Rugg Manufacturing - SRMW Kit 170

[vinceg]

Time to install the deck.  I decided to have the deck rest on another set of beams that are perpendicular to the ones that support the joists on the deck. That means the viewer will be able to see a little bit under the deck so I will need to have at least some dirt under instead of having pink foam visible. I started by painting the relevant area a dirt-ish color:



You will notice that the white paper template that appeared in previous shots is no longer there (look back to the last few pictures). This is because when I started painting over the paper, it immediately bubbled and separated from the foam. So, I ran my hobby knife around the perimeter of the building (on the foam half of the diorama - the plywood half is fine) to cut the paper and then pulled it up. It came up easily. You can see the outline of where the paper was. Something tells me it would not be a good idea to turn this diorama upside down. Fortunately, all that hydrocal is pretty heavy and I don't think there is a problem long term.

Once the paper was up, I painted those areas of the foam that I thought would be visible around the deck.

[vinceg]

Once the paint dried, I glued down the five beams. Definitely wanted to do the beams before the dirt so that I have a nice, smooth surface for gluing.

[vinceg]

The dirt I use is a mixture that I made probably 20 years ago or so. It is just light clay that is ground up and mixed with some white powder (sorry -- don't remember what I used) to lighten it up a bit. I bought the clay from a local building supplies dealer...you know, the guys with bins of gravel and dirt and lots of other stuff. This looks like baseball diamond sort of stuff. It was -- dare I say it -- dirt cheap. My recollection is that it was only a couple of bucks for 100 pounds or so.



I sprinkled the dirt on the visible areas by hand. I didn't sift in this case because I thought a rougher texture would be OK. After sprinkling, I applied alcohol  using an eye dropper to help flowing and used an eye dropper again to soak the dirt with a solution of 25% Mod Podge Matte and 75% water. There's some soap in there, too, but with all the alcohol it isn't really needed.

Since the area is so small and the adjacent area is not porous (it's foam), a lot of glue ran around outside the dirt area. I used a paper towel to sop most of that up and let it dry overnight. Here is the result:

[vinceg]

The glue solution darkens the dirt considerably -- too dark to my eye. So, once it's dry, I go back and "dry brush" more dirt on top:



Some people use paint - others have sanded. All those techniques seem to work well but brushing on more dirt seems easiest to me in most cases.

[vinceg]

With the foundation ready, I glued down the deck. One more treatment I gave the deck was to scrub in some of my dirt mixture onto the top. It helped tone down some of the stark variation caused by the inkahol and chalks. Here's a long shot of the deck in place:



And here's a closer shot. I also added a little bit more light gray chalk in the high traffic areas to represent wear. That is, in front of the doors, at the top of the steps (yet to be installed). I will probably do a bit more of this - particularly in the cubby hole area.

[vinceg]

Getting closer now. Have to install some roof stuff and other details. Like most super kits, there are some metal ventilators, stacks and other parts included. I started by "priming" them with a blackening agent recommended by Brett Gallant of Sierra West fame:



I apply the blackening agent with a cheap testors paint brush and let it work a while. Once everything is pretty black, I toss it in a yogurt cup full of plain water to wash the acid off. Then set the castings on a paper towel to dry. Here are a few:



Once they dry, I use a Q-Tip to scrub off some of the black. (Didn't think to take pictures of that -- sorry). The result is a nicely-weathered metal casting. You'll see them in place shortly.

The large ventilator (the wider metal piece you see in the picture) also comes with a brass etching stand to hold it up. I think this acid works on brass as well but I just trimmed it off its sprue, folded it into a square, used CA to hold it together, and painted it engine black followed by some liberal dust powder. Pics coming shortly.

The last thing I wanted to do here was to make a ramp to the double door on the east side of the brick extension. It is fairly high off the ground. I could bring the terrain up to solve the "high door" problems but that would cover up a lot of the kits beautiful brick foundation work. I want to finally put in that W7 casting now because I need it to locate one of the stacks. Since I'll be doing that, I want to do the ramp first so that it is easier to access. Here it is:



In this picture you can see that I installed one of the stacks coming up from the brick extension building. Also, if you look closely behind it, you can see a short piece of piping that comes out of the Main Building that goes to one of the ventilators. That was a pain. It is a small metal casting glued to the brick wall. I used Canopy Glue that had to sit a while until it was set up and tacky enough to hold the cantilevered piece on the wall. After a while, it worked. Fortunately, it's pretty light. Any heavier and would have needed to build a stand of some sort to hold it while drying.

