Re: Sierra West Foundry Scratchbuild

[Dave Buchholz]

"Now that the toilet dilemma is behind us  , please beware that if you frequent Jerry's Pattern Shop
work area, there's a new sign "closed for toilet repairs", hanging by the door. No one is allowed to use it
going forward! Also there were too many newspaper reporters trying to cop a story before the next flush.  ,"

Glad you got a good laugh out out the "turds in the toilet" episode.

🤔😅

Dave #5

[Bernd]

Rich wrote:

Some of you may be wondering why I am building on bases. These models I am making are not all planned on going on shelves. I have been contemplating for some time how I can either make a switching layout along one or two walls in my room or some modules that can be bolted together and eventually be pushed out of the way to regain the space they take up. My room is small and both sides of the room (lengthwise) have short knee walls
that are only 45 inches measured vertically from the floor upward. Along those walls (into the knee wall area) are cupboard doors where my wife has stored her Holiday decorations.
I must have open spacing to allow access to those doors when each holiday arises. And I must leave the spaces empty so when the holiday is over, she can put her decorations away again. Now this has caused a major concern and lengthy deliberations in my home ever since they were established. And if you're wondering, NO, I didn't win. Anyway, it is what it is. 

I'd build a shelf 47" high and out about 36". Make sure she has enough room to crawl under the shelf layout. And just like in large cities if you run out of square area to build, then go up. A muilti-layer layout looks like it would work for you.They call them "mushroom layouts". Do a search on "mushroom style model railroad layout". Might give you some ideas.

Bernd

[Jerry]

Rich wrote:

Some of you may be wondering why I am building on bases. These models I am making are not all planned on going on shelves. I have been contemplating for some time how I can either make a switching layout along one or two walls in my room or some modules that can be bolted together and eventually be pushed out of the way to regain the space they take up. My room is small and both sides of the room (lengthwise) have short knee walls
that are only 45 inches measured vertically from the floor upward. Along those walls (into the knee wall area) are cupboard doors where my wife has stored her Holiday decorations.
I must have open spacing to allow access to those doors when each holiday arises. And I must leave the spaces empty so when the holiday is over, she can put her decorations away again. Now this has caused a major concern and lengthy deliberations in my home ever since they were established. And if you're wondering, NO, I didn't win. Anyway, it is what it is. 

I'd build a shelf 47" high and out about 36". Make sure she has enough room to crawl under the shelf layout. And just like in large cities if you run out of square area to build, then go up. A muilti-layer layout looks like it would work for you.They call them "mushroom layouts". Do a search on "mushroom style model railroad layout". Might give you some ideas.

Bernd

Space the final frontier!!!!  And you don't have any I know what you mean!!! 

Jerry 

[Pennman]

Thanks for following and your comments, Dave, Bernd & Jerry.

I'm currently working on the base and before I can "plant" my structures to any real estate, I must decide on the final color I want for the main stone building. If you remember from an earlier post where I began this journey, I mentioned that I had painted this plaster building about seven years ago. It was at that time in my early modeling days that painting any plaster structure intimidated me. I was not sure what to use or how to go about it. I still find it difficult on how I want it to look and that depends on what you use.

Another aspect for this model that comes to mind is the way the stones were scribed into the plaster walls. I'm not too fond of the way they look. If I can show a close-up picture you will see what I mean. The individual stones are so tiny between the next ones that it is difficult to paint any of them separately. I first used pan pastel pigments over the gray stones but that gave a muddy effect and looked wrong to me. So, I opted for a darker than normal paint color to shadow them so they wouldn't be easily seen. My problem now is they are too dark for my liking. I know I could re-paint the entire building with a light paint and go on from there, but I don't want to do that this time. My thought now is to either mist a light gray paint (matt) or light gray Tamiya Surface Primer and dry-brush light colors in layers over the dried primer. What I used last was Woodland Scenics Stone Gray acrylic Liquid Pigment C1218. But it dried darker than I thought it would.

First two pictures show the beginning attempt coloring after using pan pastels
Third picture is the bottle of Woodland Scenics liquid pigment
Fourth picture is after painting with the Woodland Scenics liquid pigment and this is how the building looks now. I'm going to try to lighten the color overall.


I will be working on final coloring of this building and scenery for the base. Back in a couple of days.

Rich

[PRR Modeler]

Great looking progress Rich.

[Jerry]

Rich I would have stayed with the lighter color in picture 1.  And worked from there.
But overall I like the color.

Jerry

[Pennman]

Thanks for your nice comments Curt and Jerry.
I may keep this as is, but it's really dark now.
I think I will try the dry-brushing first, then see how it looks.

Rich

[Dave Buchholz]

I was wondering if you where going to dry brush highlights rather than keep it monotone.

[ACL1504]

Rich,

I agree with you in that the stones are dark and the mortar makes it look darker. That said, I believe if you dry brush the stones with a lighter color such as light gray or a driftwood color, the stones will look right.

Tom

[Bernd]

Lets see. This is a foundry right? Everything should have a dark dust over it from the casting of metal. Having worked for a company that at one time poured it's own castings I know how much soot gets into the air. If you had a white car, by the time your work shift was over and they poured that day you would have a very dark car on any horizontal surface. I don't think making the building lighter would make you think it was a foundry. Just my opinion and experince being near a foundry.

Bernd

[Pennman]

Well...let's see...thanks for all of your expert responses. Thanks for visiting again Dave, Tom & Bernd.
All of your responses were good ones, this wasn't a contest, and no, you're not gonna end up with the model
when I'm finished. 
BUT.. you are all too late! I got up around 5:00 am this morning, decided against the dry-brushing, and
have commenced upon painting all of the stones individually. Yes, I typed that right! LOL It can be done
and it will be marvelous. You see, I used to paint the smallest of details on my wife's ceramics. The smaller
they were, the better I got at it. You just have to have 20 cups of coffee and very steady hands. What??
Coffee actually steadies my hands.

Maybe if all works out, and my eyes begin to re*focus, I'll be back with a "sneak-peek" for ya! 

Rich

[deemery]

I'd drybrush (a good task for a make-up sponge) with a lighter grey, moving the sponge in one direction, top-down.  That'll highlight the top of the stones where the light hits them, but won't change the overall sooty tone of the building. 

And I'd do that after you paint the individual stones. 

dave

[ACL1504]

Rich,

The good news is that you are happy with what you created.

Tom

[Pennman]

I'd drybrush (a good task for a make-up sponge) with a lighter grey, moving the sponge in one direction, top-down.  That'll highlight the top of the stones where the light hits them, but won't change the overall sooty tone of the building. 

And I'd do that after you paint the individual stones. 

dave

Thanks for your input here Dave. I might try that like you say. I'll at least give it a try.
I've seen it done before with excellent results.

Rich

[Pennman]

Rich,

The good news is that you are happy with what you created.

Tom

Tom,

You could be right, but I haven't thrown it out yet. 
Thanks for visiting again, and your comments.

Rich