We've been workin' on a Railroad...

[up148]

I've seen that technic done in the magazines, but I've never had a chance to do it....yet. Yes, you can go too far when weathering or enhancing a model. But, as long as it's not done in bright circus or clown colors, it's pretty hard to do too much when adding age and wear. Look how you improved the gondola by merely removing some of the overdone weathering....looks like a different car now.

[Pacific Limited]

Good looking stuff fellas

[sarge]

Moving along now with this project,

We shovel all those hideous yellow bits into the baint booth and...


...spray them in a nice Hunter Green, a far more likely colour (at least for a building that isn't a San Francisco whorehouse. GRIN!)


I staged this just so you can visualise what I'm on about.


After re-assembly of the shell, back to the paintbooth to blend the sheens and add some weathering.The end result of that exercise looks like this:




Next, we glaze the windows and such, add curtains and stuff in the windows, then add black construction paper inside the glazing so you can't see through the building.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

..............those hideous yellow bits .........

Just what is it with the silly colors that are in play in all too many commercial structures?

[up148]

I don't know how old this kit is, but why would a mfg. make a kit with these kind of colors in the first place. Reminds me of the Plasticville buildings and kits we had in the 50's and 60's. I'm glad they're around to bash and improve, but............

[sarge]

This one isn't that old; Walthers Cornerstone prebuilt structures from perhaps the first decade of the 21st century at the earliest.

You have to remember that nothing in the 21st century from the mainstream was made for us, be it Walthers, Atlas, Sunset, whatever. It all was made for the crowd who consider selling points like "colourful" and "rugged" listed on the box as important. Take Atlas for example. Their structures are merely stylistic scale-ups of the HO ones they made in the 1960's, what they bought up that originally was for us (Red Caboose, Intermountain, P&D) are dumbed down to the level of the rest of the range, a range not intended for us but change the wheels and it's "good enuff fer 'em".

So, you pick what might have promise out of the sea of shytte, then break every bone in its body to get it up to a level that is merely mainstream in the other scales. It's fun too; almost feels like I'm flipping off Walthers or Sunset or Atlas every time I crack out the tools.

[sarge]

As far as we're going for now.

Glazed, roll-shades, a wash on the pavements and foundation (black shoe-dye cut with isopropyl), then black construction paper behind the windows so you can't see through the building. The last is easily removed (the roof and foundation are also removeable) should I come back to it for interiors, otherwise a simplistic theatre trick to keep your eye moving along not having detected the anomaly of an empty shell.





I couldn't resist playing with the bay window, though. GRIN!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

........ so you can't see through the building.

Been one of my complaints for many years - visiting layouts and you can see right through buildings front to back and through floors that should be there. Blocking views with just cheap construction paper......or if you want to get artsy, printing out scenes and gluing then back behind windows; block that view and at least you can see "something" that your imagination fills in the details.

[sarge]

Admittedly, some of mine are "guilty as charged".

In the not-to-distant future there is going to be a campaign to upgrade structures here. Quite a few were made up of paper with the intent they would get replaced sometime, though some of the cardstock structures are intended as permanent; I came to like working in cardstock in the UK. Even the temporary ones are done up neatly and completely so as to visually blend rather than just a cardboard carton with windows drawn on them.

The material is being gathered and I am accumulating what I need to be able to undertake a one-shot urban renewal programme with minimal disruption to the frequency of the ops-group meets.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nothing wrong with cardstock stuff and as a building material. I recently came into a ream and 1/2 of cardstock that I had a need for that just passes through my one printer. I save the scraps as over on the traction project rack there's a pair of cardstock sides that I think I will test my skills against - they need doors and then ends. Not sure about a roof, but why not!

But today and rest of the week is set aside for resin casting. Parts for a barrister's bookcase, parts on order for someone, and then parts for me.....once open, I pour, mix, into molds until the source bottles are dry.

[Pacific Limited]

Love the cat

Nice goin

[robert.]

I’m using a building similar to Sarge’s. With that and the tower house. I will recreate a 1910 scene from a photo of Oakland’s motorcycle club. I made an oak floor for the second level. Second floor will be ballet and ground floor will be a bike shop. “Bert’s bikes and ballet studio “. If someone sends me an email. I’ll forward the photo I’m trying to recreate. Project had slowed down ad the tower house tossed me a curveball. Robronky@yahoo.com

[webenda]

[robert.]

That’s not the photo. It would be oakland motorcycle club. Side of the building will say “excelsior “ from ground to roof.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

........ the tower house tossed me a curveball.

If that's the Tower House laser kit, a curve ball might the least of the issues you encounter.