Rugg Manufacturing - SRMW Kit 170

[vinceg]

I'm going to try my first build thread. I have had the SRMW Rugg Manufacturing kit sitting on my work bench, barely started, for probably 10 years or more. For the last year or so I have been working on bench work/track work/wiring and whining that's it's taking a long time and keeping me from building models that I find more interesting. It finally occurred to me that I can control that outcome. So, my hope is that starting a build thread will add a little friendly (or maybe even not-so-friendly) peer pressure to make progress on the kit and have some fun in the process. Here's the state it has been in:



As you can see, I built the base, painted some castings, painted a few windows and "Micro Crystal Clear"ed them, and that's about it. Not sure which primer paints I used on the castings. Not sure where I am in the instructions. I'm not even sure if I lost any parts. I assume no but won't know until I get through the build. I have some Vallejo paints now -- used Polly S to get to this point. We'll see if that matters. Tonight I'll dig into the instructions and see if I can make sense of anything or how much trouble I'm in. I'm hoping that the collective experience here in the forum can help out as I run into problems.

I have zero experience with build threads (and not even that much experience building kits). If anyone is out there watching, please do feel free to provide guidance.

Cheers,
Vince

[Lynnb]

This is exciting, I'll be following along. Anything you may have misplaced can probably be madeup from scratch. I did a kit the other day and had to make a gib crane hoist thingy, I carved it out of styrene. Take lots of pics , I like pics.

[Janbouli]

I'll be following along , and try to give you some support.

[Dave K.]

Following along. Lots of solid help available here on the Forum, so don't hesitate to ask!

[S&S RR]

I will be following along. Every one of Bob's kits are great. I haven't had any trouble painting over solvent based paints with acrylics.  Be careful with alcohol and chalks over the acrylic paints the alcohol will dissolve the acrylic paint.  I really like the weathering affect it gives but it needs to be what your looking for.

[Mark Dalrymple]

I'll be watching, Vince.

I love SRM designs.  I bought my one and only SRM kit when visiting in 2015 (yet to be started).  I did a horizontally compressed and vertically expanded scratch-build inspired by this kit for a steep part of my layout.  I was very pleased with the end result - a real eye catcher.  Looking forward to your progress.  Meanwhile its back to the plasterboard stopping of my future layout room!

Cheers, Mark.

[GPdemayo]

I'll be looking in also Vince.....

[postalkarl]

Hi Vince:

I'll be following along.

Karl

[jimmillho]

Vince,
I too will be following this thread.

Jim

[Erieman]

Vince,


This was my first SRMW structure I ever built. Bob's instructions are first rate and the kit came out first rate. I have built several more of his kits over the years. Many of his kits i modified to fit the location or scene. Best of luck with the build. It looks like you are off to a good start.


Frank / Erieman

[jerryrbeach]

Vince,

I've never built one of Bob's kits, have heard the instructions are the best, so count me in, too.

[Roostr]

I will also be watching, as I would like to start mine as well, its been sitting toooo long. Keep us posted.
Daryl

[vinceg]

OK - looks like where I left off was preparing the castings that have to be installed as part of the foundation. I am starting with the stone retaining walls. Here is how I left them a decade ago:



Yuck. As I work through instructions, I check things off in the manual (as I am sure most do). I had this checked off. No idea what I was thinking that day. Doesn't come through with the picture very well but it looks like what I did was hit it with a gray primer of some sort and then a little AI wash. The white you see between the stones is uncolored hydrocal. I was pretty unhappy with the effect and decided to paint over it with acrylics. Normal thing to do, anyway - prime the casting with spray primer to seal it and provide a base color and then apply acrylics for the final effect. But, I didn't do that here. Also, I wanted to try to achieve a little variation between stones (as is suggested by Bob). Finally, I wanted to start using the MicroLux paints I purchased a year ago in anticipating of getting back into building. So, to start, here are the colors I'm going to use:



MicroLux is MicroMark's rebranding (maybe just relabeling) of Vallejo paint. More about that later. In any event, the next few posts will show what I did.

By the way, if anybody is following along that doesn't know what "Bob" means, Bob means Bob Van Gelder, the now-retired proprietor of South River Model Works, designer and manufacturer of kits, writer of manuals, and all-around good guy (should you ever have the good fortune of visiting with him).

Seems like the right thing to do is to break these activities into tiny posts so that they're easier to write and consume. So, that's what I'll do. More in a bit...

Vince

[vinceg]

The Undercoat Light Gray looks pretty close to the existing color so I will first paint both stone walls with that.



The pictures are less than ideal. My shop light is directly over my bench so I have to take the pic from an angle to avoid shadows. Going forward, I'll figure out how to either move my work area or get a lamp involved. I am also using an old Samsung S4 for taking the pics. Autofocus on. Probably need to spend a little time figuring out how to do that better, too.

OK, for the first time I am seeing all of the air bubbles in the casting. Photographs are wonderful at giving brutal feedback. I wish I would have seen this earlier although would be quite a pain to fix them all. I'll leave it alone for now and see how distracting it looks when finished.

Next step, some stone variation. I'll paint a few stones "Earth" color and some others different shades of gray. For the shades of gray, I made three puddles of paint on my glass workspace: one Undercoat Light Gray (my base color), one Reefer Gray (a darker gray), and one Reefer White (the marketing guys kinda phoned that one in, no? Reefer This...Reefer That...  Anyway). From the three puddles, I made some more puddles from  the base gray and white or the base gray and reefer gray. No science to it. Just looking for slightly lighter and darker variation by eye. Here's the result:



My first reaction is that this looks much better than what I started with but the earth-colored stones look a little stark to me -- too much contrast. I now wish I would have watered down the earth to more of a wash rather than using straight paint. But, won't worry about it for the moment. We'll see how it looks after some chalks are applied.

Also, now that the paint is dry and I seem to have a better camera angle here, the air bubbles are more visible. Disappointing.

Bob now recommended that you hit the castings with Dullcote. Seals the paint and maybe gives some additional tooth for the chalk step coming next. I didn't use Dullcote but rather used Krylon Matte finish. I've seen lots of arguments on the internet both pro and con for Krylon, but the price difference is dramatic as you know. So, I wanted to try it. This is as good a place as any. Light coat over this and let it dry overnight.

More shortly....

[ACL1504]

Vince,

I'll follow as well. I've always liked the SRMW kits even though they are mainly NE type structures.

I've build three.

Tom