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Post by valenciajim on Oct 10, 2021 12:11:02 GMT -8
This model certainly can be built in many ways. Having just built this model myself, I realize that you took the porch floor and posts that were originally intended for the other side of the house and were omitted from the Walthers instructions for this particular kit. Since the parts on both sides of the house are the same size and the posts (parts 4-19 to 4-23) are all the same height, I am having some difficulty seeing why there is a gap between the corner post and the corner of the porch roof. It looks like the porch roof you fabricated was square. The Grandt Line railings are a huge improvement! Your model looks outstanding. Here is a photo of my not quite completed model showing the same porch floor and posts installed on the other side of the house. I omitted the railings, but used the roof that came with the kit for that porch. The pieces fit together like a glove--much easier than I anticipated.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Oct 10, 2021 12:21:55 GMT -8
That message was so venomous that it still rankles several days later. I'm really not used to personal attacks nor bullies. I guess I've had a charmed life. And none of that needs to be vented on a model-building thread.
I am still in a bit of disbelief that someone here would send you a venemous PM in response to a hobby thread. Do they need help? The point of a hobby is fun, relaxation, enjoyment and happiness. The world is frankly a shi-hole right now and we know a lot of people are struggling with isolation, division and rules. I hope whoever wrote that can find the peace and joy in their life if it isn't modelling projects. Please reach out to a therapist if you're suffering. We all make mistakes and no one is perfect. Let's get through this by being kind to each other.
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Post by Christian on Oct 10, 2021 12:58:03 GMT -8
I realize that you took the porch floor and posts that were originally intended for the other side of the house. I am having some difficulty seeing why there is a gap between the corner post and the corner of the porch roof. It looks like the porch roof you fabricated was square. The Grandt Line railings are a huge improvement! Your model looks outstanding. Remember there are three kits using the same walls and windows. The porches differ as does the "front" of the house. The roof is just sitting and tips without glue. Yours is coming out great. I have seen houses which are that dilapidated and were still in use. Sometimes money just isn't there for paint.
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Post by NS4122 on Oct 10, 2021 14:00:26 GMT -8
Valencia Jim, Nice job on that house. I'd be interested in how you achieved the unpainted weathered look.
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Post by valenciajim on Oct 10, 2021 15:34:13 GMT -8
Thanks NS4122.
I first painted the walls Polly Scale Roof Brown. (I still have a bottle of that color.) After that paint dried, I sprayed the walls with Tamiya's version of dull coat. (I no longer use Testors Dull Coat.) I then dry brushed a few strokes of Vallejo Water color Pale Gray Blue from an aircraft model I completed a few months ago. That did not work as well as I had hoped, so I turned to my pan pastels. I have two sets of Pan pastels and I used some from each set. I used various shades of gray, flesh tone, black and dark brown which I carefully applied using a narrow paint brush where the bristles have worn down to about a quarter inch in length. I was careful to apply one board at a time so individual boards had unique colors. Also, moderation is the key--a little bit goes a long way. Fortunately with pan pastels, if you apply too much, you can wipe if off with a wet rag. For the white areas, I applied two generous coats of white pan pastels and feathered out the pan pastels with a dry brush and followed with a coat of Tamiya dull coat after each application.
I believe that Christian posted a prototype photo in this thread that provided me with inspiration. I noticed that the paint had not worn off under the eaves, so I added white pan pastel covering at the top of each wall. The trim was painted with thinned Vallejo Model Air Dark Earth paint. The roof was painted with Americana craft paints applied with a quarter inch wide flat brush. I dabbed the paint on in three layers. First I applied Burnt Sienna. I let that dry and applied a mixture of Raw Umber with some Neutral Gray. I was careful to dab over the center of the previously pained burnt sienna areas, so that a little bit of burnt sienna showed along the edges. The final coat was a very thin wash of burnt sienna applied with downward strokes.
I decided not to add windows. The photo shows some white spots on window frames, eaves, etc, which I have since touched up.
