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Comments
Anyway, no critisisms from me everything looks good. Great colour variations, neat assembly, no glue marks and the knots are randomly placed.
Great start to the build.
Actually there is one thing, the board in the last pic, righthand side, halfway up the first story with the red 'stain' on it...... if that mark is really there and not a photographic illusion I would pop that board off and replace it.
Looking forward to your next update and more progress.
Karl.A
I remain challenged by the nail holes. I tried a Dritz T handle pin and couldn't see the mark. When I pressed a little harder I split the end of the plank. I need to work on that.
I like steel brushing the plank before glueing because as advised it is opening the grain.
Respectfully,
John
My only criticism would be to keep an eye on the size of the knot holes. If you picture yourself in the scene standing next to the walls, the knots would be the size of your fist. The way around that is to use a drill bit that's considerably smaller. That will allow a smaller amount of toothpick to poke through. I wouldn't change the boards out now...but be on the lookout as you proceed.
For nail holes, if you take and work the around in a circular or oval shaped motion as opposed to just poking them into the boards, you may have better luck. A T pin might be a bit thick. Lately, I've been using the point of a drafting compass. It's very thin and sharp.
Keep up the good work!
Bill
I don't have a compass (can you imagine!) but have some of my wife's various size needles to experiment with.
I will be into the "hole business" within a day or so now.
Respectfully,
John
Karl.A
Thanks for the subtle reminder, I'll get right on it.
Karl.A
pump out about 1/8" of the lead and use an emory board or some fine grit sand paper to get a needle point. A couple of light swipes while rotating the pencil will get you there.
No real need to explain what to do next....
I like this method because it's a one shot deal, done near the end of finishing the wall.
It gives you the hole, it's pre-coloured (because of the graphite dust from the sanding) , it gives a nice clean sharp definition, ie: there is no 'ring' or smudge from adding a drop of A&I to each hole.
I use it extensively in O scale, it will need re-sharpening more often for HO to keep a finer point, and also obviously less pressure. try it out on some scraps to see if you like the idea.
Every 20 or so nails you will need a quick swipe to re-sharpen the point but I find it much easier than using a pin and then carefully applying A&I to each nail....
Karl.A
I like your attitude about keep experimenting. The shipyard is more of what feels and looks good and the use the the chalks allows us to put layer upon layer. Your in for a fun ride and enjoy it. Get your check book out because I'm convinced you will be ordering more Sierra West kits. Lol.
Marty
Marty, thank you. My experimenting now seems to be imparting a slightly rougher texture to the planking than others have done but I like the more open grain appearance.
Alan, thank you for dropping by again. I am following your boiler house with great interest
Respectfully,
John
I have the dormers planked and just did the first application of 408.3 on the frames. Now off to look at a bunch of your various build logs and tips to reinforce myself before getting deeper into coloring them. I have left all the frames etc. "mounted" for what I think might be ease in handling.
Thank you for looking.
John
Those walls look great!
Occasionally (quite often) I'll push too hard and go through a board, or, just simply go too deep and make too big of a hole. When I do this I will use the tip of an exacto or a pin to close the hole up a bit. If I reveal some bare wood in this process a dry dab of chalk on a detail brush will conceal it.
Karl.A
Remember: Great modelers still make mistakes, they just know how to hide them better than most of us.
Thank you for your comments. I had email address issues last night - hopefully you received my PM.
In keeping with your comment about the mistakes of great modelers, below you'll see one of mine! I wasn't thinking about what I was doing and gave three blotchy applications of white to the doors in addition to the frames. No one will ever accuse me of being a good painter.(or painting the right thing)
In pursuit of Karl's tutorial I mounted the majority of the resin castings but my initial attempt to spray them with a base coat was unsuccessful. A trip to Home Depot for spray paint in the morning should fix that.
Respectfully,
John
If there is a little bit of resin poking through here and there don't worry about it, the chalk will cover that. Much better to have that than the exquisite cast in detail getting obliterated by heavy coats of paint.
Let things dry after the first base coat before you make any decisions on a respray. It should only take 10-15 minutes. You should see the paint "lay down" and contract as it dries, getting tight onto the castings and letting those details pop out again. Remember, subtlety in EVERY step....
