Carolina Craftsman Kits - Aunt Ruth's House

[ReadingBob]

This kit (manufactured by our own Groovy Jeff) for a neat little house arrived in the mail shortly before I went on vacation a few weeks back.  It's been distracting me from my FSM Fox Run Milling build so I figured I better do a build thread on it so you'll (Gnat) know why I  haven't made much progress on Fox Run.      I've been working on this one and taking pictures along the way and now it's time to share what I've done so far.  Here's the obligatory picture of the box and it's contents: 

A nice little house that reminds me of the type of homes common to the area I'm modeling.


Lot's of goodies inside the box...


....including doors, windows, posts, railings, lattice, etc....


....nicely done block walls for the foundation....


....clapboard walls with clapboards that are a little taller than those we normally see in a kit....


....and of course instructions!  The paints are the colors my better half selected for my little house.  The green will be used as the primary color and the yellow for the doors, windows and some of the trim.


More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

Time to get started.  I had already put new blades in all of my knife handles for the Fox Run Milling build so I was ready to go from that respect.  I started by cutting out the floor and roof pieces.  This is really easy, there's very little that needs to be cut to seperate these from their carrier sheets.


Next I removed the doors and windows from their sprues using a sprue cutter (a very handy tool to have on the workbench).


I cleaned up the edges of the plastic castings using an emery board and a very light touch.  It's easy to get carried away with this.  It doesn't take much to remove anything unwanted.  After all of these were cleaned up I primed all the plastic parts and the metal chimney casting using my airbrush and Floquil Primer (which I'm almost out of    ).


A chisel blade in an X-Acto knife handle is handy for removing the wood parts from their carrier sheets.


Finally, after a few weeks away from the work bench I get to glue something to something else.      I added bracing to the walls following the pictures included in the instructions and weighing them down to dry using some marble blocks (pieces from disassemble trophies).


There isn't too much strip wood so I brushed on my alcohol and ink (A&I) onto it rather than breaking out the dunk tank and giving it a bath.   


More in a moment....

[ReadingBob]

My A&I mix is made up of a couple of teaspoons (or so) of this ink pad refill ink that I picked up at Staples mixed into a bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol.  It's way too dark for my taste straight from that bottle to I decant a little bit into smaller bottles and cut it with some more rubbing alcohol.  I have not formula for this.  I just pour.  Some batches end up darker than others.  I keep three bottles on my work bench.  One with a dark mix, one with a lighter mix and one of straight rubbing alcohol.  I can always dip my brush in the staight alcohol before dipping it in the A&I mix to thin it even further or to brush it onto a piece after the fact if it looks too dark.


Next the inside of the walls were painted flat black.  A trick I picked up from Tom (ACL1504).


The outside of the walls were painted with my primary color, Light Avocado Green. 


Next I used a sponge and dabbed on some light gray to represent spots where the paint peeled away and the primer was showing.  I did this very, very lightly and the sponge was almost dry.  I didn't want to overdo the effect on this particular structure.  You'll note that I also paint the doors, windows, etc. my contrasting color.  The same sponge technique was used on them as well.


Next everything was 'dry brushed' with an off white paint.  Load the brush up with paint and then remove almost all of the paint.  You just want to highlight the edges and raised surfaces of parts to make them pop.


I applied glazing to the windows using Microscale Krystal Klear.  This is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it.  I have virtually no problems with air bubbles when I use the Krystal Clear. 


That's all for now.  More as I find time to post.   

[Dave K.]

Following along...

[GPdemayo]

Keeping an eye on this one Bob.

[bparrish]

Bob...

Cool idea with the sponge.

Thanx
Bob

[Raymo]

Another great kit from Jeff. I like your choice with the green Bob. Raymo

[ACL1504]

Bob,

That is another great kit from Jeff of CCK fame! I'm following along as well. I like the colors you chose. Great start!

Tom

[S&S RR]

Bob

Another great build thread!  Some smart kit manufacturer needs to hire you to put together their instructions. Seriously, I copy every one of your build threads for the kits I have on my shelf. I think we all learn something new on every build.

Oh and Jeff the kit looks great too!

[S&S RR]

We know your not faking the pictures when you have the paint from one step on your finger in the next step. 

[EricQuebec]

Hi Bob,
I like this green color. I've use it for a small scratchbuild/fanart project that I did last month.
I will follow this thread.
Eric Quebec city

[gnatshop]

HEY, Bobby Boy - It must feel good to be off the road and gettin' paint and glue on
your fingers again!
I know that it feels good to us to see you buildin' again!! 

[ReadingBob]

Following along...

Thanks Dave!  Always a pleasure to have you following along.   

[ReadingBob]

Keeping an eye on this one Bob.

Uh-oh.  Greg's giving me the evil eye.    

[ReadingBob]

Bob...

Cool idea with the sponge.

Thanx
Bob

Thanks Bob.  Learned that one from Doug Foscale.  It's one of my favorite ways to get a peeling paint effect.  I prefer painting the walls the final color and dabbing on the undercoat afterwards.  Some do it the other way around and dab on the final color leaving some of the undercoat exposed.  Either way I like the end result.  Thanks for following along!