If you look carefully at the flat part of the roof to the porch, there are rust stains from the water runnoff of the building's main roof. I applied blue painters tape to create a straight edge and used pan pastels to create the rust spot. I then sprayed the roof with the Tamiya dull coat and removed the painter's tape.
Despite the venomous PMs, this has been a phenomenal thread. I learned a lot from the posts of Christian and others and it inspired me to build the dilapidated house which broadened my skills. That is what this hobby and the forum are all about. Yesterday, I ordered a Bachmann Plasticville HO Railroad Work Sheds kit. The kit is supposed to represent an old wooden box car that was converted to a work shed. About 50 years ago, I built the O scale version of this kit. I plan on painting it using techniques similar to this kit, just to see what you can do with a toy like kit. If it turns out well, I will post some pictures. I have been really impressed with what Fishbelly has done with the old AHM rolling stock, so once again, I am inspired to try something different because of what I have seen on this forum.
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Post by lvrr325 on Oct 10, 2021 22:11:52 GMT -8
You can do some stuff with Plasticville. I discovered once by accident that the little stores in that line - the Supermarket, post office, five and dime, maybe a couple others - are the same width as a DPM Robert's Dry Goods. So I took the DPM kit and put the Supermarket front on it to look like a city building that got a 1950s false front. It didn't look too bad, but I'd like to do it again and try and do a better job.
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Post by Christian on Oct 12, 2021 5:28:13 GMT -8
24. Fussing With Lintels
The stuff covered in this chapter took four days. Most of that time making mistakes and trying the “Think System.” Which rarely works except for Robert Preston. (OMG! I just dated myself!) At the end of the last chapter we fitted the railing pieces to the corner post and had a look. Typically this sort of roof uses posts topped with a lintel which supports the roof rafters, ceiling, and stringers. Because the posts are too tall I decided to fit pieces between the posts to simulate lintels. It worked pretty well. Before I closed things in I did a bit of porch detailing shown in photograph one. I shoulda done house numbers, but wasn’t in a decal mood. Easy to cut from the number jumble intended for a freight car end. Since this is mid 1980’s plastic chairs and a little table would have been appropriate porch dressing. But I didn’t do that either. I was determined to do a porch swing. Meanwhile, I used a piece of 1 X 10 styrene behind the posts to tie them together. Also seen in photograph one. Photo two shows the build up which was an “L” made from two lengths of 0.030 X 0.060 styrene. Photograph three shows the completed posts and faux lintels. The roof is just resting up for swing time! Photo four. The swing is the easy part. I used a Preiser park bench which comes in a lot of figure assortments. The package of just benches in the back of the photograph is also available. It’s a lot of benches! Walthers has iron park benches and there are likely others. I made the bench into a swing by clipping off the legs. That turned out to be the last easy part of cobbling up a porch swing. Real porch swings hang from jack or dog chain. (Usually!) It has a silhouette of less than three quarters of an inch. That’s small in HO scale. Photograph five shows some 40 link to the inch chain that is readily available from various sources. It’s pretty big. Back in olden times we used to stretch this chain so that it would be a good deal narrower. Good for brake details. But these aren’t olden times and I seem to have lost my knack. Next I rooted through my supplies to find something that sorta looked like chain. Photo six shows some metallic thread which is spiral wrapped. It needs to be stiff since the swing doesn’t have enough weight to straighten the thread. I hung it with a bit of a weight and soaked it in flat finish. Photograph seven. I turned to the roof. I drilled holes where I wanted the chains to attach to the ceiling. I drilled way oversize so that I could manipulate the four individual strands. Photo eight. Photograph nine. I used Microscale’s Micro Kristal Klear to attach the thread to the swing. I thought a bit of flex would be a good thing. Photo ten. When everything was dry I pushed the thread ends through the holes on the roof. On the porch floor I put a pad of EVA foam at the height of the swing seat. Then I put spots of Tamiya cement on the tops of the posts and on the house wall. I pushed it all together. It didn’t work. The roof attachment worked really well. The metallic thread wasn’t cut long enough, wanted to unspiral, and fray. The EVA pad was too narrow and I couldn't keep the swing square to the rail. I thought about using 0.010 styrene rod. But I dug out another spool of thread. Common beige thread. I ran a silver Sharpy along the thread, stretched it, and ran CA along the length followed by a spritz of accelerator. Back on track with a witness pad the size of the porch and double the length of thread. Photograph eleven. Still a bit bulky, but It’s going to disappear when all is finished and painted. Photo twelve is a beauty shot of the front porch. The roof is same as all the other roofs and is removable. Lets go out back for the next chapter.
