Raymo Build Challenge 2018 - FOS Rothman's Pawn Shop & Thornhill Liquors

ReadingBob · March 07, 2018, 07:47:33 AM

Quote from: S&S RR on March 06, 2018, 09:48:04 PM
Great start Bob! I want to make sure that everyone takes another look at the A&I tube that Bob uses for his strip wood. I built one to Bob's specifications a few years back and use it all the time. It works great I just open a valve on the end and pour the unused A&I back in the bottle for the next project.

Hi John,

I forget who I got the idea from for that tube or I'd gladly give him credit. You must have upgraded your version. Valves? We don't need no stinkin' valves! I just drilled a hole at one end, stuck some foam tape around it and press the opening of the bottle against the hole and tilt the whole thing to empty it back into the bottle. Very high techy tech.

This thing is a big time saver for kits that come with lots of strip wood.

S&S RR · March 07, 2018, 03:51:11 PM

Here is a picture of my "Bob's strip wood tub" version 2.0. I used up a few fittings I had in my plumbing box. As you can see mine gets a lot of use.

Lynnb · March 22, 2018, 02:02:35 AM

Just catching up on the build, and thanks for the tutorial on the airbrush and also for the tip on straining the floquil.

ReadingBob · March 22, 2018, 02:42:20 PM

Quote from: Lynnb on March 22, 2018, 02:02:35 AM
Just catching up on the build, and thanks for the tutorial on the airbrush and also for the tip on straining the floquil.

My pleasure. I'm no master with an airbrush but I can do the basic stuff like prime and paint doors, windows, etc. I really want to learn to use it for weathering rolling stock and, eventually, locomotives.

I've made enough progress on this one that I should update the thread soon. I just have to get off my lazy you-know-what and process/upload the pictures to the forum and do it.

ReadingBob · April 01, 2018, 10:32:52 AM

Okay, now, where were we with this one? Oh yeah...

I painted the inside of the walls a flat black using a cheap craft store acrylic. This will help prevent the walls from glowing if the structure is lit up and kill the obvious lack of an interior. Gee, I wonder how much money I wasted over the years using Floquil or PollyScale Grimy Black for this step.

I painted the walls of the Pawn shop with Floquil Reefer Gray.

The liquor store walls were painted with PollyScale Soo Line Red. It looks bright in the pictures but the weathering and A&I wash will really tone it down and darken it.

Next I added rows of nail holes using a ponce wheel. I noticed Dave K, in his thread on Gordon Novelty's, mentioned he adds them early on the process and others add them later. I'll echo his comment "It's all good."

Next up is making things look a little older and less cared for. I lifted up some clapboards using a chisel blade in X-Acto handle. Slip the blade under the clapboard and twist slightly. It's okay to break a few pieces off here and there as well. How much you do this depends on how old and beaten up you want the structure to look.

Now it's time to go for the peeling paint effect. I do this by dabbing on some gray paint (again, a cheap craft store acrylic) using an a sponge that was dipped in the paint and then had most of the paint removed. Dry sponging so to speak.

More in a moment...

ReadingBob · April 01, 2018, 10:42:35 AM

After the dry sponging (I used both a gray paint and a khaki paint for that step by the way) I applied the A&I wash. Here's a chance to erase any spots where you may have gotten too aggressive with the dry sponging. The A&I wash can be used to erase some of the bigger blotches. It'll blend the cheap acrylic paints together and wash them away if you scrub them with the brush.

Now it's time to dry brush everything. Once again, I'm using a cheap craft store acrylic. The idea here is to highlight, ever so slightly the edges of things (including your fingernails

) so they're more visible.

I even dry brush the edges of the strip wood that will be used for the corner trim and the walls.

Time to glue the corner trim in place. I run a small bead of glue along the edge of the corner trim. Before I do this I exam the corner trim to see which sides I like the best. I want those to be exposed and the least desirable sides hidden.

I schmear the glue along the corner trim with the tip of my finger. It's no fun if you aren't getting dirty.

But, before I do anything else I wipe my finger clean with a paper towel so I don't transfer glue onto the wall.

Now I line the corner trim up with the edge of the wall and hold it in place until the glue grabs hold enough to set the piece aside.

More in a moment...

