Monster Model Works Freight House

[Oldguy]

I've had good luck with the matte finish sold at Michaels for ceramics.  I don't remember the brand right now.  Another thing to try with a 40% off coupon!


dave

My main store for crafty stuff is Jo Anns and no discount coupons.  But we do have an art supply store.  Limited stock, and geared to the retirees who want to get into painting.  I'll check him and JoAnns out.  Never thought to check in a ceramics section.  Otherwise Hobby Lobby is 60 or so miles away.  I prefer to buy local when ever possible; and no 60 miles isn't local to me.
I had bought some workable fixative for chalks thinking ti would help seal chalk and weathering powders.  But dang, that stuff has a high sheen to it.  How someone is supposed to chalk over that, don't know.  Nothing sticks to it.  Might use for glossy scenery needs.

[deemery]

Really, only the final coat of sealer needs to be matte.  You could use the glossy stuff to seal the brick, and that'll actually make the mortar mix less likely to stick to the bricks.  Then use the Vallejo stuff after the mortar is done.


dave

[Oldguy]

Really, only the final coat of sealer needs to be matte.  You could use the glossy stuff to seal the brick, and that'll actually make the mortar mix less likely to stick to the bricks.  Then use the Vallejo stuff after the mortar is done.


dave

Hmmm, may have to check that out tomorrow.  I have one door cutout left, plus a number of window cutouts to practice on.
Thanks for the suggestion. 

[Oldguy]

I have come to realize that I have bitten off more than I can handle for my first basswood brick kit when it comes to coloring the brick.  I won't give up completely, but will persevere the best tat I can.While waiting to get some supplies, I decided to paint the other parts.  The Frisco, in my time period uses white as trime, so I painted the windows white.  I used a thick wash as it appears that the laser board will tone down the white and give it a dirty/well worn look.  Then on to the concrete overlays.  My first shot was a Fog Gray craft paint that I got at Hobby Lobby late last year.  The new bottle was only half full and was so thick it wouldn't even squeeze out of the bottle.  Grrr.  I added some water and using the Badger paint mixer stirred it up, but it wasn't old concrete enough.  I did have some Model Flex Aged Concrete, did a test swab, and to me, it looked good enough to proceed.  It isn't as green as in the photo.

There are some concrete pieces on the building that also needed the concrete paint applied.  Some parts okay, others, especially where it was laser burnt, will take several coats to make it look decent.
Then on to the loading dock.  The upper piece and the outer piece do have a slight pitting pattern, so I labeled each as to inside.  It is so fine it won't show in a photo.  Two notched side pieces and two middle supports makes is an easy construct.  At least until I glued one end on and while sitting there, I thought to check the top piece fit.  And dagnabbit, the top piece doesn't fit.  Looks like the sides, and therefore the middle pieces are too long as the dock has to sit flush with the dock openings.  Looks like I'll have to shorten some pieces to eliminate any gap.
The kit does have some fantastic metal roll up metal doors.  But, I don't think these were in use in the mid-fifties.  I've done a search on the google machine and so far haven't found any historic information on their use.

[Karl O]

Hello,

I've done quite a few of the Monster basswood brick walls and was very pleased with the way they looked after painting with craft acrylics and dry pigments. Here is an FSM structure that I used the Monster brick walls rather than the ones in the kit...

If you like this look, here is the link with how I did it:

www.railroad-line.com/discussion/pop_printer_friendly.asp?TOPIC_ID=36835

Cheers,

Karl O.
Berkley, MI

PS - Here are a couple more with Monster brick walls colored the same way as the others...

[Janbouli]

Absolutely fantastic looking brick, thanks for sharing.

[Oldguy]

OMG!  Thank you for the link.  I did a search for Monster brick on RR line and that thread didn't make the search results.

[Oldguy]

Looks like I'll be able to get up and out of my drive way tomorrow and look for some of the recommended products for the brick.
In the meantime I worked on the loading dock and getting it even.  I needed to shorten the end and middle braces to get the top flush with the sides. I use rare earth magnets for some of the hold down and alignment functions.  I was also able to make up some test brick pieces using window cutouts.  Apparently the laser puts a small bias on it's cuts as one can almost eliminate the space in between part by a little sanding on a True Sander.  Naturally, I found this out after making my test pieces.  Skipping a bit ahead in the painting booklet, I painted some small bits while on the carrier sheet.  Jimmy used black spray primer, but I don't haven't anything like that.  But I did have a black paint pen and it worked fairly well.  All of these will get a coat of rust weathering before removal.

[Oldguy]

Karl O - if finishing and weathering was a foot race, you sir, are running a marathon and I'm still learning to walk.  I did print out the link information and should be able to put it to good use, eventually.
I did manage to get out and about and should have realized how the rest of my day was to go when at the car dealer for an oil change and tire rotation and decided to get my car inspected for license renewal while I was there.  They didn't have a state certified inspector any more. Huh?
So when done, I headed to the Family Train Store in town.  Yep, a town of 2,700 and there is a train store.  Emphasis on train.  I look around a bit and a full selection of Woodland Scenics, which makes sense, as they they are just down the road a bit.  But where is the paint?  I inquired if they had any Dullcote.  His response - "What is Dullcote'?  Ye gods man.  I tried to explain but I didn't get through.  Paint?  About 16 bottles of Testors enamel and one bottle of Model Master.  Need Lionel, American Fyer or $8 Athearn Blue box cars - got 'em. 

