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T O P I C    R E V I E W
brownbr Posted - 04/17/2012 : 9:18:32 PM
Well there's no mining in timber country but the Blue Sky is being built non the less. If they were mining I suppose they would be looking for that ever elusive mineral Pandemonium. It's so rare that when they find it chaos spontaneously breaks out. Sounds like a back story brewing...

Anyways, I wanted to get the main structure in 1 piece before my painter arrives to do my backdrop here in a few weeks. Having it finished will help with the track laying and that's what I will be doing once she is done painting. This project will go on hold at that time.

I've started with the barn portion of the main structure and will be building in stages of disrepair. This part will be the oldest part of the structure so will be a bit run down.

I started by scribing each board with a pick and brushing with a very stiff wire brush. You know you are a model geek when you get excited about a wire brush. I found some Hobart brushes that are as stiff as a grill brush and as small as a grout brush. Very nice.

I colored the boards with Rembrandt chalks and alcohol. I was tempted to make them a barn gray but I liked the browns on the Sierra West website pics so much that I changed my mind. I used # 234.3 as the base and added 231.5 & 234.5 randomly to get the golden color. Knot holes were added. I used 2 sizes a 1" and 3" scale. Don't know how I feel about the bigger ones.

Each board was then cut to size, the ends brushed and cracks, etc added. A final wash of IA was put on then the boards were glued on. I used a razor blade to space them so I could see through the wall. A dark moisture creep was added to the bottom of the wall by touching it with a brush of IA.

The doors were colored with 234.3 and 408.9 to gray them up. After they dried they were cut to size, distressed as above and sanded individually to highlight the edges then another coat of IA was applied.

The roof boards are the same as the siding. I added a little black then white to gray them up. Once dry they were sanded then IA brushed on. They are drying now.

I've built the doors mostly closed but am considering having one opened and doing a little bit of interior. Enough so I can have a guy pushing a hand truck out the door perhaps.
15   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
ETinBH Posted - 08/06/2012 : 11:30:14 AM
sweet
runner Posted - 08/06/2012 : 10:47:14 AM
Bryan- this is some really fine work.
TRAINS1941 Posted - 08/04/2012 : 8:19:21 PM
Nice job Bryan.

Jerry
Frederic Testard Posted - 08/04/2012 : 6:14:07 PM
Very nice work, Bryan. I'd simply add some variety to your green which looks a bit uniform especially in this kind of place.
brownbr Posted - 08/04/2012 : 4:08:02 PM
Update on the progress here.

The main structure is getting close to being finished. I think all that's left are to build some pallets, dirty up around the road and gas pump and a couple of more details to be added like the light and mailbox. I'm planning on lighting this one.

The first shots show it installed on the layout at the angles at which it can be seen. The only side not visible is the back. Unfortunately that means that the brick cookhouse can only be seen from the sides.

A couple of the mini-scenes that I worked in using the figures are: the fence being expanded, a bull session outside of the store, a guy filling up the coffee pot at the water cooler, some boxes being moved around and presumably a box car being guided into position.

I plan on building the workshop on the other side of the tracks.
sierrawest Posted - 07/06/2012 : 07:27:07 AM
When I released the original HO Scale BlueSky Company Warehouse kit back in 1995 it was indeed named after the Midnight Oil album from 1990. (Still sounds good today...) That kit included dry transfer decals so you could name it "BlueSky Mining Co." or "BlueSky Lumber Co." This thread is a build of my O scale kit released a couple years ago. Bryan is doing as awesome job! It includes a laser cut stencil to letter the front of the barn wall "BlueSky". If you want to see what the finished BlueSky diorama looks like just search the forum here for many great builds including an HO scale version by Brian Nolan or pop onto my website.

Brett
Frederic Testard Posted - 07/06/2012 : 02:22:09 AM
Very nice, Bryan. Love the colors.
About the name, there's also "Good bye, Blue Sky" by Pink Floyd. Not a very mining song though...
brownbr Posted - 07/05/2012 : 6:48:50 PM
You are right Greg, who will save me indeed?

