw blade and drag it over the plastic to simulate wood grain- don't go too deep, just enough to take the smoothness out of the material= AI will make the "grain" pop.  A great idea that I learned from D. Foscale is to lightly dry sponge the painted windows/doors with some earth colored paint-- this will have the effect of making the paint look as if it is peeling. I also like hitting the doors/windows with some gray, brown, black pan pastels (after the structure is put together) to tone down the paint.  Things are looking great so far!
(A great tool I got from Micro-Mark for distressing plastic windows/ doors is this thing:

[Dave K.]

I do more dry-dabbing lately as well, Curt. I like the effect it creates.

[postalkarl]

Hi curt:

Looks like you are off to a good start with this kit. I'm following along.

Karl

[Zephyrus52246]

I like the subtle variation in the paint tones on the door.  The sponge dabbing and/or dry brushing will age it and match it to the walls. 

[jerryrbeach]

Curt,
Re: painting a second coat onto your doors.  If you want the building to look freshly painted, a second coat is needed.  If you plan to add a degree of wear, you have two choices.  Leave it as it is, the paint already has a worn uneven look.  Or, add a second coat to get a uniform surface that you will later weather.    There is no right answer.  I use both options, depending on how I visualize the final look I am after, and the great thing is that you can achieve almost the same end result either way by varying the weathering technique.  Bottom line, unless you are modeling a freshly painted structure, there is no black and white answer to your question.

[Dave K.]

I think it looks good as is. I assume the brown I see is the primer showing through. Maybe a dry-dabbing with just a tad of brown as mentioned above, followed by white dry-brushing just to hit the highlights. Looking good!

[Todd W.]

Looking awesome with this kit Curt!  I wouldn't add more paint to that door personally.  Looks like wood to me!  I do sometimes distress the windows and doors as Dylan stated above, but more often I get good effects from dry brushing chalks and sponge dabbing lately.  I think the paint looks good as is and it even has that fade look in spots which really shows nice highlights.....

I will be following along for sure!

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Thank you Bob C., Dave K., Karl, Jeff, Jerry, and Todd for your suggestions, support and well wishes.

Today I got a junk piece of plastic wood and window. I prepped it like I did the doors and windows yesterday, then I scrapped it with a brass bristle brush, put a coat of A&I on it and after drying I dry dabbed Tamiya Color XF-59 Desert Yellow on it (It was the closest in the house to the brown I wanted).

Tomorrow when I go to the club I will stop by the LHS and see if they have Pollyscale Earth.

I really like the way it came out. It gives the plastic a feeling of depth.

 

No more modeling until Monday (family get together Sunday). I wish everyone a Happy Easter.

[ReadingBob]

Tomorrow when I go to the club I will stop by the LHS and see if they have Pollyscale Earth.

If that LHS happens to be Colonial Photo and Hobby you're probably out of luck.  Tom cleaned them out of all the good Floquil and PollyScale colors the moment it was announced the lines were being discontinued.  I know, I ran down there to do the exact same thing but he lives closer and got there before I did.  I had to settle for what Hobby Town had left on their racks.   

I use the cheap craft store acrylics for this step. I use Khaki in lieu of Earth when I want to represent where paint has peeled off exposing the bare wood and/or Dove Grey when I want to represent the undercoat of primer showing thru the paint.  Sometimes I use both, sometimes only one.  I love the 'dry sponging' technique.   

[PRR Modeler]

Good Afternoon,

Thanks Bob for the info on the craft paint.

Today I finished the doors and window frames by dragging a brass bristle brush across them, then putting another coat of A&I on them, and finally dry dabbing Khaki color craft paint on them.

I also painted the sides of the building. The A&I bleeds through just enough to give it a slightly grimy look I think. I did notice the 2 big pieces warped a little after I painted them so I put them under weight again until they dried.

I ordered a light online that mounts on the building above the front door to add a little more life to the building. The sign in the picture is not attached. I made it from a Brother P-Touch machine and attached that to a thin piece of sheet styrene (For Sale Sign). The black dots are a attempt to simulate the bolt heads holding it up. I'm not sure If I am going to use it though.

[jerryrbeach]

Curt,
This is really coming out great.  Are you sure this is your first wood kit?  I think you might be hustling us....

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Jerry- You are really too kind. My wood kit experience is limited to 2 AMB budget kits that took about an hour to build.

Today I dry dabbed the bottom of the outside walls, added a couple of signs and installed the window frames and doors. I don't think the signs came out as nice as the video Doug made showing how to do it, but some of it may be the colors involved and the size.

I did manage to put 3 windows in upside down , but I caught it early and thankfully with the windows being plastic I was able to push them out and reinstall them without damage.

I do have a question about roof coloring. With  the rest of the building aged I figure the roof should have some age also. What paint do you guys use to show that?

[PRR Modeler]

Good Afternoon,

Today I attached the "glass" and window shades. For the shades I used pieces of a manila folder. It was a good color match for the wall paint.

Tomorrow I will start attaching the trim and walls which will be interesting. It's coming together slowly but surely.

I tried taking a picture but for some reason they came out badly after several tries.

[ACL1504]

Curt,

You are doing a great job on the build. I do have a suggestion though.

I would add more green to the bottom border. The weathering of the green doesn't match the weathering of the structure walls. I'd daub on a little more green.

Reference the roof. You can use a dark gray, light gray or black for the paint color on the roof. I'm guessing you are using rolled roofing that came with the kit. If you use black, you can weather it with light gray pastel chalk. If going with the gray, you can weather it with dark gray or black pastel chalks.

Again, for your first wood build, you're dong really great.

Tom