My Second Sierra West Model

randyp

Thanks Emery, I have now added the window frames to the two walls and built the large door.
I probably spent too much time on the side of the door that will not be easily seen. I also put most all the details on sticks to be primed.
But as I said in Karl's thread I will need to move the barrels into the group to items to be painted black. Oh well, live and learn. Thanks for looking and any comments or suggestions will be welcomed. Thanks, Randy

KKarns

No rules Randy, paint them as you like. Actually changing up the base coat will give a nice variety. Those walls look so good with the window frames.

randyp

Thanks Ken, I will try it the way Brett suggests and see how it works. If it doesn't look good I will just repaint them with the khaki.

Karl.A

Terrific work on the walls Randy, so good looking.
Can't wait to see your results on the details.

Dang, you got some yellow castings by the look of your last pic, those suckers are super rare... you must be special... haha

Keep up the great posts and progress !!

MuddyCreekRR

are those extra roof rafters too?....I'm going to need to scratchbuild the ones I'm going to need...

randyp

Karl, nothing special just the luck of the draw. I plan to prime the castings tomorrow as it is going to be eighty. Warm enough not to be a problem with the spray cans. Yes Art, I asked Brett to cut some extra trusses so I could use purlins under the shake shingles and make the roof removable. Two trusses in the repair shed, and two in the .
breezeway.. Thanks for the comments and as usual all comments and suggestions are appreciated. Randy

randyp

I have been doin g some work on the handcar repair shed. I primed the detail parts and the back side of the water tower base. I also sprayed the tissue paper with the flat black. I then added the tissue paper to the inside of the two end walls.followig
Brett's instructions I ended up with this tar paper.
I would like your opinion about the color of the paper. to me it is a little two mottled. Maybe some dry brushed black paint or black chalk or just leave it alone. You will notice that I put the tarpaper up in the gable. Brett did not have that in the instructions but I thought that with the rafters being open the gables would need to be sealed from the weather also. To get the correct shape of paper with out a lot of trial and error I drew lines along the plans so I could use straight edge to cut the tar paper to shape
That was done yesterday and last night.

randyp

This afternoon I decided to do a little work on the resin castings for water tank base. When I started to fit them together I found there to be some gaps where the fingers fit together.
Now in this picture the three bottom and the top fingers of the back hit the "rocks" of the left side wall and cause a gap in the middle fingers. I know that Brett's instructions tell us to fill in the gaps with a thin plaster mix. But these gaps seamed to large to fill easely with a watery plaster mixture. I used a small square file to deepen the one top and bottom three slots in the side wall.
After filing and test fitting numerous times I got things to fit to my satisfaction.

Brett's instructions say to spray the base with Kills primer and then use the plaster to fill the spaces. I am wondering if when the base is painted or stained the plaster will take the color differently than the Kills. Might it be better to put the plaster in the cracks now and then spray both the plaster and resin together? I would like to hear your thoughts. As usual all comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks, Randy

admin

Kilz primer is specifically used (instead of white spray paint) as it takes the finish coloring and weathering on the cast resin stones the same as the plaster.

The manual never calls for "watery" plaster to fill the gaps that were mastered that way purposely. The manual calls for "soupy" plaster which will fill the gaps perfectly as shown in the manual. I caution anyone not to file the gaps as this could cause fit issues. Your walls look great but the re-fitting was unnecessary.

Karl.A

I carved the walls so that there is an intentional minute gap in the corners for ease of fitment and specifically so that there is room to add in the mortar so that the corners match the rest of the mortar lines throughout the rest of the walls.
Now that you have sanded them and you have the stones tight together there is no room for the mortar.

randyp

OK Brett, I am glad for your input. I still worry plaster will take the colors at a different rate leaving light or dark areas where the plaster is. Would there be, in your opinion, Would it cause a problem to do the plaster first and then spray with Kilz? Thanks Randy

admin

Either way will be fine, plaster first then Kilz will work too.

MuddyCreekRR

Randy, I filled mine first, then primed. I ended up using a premixed patching plaster as I've had good luch with it before. I use a flat dental tool like a pointing tool to work the plaster into the crevase...smooth it but leave a bit to contour too. Let it set till it's not quite cured and then take a soft brass brush and smooth out the joints and take the excess off the stone face...too much great texture to lose there. One done, use light coats of the kilz to prime. Let ir cure overnight before you paint the stones. My photos will be up tommorow night once I finish it.

randyp

OK Brett and Karl thanks. Karl the walls are glued together yet. So I may go back and supper glue a small slice of wood in each of the notches. That should open them back up and allow for the mortar. I will let everyone know how it works. Thanks Randy

randyp

Thanks for the advice Art. I will need to get the walls together first. Randy

Karl.A

MuddyCreekRR said:

Let it set till it's not quite cured and then take a soft brass brush and smooth out the joints and take the excess off the stone face...too much great texture to lose there.

