Winter Challenge 2024 - FOS Background Flats

[ReadingBob]

Great modeling so far (as usual) Bob.

Thanks, Curt! Hope to provide an update soon. I've been back at it.

[Philip]

Looks great so far & following your build.

Philip

[Jerry]

Just looking for that update Bob!

Jerry

[ReadingBob]

Looks great so far & following your build.

Philip

Thanks, Philp!  Appreciate having you following along!

[ReadingBob]

Just looking for that update Bob!

Jerry

Okay Jerry!  Here it comes (finally). 

[ReadingBob]

Well, it's been quite a while since I've provided an update so let's get to it.

I braced the walls for both kits.  Here's the walls for soap company.  I tried to leave a little bit of a gap at the rear to allow a piece of photo mounting board to be inserted to block out the rear.  More on that later.



And here are the walls for the distillery.



Next up I painted the interior of the walls black with a cheap craft store acrylic (to think I used to waste expensive Floquil Grimy Black for the this).

 
The exterior of the walls was then stained with Hunterline Weathering Mix Driftwood (I also like their Light Gray for this step but grabbed the Driftwood this time around).



I should have done this next step before I stained the walls, but it won't make much of a difference.  For the walls that are not clapboard I roughed them up a bit with this welder's brush I picked at Home Depot.

 
Now it's time to paint the walls, windows, etc.  At this point I'm going to focus on just the soap company and set the distillery aside, so I don't confuse myself.   One section of the soap company I painted with Vallejo Iraqi Sand (70.819) by dabbing the paint on with a make-up sponge (these are really cheap, clean up easily and work well for this chore).



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

At this point I decided to paint all the detail castings for both kits.  Now, I also had a stack of detail castings sitting on the workbench that were unrelated to this project, so I decided to paint those as well.  That process took a lot longer than it should have, hence the delay in updating this thread.  Basically, I start by painting the rusty stuff first.  I experiment a lot with rust using Vallejo, AK Rust Effect Colors, Acrylics such as Burnt Umber, etc.  Then I just grab various colors (reds, blues, greens, browns, etc.) and start looking for things on each casting that might benefit from being painted the color I'm working with.  Eventually my workbench looks like a total disaster area.




Once the detail castings were painted, and set aside (John/Cuse I have small box of them here for you whenever you're in the area) I returned to the walls of the soap company.  I painted the clapboard walls white and then started my weathering process by dabbing on Dove Gray using a sponge that had most of the paint removed.  I'm not trying to paint the walls gray.  I'm just trying to get some speckles of gray over the while to make it appear the while paint had peeled away exposing the primer underneath.  It's difficult to see give the effect when it's light gray over white but it's there.  I did this for the walls and the doors, windows and trim pieces (which were also painted white).



I repeated the 'dry sponging' of color over the walls but this time I used Khaki Tan so represent where the paint may have completely come off and exposed the wood beneath.



The next step was to add rows of nail holes using a ponce wheel and steel ruler.  Spaced every (scale) two feet or lining up with the door and/or window openings.  Whatever looked appropriate.



Next up was to rough up the walls a bit with a chisel blade in the X-Acto handle.  Lifting up some clapboards here and there and even twisting the blade a bit to break off some small pieces.  My plan is to weather the soap company a little heavier than the distillary.



The next step was to apply A&I (Rubbing Alcohol and India Ink mixture) to walls.  Given these are white I needed to be a bit careful as to how dark the A&I mix was, so I had my A&I mix as well as a bottle of just A handy so I could thin it further, if needed.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

The final step in weathering the walls, doors, windows, trim, etc. was to drybrush everything with an acrylic Ivory White.  I used to use Floquil Antique White for this, but the acrylic is much more forgiving.  It's easy to wipe it off if you get a little too heavy handed.  The trick is to load the brush with a bit of paint and the remove most of the paint by brusing it on a piece of paper or cardboard before applying it to the structure.  All I want is to highlight the edges or raised surfaces a tiny bit.



For glazing of the doors and windows I like to use Microscale Industries Micor Krystal Klear. Just take a bit and draw it across the opening, from the rear, to fill it in.  Then prop it up and let it dry.



I added the corner pieces (1/16" square strip wood painted/weather the same color as the walls) the edges as per the templates.  Longer than necessary but I'll trim them to fit after the fact.

  
Trimming to fit using a single edged razor blade.



To glue the windows in place I simply lined the inside of the opening with glue (Canopy Glue to be exact).



And then pressed the window in place (being careful to get it oriented the proper way).



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

I added shades to the windows (to block the view inside where there's nothing to see) by gluing some paper that was painted a light green color (tan colors work as well).



Time to start gluing walls together!  This is my favorite step as things really start to take shape.  I want to make sure everything is square when doing this, so I use a square (of course).



For a normal structure I'd glue the front wall to one side wall and the rear wall to the other side wall and then glue the two halves together.  But this is a background flat to there is no rear wall.  Following the instructions I have these two sections that then need to be glued together.  Given the tab in slot design, it's easy to figure out where they go.



And here they are together.



There's one more small section that will get added after the roofing has been completed.  This section consists of two walls that are covered in individual pieces of strip wood (simply stained with Driftwood Weathering Mix).  I applied 3M Transfer tape to the two walls which gives them a sticky surface, when you remove the backing, to hold the strip wood.



I applied the strip wood and trimmed to fit after the fact.



Trimming to fit.



And that's all for today!  Next time I'll get into the roofing and loading dock.

Thanks for following along! 

[PRR Modeler]

Both buildings look very good Bob. I like the step by step directions.

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Bob.....

[ACL1504]

Bob,

Excellent my friend. I love the weathering and the faded wall color. Your SBS never disappoint.

Tom

[ReadingBob]

Both buildings look very good Bob. I like the step by step directions.

Thanks, Curt!  I'm finally moving forward again with this one.  On to the roofing!

[ReadingBob]

Looking good Bob.....

Thanks, Greg! Glad to have you following along.

[ReadingBob]

Bob,

Excellent my friend. I love the weathering and the faded wall color. Your SBS never disappoint.

Tom

Thanks, Tom! Once I get both of these completed, I'll have a better idea if they'll work side by side.  I'm hoping they do but it'll depend on whether the depth (back drop to loading dock) is close enough to a track to service both.  Currently I'm thinking of having the larger distillery to the left and the smaller soap company to the right.  The siding will end at the distillery.  For switching purposes, the distillery will have more activity and should be able to handle two cars whereas the soap company will only be able to handle one car.  The added challenge will be having a car spotted at the soap company in the way when picking up/dropping off cars at the distillery.