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Post by valenciajim on Oct 12, 2021 7:42:36 GMT -8
Wow, Christian, I am really impressed with your modeling and photography of your work. Terrific attention to details and a creative use of materials. Nice job! I have really learned a lot from your tutorials on this project and your earlier Taco Bell project.
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Post by wp8thsub on Oct 12, 2021 18:34:41 GMT -8
Here I am just checking in to see more progress on the build, and...
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Post by Donnell Wells on Oct 12, 2021 20:22:47 GMT -8
Please stay on topic. All non-related posts will be removed from this thread.
Donnell
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Post by gevohogger on Oct 13, 2021 4:28:32 GMT -8
You can do some stuff with Plasticville. I discovered once by accident that the little stores in that line - the Supermarket, post office, five and dime, maybe a couple others.... Heljan and Faller too.
Quite by chance, I clicked on a very long video about Tony Koester's new NKP layout and one of the most interesting things about it was the way he adapted some otherwise European "ski village"-looking buildings into realistic Indiana railroad buildings and such. He chopped off most of the gingerbread and steeply sloped roofs etc and sometimes combined a couple kits to make a 2-story building etc. and they were quite presentable and no one would have guessed their origins as something that looked like it belonged in the Swiss Alps.
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Post by Frank on Oct 13, 2021 6:08:43 GMT -8
You can do some stuff with Plasticville. I discovered once by accident that the little stores in that line - the Supermarket, post office, five and dime, maybe a couple others - are the same width as a DPM Robert's Dry Goods. So I took the DPM kit and put the Supermarket front on it to look like a city building that got a 1950s false front. It didn't look too bad, but I'd like to do it again and try and do a better job. Plasticville is really hit or miss, I do like their bank, car dealership, and contemporary house kits though. With some paint, detail upgrades, brick replacement on the house, and careful sanding/fitment those can be quite excellent period pieces and modernized somewhat. Vintage Life-Like had 3 house kits that were also great starting points, but they are really odd without window replacement and upgrading some of the porch components (Tichy makes good replacements). If you do all this they can blend with the modern Cornerstone ranch house kits.
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Post by Christian on Oct 14, 2021 0:48:48 GMT -8
25. It’s the Back Porch
After all that work on the front porch, the back is a snap. Just this one chapter! The front porch is a signature feature for me. And the reason for all the metal roofs so that I had material for the wider porch roofs. From the get go I intended the back porch to be closed in with lattice. It’s not so common anymore and I had to hunt to find the porch in photograph one. Diagonal lattice as in the photograph would have been a better choice, but I didn’t have large lattice panels. I used square lattice panels from Tichy. They are shown in photo two. Also seen is the sub-roof made exactly like the front porch. And the porch posts. I used 0.060 square and 0.030 X 0.060 for the wall pieces. This is a bit bulky, but so are a lot of other details on this house. 4 X 4 posts would have been logical, but they looked dinky next to the lattice panels. Photograph three. I cemented lattice and post sub assemblies. I used 2 X 6 for the sills. I didn’t do a header since that is already part of the sub-roof. I cemented together the whole lattice assembly. Photo four. I used 1 X 4 strip to frame the panels. Photograph five. Yep. We’re done! The roof is loose for painting. I usually don’t do much on the back side of structures since they will never be seen. Manny Jacob has guilted me into doing some detailing on the backs of the Atomic Cafe and the Taco Bell. This house is different because I think it will be seen from the side. So after painting the roofs I will continue to do detailing on the back. Next up. Roof paint. Well, actually roof prying. I sure hope that that temporary glue is temporary!