It's a beautiful sight seeing all those bare castings ready to go, the anticipation of what they will become. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Karl.A
Alan, thank you again for looking in - isn't this fun! Are you due for another post yourself?
I spoke with Brett this morning to learn how to recover from erroneously giving the loading dock doors three coats of dabbed white paint. "Just wipe it with alcohol . . ." Why didn't I think of that? So I did that, then tried to woody it up a bit. Yesterday it was too white and now it looks too red to me. Does it to some of you also?
Karl, I hope these aren't overdone. I held the sticks - two at a time - at arms length. The first application wasn't close to giving reasonable coverage so a half hour later I did it again. Am I correct in thinking I have not masked any of the detail? I am leery of hardware store sprays because I am afraid the pigment is large enough to mask detail. My air brushing didn't work out - I need one on one guidance with that tool.
Lastly, I worked on weathering the lower part of some second floor planks. I applied nails (using Karl's pencil technique). I'd appreciate comments on whether I need more nail holes. Have I overdone the weathering on the second floor vertical planks? I emphasized the two outer edges.
Criticisms and instructive assistance is requested. I'd like to have the walls correct before attaching the windows and doors.
Respectfully,
John
I would do the next step to the doors with some tone down.
Remember what Karl said about the castings - this is a base coat and total coverage not required. They look okay to me from your picture.
I think a "judicious" light vertical swipe sanding of the second story walls are needed.
Remember, the above are just my thoughts not necessarily the right ones for you.
Sorry to hear about your computer issues. It appears that you have some sort of backup.
I do all my photography with my iPhone, then in a few seconds the photos magically appear in my two computers - that makes doing these photo posts real easy.
John
Judging from the picture your paint looks to be pretty thick but most of the detail seems to have survived, not sure if it dried out more with a little time and more of the crispness and fine detail came back.
You may have some trouble getting the lighter chalk base colours for the wooden parts to cover over that darker brown that you used. This may limit you a little later when trying to get subtle variety in the pieces with the chalk.
Also, using that same brown colour for the metal parts such as the drums instead of my recommended black will give you less of a contrast when/if you do your chipping effects later.
Talking of chipping effects, what kind of paint did you airbrush on for this base layer ?
Most of the weathering on the vertical board bottoms looks OK, however the one in the top right of the picture has much more than any of the other walls and for me is just too much. Which is what prompted you to ask the question I'm guessing.
Just some of my thoughts while looking at your pictures and some ideas of the differences you will experience as you proceed.
Karl.A
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. You certainly achieve excellent results with the HD & Loews rattle cans. I was unable to find the same camouflage color as you and thought - incorrectly so - that what I got was close. It was rattle can, not air brush. I agree, mine looks too dark. I painted at arms length and still agree that the coat looks thick. So, reading your comments, I made yesterday a shopping and education day. Near the Microsoft Campus is a large hobby store with a paint inventory that is floor to chin high and about thirty feet wide. In their more limited spray section I got the dull coat that Brett identified for the window glazing. For the remaining vast assortment, it is good to know it is available a few minutes from home. The other big find was a large upscale art supply store that must have had a dozen different brands of brushes. I was able to get the Filmore, a bevel a 00 size pointed (rigger?) and some assorted brushes that I have seen you and others use. Importantly, I took my Iwata to a friend who knows how to use it and in under a minute he identified my major mistake. Watching videos of how to use an air brush and then doing it are two different things - as are most skills! With that knowledge, I came home and today put a lighter coat of tan on the resins. Yes, I wasn't thinking when I did the steel barrels brown . . . actually I was half thinking because I had it in my mind that it was all the metal castings that were going to be black. Today the steel resin barrels are now black but not photographed. The nice thing about the airbrush is the ability to put paint on in an almost microscopic thickness, so I don't feel like I added materially to the overall paint thickness on the resins. I took this photo outside my window to try to capture natural lighting. I'm still unsure of the color and could lighten it if recommended.
I am unsure of the coloring for the doors and the frames. The doors look overdone and the frames under done. I have manipulated the colors and their density several times and what is seen here is the best I have been able to come up with so far - though it does't seem right. I'm a techie, not an artist! I can explain how to compute the dropping resistor value for your LED lighting and do the math in my head, but don't ask me what color to make it
The weathering in the top right of the picture has been reduced with wire brushing.
