Bar Mills Tribute Kit 1

[ReadingBob]

I'm in as well George!     Gotta love anything that's a tribute to George and the FSM.

[MASIGMON]

I also will be following along.
I for one are glad to see cast windows!

Mike

[Opa George]

Welcome, Bob and Mike. Very glad to have you along for the ride.
Well now we're getting somewhere. The wall bracing for structure one is done and cured. I gave all the walls a wash with three types of inkahol:  full strength black, quarter strength black, and full strength brown.  I streaked them all randomly, except that I kept it lighter in areas protected by roof overhang and eaves. While still damp, I brushed on varying dilutions of cheap acrylic white to simulate a very ancient and weary whitewash.


Note that one rectangular wall section with the large freight door that, despite strong words of encouragement from me, insists on warping.  Note also the really dark areas on the tall section to the left. I inadvertently got black chalk dust on my brush in laying it down between strokes of whitewash. Drat and Deuteronomy! But wait, it just looks like badly rotted siding--one of those things the great Bob Ross called a "happy little accident."

The window castings (Mike--I like seeing these in kits as well!) received an overspray of white primer because I didn't think the bluish shade "Lighthouse Shadows" would pair well with the wall color. Below are two windows placed into one wall section. The one on the left received a wash of brown inkahol, while the one on the right received a wash of black inkahol. It might be hard to see the difference in the photo, but I am leaning toward the brown wash. I'll look again tomorrow morning after everything dries.


That's all for this evening. Tomorrow we'll start the building foundation.
--George

[vinceg]

Looking very good, George. Really like the subtle weathering.

[jerryrbeach]

George,


I like the whitewashed look of the worn siding, and your "happy accident" adds to that effect. (I really like your coffee mug. too.) 

[PRR Modeler]

Nice work and the shading is great.

[Opa George]

Thanks for the supportive comments, Vince, Curt and Jerry. The mug was one of those Human Resources perks that my wife brought home--but yeah, I do like that sentiment.

I added corner trim to the walls today, then checked the windows again. Because the walls dried with a lighter "old wood" finish, the white painted windows looked too bright, even with the inkahol washes.  I gave them an overspray of Rustoleum "Ivory Silk," which is between an off white and tan.  Once dry I'll give them another dark wash and try them against the walls again.

The building foundation consists of a low, rough cut block wall cast in resin, to be glued to a wooden frame. The frame is assembled from interlocking wooden strips. I trial-fitted them first without glue and found they had a nice, exact fit.


Once glued together, I began the process of adding the castings. They need to be cut to fit, with 45 degree corners. I found they all had a slight outward bow, so I worked one corner at a time with super glue. The slight distortion was not severe enough that they needed to be bent back to shape before working with them.


My corner cuts were somewhat inexact! So I used spackling paste to fill in the gaps. I will let it dry overnight, then brush off the excess with a stiff brush and prime the entire assembly before painting.

George

[MAP]

Nice build so far George.  I'll be following along on your construction of this one.

[Opa George]

Nice build so far George.  I'll be following along on your construction of this one.

Thanks, Mark, for following. I'm eager to hear any feedback, criticism, etc.
--George

[Opa George]

I'm finally able to install windows and doors in the walls of the first structure. Coloring the windows was more involved than I had anticipated, but I am happy with how they turned out. The combination I ended up with was a spray overcoat of Rustoleum "Ivory Silk," followed by brushed on black chalk dust, then given a wash of brown inkahol, and finishing with very lightly dry-brushing of cheap acrylic white.

Another complication was in matching color for the various materials. The cast windows are styrene, the walls are milled basswood, the freight doors and some other small details are laser-cut wood somewhat darker than the basswood walls, and the doors are laser cut adhesive card stock. Except for the freight doors, which I treated first with black inkahol and then dry-brushed white acrylic, and of course the walls themselves, everything else received a light overspray of Rustoleum "Stone Gray." To my eyes, that came out very close to the grayish aged siding.

One of the very cool features of the kit are the laser-cut optional details. The instructions essentially tell you to get creative. I admit to following the box illustration to outfit one window, but got a little braver after that turned out well.  To install the window vent and fan, I decided to remove the vertical window muntin for a better fit. A sprue cutter took the delicate piece out safely, and a bit of careful filing cleaned it up, (top center window) below.


The fan and vent were spray-painted with Rustoleum red primer, and installed. I found I needed to file the edges of the laser-cut parts for a tight fit.


Below are the walls with all door and windows installed. No glazing is yet installed. I'll add that shortly, along with window shades and other details.  Artie included a really nice "Sal Minella, Egg Wholesaler" stencil, but I have a different business in mind for this seaside manufactory--I'll reveal that later when I get the sign installed.  Lots more weathering to do, and there are a ton of wall vents and exhaust details and etc, which I must decide to install now or wait until the walls are together. Jury is still out on that.


Last picture for this post: the foundation wall painted and weathered. I found the wall castings had a LOT more detail than I realized, when I dry-brushed with white to bring out highlights. What I thought were smooth stones actually have beautiful texture that is not easily seen in the photograph (afraid I got too close with my camera). So far so good.

--George

[vinceg]

George, that is looking GREAT. My build of this same kit is coming up in the next couple of build (who knows how many decades that will take). This is great info. Thanks.

[PRR Modeler]

Looking great so far George.

[Opa George]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Vince and Curt. I got sidetracked from window glazing with putting the cupola together. There is a bit of tricky work to that and I'll go into detail in my next post, along with some pics.
--George

[Janbouli]

What a great weathering job on the walls George , outstanding.

[jerryrbeach]

George,


I find the hardest thing for me is to match plastic windows to heavily worn siding paint.  Absolutely superb job getting the windows to color match and look every bit as worn as the siding. The foundation really looks great, too.   Kudos!