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MarkF
Engineer
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Posted - 05/18/2010 : 08:39:18 AM
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Dallas, your step by step on the welding cart is fantastic! You nailed the right look and made it look so easy. Thanks for the 'tutorial' on your technique.
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Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Country: USA
| Posts: 9329 |
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elwoodblues
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/18/2010 : 10:15:46 AM
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Dallas,
I bet you are glad the foundation is finished, the walls should go up in no time now.  While it took a long time to finish I think the work was worth it as the foundation looks amazing.
Mr Mudgeon is looking dapper too. I think macro photography is the bane of our modeling efforts as what may look great to our naked eye all of a sudden looks crappy in a macro photo. I know that since I've been posting to the forum and posting lots of close-ups I've gone back and redone things so they look better. I guess you can say the bright side is that it makes you a better and more critical modeler, at least it has for me.
As for the welding cart, I thought it looked great before, now it looks even better.
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Ron Newby
General Manager
Clearwater Valley Railway Co.
http://www.cvry.ca |
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Country: Canada
| Posts: 4960 |
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Neil M
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/18/2010 : 10:17:01 AM
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That painting is great Dallas For some reason i am very drawn to the realism of the shoes.
It really makes it tempting to go into the bigger scales. The finish on the gas tank cart is great too.
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| Built a waterfront HO layout in Ireland http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22161 but now making a start in On30 in Australia |
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Country: Australia
| Posts: 2173 |
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dallas_m
Fireman
Premium Member
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 Posted - 05/18/2010 : 7:18:09 PM
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Thanks for all the positive feedback and encouragement -- much appreciated! Still have at least a "few" more hours of work left to finish the foundation ... but that hasn't stopped me from staining some stripwood in anticipation of building walls ... stay tuned. 
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Country: USA
| Posts: 3142 |
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dallas_m
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/22/2010 : 04:07:11 AM
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End of the Stone Age! -- (Foundation re-cap)
Hooray! Management has decreed that the foundation is now "built" and ready for final coloring. It's been a series of adventures and mis-adventures, so a normal step-by-step would make about as much sense as following W.C. Fields thru a field sobriety test. 
So, I'll just post a bunch of photos and notes about what seemed to work and what didn't in hopes that they may be useful to others inspired to pursue this sort of insanity. The casual viewer may do well to note "yeah, it's a bunch of rocks" and skip ahead. In terms of taking a "critical" look, I'd say that the stones are a bit on the small side (though they got closer to ideal for me on the back wall as noted far below) ... but if this foundation represents walls built with larger stones and faced with smaller stones (which is exactly what it "really" is), then it works for me ... and I'm very hopeful that it'll look just about right when the building is furnished with workbenches, tools, "junque", clutter and so forth.
Materials: The Liquitex Ceramic Stucco ended up being a useful mortar. Has a long working time, takes color well and it can be carved after it sets if desired. Since it's intended as a "medium" for acrylic paints, it seemed to work best to just add some gray craft paint that was about the desired shade and stir that in. (Initially tried adding just a tiny drop of black to some of this, and the medium instantly turned black -- stick with a shade that's roughly what you want.) Also used the Woodland Scenics stones shown here ... could be done with a variety of other products that are out there ... and some "cut" stones would make a nice variation.
Tried using palette knives, brushes, etc to apply the mortar, but the home-made pastry bag and modified syringe shown on page 6 of this thread worked best. Really wish I'd had both of those much earlier in the whole "trial and error" process.
Rough start and mistakes: Tried being "clever" and adding sanded grout to the mortar to make it set up faster (which does happen) and some ground pumice to make it look "grittier" ...
Both of those additions proved unnecessary and probably undesirable additions to the Ceramic Stucco (which does work great by itself) ... the added "grit" went from bad to worse with attempts to shape the grout with a wet brush as shown here. Ugh! 
(In the end, using the modified syringe and doing subtle shaping or clean-up where needed with a plastic toothpick worked best for me.)
So, stopped adding the gritty stuff to the mortar and just kept merrily piling up rocks really not sure where it was headed or how it might be fixed up later ... think I mentioned that this whole thing is a bit crazy, eh? 
Started playing around with the idea of "facing" the coarse rock wall with smaller rocks and turned to my pals here on the forum for some feedback (always appreciated!) ... cuz it was getting hard to see the forest for the trees or the foundation for the rocks or something like that. But, with the feedback and a couple days' break, the re-facing idea seemed like the way to go ...
Kept building up the walls till they reached the desired height (about 18" scale, 1/2" actual) and used those strips of wood in the background here along with a small steel straight edge to make sure the tops were below the final level.
