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Comments
Excellent job on the roof. Very believable for an operating outfit. You said you dry brushed with a “dark iron” acrylic. Who makes that?
David U
Your final, personal artistic touch with the colouring and placement of the colour, and then placement of each panel is superb. Great result.
Karl.A
That's all I can add here. Job well done!
Mike, the grease on the gears of the chute doors is a nice touch
Such a super outcome! Photography is outstanding as well. I think I like the ground level shot the best (DSC_0030.jpg), and the comparison of your build with Mike's is great.
You have a good pealing paint demo going too.
David U
Dustin, a great job on the roof, actually a wonderful job on the entire ore bin and tipple structure. Great modeling we can all appreciate, and good photos of your work as well. But please, no more side-by-sides. It's not nice to show up your elders ! And thanks for all of your comments and compliments.
No rest for the wicked, so on with the show. Working with Brett's kits, or for that matter any wooden structure model, you needn't bother making the effort if you are not willing to spend sufficient time detailing, staining, and weathering your stripwood. Another batch of several dimensions are needed for the head frame, and since we've already discussed the methodology for graining, staining, etc. we'll skip over that.
This was a delightful segment of model building. While challenging, it is almost impossible to screw up if you can read, are patient, and can focus on what you are doing. This is because Brett provides some incredible cutting guides, jigs, templates, and instructions. As intricate as this little tower looks, it is remarkable how perfectly aligned and squared up it goes together with all the neat tools provided.
A few photos, and these were taken before any of the detailing takes place ! Fun stuff.
I started working on this again this past weekend, and I am finishing up the head frame. I also decided this will be a silver mine, as this type of mine will best complement my western logging theme. I'll post some pics in the next few days of a new method I'm using to vary the weathering on the skip and other hardware.
These pics are pretty straight-forward progress shots. The foam cradle is to keep the frame vertical while constructing it because of the stripwood that protrudes from the bottom. Brett's idea, not mine, as are most of the good ideas in this build.
And Justin- thanks for waiting, you can hit it again any time.
Its also great to see you back at the modeling bench as this means that everything is progressing well elsewhere, which is great to read.
The head frame is looking fantastic, as I mentioned earlier......, colouring is wonderful and the precision is perfect, really nice.
Karl.A
I've been working on the head frame detailing. There are several white metal castings, the key ones being the ore skip, the large sheave, and the pillow blocks for the same. I've weathered this type of castings several ways over the years, usually starting with A-West Blacken-it. This dependable product is now gone from the shelves due to the untimely death of the manufacturer, and since I'm about out of it I decided to try something different.
I have several modeling heroes but probably at the top of the list is Chuck Doan. I have long admired his models on forums such as this and on his Fotki site and more recently his FB page. I was fortunate to have met Chuck a few years ago at a National Narrow Gauge Convention in Pasadena, and to have spent a little time with he and his father observing several models in the contest room.
Chuck has been kind to all of us by sharing some of his secrets on Fotki and Facebook, and recently posted a method he has used that produced great results. When I first read this I thought that each successive layer merely covered up the previous, but was happy to find they not only blended nicely but produced a nice weathered rust, oil, and grease effect. Check out how Chuck did it on FB, and though his results were way better than mine in his 1/16 scale, my HO effort was adequate. I changed his materials somewhat to utilize what was on hand, so here are my layers:
1) Sprayed with Krylon flat black rattle can spray.
2) Applied a thin coat of Poly Scale Grimy Black.
3) Applied a thin coat of a mixture of three Vallejo acrylics of rust, black, and tan.
4) Then a mix of two Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colours (how's that
Karl?) raw and burnt umbers and a little black.
5) Finally added a little Rembrandt chalks using several umbers and siennas.
My photography doesn't do justice to the results but you get the idea. Some progress shots.
I have virtually finished my Mine and was working on a Tichy Wooden Ore wagon for the diorama but find its too tall for the chute extensions I have added! Looking at my head frame detail it looks rather new.
Michael Pearce FNQueensland Australia
The key is when they are cut in bulk lengths to ship to consumers or hobby shops, or to manufacturers to include in kits, look for the rough cut ends. See the bundle photo. In a structure like this one, most of the cuts will be for interior timbers, legs, cross pieces, etc. where the nice clean cut you get with a Chopper ll is desirable. But there are several beams on the top and elsewhere where you want the nice rough cut that the wood manufacturers get when they cut the stripwood at their factory. I asked a couple and was told it is a result of bulk cutting, a coarser, duller, slower saw, etc.
