FOS Brody & Martins (2019 Tom Schwarz build challenge)

[ReadingBob]

Great start!!

Thanks Dave!  My vacation ended yesterday but I spent a good part of it at the work bench practicing for retirement.  I think I'll be able to handle it but it's still a few years away.   

Yep. June 2021 for me. It's dragging.😡

Lucky you!  It's April 2024 for me.     Not that I'm watching the calendar or anything like that.   

[ReadingBob]

Looks great so far. I'm following.

Thanks Curt!  Glad to have following along! 

[ReadingBob]

Looking forward to seeing how this baby turns out.  Great kit selection for the contest!

Thanks for following along Bruce.  This is one of the rare one's I'm building for myself.  I've got a ton of waterfront kits and I'm thinking about building a waterfront switching layout centered around Red Hood Wharf one of these days.  This one will fit right in with that.   

That would be awesome!  I hope you do it!

The Red Hood Wharf is ones of Dougies kits I wish I had pickup up back in the day.

I missed it too when it first came out but recently acquired one via a mutual friend of ours.  I was very lucky to be able to get my hands on one.  It's a really neat kit.   

[ReadingBob]

Looking good Bob. You sure get a move on and this has been a flying start. Doug's kit was called Red Hook Wharf, if he ever did a Red Hood Wharf I would be first in the queue!
Mike

Thanks Mike!  Darn that spell check.  Doesn't it know I meant to type Hook, not Hood?   

[ReadingBob]

A great start, Bob, and I certainly will be following along.
--Opa George

Thanks George!  Glad to have you following along! 

[ReadingBob]

Wow -- really exploding out of the gate, Bob! Looking forward to following this one.

Thanks Vince!  Being on vacation for a couple of weeks over the Christmas Holiday really helped me make some progress at the workbench.     Now that I'm back in the cube it'll slow down a little bit. 

[GPdemayo]

Sorry about missing your challenge build kick-off yesterday Bob, but I'll be looking in from now on. 

[Lynnb]

Looks like its day 2 and you're moving right along.

[Janbouli]

Jumping in the following line , glad I made it.

[jimmillho]

I will jump in line and follow this one also.

Jim

[ReadingBob]

Greg, Lynn, Jan and Jim - Thanks for jumping in and following along!  The more the merrier. 

Time for the next update.   

Since this is a waterfront coal dealer, and one I'm building for my own use, I decided I wanted it to look pretty weather beaten/ratty looking.  After painting the walls with PollyScale Reefer White I dabbed them with a sponge that was dipped in a light gray craft store acrylic after which I remove most of the paint by first dabbing it on a piece of paper.  Think dry brushing but with a sponge.  The light gray doesn't contrast too much with the white and it can be hard to see when you're doing it but it does make a difference.  The intent here is to emulate spots where the white paint peeled away and the primer underneath is showing.


I did the same thing with a khaki tan craft store acrylic paint.  The intent this time is to emulate places where both the white paint and the primer have peeled away exposing the wood beneath.  I also did this to all of the sides of some strip wood I had set aside and painted with Reefer White for the corner posts and trim as well as the doors and windows.  I had to figure out how much of the strip wood I would need for this.  You don't want to do all of it.  Some is not painted.  Select just enough for what's needed for the main structure.  (I did two pieces of the 1/16" square and three of the 2" x 6").


I dipped the doors and windows in my A&I mix and set them on a paper towel to dry.  They dry lighter than they look but they can also be adjusted at this stage by brushing with a brush dipped in straight A (no I) and/or blotting lightly with a paper towel to pick up some of the excess A&I.  Any overly heavy spots from the gray/khaki sponge effect can be lessened or washed away by gently scrubbing them with a cotton swab or fine brush dipped in the A&I mix or just straight A.  This is a very forgiving technique that allows for adjustments long the way.  Same is true for the walls and trim pieces.


Before applying the A&I wash to the walls I needed to beat them up a bit.  First I added rows of nail holes using a ponce wheel and steel square.  We won't go into the whole nail hole discussion here.   


I failed to snap a picture of me masking off the lower section of the walls and "dry sponging" them with Polly Scale St. Lawrence Blue (after which I followed up with the light gray and then Khaki sponge treatment).  What was interesting about this was a) the clapboards didn't align properly with the end and side walls but I taped them so the blue would come up to the same spot.  I used the edge of one of the clapboards on a longer, side wall as a guide and just put the tape where it needed to be on the end walls even if was in the middle of a clapboard.  Not a big deal on the tall end wall because that wall will be pretty much hidden by the coal bin.  It's only the short end wall where the blue lower section will be visible.  This did bring up an interesting conundrum though.  I hadn't glued the 1/16" corner trim the walls yet and the was also painted white and weathered so what to do about that?  Leave the corners white?  No, I opted to add the corner posts later and then go back and mask them off and apply the blue (followed by gray and khaki) paint at that time.

Once again, prior to applying the A&I wash, I chose to beat up the walls by slipping a chisel blade underneath some clapboards and lifting them up. I even twisted the blade and broke off a few small pieces here and there.  Try not to do the section of the large wall where the sign will go.  That can be done after applyling the sign.


Finally I applied the A&I to the walls and painted strip wood pieces.  The reason I save this for after the nail holes and beating up the walls is because it will settle into the holes and color the exposed wood where I broke off pieces of the clapboard siding.


That's all for today's update!  Thanks for following along.  Next time we'll add some doors and windows to the walls and she'll start looking like something. 

[postalkarl]

Hi Bob:

Looks like you are off to a good start. I built that when it first came out and its A great little kit.

Karl

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice color combo.

[Dave K.]

Ditto on the color pairing.👍🏻

[ReadingBob]

Hi Bob:

Looks like you are off to a good start. I built that when it first came out and its A great little kit.

Karl

Thanks Karl!  Yep, I really liked the looks of this one when I first saw it.  My wife gave it to me for X-Mas a couple of years ago.  Every now and then it helps if I build one she gave me so she knows they're not all getting stashed away somewhere.