South River Modelworks 370 - Tucker and Cook Cotton Yarn Mil

[nextceo]

You've been busy...I'm going to guess that took you all day. Looks Great!
Alan

[coors2u]

The fire escape looks great sir.

[gnatshop]

See there - southern boys can be purty dern talented!
And I don't wan'na to hear that Jeffy and Jimmy boy claimin' that they taught him everythin' that
he knows!!

[NEMMRRC]

Howdy.

Here comes the picking house.

One of the processes of making cotton thread involved the receipt of freight. They called this the picking house. This picking house is designed for rail service on this kit.

The picking house is made up of 4 urethane castings and a chipboard roof to which wood shake shingles are glued. The instructions are very detailed in how to paint the castings and assemble the building. Yes, the instructions have one paint the walls and then assemble them.

There is quite the debate on the forums whether to first paint walls on a structure made of castings or assemble the structure made of castings and then paint it. Being the renegade modeler that I am, I will follow the kit's instructions and paint the walls first.

Here is how it all goes.

These are the four urethane castings that make up the picking house. Note how the doors are already cast in place, nice.



First step is to prime the urethane castings with a brick red color. I used Red Primer from a cheap Walmart spray can (which I can no longer get at my local Walmart). The instructions suggest a red auto primer.



Touch up the bricks using a brick acrylic color like Georgia Clay mixed with a tiny bit of Charcoal. I used Terra Cotta  acrylic paint from Craft Smart which I bought at Michaels. The lintels, sills and headers are painted with Sandstone from Apple Barrel (I used that). The stones are painted with different shades of grey acrylic paint.



Notice I painted the bricked-in windows with a different shade of the Terra Cotta.

Next is an India ink wash on the stones followed by a white wash to simulate mortar lines. The brick mortar lines are simulated with grey pastel chalks. To mix it up a bit one uses some earth-colored pastel chalks to highlight some of the bricks.



Notice I painted the cast-in-place doors with a diluted white acrylic paint.

I glued in the windows which fit perfectly. It is quite a treat to have all the windows fit just right in the wood walls and the urethane walls. I did not have to sand anything to make the windows fit. Kudos to South River.



I fine tuned some of the brick by doing another white wash followed by more earth-colored chalks.



I used CA glue to glue the walls together. The instructions suggest clamping the walls for a tight fit. Try that with Hydrocal castings.



Notice that the walls bent in just a tad when clamped while the CA glue set. The instructions make a note of this and caution the modeler not to overdo it or else the urethane castings will break.

Once I had all the walls glued together I added a stripwood brace at each corner. I glued these in with 5 minute epoxy. This is not in the instructions but I wanted to have some peace of mind that my walls were going to stay put.



The castings are so well made that if the glue joints are real tight it is not necessary to fill in cracks and voids. I did  not need to fill in any cracks or voids. I merely blended the joints with more of the grey chalk used for the mortar lines.

Coming up - the picking house roof.

Jaime
www.myyehudaexperience.com

[Zephyrus52246]

The stonework/bricks look great, Jaime.  Nice sticker on the clamp.   

Jeff

[oldbloodhound]

Excellent brick work!

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking really good, Jamie.  The brick and stone work looks terrific!

Cheers, Mark.

[Mike Engler]

Looking good. Nice job and photos. Maybe a couple of ⅛" square cross braces between the side walls, one at the top and the other at the bottom, would prevent the walls from bowing when clamped.

[NEMMRRC]

Howdy.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

Here is the picking house roof.

The roof on the picking house is not much different than the other roofs so far. There is a slight twist. The roofing is wood shake shingles. But, they are applied just like the slate shingles.

The roof card is already laser-cut, the rafter tail positions are marked and the center line is already scored. Very nice. Rafter tails and roof trim are applied like they were on the roof on the link.

I got lazy and made me a little jig on my chopper to speed up the rafter tails. I measured it all and set the chopper so I could crank out an endless supply of rafter tails just the right length. There was only minimal trimming needed after the rafter tails were in place.



Here you see the rafter tails and roof trim in place.



Note that there are two vents on this roof. The vents are solid resin castings spray painted with flat white paint and weathered with grey chalks.

This time around I did not use the 3M transfer tape to glue the shingles. Instead I opted for the Titebond III. This way I had more control over the whole affair.



By the way, the roof on the vents get the trim treatment as well. No rafter tails though. The roof's peak is trimmed with a cap made of two scale 1" x 6" ridge caps.



And here is how it all ended up.







And here is how the whole affair looks so far.



The roof is weathered according to the instructions in this manner:
1. Take some black pastel chalk and rub it on the roof.





2. Take some sandstone colored paint and dry brush the roof.





My dry brushing sucks big time. For the life of me I cannot get the dry brushing to do right on my roofs. Oh well, I have to move on...

Coming up - the picking house loading docks.

Jaime
www.myyehudaexperience.com

[nextceo]

Jamie,

   Just left you feedback on the other forum...no need to beat that dead horse...

Good Work...
Alan

[NEMMRRC]

Jamie,

   Just left you feedback on the other forum...no need to beat that dead horse...

Good Work...
Alan

Thanks. 

I'm really enjoying this kit. Even though the outbuildings are small, they are full of detail.

Jaime

[S&S RR]

Wow Jaime

You are moving right along on this build.  It is looking great - thanks for all the detailed pictures and instructions - they are going to really help when I get to my build of this kit.

[NEMMRRC]

Wow Jaime

You are moving right along on this build.  It is looking great - thanks for all the detailed pictures and instructions - they are going to really help when I get to my build of this kit.

Thanks. You'll need to share your build.

I wonder how others will build Tucker and Cook. Only a couple of days ago did I realize there are no signs to specify what type of business this is. It could be lettered to represent something besides a cotton mill.

Jaime

[jerryrbeach]

Jaime,
Absolutely beautiful work painting and weathering the brick and stone.  I have been following your build and am impressed, as always, by the clarity of your step by step process.  Thank you for taking the time to help each of us live vicariously through your build.  I, for one, always pick up ways to improve my modeling. 
I struggled with drybrushing until I saw a tip that suggested using a small stencil brush. These are used to stencil walls and have short stiff bristles.  I followed that up with a fabric brush from Michaels.  It, too, has stiff bristles and is much smaller.  I find it just right for adding fine, narrow streaks. 
I also find that the paint thickness impacts my drybrushing.  I wipe off most of the paint from the brush onto a piece of cardstock, then practice drybrushing on the same card.  Then I adjust the paint viscosity until I am satisfied with the character of the streaks. 

[NEMMRRC]

Jerry,


Thanks for your comments and tips about dry brushing. I'll find a way to try what you've suggested.


Jaime