Monster Model Works Freight House

[Oldguy]

Once I got all 31 windows put together, it was a time for the glazing.  There were 2 sheets of glazing to be glued on.  But first, each had to be cut out, and then trying to remove the paper backing that became attached around all four sides by the laser.   I found the little nub from the carrier was the best place to start.  Then applying glue to the frame, in an amount so small that if you can see it, it's too much.  Otherwise it squeezes out.  I used my little vacuum bul-type tool to pick up the "glass" and apply it over the frame, and with any kind of luck, it doesn't drop off prematurely.  I used an old paint brush, and pushing in to the frame while turning it, worked the best to remove any squeeze outs.  A small flat, and somewhat wet brush, aide in removing glue traces.  Not 100%, but enough to get enough good windows from the viewing side.  Once the "glass", has been cleaned, just use you fingers to ensure that it is square and then place under a wait until the glue is set up.
While waiting on the windows to set up, it was onto the entry doors.  These are made the same as the windows.  Instead of painting them, I decided to use a Minwax Dark Walnut stain from a pen for a wood door look.  Another learning moment - stain doesn't like whatever the doors are printed on.  It was still tacky after sitting for close to 24 hours.  I went ahead and gave them an overcoat of a brown Pan Pastel to get rid of the stickiness. 

The on to installing the windows.  After everything that had gone before, these were a relive breeze.  A little dab of glue in each corner, then fiddling with each to ensure they were even with the brick and voila. 

Next up, adding all the concrete overlays.

[PRR Modeler]

Nice job Bob.

[Oldguy]

Nice job Bob.

Thanks.  It has tested my patience. 

[engine909]

Great modeling Bob.
ed

[Oldguy]

With 31 windows and 3 doors, there were 63 lintels to install.  I found it easier to install the left top first, then whatever one one was within 6".  Basically the length of the plastic ruler that I had on hand.  I used those two as benchmarks and installed all those in between them.  One has to use the ol' Mark One Eye ball to ensure accuracy looking down the building side.  The bottom ones were done the same. A word of note to anyone wanting to build and light the interior. Many of the windows do not fill the width of the window cut out and light would leak out the side.  A person would need to frame in the interior portion of the window cutout.

Then it was on to the overlays.  These were conveniently labeled per wall: i.e wall P1 got P1A overlay.   Good thing that each wall was of a different length as overlays P1A and P2A were mislabeled.  There are areas for 3 overlays for each wall.  Except for P1.  It needs four.  But only three were cut.  The upper two and the bottom dock overlay were provided.  I needed to create my own.  I managed to cut one out using the uncut portions of the carrier sheet.  I realized that I was not going to be able to produce the little bump downs between the doors.  I did manage to produce the notch over the brick bump out and got it glued on. 

The next big project will be the roof.  The kit instructions have it sprayed with Dullcote and then sprinkle dirt over the top.  Well, I live on the Ozarks and we grow rocks.  If we want dirt, we have to bring it in by the dump truck load.  Okay, plan B, just use sand paper.  I need to play around a bit with this as the roof is to replicate tar and gravel covering.  If you look closely at the roof card, he has laser etched (?) in 11 roof drains and supplied the corresponding grates, a really neat detail.  Each roof drain feeds into a yet to be installed down spout.  The main issue,  has to do with the actual roof installation.  Let's see, a flat roof with a 2" trim to keep rain on the roof?  Um, no.  So I have a choice.  One is to take one of my Monster Model Works brick wall wall sections and cut off 4 or so rows of brick and then splice it on to the existing structure.  Yeah, right.  I'll never get the brick color to get even close to matching.  So I'm guessing I need to drop the roof down about 1/8" to form a parapet.  This would require shortening the interior bracing and cut down one interior sheet.  Not a biggie.  Cover the plain wood with black paper to replicate tar paper and tar that would be run up the wall in the real world.  But then, this puts the roof drains way too close to the walls, unless I cut out the extra from the middle.  I should have all this figured out before the end of the week. 

Also on the roof card are 3 small squares.  One is to take small provided card squares and glue on a larger square to form roof vents.  Huh?  Then on the office section is a large square where one  makes a roof hatch (?) in a similar manner.  Again, Huh?  I'll have to figure changes for these items as well.

[S&S RR]

Looking good Bob!

[Oldguy]

After much agonizing, I decided to go ahead and use the included roll up doors.  A quick coat of Stirling craft paint and white for the door casings.  The instructions noted that one must be careful in painting two of the doors as that had No Parking signs cut in to them so as not to fill in the letters.  Apparently, I wasn't careful as they indeed, we filled in.  In hindsight, I probably should have painted the lettering, let dry, and then scrap off wasn't supposed to be there.  Maybe next time.  Once the paint had dried it was a matter of gluing on the casings to the doors.  Since they had to be flush at the top with just a little overhang on the sides, I need to make up a quick little jig.  Once the PVA glue had set, I did a back up of CA and then glue to the building.