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Post by lvrr325 on Oct 14, 2021 1:38:41 GMT -8
You can do some stuff with Plasticville. I discovered once by accident that the little stores in that line - the Supermarket, post office, five and dime, maybe a couple others.... Heljan and Faller too.
Quite by chance, I clicked on a very long video about Tony Koester's new NKP layout and one of the most interesting things about it was the way he adapted some otherwise European "ski village"-looking buildings into realistic Indiana railroad buildings and such. He chopped off most of the gingerbread and steeply sloped roofs etc and sometimes combined a couple kits to make a 2-story building etc. and they were quite presentable and no one would have guessed their origins as something that looked like it belonged in the Swiss Alps.
My dad had a number of vintage Faller and Heljan kits in the original city on his layout and they didn't look particularly out of place. They were all that was really available in the 60s-70s. Atlas even sold I think Faller kits as their own for a while. He even combined three AHM switch tower kits (the rectangular large one) into an L-shaped flat roofed factory. Taking the angled roof off changed the whole appearance of the sides.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Oct 14, 2021 3:51:28 GMT -8
Interesting comments about the lattice. There was quite a bit of it on the fences of this place when I bought it. I ended up removing all of it as it was breaking and I think that is a bit dated now. AFA porches, what is more likely around here is something more open but with screen instead of lattice. Also people tend to invest more in the back yard stuff where they can relax with more privacy. So we tend to see more screened-in backyard gazebos rather than front porches. A lot of this is of course very regional. Thanks for your continued top-notch workmanship and photography on this project. No venom from here.
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Post by riogrande on Oct 14, 2021 4:03:29 GMT -8
Also people tend to invest more in the back yard stuff where they can relax with more privacy. So we tend to see more screened-in backyard gazebos rather than front porches. A lot of this is of course very regional. Thanks for your continued top-notch workmanship and photography on this project. That is true for my wife and I. We have a nosey neighbor who is a real putz (and now the acting HOA president) so we've been planting greenery what will make a privacy screen. Agreed about the modeling, workmanship and photography, all excellent.
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Post by Christian on Oct 14, 2021 8:14:19 GMT -8
Also people tend to invest more in the backyard stuff where they can relax with more privacy. So we tend to see more screened-in backyard gazebos rather than front porches. A lot of this is of course very regional. More a change in society and social interaction in smaller towns and in farming communities. (I really have no concept or feel for cities) Well into the fifties backyards were working places. Garden, chickens, laundry, perhaps a goat, were common in town. In the country, the backyard would be between the house and the livestock barn. The main pathway between home and business. These are leftovers from self-sufficient lifestyles and also the Depression and the War. This was not yet a consumer society. You made things and raised food. Stores supplied basics that weren't easy to make at home. Like electric trains. You might listen to the radio for farm futures and news of what was happening in the cities. In the evening it was cards, board games, and sitting around the piano. Or sitting on the front porch chatting with neighbors. Some folks had television sets and would welcome anyone who was curious. That's all gone away. Those were the "good old days." There was also polio, smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, tuberculous, the atomic bomb, and smoke from all the heating and power. And smoke from those darned trains. Hanging out laundry meant knowing the train schedule and dropping everything to run out and get the laundry with the train was coming into town. Those were also the "good old days" and there is no way I would want to return. Nostalgia is great so long as you pick and choose. I'm modeling mid-eighties - agribusiness. I'm assuming that this house was remodeled in the 1970s with a new roof and paint. More changes and updates on the interior, but that's not seen on the model. At that time the backyard had become a place for recreation and families. Barbeques, picnic tables, volleyball nets, wading pools, and all that stuff that just wasn't common until the "leisure years." Given this time period, the presence of a front porch swing is questionable. Plastic chairs and a cocktail table were more likely. Torn off and replaced with a concrete stoop even more likely. The back porch would likely have been torn off and replaced by a deck and all the stuff I mentioned above. Plus an air-conditioner unit, perhaps a ground power transformer and a privacy fence. I'm not going to cover the site in this build. But it will include fences, hedges and all the recreation stuff I mentioned above to bring this firmly into the eighties. I will cover the TV . . .