I'm not at that stage in my build process yet, but I have successfully used the same technique from the manual several times in the past.

I would NOT use a wire brush, soft or otherwise to remove any excess plaster from the stone faces. This may scratch or damage the resin surface, this could show up later after painting, especially in those close up photo's we all love.

Simply wipe the corners with a soft damp cloth, this will clean the stone faces and also remove any excess plaster from the mortar lines, thereby recessing them so that they match the rest of the walls.

Simple, quick and easy.

Karl.A

As for your interior tar paper being too mottled, as you can see in my own thread I adjusted mine by carefully 'painting' on some A/I between the studs on just the tarpaper to dull the paper down and get the look I personally wanted.

Karl.A

randyp said:

... You will notice that I put the tarpaper up in the gable. Brett did not have that in the instructions....

Actually, that IS in the instructions.... it is item '6' on page 19 of the manual...

The Line reads

"Add tarpaper to the remaining walls and the truss if you plan on adding lights and/or making the roof removable."

So, as you are making your roof removeable, the manual already had you covered.

ALCO

Has the world gone mad? LOL

kebmo

ca-razy i tell ya....

brownbr

Coming together great.

randyp

Thanks Bryan for your encouragement. Although, from Brett and Karls helpful comments I screwed up the rock walls. I am going to need to figure out how to correct my mistake. So in the meantime I went on to work on the tar paper and the detail castings. I took Karl's advice and used a small brush and AI to tone down the mottled appearance of the end walls, and tar papered the two side walls.
Following that I started to work on the primed detail parts. I started with adding some AK lite, medium, and dark rust colors applied randomly to the 3D printed parts. I then allowed the parts to set for two days so the paint would cure.
This worked OK, however with the next set of castings I may go way back in time and use Folquil rust colors. Because even with the curing the rust paint came off with the alcohol and make up sponge method Brett suggests using on the 3D printed parts. I have done the gas tanks and a few barrels.
The three dard tank's colors did not show up. Two are green and one is blue.
The two trash cans were painted with AK aged pewter, sponged, and lightly wire brushed. The two barrels are two toned blue and green and white. I am going to redo the stove casting as most of the rust came off. I will display some more painted detail parts in my net post. As always any comments or suggestions are welcomed. Thanks, Randy

randyp

Well back to the rock walls. After reading Brett's and Karl's comments about filing the notches on the pump house walls. I thought about adding thin pieces of styrene to recreate the gaps. One problem with this was not all the notches had gaps. This was apt to cause a chain reaction of other things I would need to change on down the line. So, I called Brett and talked to him. The long and short of it is that I ordered a new set of pump house walls. This set will not be filled.
Now with new walls in hand I can get back to work on the pump house. Here are the walls with the gap.
After I got all the walls glued together I mixed up some plaster to the consistency of whipping cream.
I used the black brush like a scoop to add small amounts of molding plaster to the water in the paint tray. I use molding plaster because it is much easier to clean out of the joints than Hydrocal. When I had the plaster to the consistency I wanted I used a wide flat brush to smoth the plaster on the corner joints of the pump house.
You will notice that the castings have not been sprayed with Kilz. I had this discussion with Brett and he assured me it did not matter which I did first. I did the plaster first for two reason. First it is easier to see the plaster on the colored castings than on the white kilz. The second reason is that I did not want to take any chance that the plaster and Kilz would take the stains differently. This way the entire surface is covered with Kilz and should take the stain evenly. After the plaster was on the joints I took a wet paper towel and wiped as much of the plaster off as I could.
After the wet towel I used a hobby knife with a broken point the chip the plaster from the mortar joints
After cleaning up the plaster from the joints the front wall looks like this.
The walls were the sprayed with the Kilz.
I am going to let the Kilz cure for a few days before I try to stain the the walls. To that end I got back to painting shelf castings. This is just the start. I need to go back to add chalk to the castings to tone down the colors some more. I also want to use the AK weathering pencils to add some color and texture to the wood of the shelves.
I hope this clarified my mistake with my first set of walls. As usual all comments and suggestions to improve my construction of this model will be appreciated. Thanks Randy

KKarns

Now you're talking! Much better. Those shelves look great Randy, love the wood tones you achieved. Getting fun now isn't it!

EmeryJ

Now you are on track. This looks great!

admin

AWESOME!

TomMich

Great idea to do the Kilz spray after plastering the walls to have an even surface. The shelves turned out GREAT! Really like the coloring.

randyp

Thanks Ken, Emery, Brett, and Tom. Well I was going to do some more work on the shelves. But from your comments maybe I should just leave well enough alone. Thanks Randy

Karl.A

Great progress Randy, the walls are looking good and nice job with the corners.
Shelves are very nicely painted. It always amazes me that once we start painting Brett's shelf castings more and more detail starts becoming evident.

Your base layers are well done and I look forward to enjoying your next steps and seeing them evolve.

brownbr

Stonework looks good. The color on the cabinets looks great.