On to the art store.  Yep, they have white gouache.  What about a matte acrylic?  In a spray can.  Seems ought to be similar to DullCote.  Anything in a liquid? - nope.  What about tempera cakes?  Never heard of them.  Typical tempera paint for kids, but not in a block or puck form.  Good thing I ordered some on line earlier in the week.  When they come in I'll go back and show him what they are.
I did manage to play around with painting brick cut outs, and spraying them with either a gloss spray or the matte spray, letting it all sit over night and then mix up some gouache wash (with flow aid added) and test the pieces.  Gloss, matte, or no spray didn't seem to make a difference on the mortar wash accumulation on the brick faces.    Thinking that my spray could have been too light, I brushed on some newly arrived Vallejo Matte, let it dry and did the wash thing.  Same as all the others.  I found that I can do a sponge over paint and get decent results.  I'm very reluctant to give the building a good spray of a gloss coat since there a ton of overlays that have yet to be glued on.  So tomorrow, I'll hold my breath and give the mortar wash a go.

[cuse]

Those Monster Modelworks bricks are amazing!! I purchased some of their stuff when I was in N-scale. There's really nothing like it. I don't know Jimmy (other than Scott Mason's podcast and I may have shaken his hand at a Craftsman Structure Show years ago) but he strikes me as one of the really talented guys in the industry. I hope he finds a way to keep it going. His products and production methods seem very unique and ingenious. Great sub-thread Karl-thanks for sharing all that info. I'm enjoying this thread.


John

[deemery]

What happened was that Jimmy got a 'new day job'.  He said that Monster was great when he had the time/wasn't working full-time, but it was way too much to handle alongside a new career.  So that's why he closed shop and put the business for sale. 


dave

[Oldguy]

Time to put my big boy pants on a put the mortar wash on.  The Flamenco Red is rather bright to begin with.  I gran a wide flat brush and dig right in.  And dug a fairly deep hole.  The wash ran into all the lines slicker than all get out.    And promptly disappeared.  Okay, when the masters tell you what to do, by all means listen to them.  But, I just couldn't bare the thought of giving it a gloss coat.  What if all the overlays wouldn't stick to gloss coat?  I just couldn't shake the thought.  It wound up taking at least 4 coats of wash to even leave a hint of mortar lines, which of course, lead to a lot of white faced brick.  Ya dummy, listen to those who have done this before.
I know that I can sponge over the white and call it it a day.  Some years ago, I caught management tossing out several bags of makeup sponges as they were out dated.  Huh?  My thought was yes, you should throw them out as every time you use them, you look older.  Get younger sponges and see what happens.  Glad I kept my mouth shut.
To get a flat face, I squeeze them in a set of clamps and use a sprue cutter to get a some what flat working surface.  Those that have paint dried on them, can be recut for a fresh, albeit, lager surface.  After cutting, a quick hair cut to remove any peaks, will help keep the surface on the brick faces.

[Oldguy]

To get my mind off painting, I turned to the windows that were painted a week or so ago.  Thankfully, Jimmy had the "sprues" only on the upper left and lower right of each piece.  Cutting these loose was a lot easier when I switched to painted side and the paint bridged the carrier sheet.  I found a small container to keep all the parts in one place.  Eventually, one places the outer frame painted side down.  Apply glue to the frame of the painted window piece and glue the two together.  Now where did I put those tweezers?

[Janbouli]

Hahaha, I like that , taking your mind off painting by doing something even more tedious , great thinking.

[Oldguy]

Well, the crime scene was cleaned up and the dirty deed complted.  Looks somewhat terrible due to the long sections of flat areas that receive the concrete overlays.  Did a bit of concrete touch up where the mortar wash and brick dry dabbing strayed a bit.
Then on to the 20 windows cut out yesterday.  I don't know what Jimmy used to get the glue all around the window frame, but it was a hassle just getting some decent dribs and drabs on four sides.  For me, the easiest way to keep getting fresh glue was just to use the little glob one gets when one closes the spout.  I use a Lace Draper (apparently it's used in ceramics) to transfer the glue to the window.  Then just use fingers to get everything square, clean up any squeeze out with a #11 blade and weigh down with a die block to ensure it will remain flat.  Jimmy mentioned there was an extra window included.  I just wish I knew which was it was, as it could have saved me a bit of time in painting and gluing.  Just another 8 larger windows and several doors and the facade penetrations will be done.  Well, with the exception of the overhead garage doors.  These are nice plastic castings, but are of a more modern design.
Anyone know when the metal roll-up doors were invented?  Not the ones with panels, but looks more like corrugated metal.