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Post by Christian on Oct 14, 2021 8:29:33 GMT -8
A Progress Update.The chapter above - #25 was written on September 25th. I'm working on stuff from chapter 30 today. I think chapter 32 will be the end, for now. I have in my hand most of what I need for the site, but that bright green locomotive in my current avatar is calling "decoder me, decoder me." (At least I think that installing a decoder counts a "Real" model railroading.) So I think you will all be on your own for planting your house.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Oct 14, 2021 9:13:51 GMT -8
Excellent description of the changes in porch and backyard usage of houses over the past 75 years or so. I have noticed in recent decades that it tends to be older houses in rundown parts of town that have porches like that. Going back to the 1990s or maybe earlier, I have found those porches almost always filled with junk, cardboard boxes and other detritus material. The odd time you find a nice house with a rocking chair or bench in front but seems to now be the exception. YMMV depending on local factors and timeframe.
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Post by stevewagner on Oct 14, 2021 10:08:21 GMT -8
This is mostly about porches and porch furniture, though involving a very different kind of house.
The overwhelming majority of Philadelphia's working-class and middle-class neighborhoods into the 1940's at least were largely brick "row houses". Building new wooden houses of wood has been illegal in the City and County of Philadelphia (coterminous since the mid-1880's) for many decades. Many of the newer ones (built in the early 20th century) in some neighborhoods had front porches. The house in which I lived on Ditman Street in Frankford from 1946 bro 1953 had one that had been glassed in before I was born, which was quite common. My third set of "grandparents" -- our family's relationships were very complex -- lived on East Eleanor Street in the Feltonville section north of Wyoming Avenue, south of Roosevelt Boulevard and a little east of Rising Sun Avenue. The area was then all "white", with many immigrants from several countries, notably including mostly Roman Catholics and Jews from Germany, Austria, Hungary and European countries farther east. My Omama's and Otata's porch was open, above a sloping rock garden in front, and was over part of the cellar. Among its furnishings was an enormously heavy "glider", that moved horizontal forward and back. It had back and bottom pillows but otherwise was durable steel. My mother died at the age of 81 in 2003. Not very long before that I took her on a visit to neighborhoods where she and other relatives had lived. This was decades after nearly all the older relatives had died. Most of the adults living in the area around East Eleanor Street seemed to be speaking Spanish. That "glider" was still there and apparently still very much in use, by people of several generations!
Christian, I have been thoroughly enjoying your modeling and your descriptions of what and how you've done it on this thread and others about building models of buildings. So have many others. Please ignore those who haven't.
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Post by stevewagner on Oct 14, 2021 10:12:41 GMT -8
This is mostly about porches and porch furniture, though involving a very different kind of house.
The overwhelming majority of Philadelphia's working-class and middle-class neighborhoods into the 1940's at least were largely brick "row houses". Building new wooden houses of wood has been illegal in the City and County of Philadelphia (coterminous since the mid-1800's) for many decades. Many of the newer ones (built in the early 20th century) in some neighborhoods had front porches. The house in which I lived on Ditman Street in Frankford from 1946 bro 1953 had one that had been glassed in before I was born, which was quite common. My third set of "grandparents" -- our family's relationships were very complex -- lived on East Eleanor Street in the Feltonville section north of Wyoming Avenue, south of Roosevelt Boulevard and a little east of Rising Sun Avenue. The area was then all "white", with many immigrants from several countries, notably including mostly Roman Catholics and Jews from Germany, Austria, Hungary and European countries farther east. My Omama's and Otata's porch was open, above a sloping rock garden in front, and was over part of the cellar. Among its furnishings was an enormously heavy "glider", that moved horizontal forward and back. It had back and bottom pillows but otherwise was durable steel. My mother died at the age of 81 in 2003. Not very long before that I took her on a visit to neighborhoods where she and other relatives had lived. This was decades after nearly all the older relatives had died. Most of the adults living in the area around East Eleanor Street seemed to be speaking Spanish. That "glider" was still there and apparently still very much in use, by people of several generations!
