2025 Winter Challenge - Building Time Forgot

[friscomike]

Howdy Larry, the challenge is looking good.  Nice coloring on the tractor and details.  Have fun, mike

[ACL1504]

Larry,

It all looks nasty and rusty, as it should. Great job! 

Will you be able to use this diorama on your layout? I'm not sure I read it in the previous posts.

Tom

[Larry C]

Mike thank you; much appreciated.

Tom thanks so much. Possibly if I ever get to that point; I purposely did not add any track to the scene so I could tuck it into an empty spot.

[Larry C]

Scenery has never been my strong suit so with each new build I'm trying to up my game in that regard.



On this build I wanted to add some tall weeds. I purchased this paint brush some time ago since it has natural bristles, most are nylon now, to make some tall weeds. I take a small amount of bristles on the brush and tie them off with the white heavy thread BEFORE I cut the bristles off the brush carefully so they stayed tied. Leaving the thread longer than required I add a good amount of white glue to the base of the weeds. When throughly dry I cut off the excess thread, dig a hole in the foam with a hand held drill bit, add a generous amount of glue to the base and stick it in the hole and let dry.



This is the result on the end of the building giving me natural looking weeds. The pallet is from Rusty Rail and is 3D printed priced very reasonably and come 10 in a package. First I "broke" one of the boards on the pallet then colored it with burnt Sienna applied with clear alcohol. After drying the whole thing was dry brushed with black chalk. The end foam area was brushed with white glue then used Woodland's green flocking next. Also planted some 6mm clumps of weeds before adding dirt to the area. The back of the building had high grass clumps glued along the entire back against the building before adding more dirt to the edge of the foam. All in all I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.

Next I'll start working on the other end of the diorama along with adding details to the rafters/roof area. Thanks for following along and all your great comments and/or suggestions; they are appreciated.

[IWannaRetire]

Larry, Thanks again for the detailed build thread here.  Like I said, scratch-building is why I came here.

I just wanted to share a bit of real construction detailing from a similar "light construction" shed.  I thought of your shed yesterday when I was in this one.

My father-in-law built this "shed" of sorts to cover his firewood 35 years ago. He recycled old 2x6 outdoor decking for the roof, which he laid board-on-board, no shingles.  It never had walls, it's just a roof over firewood, some years a tarp on the windward side.  It measures 10' by 16' overall, the vertical framing is simply three 4x6 posts on 7 foot centers.

You can see there is but a single 2x4 purlin. 

It's still standing after 35 years,  2 hours north of Green Bay where there is considerable snow regularly.

[friscomike]

Howdy Larry,

The shed is looking "rode hard and put up wet".  I like the gaps in the boards, the weeds out back, and the dried Johnson grass on the end.  Now all you need is some kudzu vines to make it look abandoned.

Persist and have fun,
mike

[Rick]

Larry, scenery looks good.
Good technique using the fibers from the brush.
I would cut down the length of that weed.
I would probably make a bunch of those weeds but much shorter and scatter them around.

[Jerry]

The scenery looks good Larry.  Nice coloring on the weeds.

I think the weed is a bit tall also.

Question what are you going to tell Ellie when she wants something painted and you no longer have that brush!!! 

Jerry

[Larry C]

Mark thanks for the photos and it's still standing after all those years. Looks like he knew what he ws doing when he built it.

Mike thank you; need thought about adding vines...hmm.

Rick and Jerry thank you both. I'll see what I can do about the tall one without making it look flat on top.

Jerry I would never use that type of brush for painting they leave too many brush marks.

[PRR Modeler]

Larry along with the others I would try to spread out the top a little bit so it's not straight up and down.

Saying that, using the brush like you did is innovative and something else I had never thought of doing.

[Larry C]

Curt thanks for the suggestion on fixing the tall weed; I want to avoid cutting at all costs...thanks. I saw that idea on a video and it looked pretty easy and I think they look great.

[elwoodblues]

Larry,

Just catching up on the build.  I'm not going to mentioned anything about the weeds as other people have mentioned already.  I will mention the "Rule of Three" as I cal it.  Scenery items look better when places in odd numbers (except one, which is the loneliest number).  If I'm doing bushes or trees in the same area, I tend to use 3,5,7 etc.

The build is looking great by the way, especially all the rusted junk.

[Larry C]

Ron thanks for the tip. I knew scenery items look better in odd numbers so maybe I can sneak in another clump of weeds on that area,; since there are 2 clumps of weeds on that side. Thank you on the build. The rusted junk takes longer to do than making it look just used but that's part of the fun.

[Pennman]

Question what are you going to tell Ellie when she wants something painted and you no longer have that brush!!! 

Jerry

That's OK Jerry, Kris has a few he could borrow!   
Rich

[Pennman]

Larry, Wow! I've been awall again! Posting now for maybe an hour trying to play catch-up
with all of the great modeling going on. Your build is looking good. I'll be back to pay
closer attention to this, it's really late now.

Rich