Maybe this is a little more in the ball park . . . by the way, I love how I can take a picture with my iPhone, then sit down and by the time I pick up my laptop it is automatically here waiting for me to edit! A National Geographic photographer told me he does all his photography with his iPhone now. Can you imagine that? In retrospect, looking at photos of my work, I see I have not been as subtle as instructed and my weathering is more so than the other build logs I am following for guidance. My shipyard may end up looking a bit more aged . . . .
Suggestions and recommendations for improvement are requested. My coloring seems to be out of control.
Respectfully,
John
Like Karl, Brett, et al say "blend and subtle".
Mike
I do not see an email. I am unable to read your PM address from your post to write back that way - when I try to do so I get a screen that asks me to register with Brett. That does not happen when I look at others who are posting.
Hobby Town in Redmond had the paint display that impressed me. Have you been there? In the past I never took notice of their paint.
Daniel Smith Art Supplies, 15112 NE 24th St in Bellevue is where I got brushes and picked up three Rembrandt chalk colors that I don't have.
I live on Cougar Mtn. Where are you?
Respectfully,
John Maguire
C: 425-894-4884
Your quote above jumped out at me because of the "arms-length distance". It may be too far away from what you are spraying and allowing the paint particles to dry before they reach the castings. That of course could clog up or obscure the detail. Maybe someone has already mentioned this. When I use the rattle-cans I make a brief pass or two holding the can no more than 9-12" away from the thing I'm spraying.
First of all, hopefully Karl will catch this at some point and comment on the new base color. In the bottle it looked similar to the camouflage but now once sprayed it looks like I was color blind. Don't I need to yellow it up a bit to more closely get back in the ball park? This is how horrid it looks now compared to your color in the tutorial.
Comments so far have reinforced my sense that the wall with three shipping doors was messed up on the upper right. I have redone it three times today - the camera sees it more critically than my eye. All the planks were treated at the same time so I am a little confused about what I have done subsequently to end up with such a variance. Below is where I am at the moment with the walls and a test fit of the doors and trim.
Mike, thank you for your comments about painting distance. Karl mentioned a similar distance but I didn't follow that advice - I was afraid I'd be too close and get too heavy a coat. I stubbornly want to learn how to use the air brush for appropriate tasks because I eventually have some brass O gauge rail cars and a locomotive to paint. I have thoroughly enjoyed your build logs here and on the Railroad Line. You are a master and your work has been one of the motivating factors that got me into this. Thank you for looking in and advising. Please continue to do so.
My attempt with the white door trim just doesn't seem right and I am hesitant to attach it. Could someone please suggest what I am doing wrong? I tried to follow Brett's guidance but my results indicate I am missing important points.
Thank you folks for looking at these verbose posts - hopefully I can eventually reach a point where I can be a little more independent. But in the meantime, I really wish to have your input.
Respectfully,
John
a couple of quick points,
Mike's PM should appear in your inbox at the top of the screen.
The walls look great and doors look good, I'd leave them as they are. I agree with Alan a light A&I or chalk dusting on the trim will tone them down nicely. If using chalk I would use a 408.3 lightly, infact just dirty the brush with the chalk so that you barely colour the white, keep it very subtle, just knock off the newness.
The rustoleum Khaki tan is available at walmart, either in the paint section or hunting section.
Your first picture with the crates on the stick looks fine. I never colour corrected my pics because I gave the specific paint to use, the colour therefore in my pictures is not 100% accurate and should not be used as a guide.
I would be hesitant to put more layers of paint onto those castings, if you have a light tan colour then just go from there.
Karl.A
Thank you - will do. I especially needed your suggestion for the trim. I couldn't decide what it was missing!
Your specified chalks will all be darker than my painted resins so their application will show.
Respectfully,
John
I bit the bullet and use an airbrush for spraying castings, although for resin castings I have used testers rattle cans. For these I use enamels as I agree with Brett's instructions that the first colouring washes on resin work better with enamels. Acrylics for everything else. I tend not to use a primer - resins are great surfaces and a good paint like Vallejo will cover well without the added thickness of a primer. I use a darning needle for nail holes but they are really too small in o scale and close up with AI as others have noted.