Christian, I have been thoroughly enjoying your modeling and your descriptions of what and how you've done it on this thread and others about building models of buildings. So have many others. Please ignore those who haven't.
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Post by jbilbrey on Oct 14, 2021 18:03:02 GMT -8
You can do some stuff with Plasticville. I discovered once by accident that the little stores in that line - the Supermarket, post office, five and dime, maybe a couple others - are the same width as a DPM Robert's Dry Goods. So I took the DPM kit and put the Supermarket front on it to look like a city building that got a 1950s false front. It didn't look too bad, but I'd like to do it again and try and do a better job. The recent issue of NG&SLG had an article titled "From Plasticville to Scaleville" that discussed the history of the line and improving four of the structures (the Firehouse, a gas station, an ice cream bar, and the marshall's office and restaurant. I was surprised to see that these structures, which most of us discount as strictly "train-set" quality, can turn out looking pretty good with a little work and additional parts. And, I wouldn't mind getting the marshall's office kit to expand the business district that I am mentally picturing for my new layout
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Post by lvrr325 on Oct 14, 2021 23:26:12 GMT -8
The gas station is a fair example of the porcelain tile style common in the 1950s. The early version is particularly neat with a tower in the middle. With some updates it pairs well on opposite corners to a City Classics gas station.
Which reminds me I've wanted for a while to use one to build a gas station I saw in Great Bend, PA where they just added a tile false front to a pair of wood buildings. Usually those stations are concrete block under the tiles.
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Post by Christian on Oct 15, 2021 3:49:32 GMT -8
This is mostly about porches and porch furniture, though involving a very different kind of house. Thank you for continuing to give the urban view. As I have mentioned, that is a different world from mine. As for gliders - I remember a neighbor had one. Steel and completely kid proof. I remember the seat and back had a zillion holes that were just right to hold marbles in all sorts of patterns.
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Post by stevewagner on Oct 15, 2021 10:17:21 GMT -8
Thanks for the last two posts. There are a number of wooden store buildings with porcelain tile fronts that were added decades after they were built. I'm familiar with two in Massachusetts. They are now the Outdoor Store here in Maynard and Brewhaha in North Adams. Maynard has no more than about 10,000 people; North Adams has one of the lowest populations of any city in our Commonwealth. I'm sure that the "false front" of the one in Maynard dates to when it was an A&P market decades before we moved here in 1971; I'm fairly certain that the one in North Adams had a similar origin. I have one of the City Classics West End Market kits that I hope to use at least as a "flat" against one wall of the room where my small HO layout is.
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Post by lvrr325 on Oct 16, 2021 16:41:01 GMT -8
The one I mentioned is right on US-11 and can be seen in street view images.
Well, it was there, gone in the 2019 view. Corner of Depot St.
