10/31/09 - Finished the SunRich feed mill (click the link for side-by-side comparisons with the prototype)
This building started out its life as a Cornerstone "Valley Growers Association" kit (two of them, actually). And I have to say, kitbashing something that's already pretty close to the desired prototype is just one whole heck of a lot easier than, say, trying to turn a machine shop into a creamery. Better still, I'm really starting to get a handle on this whole business of punching door and window openings and creating all the little custom bits and pieces that go into a good old-fashioned kitbash (be it modifying existing parts or fabricating comletely new parts out of Evergreen styrene). And once again, all my handy new tools (Chopper, Cornerpunches, et al) helped to make the job that much easier. Basically this was almost exactly like building a kit - just with no instructions... and some of the pieces missing... and some of the existing pieces needing doors and windows added (or filled in) or other similar tweaking. But apart from that, exactly like building a kit!
Fortunately, I had numerous photographs to provide instruction and all sorts of .030" Evergreen "metal siding" styrene with which to fabricate the missing pieces (not to mention the plethora of kitbash fodder provided by the second kit). I guess the only really tricky part was deciding what to do when. First off, I'm not nearly clever enough to completely pre-fabricate all the custom pieces. Rather, I just have to sort of feel my way one piece at a time - assembling the stock kit parts as far as they take me, and then cutting and installing the custom pieces as needed. Unfortunately, since the roof pieces and wall pieces require different colors of paint (Floquil "Bright Silver" and "Reefer Gray" respectively), I pretty much had to paint most of the pieces prior to gluing. And man, I really hate manipulating painted styrene (be it cutting, sanding or gluing). Nevertheless, things did progress fairly smoothly and rapidly. Heck, I only had to tear the whole thing apart and start over once (when I realized I'd forgotten to add a couple of windows to the north wall - oops).
As usual, the real fun was in the detailing. In this regard, I always save the original "macro" (IE, huge) pictures I take on my scouting trips to Hope so that later on I can zoom in a pick out all the interesting little fiddly bits. As pictured at the top of the page, I started by adding an escape ladder to the east wall (scavenged from my goodie box). Next, I added a couple of venty widgets to the north side roof (one from my Cornerstone assortment and the other fabricated from a chunk of styrene).
On the north wall I added three generic wall brackets for the electric line as well as a generic styrene conduit. As on previous buildings, the actual EZ-Line "wire" goes in through a hole in the wall just above the conduit (glued to the inside of the wall with FTG). I also drilled holes through the three brackets in order to feed the line through them.
For the external light fixture, I relived my creamery triumph by taking a Minitronics bulb/fixture, CA'ing the wires into both an electrical conduit as well as an arm, painting the whole thing silver and then FTG'ing it to the wall. I tell ya, I don't come up with that many bright ideas, so I'm still awfully darned proud of that one.
The "Hubbard Feeds" decal over the door was kind of a challenge. My original plan was to take a picture of the actual sign on the building, shrink it down, and print it out on decal paper. Unfortunately, that damned electric wire runs right across it, ruining any chances at a decent photo. Fortunately, I managed to Google up the exact same graphic (on Hubbard's own website, as it turns out - duh) and used that for my decal instead.
I finished things off on the north side by building a couple of Cornerstone storage tanks. Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures of the piping, so I'll have to worry about all that later on. But I'm telling ya right now, I will worry about it. I'm completely bored with fantasy-land model storage tanks that don't actually connect to anything (rant, rave, snort).
For the overhang/shed on the south side I constructed the wooden platform out of, well, wood. The stairs and railings were scavenged from one of my RSLaser stairway/landing kits. I finished off the scene by adding a door ramp, a couple of barrels, and a Woodland Scenics "dude". For the ramps up to the dump shed, I brushed on a bit of Golden Mediums "Fluid Matte Medium" and then sprinkled on smatterings of Highball "dirt colored powder" along with a multi-colored mixture of Arizona Rock & Mineral ballast. Once the matte medium dried, I spent a bit of time brushing off the excess clumpage until I reached the desired look (a thin layer of dirt mixed with gravel).
Weathering-wise, I tried a couple of new things this time around. I started off with some generic "weather-wash" (India Ink mixed with alcohol). But instead of brushing it on, I tried applying it with an airbrush. My goal was to eliminate the "sloshy slather" look that one occasionally gets when using a brush, and I certainly accomplished that. Overall though? I dunno... I mean, it's subtle to the point of practically being invisible. I guess I'll leave it up to y'all to decide whether or not it was worth the effort. Anyway, after the weather-wash dried I brushed the walls with Bragdon dark gray, the shed doors with light gray, and the wooden bits with light brown. Then I blew off the excess with my airbrush and sprayed everything with a coating of flat finish.