Used the home-made pastry bag to put a layer of mortar over the top of the walls and used the stripwood pieces and straight edge to level that off. After that was dry, drew some outlines of the proposed walls on some clear stock and laid that over the walls to see where they might need to be built out or otherwise adjusted.
Stuck those stripwood height gauges in place with some tacky glue ... cut a piece of Task Board to the "interior" dimensions and tacked that in place ... cut some stripwood to make the sill plates for the walls and some framing around the large door opening ...
Stained the stripwood pieces, glued those in place and quickly saw where the walls needed some fill-in work ...
And spent several more evenings doing that ... with the modified syringe ... tweezers ... magnifiers ... and occasionally chanting "this is nuts!"
Unbelievable flooring facts: After all that, I was feeling really bold, so I got the thinnest piece of flagstone that I could find, busted it into a million pieces and carefully laid them out mosaic style to create the wonderful stone floor shown above ....
Hey, wait a minute, who the heck installed a BS Detector here? Dang! 
Okay, the floor was really easy ... took a piece of Heki embossed foam flagstone ... spray painted it with a variety of earth tones (dark brown, medium brown, dark tan, mustard and camo tan) ... slathered it with the mortar using a putty knife ... scraped off with a putty knife, then used a damp sponge (rinsed often) to clean off the top. Then sprayed with a very light mist of dark gray to dirty it up a bit. (Darned BS Meter ... I really liked that tale of the pain-staking flagstone floor.)
After all the other stuff was done, the back of the back wall still looked really rough (and it was a good place to test coloring/staining ideas) ... figured that no one would ever see that part ... but then figured it might eventually bug me, so decide to do a "quickie" refacing of that really rough part ... shown underway here.
Now, I'm not sure if it's because I decided to just do it quickly ... or because I already had the thought that the smaller stones should be a touch bigger ... or cuz the whole process was just getting easier, but somehow that back of the back wall ... which no one will ever see ... seemed to come out best. So, have a good look ... and, Dang!
Up next: stain the back of the back wall to re-test the coloring ideas ... let that set, then hopefully finish up the staining and get on with things to please a certain somebody ...
Yes, indeed! Already have a bunch of stripwood stained for framing the walls ... and maybe that will go quickly ... or maybe I'll get some hare-brained ideas like using scale nails or putting little bitty electrical outlets in the walls and running wiring thru little holes in the studs. Stay tuned!
New mantra: This may take a while ... but that' s okay. 
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Edited by - dallas_m on 05/22/2010 04:39:43 AM |
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Country: USA
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Zephyrus52246
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 05/22/2010 : 09:55:37 AM
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I'm enjoying the step by step descriptions here. Thanks for sharing. The BS meter is hilarious!
Jeff
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Edited by - Zephyrus52246 on 05/22/2010 09:56:09 AM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 269 |
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dallas_m
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/22/2010 : 11:29:37 PM
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Jeff -- Too bad I can't rig up a sound file to make an ah-ooga horn alert when the BS Meter is tripped!
Meanwhile, continuing to experiment with Vallejo inks (thinned slightly with water) and staining the back of the back wall to try to get the right color. Thought it might help to add a little grass and dirt while viewing ... but likely I'll end up using a lighter shade of grass and a darker shade of dirt when it gets that far. Left this shot loosely cropped to show some unstained rock at the right side.
Made up three different blends ... the middle and right-hand section are still wet here ...
Guess Mr. Mudgeon would bump his head inside the little O scale shed ... boards on the 1/35 structure will be a bit bigger and overlap the sill across the top of the foundation ... but the siding will be weathered white, so figured this would be helpful in taking a look ...
Will let the various sections dry, take another look and see where to go from there ... and I'll post notes on the "winning" stain formula when the judges tally the scores.
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Country: USA
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BBLmber
Fireman
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 Posted - 05/23/2010 : 12:36:02 AM
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Great progress Dallas, your wall coloring is looking very good.
Mark
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| W,L,&E |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4316 |
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dallas_m
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/24/2010 : 8:40:46 PM
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Here's a shot showing the test patches on the back. The left portion was shown in the previous close-ups ... the middle portion was supposed to be slightly different, but I obviously goofed, cuz it looks the same! The portion at right has far too much green, and would only work for mossy rocks in a very wet area.
So, ended up going with this formula using Vallejo inks and wet water:
4 parts brown ink, 2 parts green ink, 3 parts water
Note: The Vallejo "brown" ink has a very reddish tone to it ... thus the addition of the green ink. A reasonable amount of that brings the color around to a grayish-brown ... too much turns it green.
Out of curiosity, I brushed some of that on a piece of basswood and a popsicle stick and the "staining" effect worked quite well. Have a variety of the Vallejo inks on hand, so I'll probably experiment a bit more with these when I need little scraps bits of wood for shelving, etc. (Planning to use some of Mike's drafting ink stain formulas for the actual siding and framing pieces.)