More shortly....

[vinceg]

Here's a shot with everything in place:



Most things are in place here. A couple of things to point out:

• There are two stacks here the bigger one (on top of that W7 concrete block casting) is straight and has a couple of guy wires supporting it. The instructions call for using a very fine wire to do that (.008"). That wire was too thin in my opinion. Very difficult to get a straight, taut look for the wire. So, I used .015 steel wire instead. Happy with the result
• The other stack coming up from the brick extension has a bend in it. The kit actually includes a second pipe that is to be attached at an angle, making the vent look like a two-tined fork. I didn't like it so I left it off. I may just use that vent elsewhere on the roof as a standalone part.
• This picture gives you a good view of the polished, blackened metal effect. I do like it -- looks worn but not broken.
• In addition to the ramp, you can see that I have two small sets of steps. Again, this is because the doors are so far above the ground and I did not want to hide any more of the foundation than necessary. The steps are "scratch built" using commercial stringers from Banta Model Works and some strip wood I had on hand. The Banta stairs kit comes with treads as well but I felt they were too out of scale. When installing the steps, I first glued in the stringers and then glued down dirt between and around them. Once that dried I glued down the treads. All of this was to make sure I would not have a problem gluing down dirt that would be visible but hard to install because the steps would be in the way. Same thing for the ramp. A total of 4 sets of steps are needed. You see two here (brick extension, north side) and on the east side of the complex.
• This shot also shows that I finally have the main brick stack glued in place. That also allowed me to finish the roof in that area.

[vinceg]

Here's a direct shot of the ramp that's a little closer. I didn't mention it earlier but i made the ramp with two skinny triangles of chipboard and then stripwood for the planking. Took me a while to get things straight. I have no idea how people scratch build big stuff.



I tried to clean up some flaws on the small roof over that concrete block casting next to the ramp but what I did looks horrible. I'll probably repaint the entire piece and re-weather it.

[vinceg]

One more stair shot - here's the set that gets you up to the deck from ground level:

[vinceg]

The complex has a skylight over the garage door in the south extension. Like many kits, it's a piece that just sits atop the roof - there are no holes cut in the roof to create a "real" view. So, as everyone else does, I fogged the windows. I took the piece of acetate that comes with the kit and sprayed it with Krylon matte finish. Went to bed and found this in the morning:



I guess this is what they mean when they say "it attacks the plastic."

No worries, though. I just cut out a piece I needed and pulled it tight over the edge of my workbench (sort of like buffing shoes with a shoe shine rag). You can see the rectangular window pane there at the bottom of the picture. It's straight enough to be usable.

The little half moon in the middle is to make room for a vent that comes out of the middle of the skylight. As you can see, I used a hole punch to cut it out.

Here's the installed sky light with the vent in place:

[vinceg]

A couple of tarpaper sheds are also included. Here's one on the west side of the building:



That door to the right of the shed will get the fourth and last set of stairs.

And, finally, one on the back of the stucco building:



Again, the stucco building is not fastened down, yet. That back door is also very high. For that, I'm planning concrete slab steps, not wooden ones.

So, at this point, I'm pretty close. I still have a few pipe vents to put in as well as poles and transformers to bring power into the building. But, at that point, it will be ready for scenery. If any of you are following my "Illinois Central Monee Rebuild" thread, you know that this diorama is located at the north end of that town. Because I am about to make some dramatic changes to the town including some of its land forms, I am thinking that I will not finish the scenery on this diorama until the topography of north Monee is figured out. I want to make sure I have the maximum flexibility in planning the town and not restrict my options because I prematurely chose a road location on the dio that doesn't match up with where it goes.

Still a while before I get to that. Have some basic construction to do in Monee first. We'll see how it comes together. In the future, I will hopefully not have this problem again. I will be planning scenes and building dioramas to fit, not the other way around.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking great, Vince!  A real show stopper!

I do think that Rugg has about the best lines of any kit design, ever!  That view of the roof is spectacular!

Cheers, Mark.

[Janbouli]

Wonderful Vince , is the oxidizer the same thing as Patina?

[ReadingBob]

Great looking build Vince!  That's quite a structure. 

[vinceg]

Looking great, Vince!  A real show stopper!

I do think that Rugg has about the best lines of any kit design, ever!  That view of the roof is spectacular!

Cheers, Mark.

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I love the "busy" look of the complex with the variety of extensions over time. Bob did a fabulous job capturing the complexity.