The roof sections on the prototype are kind of interesting. Yes, they're rusty - but only smatteringly so. And although Bragdon Powder makes for great rust, it doesn't do "smattering" very well (not dry, anyway). So, my bright idea was to brush on the Bragdon and then use a wet brush (and eventually my fingers) to "smatterize" it. It's kind of an arcane art, but the results are great. And the beauty of Bragdon is that you can completely remove it (with water) and start over if things have gotten too far out of hand. Once I'd achieved the level of smatterousity I was after, I sealed it all in place with another layer of flat finish.
So, that's that. And what a lot of fun it was! I think I'm finally hitting my stride with this stuff, and I'm definitely looking forward to my next project - a scratchbuild of the adjoining trackside storage building.
On a side note, it is my sad duty to report that I've basically given up on my NWSL "Sander" tool. What seemed like a neat idea at the time has turned out to be kind of useless. First off, when smoothing the edges of a piece of wood or styrene you're basically only using a very thin strip in the vast sandpaper-equipped sanding block. The upshot of which is that one is forced to replace said sandpaper (99% unused) on an annoyingly frequent basis. And as bad as that is, I'd put up with the annoyance if I could actually make smooth and accurately angled wall-join edges with the thing. Unfortunately (and as I've vented about previously), it's only really good for sanding walls that are laying flat - IE, no wall edge beveling. So, until such time as I discover a better tool, I guess I'll continue honing my "grinding block" skills. What can I say? The "it never wears out" feature alone overcomes whatever other shortcomings it might have.
11/10/09 - Finished the feed mill storage shed (click the link for side-by-side comparisons with the prototype)
The shed that came with the Valley Growers kit turned out to be completely useless for my purposes (wrong walls, wrong roof, wrong everything), so this was a 100% scratchbuild. And as you can see, I took some serious liberties with the length. I don't know the exact dimensions of the prototype, but just eyeballing things it looked to me like it would need to be a good 12-13" in length in order to match up with the feed mill (vis'a'vis the relative sizes of the two buildings). And, yeah, if this were going to be the centerpiece of the whole operation, I probably would've gone ahead and built it full-size. However, given the overall hugeousity of everything else that needs to go into this space, I decided that it would be prudent to engage in a bit of selective compression right from the get-go. So, the upshot of all that is that I went with a length of 9" (punting a door off of each side and scrunching the remaining doors and windows a little closer together in the process).
For a scratchbuild, this was about as easy as it gets - four walls, six windows, a roof and not much else. And I have to say, I love the sliding doors. Since none of them are actually open, all I had to do was glue them right to the wall - IE, no messing around with cutting openings. In fact, so basic was this project that I probably should've finished the whole thing off in a couple of days. Unfortunately, that's not how we roll over here in Spookshowville. Here's the thing... as I was preparing to put the finishing touches to the weathering, I accidentally grabbed a can of gray spray paint when I meant to grab a can of flat finish. And oh man, the subsequent expletives flew as fast as that damned paint. Can you say "time to start over"?
Anyway, I once again went the whole "two layer" route with the Evergreen styrene (ala the hardware store). However, this time around I went a bit thinner with the inner layer (.030" instead of .040"). This wound up making window cutting considerably easier (no unwanted cracks when punching near the edges). For the outer wall layer, I went with Evergreen "Car Siding" (HO, 3.25" spacing, .020" thick). Kind of an odd choice I know, but it's the only scribed 13" X 8" siding I could find where the vertical lines run the 8" way rather than the 13" way - thus allowing me to cut 9" walls all at once (as opposed to trying to glue multiple pieces together and somehow get all the edges straight). For the doors and roof I went with .020" sheet metal siding of varying spacing (wider than the wall spacing for the doors, and wider still for the roof). For the door sliders, I used some "L" shaped Evergreen girders. The windows and window glass came from my goodie box of leftover parts (most likely from an old Cornerstone kit).
This time around I actually took advantage of the two layer system to model a couple of unique features of the prototype. First off, I trimmed the external wall layers up from the base a bit (about 1/8") to create a foundation (something I always forget to add until it's too late). Secondly, I cut a big gash in the external layer on the eastern wall to match the big gash in the eastern wall of the prototype.
For paint I went with Floquil Reefer Gray on the walls, Bright Silver on the roof, and Concrete on the foundation. I painted two of the doors Floquil Reefer White and the rest Reefer Gray. And yeah, I kind of went overboard with the Bragdon weathering. What can I say? I like the grunge. However, in my defense I will say that this is a really beat up building. And weathering is really the only way that I know off to simulate said decrepitude (apart from tearing great huge rips in the walls, that is). As on the feed mill, I used a bit of water to get more of a smattered look to the Bragdon rust (on the door sliders and the roof). Same deal for the doors (smattered gray to simulate peeling paint).