The loading dock and stairs are done. I went with a newer look on the stairs as if they have been replaced since the old barn has been there a while. I'm at the point now where I need to get it on the base to continue. To do that I first need to finalize where the tracks will be laid and cut out a spot for this like I did the office/warehouse.
Ensign Posted - 07/03/2012 : 4:28:16 PM
Hi Bryan,great looking collection of buildings!
So are you a "Midnight Oil" fan?
Just wondering if that's where the name "Blue sky Mining" was inspired by them.
Whose going to save me!

Greg Shinnie
brownbr Posted - 07/03/2012 : 3:28:24 PM
Thanks Wes. The broken boards happened by accident. I liked them so I didn't clean them up. Looking at the pics I should have masked off the area under where the board would have been.

Karl, I had gotten several colors of sharpies to color edges. They bleed onto the sign so I got some artists markers in black and brown. They don't bleed but an off color, like the red in the gas sign, doesn't fully cover.

I'm going to try the screen. I'll move this door to the in further and have a screen door added, if I can make it look OK.
UKGuy Posted - 07/03/2012 : 09:53:38 AM
Really looking great Bryan, your peeled paint came out very well.
I use a cheap set of felt pens to colour my sign edges, that way I can easily match the colour of the sign.


quote:
Originally posted by brownbr


Think the store would look nice with a screen door. Anyone find a good material for this?


Have a look down the coffee aisle at the grocery store and check out the re-usable coffee filters, the ones with the fine nylon mesh.

Looking forward to more......

Karl.A
wesleybeks Posted - 07/03/2012 : 09:20:14 AM
Very nice stuff Bryan. That peeling paint has turned out great.

I like the broken boards too.
brownbr Posted - 07/03/2012 : 06:52:09 AM
I needed a break from laying rail so I pulled this out and got the warehouse and store walls put together.

The warehouse walls are done in the same color as the barn but the boards are in much better shape.

For the store, I started by staining the boards in a brown/black IA then attached to wall. A coat of mineral spirits followed by an acrylic paint job. Let dry to touch and lifted loose paint with tape. Thanks to Karl for introducing me to this technique and I think Chuck Doan for stumbling across it by accident. You can see from the plain back wall some of the detail that this technique produces. I plucked more paint from the bottom of the wall than the top. And after a while I noticed that the top of the wall started to get flakes forming like they are about to fall off. Very cool. After this dried I gave a couple of black IA washes to the wall and propped them up slightly so the IA settled to the underside of the clapboard making a little bit of a shadow. Then a light drybrushing with some brown then gray and a nice dirt colored chalk brushed at the bottom.

When I cut out the signs I colored the edges so they weren't white. Looks like I need to re-do that.

Think the store would look nice with a screen door. Anyone find a good material for this?
brownbr Posted - 04/26/2012 : 3:06:04 PM
Wes, I am about done with the walls for the warehouse and was planning on moving to the general store next. I got some bad news last night from the young lady that was going to paint my backdrop...she backed out of the deal. Dang college students. So it will be up to me to do 'cause I can't afford to have a professional do it. So I'm going to need to find a good stopping point on this to do the backdrop. I'm thinking either now or after all of the walls are complete.

Karl, I can't believe how much detail was in this casting. Great job. The mortar technique described in the manual is outstanding.

Elliot, when I saw the photos for the first time I thought the same thing. You have a good eye for these things so I'm glad you brought it up. In person the contrast between the base brick and the rust brick is very subtle so there are fewer of the yellow looking bricks, unlike in the photo. I think the super close up with the light shining directly on it made the contrast greater. With this in mind, I was thinking of toning some of them down by mixing some brick colored chalk and brushing on selected bricks with alcohol to make them even more subtle.
ETinBH Posted - 04/26/2012 : 2:42:01 PM
Bryan - my eye detects too many yellow bricks but that is my eye and you may totally feel comfortable with the scheme - other than that one thing I really love the rest - very well rendered.

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