Two cities layout.

[Random]

Many of these kits are still available from Scale Structures Limited so I personally won't make copies of those.

http://scale-structures.com/ss1500/?sort=featured&page=1

Burndout's Fireproof Warehouse is here:  http://scale-structures.com/ss1511

The Victoria Falls Hotel is here:   http://scale-structures.com/ss1505

Wanglie's Dept. Store is the only one of this set I've not been able to track down in production. 

Bob Lunde, who designed all the Magnuson kits, offers new structures that are very nice at http://www.lundestudios.com  He offers a structure called the Bon Ton that is similar to Wanglie's.

One of the fun results of this process is the leftovers.




I'm already forming ideas for new structures.  Except for the diner and auto repair shop I plan to move away from exact copies of George's structures in this area after these are complete.

Cheers.

[ACL1504]

Roger,

Thanks for the information on the Magnuson kits still being offered. I learned something new here. Again, thanks. I've bookmarked the information for future use.

Tom

[Random]

All 3 buildings got a coat of primer and a baked finish (sitting in my hot garage).  The primer was rustoleum automotive primer.




I put the base color on the express building this evening.  This will get green doors, tan lintels, and I should probably find the cornice pieces.  I'll need them soon.  This was done with artist acrylics.



Cheers.

[vinceg]

Thanks for sharing this, Roger. I love big city buildings. These look great.

[deemery]

Are you planning to do mortar lines? Might want to do that before you install the trim/windows, so you can maneuver the walls and even redo things if necessary.  I use thinned artist gouache (which needs to be sealed, since it'll dissolve if water from scenery touches it).  Other techniques, such as thinned wallboard compound, aren't as sensitive to water.


dave

[Random]

For mortor I've always used thin washes of watercolor.  I use the cheep school sets. 

My bigger issue is the building topper/cornice.  I realized today that George used the cornice from the Victoria Falls hotel which were cut away from the full wall when he built other structures.   I only have one set of those cornices and need about 3 more.  I don't like to make copies of in production parts so I'm pondering alternatives. 

I also need to remake the skinny end of the building.  I don't want the door there.  Not sure what I was thinking when I cut that.

[deemery]

It's explicitly legal to make copies for your own use, and I think it's morally legitimate to do this for what you want to do.   But you can't sell or even give away copies to anyone else.


dave

[Random]

What I like about using water color for mortar is if it goes on too heavy it is easy to remove.  Just run it under water, draw a foam brush over the surface and then rinse.  Allow to dry then start over.   This is my second run.  I make a very thin mixture of water and watercolor with a drop of dish soap to break the surface tension.   I dab this onto the brick with a soft brush.  The mix should look very faint when applied.  As the water dries the watercolor pigment will settle into the grout lines.  If any spots don't get enough you just give it another round.




At the lower left is the remade narrow wall ready for paint.

Cheers.

[Random]

I've spent my evenings this week working on painting the 3 brick buildings.  I wanted to share some progress.

These walls are the back wall and side wall of the gray building that will stand directly behind the station.  They face the station and the American Tool & Die company.  The finish on these walls is intended to be lower quality, faded, and not so nice looking brick.  I did some experimenting tonight and came up with this method.  I'm sure its a take on existing ideas.

Here is a before and after shot.




I did this using artist acrylics.  It may work with craft paints but I did not test it with them.  The artist acrylics are much thicker and that may add to the effect.  I first painted the walls with a nice rusty red color randomly mixed from my pallet.  I wanted it to be a bit more orange than the express building.  I allowed this paint to dry for a week to ensure that it was fully set.




Once the undercoat is set, I applied a thick coat of Naples Yellow Deep over the brick, making sure to get it all down into the grout lines.  I started from the top and covered about a third of the wall.





I then took paper towels, wadded them up, and wiped the paint away using vertical strokes.  You have to keep turning and folding the paper towel because once you get too much paint on it it smears rather than lifts paint.  I also used paper towels with a nice texture.  Smoother paper towels might not work as well.  For the narrow bits between the windows I wiped sideways to get the bulk of the paint off but then followed with vertical strokes.  I wanted to make sure any streaking looked like natural water paths.




Here is the upper part of the wall after wiping away paint.  I used a toothpick to clean excess paint from the window openings and to pull off the little paper bits that collected around the raised window sill details.




I continued to wipe away paint, rubbing fairly hard in places, until I had the effect I wanted.  It is possible to rub though the base coat you can't rub too much.  If any areas have started to set you can soften the paint by wetting your fingers and rubbing the area to dampen, then continue wiping.  Be sure not to get it too wet or you will lift paint out of the grout lines.




Here is the finished wall.  It will get a light coating of ink wash to tone things down.  I really like how this turned out.




The base color came out of the middle of this pallet.  Most of my reds are mixed from the red and orange colors with some browns occasionally mixed in for good measure.




This is the Naples Yellow Deep which was used for the overcoat.





This was fun to do, came out well and took less than an hour to overcoat and wipe down the two walls.

Cheers.

[tom.boyd.125]

Roger,
Keep the information coming !
Tommy 

[deemery]

I think Naples Yellow is one of the colors Troels Kirk uses.  His DVD is a great source of knowledge and inspiration, unfortunately they sold out years agol.


dave

[Random]

My pallet comes from the Troels Kirk DVD.  I will use craft paints for details and things like window lintels where I want to make sure the color is consistent.

[Random]

More catching up from the last week.

Here is the end wall of the express building. I had to cut off the door and add a black brick section to the lower portion.  This also shows the wash of thin watercolor applied to part of the wall.  This wash has enough dish soap added to break the surface tension and allow it to flow into the grout lines.




I originally painted the freight doors with some black-green craft paint.  But when the wall was not under strong light the green looked black.  So I went over it again with a lighter green; dark olive.  The upper wall has the olive green and the lower the black green.




Here is the olive green under general room lighting.  The green shows pretty well now.




And here are the walls fully painted.   The next step will be to add the window mullions and glazing.




I still have to figure out the cornice.

More in a bit.

[Random]

American Tool & Die also got some work this week.  This is the green building. 

Matching this building's color was a bit of a trick, particularly because its very green in some photos and almost golden in others.  I settled on a green which I had on hand that seemed close, FolkArt Forest Moss.  This is the same green which was used for the trim on the Leroy's Grill build. 






This green is in the right family but defiantly too strong.  So I lightened it with a several washes of Master's Touch Chinese white watercolor.  This is an artist watercolor that comes in a tube.  Because I wanted to town down the entire building in this case I did not use any detergent in the wash.  I wanted it to sit on top of every portion of the building. I used the large bush with a dabbing motion to apply the wash.  Clearly from the photo I was not careful.  I allowed each wash to dry over night and applied more to any areas that were still too strong.




Here is the final result.  I painted the lintels with a light ivory craft paint.  It took about 6 hours total to paint all of the lentils.  I still have to paint the cornice.



The building needs a wash of the light ink mixture to bring out the details on the front lentils.  I need to test the green to see if I want to wash just the lintels or the entire building with ink.

The marathon painting session yesterday left me worn out so no more progress today.

Cheers!

[Random]

I only had a little time this evening for the workshop so I finally got around to painting the yellow express building's roof.

This is done with acrylics from the pallet.  Grays with a bit of brown for the base.  Then some greens here and there and some white streaks all blended together with a damp flat brush.  Lastly a bit of Naples Yellow dry bushed with an upward motion just to catch the edges of the shingles and give them a little life.  All credit has to go to Troels Kirk's dvd for this method.  I'll probably go back and touch up the bare spots with a bit of ink wash once the acrylics are dry.




Cheers.