[Oldguy]

Then on to the roof.  I decided to drop the roof even with the upper trim.  It was a simple matter of using the depth rod to find the trim depth and then transfer it to the inside.  Of course, first I needed to cut off all the interior bracing.  For wood that I know that I will be using a lot of, I order from Mt Albert as they offer bulk purchases.  It is a lot cheaper to order in 25 or 50 piece bundles.  Once all the perimeter bracing ad dried, I needed to add some cross bracing.  Again, I use the caliper to find the distance between side pieces and use the depth rod to transfer that measurement to the bracing material.

[Oldguy]

I have been playing around with different material for the roof and  decided on sandpaper, specifically 60 grit.  Then following Karl O's advice, I got some tempera paint and made my own tar & gravel roofing.  The brush is a water color brush that one fills with water, to eliminate the constant adding water to the tempera puck.  In my neck of the woods, the roofers used river rock (because it was rounded) which gave the roof a brownish appearance. My test pieces show some Pan Pastel weathering and it's good to go. 

For the front and rear awnings, it was suggested rolled roofing made from masking tape. My experience with masking tape hasn't been good.  It just hasn't lasted.  One the other hand, I have some drafting triangles that I had to put several layers of drafting tape underneath them to keep drawing ink from running under them, and that stuff had to be removed with an Xacto chisel.  But then, I no longer have any drafting tape.  I decided to use some emery cloth.  I cut them to the standard 33.3 feet long and 3 feet wide.  I needed to seal the edges with coal black paint.
I finally got my care package from Walthers, with their roof detail kit.  I selected the short "T" style to replace the kits flat squares.  First off, I used some Aleene's tacky glue to install toothpick halves for handling.  Next up, weathering them buggers.

[PRR Modeler]

Everything looks great Bob.

[Oldguy]

First thing was to spray the exhaust parts with a matte spray.  While that was drying, it was one to the dock roofs.  I applied some transfer tape to the correct side (trust me, I almost got it wrong) and applied the emery cloth strips.  I didn't like the first attempt of overlapping the ends, so I peeled them off and just butted the end together.  Of, course this led to a gap.  To correct this problem I took a small brush and applied some Satin Coal craft paint to the seams.  While I was at it, I added some built up roofing tar that would be applied where the roof meets the building.  This should make it easier to finish the seam once the roof is glued to the building.
Then, on to my first ever attempt at weathering.  In this case - the "metal" roof vents.  I first tried chalks over the matte coating (note - I do not have any Dullcote).  Meh.  I have heard that one can't overcoat chalk.  Not so fast.  They make a spray just for chalk and pastels. So I gave the vents a coat and try again. I first went with rust weathering powders but it just looked flat.  So I dug into the paint box and pulled out a tube of burnt sienna.  Whoa, 50+ year old tube.  It still had the 50 cent TG&Y sticker on it.  Anyway, I had to take my lace draper needle end to get the paint out.  Small dabs with a 5/0 brush and then an over coat of medium rust weathering powder applied with a Q-tip and I'm in business.  Could they be better?  No doubt, but I'm going to stop while I'm ahead.

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Bob. 

[PRR Modeler]

Looks good Bob. Looking forward to seeing it together.

[Oldguy]

Had the weekend off to go sell some excess RR stuff at the local Springfield (as in Missouri) to fund the DCC account.  I had a nice talk with Bob Lunde who came up from Eureka Springs to showcase and sell his kits.
Took the big step in gluing the tar & gravel roofing (nee sandpaper) to the roof card.  The down side is the kit provided roof card had nice laser divots where 11 roof drain grates need to go.  I used a Cir-Kit pilot hole punch to mark each corner and after the roofing had dried, went back through the back side to note where each drain grate needs to go.  It was important to ensure that no glue got into those divots.  I batted 50%.  Then it was a matter of flipping the roof back over and cutting out all 11 spaces.  I found that a utility knife and a metal straight edge help keep all the cuts in line.  A quick application of Satin Coal will get rid of most of the exposed card areas.  Not shown here, but I did futz with the roof coloring by add a mixture of a black pastel and Bragdon Soot here and there.

[Oldguy]

Now it was time to add the roof.  I added all kinds of extra bracing for the roof card, and I'm glad it did.  That's some major poundage sitting there.  I had fiddle with using some black construction paper for the exposed portion of the wall backside.  It didn't seem worth the time, so I just painted the exposed wall black.  On most roofing jobs that I have been on, the crews would slop tar, some times a layer of tar paper, with more tar moped over that, over the exposed brick to help reduce water infiltration.

While the roof glue was curing, it was on gluing more stuff.  With 11 rood drains, there are 11 downspouts. These are cut flat, with a small back cut for folding.  I had pre-weathered these with Bragdon's iron oxide powder.  To minimize glue spoilage, I squeeze a little out and close the spout.  The resultant glob provides enough glue for what I needed to do.  Again, using the needle end of a lace draper, it gave me just enough glue to get everything together.  A little manipulation and everything came out as in decent shape.  The same procedure need to be done with 2 exhaust vents shown in back of the mat.  These vents were a little more tricky as the 3 folding tabs are used to attached them to the building.  Once the roof had dried, I attached the replacement vents and access hatch with a bit of medium CA. 

In the last photo one can see one of the roof drain grates sitting on the roof.  It's where it was when I needed to call it a day.  I was getting a bit cross eyed as each opening has to checked to ensure that a grate will fit flat and straight.