Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[steinjr]

I just went through all the links for your referance pics, wow you sure did your homework.

Thank you! But research and planning is easy for me. The hard part is actually building the stuff. You guys builds truly amazing stuff !

Stuff I am working on now:

1) Trying to learn to repaint an engine.

My first attempt can only be described as pretty attrocious:


I did pretty much all possible errors - did not strip old paint, no primer, just thick layers of paint dabbed on.

For my second attempt I stripped the old paint using isopropanol (anti-condensation additive for fuel tanks in cold weather) and a toothbrush, primed the stripped down model with a thin coat of gray primer from spray can, used a bigger brush, and tried to get a little more fancy - first painting the sides of the engine white with a bigger brush with very little acrylic paint on the brush, using a hair blower to speed up drying, masking away a stripe and painting the rest of the model red - in thin layers. Result is slightly less attrocious, but still far from acceptable.



For my third attemp I am awaiting to see if Santa can find an airbrush for me. And I have read up on advice from Doctor Wayne about how to get better edges when masking quoting from a post of his on zealot:

Once you have initially applied the tape to the model, sight along the line of the tape - this will show any deviations from a straight line: despite your most careful measurements when cutting the tape, raised details on the model can throw the tape line off. When everything looks satisfactory, use your finger nail or a suitable tool to burnish the tape in place. While the tape will stretch to allow you to mould it over raised details, you'll have less chance of the tape lifting from these areas while you're painting if you allow some slack in the tape as you're burnishing. A good way to maintain your straight line during this step is to first apply a temporary strip of tape on the opposite side of the line that you're attempting to mask along - this doesn't need to be burnished, but allows you to burnish the actual masking as you apply it, while still keeping a straight line. Obviously, remove this guide tape before painting.

If you're really worried about colours "bleeding" under the tape, apply a spray, using same colour over which you've applied the tape, along the edge of the newly applied tape, in order to seal it. When that's dry to the touch, apply the new colour, and as soon as it's dry to the touch, remove the masking tape. To do so, use the tip of an X-Acto blade to lift an end of the tape, then pull the tape back over itself at the sharpest angle possible - the sharper the angle, the less chance of lifting the paint under the tape. Even after exercising all of this care, you may find areas that require touch-up. To do so, wait until the paint is completely dry, then use a good-quality brush and unthinned paint to perform this task.

- making another foamcore w/paper overlay building (International Harvester) - I've made the foamcore part, but not printed they brick walls yet:


The foamcore with a thin veneer of something on the outside was inspired by Ken Spranz's technique described n his excellent online tutorial here: http://www.horailroad.com/clinic2/cl2_005.htm - but Ken got a better look using styrene as a veneer than I got using paper on my Hunt's Baking Powder building (in my first post above). So I am waiting for some styrene brick sheets I have ordered before continuing on this one.

- I want to build a couple of big 4-story brick warehouses on my layout to give a feel of the six story brick warehouses of the Warehouse district in the 1950s. So I grabbed a Walthers modular three-in-one kit I had to start planning how to put one together. I ran out of pieces, so I took an old building apart to get some more pieces to experiment with, and came up with a plan for how putting together 12 columns of walthers modular small wall pieces for a 24" long 4 story building. I am waiting for some more pieces I ordered, so I can make the building look a little more realistic.

Edit: here is a picture of the pieces laid out - I think I will be wanting to not have quite as many doors, and to replace more window sections with plain brick sections for the lowest two floors.




- I also fell for the temptation to order a 25 ton brownhoist (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-5611) - it just was too reminiscent of this protype photo of an eclosed cargo barge being loaded at the municipal barge terminal: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=163371.

- I also started thinking about whether to redo that coal barge - the metal plates around the bulk area got to be too high, I did not leave enough flat deck on the long sides of the raised walls, and it lacks the triangular gussets.

Plenty of projects - I probably get started on way too many projects simultanously. I probably should do one thing at a time, and finish one project before I start on something new.

Oh well, hopefully I can get some of this suff moved along a little this christmas.

In the meantime, I am enjoying reading the stuff you guys are posting and looking at the pictures of your modelling.

Smile,
Stein