Zephyrus52246 · April 01, 2018, 11:00:32 AM

Lookin' good, Bob. I'm always short a painted/weathered piece of trim as well.

Jeff

ReadingBob · April 01, 2018, 11:01:46 AM

I painted the wall black using the sponge and the same paint I used to paint the interior walls black.

After that dried I taped the template in place and dry sponged white over the template. If there's too much paint on the sponge it'll bleed under the template and the letters won't appear crisp.

I used a sponge to fill in the letters where the template had connectors to hold the inner pieces in place. You can also touch up anywhere that didn't get a nice crisp edge if need be.

Now it's time for....

I messed up one of the mullions on one of the store front windows. When I put the window on the blue painters tape to airbrush it I should have just put one edge on the painters tape. I was slightly off and a little bit of the mullion was also on the sticky tape. When I went to pull the window off of the tape the mullion broke into three pieces. I aligned them and glued the back together but I just wasn't happy with the look. So, I cut out the offending piece (it's at the top of the picture), sanded down a piece of 2" x 2" stripwood until it was approximately the same size as the mullions, painted and weathered it and cut a piece out to fit in place of the piece I removed. I think it worked out okay. Whew...

After installing the windows I cut out 'shades' and glued them in place behind the windows. The shades are nothing more than printer paper painted green or beige.

More in a moment...

ReadingBob · April 01, 2018, 11:02:55 AM

Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on April 01, 2018, 11:00:32 AM
Lookin' good, Bob. I'm always short a painted/weathered piece of trim as well.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff! Yeah, I'm terrible at planning ahead on painting trim. Even when the kit only has one trim color.

ReadingBob · April 01, 2018, 11:18:12 AM

Next up is my favorite part of the build! Gluing the walls together. Things start to take on a whole new look when I get the walls together. I use a square and a flat surface to get a 90 degree angle. I have a magnetic tray to do this but sometimes I just hold them in place like this until the glue sets (I'm watching a movie or a sporting event while I work).

Okay, True Confessions Part Two. When I was airbrushing the doors, windows, etc. and I had painted one side I usually wait for the paint to dry just enough that I can flip 'em over and paint the other side. Normally I just set the tray on the roof of my car in the driveway and the Florida Sun takes care of it for me in a matter of minutes. On this particular day, however, my son was washing his car in the driveway so I went to my back up method - using a heat gun to speed up the process. First time I ever fell asleep at the wheel and melted some of the pieces.

Thankfully I have a couple Tichy door and window combo packs so I had replacements handy.

True Confessions number three! This one I kind of knew was going to happen from past experience (this is my second go around on this kit. The bracing at the front of the liquor store is not one contiguous piece. There's a little offset for the storefront to fit in so the piece is split in the middle. This allowed the walls to warp out slightly.

I thought about how I might correct this. First thought was to glue the storefront in place using 5 minute epoxy, clamping everything in place so the walls pulled in an aligned with the edges of the storefront. Second thought was to add small 'pins' by drilling holes and using a little bit of brass wire to pin the bottom of the store front to the bracing in the side walls. Finally I settled on the easiest solution of all. Add bracing behind the original bracing that runs all the way from the top to the bottom. Worked like a champ.

The signs on the front of the pawn shop are glued to scrap pieces of chipboard and then attached to the wall. I decided to weather them all before cutting them out. I started by lightly dragging some fine steel wool from the top down to take the sheen off.

Then I gave them a very light A&I was from the back side. It'll bleed through.

More in a moment...

ReadingBob · April 01, 2018, 11:25:19 AM

When I flipped them over they looked pretty dark. No need to panic though.

They lighten up as the A&I dries.

I attached them to a scrap piece of chipboard using 3M Transfer Tape.

Then I carefully cut them out using a steel ruler and a sharp X-Acto knife. I use the ruler to protect the sign. It the blade wanders it'll be away from the sign rather than into it.

Then the edges of the signs are colored black with a fine point black Sharpie. Don't hold the tip of the marker in one place or the sign will soak up the black ink and it'll bleed away from the edge.

Now it's time to work on the roof. I applied 3M Transfer Tape to the top side of roof first. Note, the alternate methods of applying the roofing material are just to schmear white glue on the back of it and glue it in place or to use a Glue Stick. The Transfer Tape method makes the surface of the roof sticky like it's a piece of tape. It's not as messy as the glue methods.