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Post by Christian on Oct 18, 2021 6:17:13 GMT -8
26. Paint Prep
Not too much to show this chapter. Time consuming, but not a lot of progress. Photograph one shows the crack between the roof and the gables. Remember that I used temporary adhesive to fasten the roof pieces to the house. I didn’t press too hard leaving a bit of a crack. In the final attachment of the roof any cracks will be filled by the gable frieze boards. I slipped a single edged razor blade into this crack and sliced the adhesive. I was then able to use the blade to pry the roof away from the walls. Photo two. The adhesive left a rubbery residue on the tops of the walls. Not on the roof pieces – it was applied to the walls and left to dry before the roof pieces were pressed in place. I removed this residue by scraping and using tweezers to pick off the blobs. Photograph three. I finished with a light sanding. Photo four. I taped over the soffits and rake boards in case I decided to paint the inside of the roof. I attached FrogTape tabs on the backs of the porch roofs. Photograph five is staging of the painting materials before actually firing up the compressor. This would be a good time to use a rattle can of any sort of silver paint. I’m pickier so am resorting to by airbrush. If you are using brush applied paint then the various aluminum and silver paints offered by Tamiya would be the best choices. Tamiya metallics brush well. I tested various silvery paints over a gray swatch. None of them other than the Tamiya brushed well. Thus the reason for spraying. Of the Vallejo, AK Interactive and Mission Models paints I tried I best liked AKI 3rd Gen Natural Steel and Mission Models Dark Aluminum. I wanted the roof to be darker than "normal" aluminum even though it is representing the aluminum roof coating commonly applied to these metal roofs until powder coated steel panels became common. Tamiya also has some darker silver paints, but not in my stockpile. I intend to use the steel, but am holding the dark aluminum close. Until then . . .
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Post by Christian on Oct 22, 2021 6:01:46 GMT -8
27. Roof Painting: OneBy the way, we are nearing the end of this project. Meanwhile, here is today’s painting episode. Spoiler warning: it did not go well. The photograph shows the roof in a baggie with a bottle of 91% alcohol. Mistakes happen. But the color was nice!
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Post by Christian on Oct 23, 2021 10:57:17 GMT -8
28. Chapter 27 – Take Two
I made several errors. Namely, being in a rush. First off I didn’t clean the plastic before painting. Usually I scrub plastic with Testor’s Plastic-Prep. No longer manufactured. Then I put it in a cabinet over night. Nope. Wanted to paint. Want to finish this house. I used a mix of Badger Stynylrez white and gray for my primer. To the mix I added a couple drops of Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver (extender) and a squirt of Golden Airbrush Medium. I sprayed at 23psi and first put on a dust coat. Then I made a couple of mistakes. I normally wait a few minutes and follow with a wet coat. The extender delays the drying time and I sprayed the wet coat over the dust coat way too soon. There were some “lumps” and, third mistake, I brushed them out. I mixed my finish coat of AK Interactive 3rd Gen Natural Steel. I used a couple of drops of the extender and a squirt of the medium. I did a dust coat – it was shiny which should have been a clue. Then I did a wet coat. Too wet and also with brushing out globs, lint and boogers. By now it was a mess. I waited a bit to see if it would level out. It got lumpier. It was too late for Windex and warm water. So, into the baggie it went. That brings us to today which is actually several days later. Photograph one shows the roofs out of the alcohol soak. I lost four birds and the metal ridge caps were a bit too bent for rescue. I’m getting tired of this model so I am taking model builder’s shortcuts from here on out. Mostly. I used my styrene angle for the new ridge caps. Boy was that quick. Photo two. You can see that they aren't wide enough to block seeing through the roof. Later, after photographing this chapter, I cut the standing seams so that the ridge caps would sink down to the roof. Not prototypical, but it looks better than the gap. And a lot better than doing the metal caps again. Photograph three. This time I cleaned the plastic after doing the masking as in chapter 26. I debated not spraying because, well, because. I have Tamiya Aluminum which is really bright but brushes well. I wanted a darker roof like the AKI Natural Steel so I went back to spray. Because I was leery of the AKI steel I used Mission Models Dark Aluminum following their instructions. I used two drops of Mission Models Polyurethane Mix Additive and a squirt of Golden Airbrush Medium.Photo four. Here is the painted roof getting ready for AK Interactive Ultra Matte Varnish. This stuff is dead flat and forgiving of any spray or brush oopsy doodle. The primer and metal coat went fine. No extender and an hour drying time between coats. Photograph five. Here is the roof with the rake boards cleaned. This photograph was taken before I sunk the ridge caps. Next up – more roof madness.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Oct 23, 2021 11:57:09 GMT -8
Great rescue job! It's important to paint the roof well as that is the most visible part of any model.
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