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Country: USA
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elwoodblues
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/24/2010 : 11:05:28 PM
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Hey Dallas,
Thanks for posting your "trials and tribulations" about building the stone foundation. The result is well worth the effort, looking forward on the wall saga.
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Ron Newby
General Manager
Clearwater Valley Railway Co.
http://www.cvry.ca |
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Country: Canada
| Posts: 4960 |
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UKGuy
Fireman
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Posted - 05/25/2010 : 4:34:05 PM
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Outstanding looking foundation Dallas, worth every effort on your part. I'm really looking forward to the attention you will now pay to the walls.
quote:
Originally posted by dallas_m
.....or maybe I'll get some hare-brained ideas ........... putting little bitty electrical outlets in the walls and running wiring thru little holes in the studs. Stay tuned!
Been there, done that , wasn't too tricky in the end.
Karl.A
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Country: USA
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Frederic Testard
Engineer
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Posted - 05/25/2010 : 4:42:13 PM
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And I love your grass, Dallas. It's very realistic!
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| Frederic Testard |
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Country: France
| Posts: 16524 |
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dallas_m
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/29/2010 : 1:28:37 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by UKGuy
Outstanding looking foundation Dallas, worth every effort on your part. I'm really looking forward to the attention you will now pay to the walls.
quote:
Originally posted by dallas_m
.....or maybe I'll get some hare-brained ideas ........... putting little bitty electrical outlets in the walls and running wiring thru little holes in the studs. Stay tuned!
Been there, done that , wasn't too tricky in the end.
Karl.A
Hmm ... this sounds suspiciously like a good modeler trying to be a bad influence! Yup, a quick search showed me an example of Karl's miniature electrical work:
http://www.railroad-line.com/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27195&whichpage=4
And, sad to say, he's steered me down a dark and lonesome road. Started framing the back wall with little tiny holes pre-drilled in the studs to run wiring ... have some ground work done on a fuse box ... dang it, Karl!
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Country: USA
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hon3_rr
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/29/2010 : 2:49:38 PM
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Outstanding tutorial which was read with a smile the entire time! Well done all the way around Dallas. Oh... don't forget to have that fire putter-outer thing handy when you power up the electrical the first time. I heard that the scale twist nuts can be a bear to make good connections.
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--KP
Life is to short to make all of the models I want to. |
Edited by - hon3_rr on 05/29/2010 4:39:24 PM |
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Country: USA
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dallas_m
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/29/2010 : 2:53:07 PM
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Started off framing the back wall with some oversized stripwood that ended up looking ... well, oversized ... and clunky as heck.
Did some digging and found 1/16 x 1/8" stripwood, which just happens to measure very nearly 2x4" in 1:35 scale. Used Mike's Ink Stain Formula -- Blend #6 for the studs. Didn't soak them ... just dipped the strips once, let them dry, then dipped them again.
Had to do a "quick fix" on my Chopper, cuz the deep rut under the blade was causing it to make raggedy cuts/breaks in the stripwood. Found a piece of styrene strip that was about the size of the rut ... glued that down with some ACC ... went out and took a brief walk ... then came back and sanded it down flat once the glue had set. Now it's making nice clean cuts again.
Some crazy modeler convinced me to include electrical wiring in the walls (see previous post), so I made a sketch of the back wall that included placement of the fuse box and an emergency cut-off switch ... cuz folks like to have that available when Mr. Mudgeon starts working with the electric tools! Put the drawings onto a piece of foam topped with a scrap of cork and started gluing all the little bits together. Studs are on 17" centers ... which sounds kinda weird ... but happens to work out perfectly with fractional inches that made it a bit easier to plan!
Starting to make progress ... those red pins are probably "old news" to the regular stick-builders here, but they were new to me when I found them in a hobby shop recently. They're Midwest Products "Grip Pins" (#587) ... and they got a wide head with a flat bottom that works quite nicely.
For some crazy reason, the properly scaled stripwood looks a little better to me now! (Did I mention it's been a long time since I've done this?) 
There's lots of neat stuff available in 1/35 scale ... just got a pack of details that includes this etched metal steel shelving unit (and pegboard!) ... plus a load of "junk" to fill it up. What's that? Should have taken the wrapper off before shooting the photo ... you're right! 
Mr. Mudgeon says: Enjoy the holiday weekend, but don't drink any dang blasted kerosene!
On a more serious note, thanks to ALL the veterans as we celebrate Memorial Day weekend ... and prayers and best wishes for the safe return of all currently deployed!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to stain a bunch more stripwood and see if I have some 1/35 nuts and bolts to assemble that steel shelving ...
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| Posts: 3142 |
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