Build Challenge 2018. ITLA York Industries

[Zephyrus52246]

ITLA was at the EXPO and I picked up one of their kits.  I had built a kit of theirs seven years ago on the old forum.  I was NOT impressed.  They have gotten away from the "zipper" corners, and their finished models looked good, so I decided to give them another try.  The kit has walls which are lasered out of 1/8 inch MDF.  It smells like when I run Masonite thru the table saw. 


Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

Walls, windows, some lasered detail parts.  Everything is nicely marked on the sheets.  Three sets of signs are included, as is some clear window material.


Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The dowels are for smoke stacks.  I like the way they fit them on the sheets.  There's a few plaster detail castings as well.


Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The structure can be built several ways, I'm going with configuration #8 like the picture supplied on the instructions.


Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The walls are butted up against each other and the corners are covered with wood strips.  I sanded the edges of these, to remove the "nubs" when you cut them from the sheets and to make it easier to cover them with paint.  It's a messy process.  Fortunately, the sanding file cleans up easily with some alcohol.

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The MDF is a bit harder to get the pieces out of, need to be careful not to let the knife slip or use too much pressure.  The window sills have "ridges" on them from the laser, so I sanded these off as well. 


Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

One reason this kit caught my eye is it's concrete over brick.  It makes it a bit tougher to paint.  I first painted all the backsides of the walls with rattle can black to prevent warping and to blacken the interior view thru the windows.  I then lightly dusted some black in an irregular manner over the outside of the walls.  Then airbrushed on a mixture of Vallejo Model Air paints which was close to a bottle of Polly Scale Aged Concrete I had.  I tried to make the walls the the corner covers match, but some of the covers are lighter.  I suspect with weathering it will all blend in.  Unfortunately, after airbrushing the woodgrain still shows thru.    I tried the backside of the sheet but the effect is the same.  Again, weathering will have to cover this.


Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I drybrushed some acrylic terra cotta on one of the brick areas, but it was to orange and I didn't like it, so I tried a brown oxide which I like better.  The terra cotta area will probably get covered with a sign.  It's too high to cover with a bush.      I'll spend today masking and doing the bricks and some type of mortar.


Jeff

[rpdylan]

cool build thread! enjoying your tutorial on building one of these kits.

[S&S RR]

Jeff


Your off to a great start! I will be following along.

[Zephyrus52246]

Welcome aboard, guys.  I usually use Robert's mortar on bricks, but it spills over and makes a crusty look to them, which I like on brickwork, but I thought it would look weird over the concrete, so I thinned some light grey paint for mortar.  The first effort was too thin, so I made it more opaque, which covered the bricks as well, so I then drybrushed the bricks again.  This will do.  The non drybrushed are on the right side.   So I'll slowly continue doing this until all the brickwork is done.  Maybe a darker grey for the bottom stone work as well.

Jeff

[ReadingBob]

I'm in!  I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with this one Jeff.   

Two EXPO's in a row I wanted to pick up one of their kits but I'm batting 0 for 2.  Too many kits to choose from, not enough dollars to go around.    

[GPdemayo]

Neat structure Jeff.....I'll be looking in. 

[Janbouli]

Another great build on the way , we should have these challenge's all the time.

[Bobby]

Cool Jeff! I built ITLA's intro basic kit about a year ago (I think it was last years build challenge?!?) and was really happy with the end result.