I built the loading dock bumpers and the rear and end door landings out of various wood scraps (painted Floquil Roof Brown, Reefer Gray, and Earth respectively, and then Bragdonized Gray for that "aged wood" look). The stairs and railings were once again provided by RSLaser (man, I would be so screwed without those things). The wall light was yet another stiff-wire/fixture job (painted Floquil "Old Silver" and then flat-finished).
One feature of the prototype that I decided to skip entirely was the short/enclosed passageway between the feed mill and the shed (connecting the shed to the door on the east wall of the mill). Frankly, it just seemed like a lot of unneccesary and annoying work for something that was ultimtely going to wind up being virtually invisible anyway. So, screws it, I says!
Anyway, yay, another building down. What next, you ask? Maybe take a whack at turning the clock back on Klecker Garage? Hey, sounds like a plan, it does! Oh, and um... I don't suppose you have any better pictures hanging around anyplace? Uhhh... do me a favor and take a look, eh? 'Cuz otherwise, I'm out here on an island making things up as I go along (yaaaaaarrrgh!)
11/18/09 - Finished Klecker Garage (click the link for side-by-side comparisons with the prototype)
As threatened, Klecker Garage is indeed back in business. And although I only have a couple of pictures of said garage in its earlier non-storage incarnation, I did the best I could with the information on hand. For the walls I went with plain Evergreen styrene (.030" on the inside and .020" on the outside). I built the main garage door out of various bits and pieces of styrene and scavenged the rest of the doors and windows from my goodie box. The roof is simply a thick hunk of Evergreen sheet metal siding.
I followed the same basic procedure as on my previous scratchbuilds (select the doors and windows, cut wall sections to fit them, trace pen outlines where the openings need to go, and then cornerpunch 'em). And although my cornerpunching skills continue to improve, I still wind up with more than my fair share of screw-ups (particularly on a building with this many doors and windows). Which is why I'm absolutely falling in love with Squadron Putty. I tell ya, it makes fixing those occasional "oops" spots ridiculously easy.
Based on the couple of historical pictures I do have, Klecker Garage started out its life with simple cinder-block walls. Later on, said walls were covered with white stucco (or something like stucco). However, rather than using that decidedly unsubtle Plastruct stucco sheeting, I instead decided to try coarse sanding the flat styrene in order to add a bit of texture. And lo, this actually worked out pretty well. I did wind up with a couple of gougy scratches on the southern wall (something I didn't notice until I'd applied the weathering). But overall, I think I achieved the desired affect. Should I ever repeat the procedure, I'll just have to remember to spend a bit more time on the sanding (and thus eliminate any big scratches).
At present, Shuler's storage shed is white from stem to stern. So, I started by painting the walls Floquil Reefer White. Intriguingly, the older pictures make it look like the doors and windows might have actually been painted some darker color back in the day. Now, I suppose that could just be an optical illusion (these are not good pictures), but in any event, I decided to throw caution to the winds and paint mine. And not having the faintest idea what said nameless color might have been, I opted for Floquil Boxcar Red. The current roof is white, but it's also relatively new (the old one having been torn off when Shuler converted the building). And without any photographic evidence to guide me, I decided to simply paint it Reefer Gray. Once painted and assembled, I airbrushed on a light coating of weatherwash and then applied a bit of Bragdon light gray (hello scratches!)
Not much to report on the detailing side of things. I started off by adding a meter box / wire conduit to the southern wall (with yet another EZ-Line wire glued next to the conduit). Next, I finished things off by adding three lights (one stiff-wire fixture over the main garage door and a couple of bare bulbs by the side and rear doors). And I have to say, I'm getting kind of bored with these bare bulb "fixtures". Yeah, they get the job done, but they sure don't look very realistic. One of these days I'm going to have to think up some way to improve their appearance...
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the way this building turned out, but I do think I wound being a bit overly generous with my door and window spacing. I thought I was matching up the prototype pictures pretty well as I went about the task of mocking up the walls. But once I'd finished all the fabrication and assembly, my initial reaction was "wow, this is too big". In retrospect, I think could've scrunched things a little closer together and shaved about an inch off of each wall. But, oh well, that's what you get when you don't spend the time to take exact measurements. And at the end of the day, I still think I captured the basic look of the place pretty well (if not the exact dimensions).
So, that's that. Now I guess I need to build that adjacent shed. I guess this would be a meta-shed?
To be continued...
Part 1 - Buildings (Creamery, Post Office, Hardware Store, Depot)
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