Dueling Shacks build by an N scaler

kebmo

i'm more than thrilled to announce that the sale of all of my n scale equipment went through. the funds hit my paypal account this morning. on to bigger things....(pun intended)

kebmo

well, i almost had a disaster baking the primer onto the corrugated panels. i taped the panels to what i thought was a paper like product (poster board) and put in the oven for 3.5 minutes. the timer goes off and i open the oven to see that the poster board curled up all around the panels, and was extremely difficult to uncurl. that said, i did manage to uncurl it and remove all the panels without damage. i had to repaint about a half dozen of them because of shiny spots, and i baked them again, removed them from the tape (which had also curled up and turned brittle). applied tape to cardboard (this time....) and taped them back down to paint the other side, baked them and now its all good. on to weathering.....

kebmo

after all that, managed to get the panels to this stage:

after letting that sit for a couple of hours, i took a piece of terry cloth, dipped it into glob of americana white wash, dabbed most of the paint off on a towel and stippled it on. the top row are the roof panels so no paint was applied:


i'll dust the panels up some and then i'm gonna do some brush maintenance and workbench cleaning. it needs it.

Karl.A

Panels look great Kevin. I love the effect with the white paint.

Karl.A

and congrats on the sale of the n scale stuff, looking forward to following your 'larger' adventures.

kebmo

thanks karl. i am looking forward to tackling the woodcutter's shack next.

kebmo

the front wall has been detailed:

the side wall has been detailed and glued to the front wall:

i'll let that glue cure for a day (i'm busy tonight) and tomorrow hopefully I'll have time to glue the rear wall and the other side wall together.
I've already cut the base, painted it flat black and epoxied several boards to it where the oil drum scene will be.

mayhaw9999

Kevin,
I'm a little late to the party, but want to echo everyone's opinions that you have done an really impressive build on the first shack. Obviously, your building of over 100 N scale kits helped to hone your skills and then with Brett's techniques added, the outcome is super.
Looks like the second shack is coming along well.
David

admin

Looks fantastic!

kebmo

thanks david and brett....
glued the walls together and installled the ridge beam.


i'll glue the rafters in tonight and weather the roof panels and hopefully get them installed tonight too. then it's on to the base.

kebmo

since posting my last picture, i installed the rest of the rafters on one side. after a while i picked up the structure and looked closely at the rafters and found that approximately half of them were installed incorrectly. by that i mean, the rafter ends glued to the ridge beam extended slightly above the ridge. to combat this, i spot glued a scrap board to the top of the ridge to prevent that from happening again.
explanation: almost 20 years ago i was diagnosed with a case of relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis. my first clue was playing on stage in a blues band and i kept dropping my guitar pick. i couldn't feel it between my thumb and forefinger (i've since taken to gluing the picks to my thumb and that helps alot). by the next morning my right arm and leg were both numb so i went to the doctor. several tests and a spinal tap later, the doctors concluded that it was ms. the result of the first exacerbation was loss of about 30% of the dexterity in my right hand and leg. fortunately for me, i've only had three exacerbations since then and all three were double vision. anyway, my point is, i felt the need to "cheat" a little on the rafter installation.

admin

Great recovery and certainly not cheating!

Karl.A

Looking fantastic Kevin. coming together so well.

There are a couple of "modeling phrases" that I've heard/read, that always stick with me. One of them is....

"Great modelers don't do everything perfectly, they just learned how to hide things better"

The corrugated siding came out superbly.

Karl.A

kebmo

thanks karl.
the corrugated shack is finished.




i put the shack on the base to test detail locations:

and testing detail locations:



the large, rusted pipe is an N scale detail from model tech. see what i mean about their details being way out of scale?

i still have a few more details to paint and weather, and i hope to wrap this up this week. just in time for the woodcutter's shack!!

kebmo

dirt and some details added:

i purchased a tube of winsor and newton water mixable burnt sienna, but honestly....i don't know what to do with it. brett mentions it in the manual, but my attempts at using it have been lame. any suggestions for using it would be appreciated.
i have a board meeting tuesday night and band rehearsal thursday, but i'm hoping to have this project completed before the weekend. hopefully next week i'll be starting on the woodcutter's shack.....
[fingers crossed]

admin

Kevin O'Neill was a master with the WN Oils. They are an intermediate/advanced technique. That means you should try them and practice to get the hang of it. Glad to see you are going to work with them here since the results are well worth the effort. Follow the link here to the very bottom of the page to see one way Kevin O'Neill used the WN's on oil drums. They make fabulous rust streaks especially when used with powdered chalk.

http://www.sierrawestscalemodels.com/vanforum/discussion/344/advanced-painting-and-weathering-of-details-with-kevin-oneill

kebmo

thanks brett. i saved it to my favorites so i can refer to it when i need to.

kebmo

i'm calling this project complete:








and a final pic of both shacks:

KCSTrains

Nice job. You are really progressing at a pretty fast pace. I like your bushes. Are those super trees? or something else? I'm in need of bushier material. Phil

kebmo

thanks phil. the bushes are woodland scenics fine leaf foliage.

Karl.A

Looks great Kevin, structure weathering looks great, love the painted/rusted corrugated walls, and a great contrast between the walls and roof. The details are finished very well. Also the scenery is nice and patchy and not so evenly coloured. Well placed bushes.
You could try using dry chalk (408.3?) on a dry brush to dust the scenery and create shadows around some of those details, its a nice effect, also remember to rewet the dirt and sink those crates/details down to make them part of the scene.

Really nice finish on another good build, the WCS you are gonna love.. looking forward to your work on that one.

Karl.A

kebmo

karl,
thanks! using chalk for shadowing the details sounds like a really good idea but i've never done it before (shadows in n scale??) so i'm not really sure how to go about it. i'll give it a try sunday (gig tomorrow night) and see what i can come up. and yes....i realize i need to 'plant' the details in the dirt a bit better. the dirt is pretty hard because i used alot of glue putting it down so i'll probably need to add more. fortunately i've got quite a bit of it left. i took it from a local pitcher's mound a couple of years ago and gladly, i hung on to it. i'll post final pictures after i (try) to add shadows and plant the details a little better.
i'm really looking forward to the wcs as well. i keep going to the swsm site and ogling the pictures. i think i'm even getting my wife excited about it....
nah...

kebmo

karl suggested that i try to add some shadows to the diorama using rembrandt chalk, and here's my first attempt at adding shadows:

Karl.A

Looks good Kevin, your work breaks up the colours of the dirt nicely, it adds more depth to the already well toned scene. Following Bretts incredible manuals creates so much depth, texture and realism on his details and structures, but, it doesn't stop there. The scenery instructions/guides are also important to make the diorama/scene whole. After all, with SWSM you're not just buying a structure with a handful of details, you're paying for a complete modeling experience that will lead you completely through every step till you reach an award winning, or at least, incredibly well finished diorama. Nicely done.

Only thing I'd suggest (and of course it may look different in person) is maybe try blending some of those slightly harsh shadow/tone lines a little more with a clean dry brush, ie: brushing (lightly) back and forth from the darker to the lighter dirt to merge the two areas, resulting in a softer transition, but the scene now has great depth throughout. Aside from that very minor point, terrific job.

Great results on the structure and the weathering, the details look top notch and the scenery is pulling everything together nicely. Great diorama.

Karl.A

Pappy

Beautiful Job Kevin!!!