I just know it's tough to duplicate. I've been know to splice two pieces together to get two "good ends" for an exposed board, usually when the splice can be hidden by some detail part. I've tried using several different razor saws, fine and coarse, sharp and dull, with my old wooden mitre box, and I can't duplicate those nice rough cuts of the wood suppliers
The key tool of the trade for rough ends for larger stripwood (⅛" x ⅛" or larger is this file card (some call it a card file), available at the plumbing dept, of Home Despot or Ace Hardwares.. You can do some real violence to your wood, especially the softer varieties like eastern white pine, It makes for some great graining patterns, especially in the larger scales, as well as the larger HO scale sizes. Also use it to knock a little off the corners so they look a little worn. Vary your affects just as you have color variations.
Remember the close-up of the structure here is magnified about 35 times and won't represent what you will see with the naked eye from even a close viewing distance.
I love the patina you have managed to create for the medal castings. Something for me to try later on.
A commentary on modelling...
One of the things I struggle with while modelling; am I Scale Modelling, or am I modelling for the 1:1 World?
Scale modelling for me (I think I am 5'8"/64 in height looking at the structure, which is very much we do when we photograph the parts of a structure) is taking the 1:1 dimensions, colours, textures, etc and reducing them to a 1:64 S scale. If a 2" bolt should be a 2/64" bolt on the structure. Or if the texture of weathered wood is a 1/2" cracks it would be .5/64" crack in the model. Or if fuzziness is 1/4" long should it be .25/64" on the structure.
The 1:1 World modelling for me (I think I am 5'8" in height looking at the structure with all the visual impairments of a normal human) is to produce a 1:64 S scale structure that gives the sensation as if you were looking at it as a toy. The 2" bolt just needs to be a blob, the texture has to be deeper and wider so i can see it and the fuzzy have to be longer so I get the sense the wood is rough.
Yes, I know about the realities of modelling and costs, etc and its how all about artistic interpretation and personal feel, with cost coming into the equation.
Now consider this ...
If you have a "artistic" personality, if there is such a thing, which one would you lean toward? And if you were OCD, which one would you lean to? What personalities are you viewers and judges? All this makes it more interesting.
How about this perspective; yes perspective, vanishing points, etc should they be adjusted and if so how? For example, in the 1:1 World if we look at a large building the front wall looks bigger and the back wall looks smaller. How would this be handled in a 1:64 Scale Diorama? Or if we were in the 1:64 Scale World, would we need to care about it since our visual systems would be taking care of it by themselves.
When we look at models, we look at them with the eyes of a heavenly body (or a drone) looking down on earth. Which is some 192' 1:64 S away when we are standing 3' over a model. When we bend over to look into the model we are 64' 1:64 S from it (12" in 1:1). The last time I looked in the neighbours window 200' away I could only see blobs and my back fence 100' away I can begin to see the rust of the nails, but no nails.
All interesting questions and the answers can be confusing, if not impossible to answer or even implement. I think the standard and quality of modelling we are seeing here is amazing it has great details, colours and put together with the skill of a craftsman.
Have we gone too far in modelling details? or are we modelling to just take fantastic pictures.
Who kicked my soap box?
Any thoughts?
Marty
My reasons for modeling, not necessarily in today's priority:
1) Relaxation and stress relief.
2) To win contests (satisfies my competitive urges now that I can't play golf for s**t.
3) Allows me to have a creative outlet.
4) Keeps me out of the saloons.
5) Social contact with fellow model builders at shows, lunches, and social media.
6) Educational aspect of studying prototype practices.
7) Making my meager contribution to Brett's retirement fund.
and too many more to mention, and new ones that crop up daily.
Phil, I used to run projects my saying was "start small, finish small".
Since this is a working silver mine I will need to have the sheave look used. I have a color chart of all my metallic colors in acrylics and I am leaning toward Vallejo "Oily steel" or PS "Gun metal" for the inside groove where the cable has shined it up. Also, the cable will have deposited a good amount of dirt from underground. I'm having trouble finding any color prototype pics of what I'm trying to depict.
A couple of ideas from another forum were to try pencil lead, and a Model Masters color called "Jet Exhaust". Any others?
Or basic coat with floquil gun metal and dry brush with a lighter silver or white.
There were quite a few NBWs on the head frame, over fifty, and most of the ones I used were Brett's two-part die-cut nut/washers in three sizes. I did substitute some old Tichy styrene freight car truss rod castings for use backing up the truss rods on this model.
This build has really been fun to this point, and now I get to try some of Bill O.'s new castings tricks.
I want to quick post before I get any discussions going. I thought Dustin was going to join us but apparently he has gone over to the Dark Side now that he has seen his O Scale kits.
Wood staining.
Side frames going together. The templates make these a dream to build.
It's like a mini Jenga tower.
I had to see it next to the tipple.