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O'Neills Fabrication/Quincy Salvage

edited June 2016 in HO Scale Builds
Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on the forum. I plan to combine O'Neills and Quincy Salvage into a larger diorama sharing a siding.
I've posted a few build threads for non-SW kits on the RRLine forums but it made sense since I'm using 2 SW kits to post here. I'm starting with O'Neills first and then hopefully transferring some of the newer techniques to the Quincy Salvage buildings.

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I added some texture to the boards and knot holes.

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I tried out a few different wire brushes. I like the one on the bottom the best, it has nice stiff bristles. I bought the top and bottom ones from Home Depot for $2 each. The middle one I got from the Snap-On dealer at my work, I think it cost $10 and it has very weak bristles, not recommended.

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I stained all the wood with Rembrandt pastels as per the instructions and Brett's video. I feel like it came out a bit splotchy and my knot holes disappeared. I think the color is right and I fully saturated the boards in alcohol, do these look correct?
I've mostly used paint washes and stains in the past so this is very new to me.

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Here is a closer shot.

Thanks for checking in.
-Steve
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Comments

  • Hi Steve and welcome to the forum. I think the colors on your boards have just the right variety of tones. It's hard to pick up the detail in the photo so It's hard to pick up on the splotchiness you refer to. I model in O scale so the boards are bigger to work with. You said you flooded the boards with alcohol but what I've found is sometimes I may just have too much powder in a particular area of a board. I clean my brush in the alcohol and work the area again. Sometimes while applying the alcohol over the powder, the brush loads up with the pastel. Rinsing the brush again I the clean alcohol seems to dilute the pastel powdering in a area of heavy concentration and helps to blend the powder throughout the board. I've also put powder on sparingly for the first coat and then gone back and applied a second coat if needed. Hope that helps. I'm looking forward to following your build.
    SteveF
  • edited June 2016
    Looking good Steve, I really like the variations in the boards you have achieved, both between the individual boards and within the boards themselves.

    As to your question on 'splotchiness' ... I don't think the boards look splotchy, which would infer large blobs of differentiation on the boards colouring, I think your variation is just right.

    Maybe what you are referring to is the speckle effect you are seeing when looking closely at some of the individual boards.
    This can be caused by a rough surface on the wood where the chalk accumulates. It is easily prevented by drawing the boards through some steel wool prior to colouring with chalk to smooth out these rough spots and also removes any fuzzies that may show up later in photos.
    Even after colouring, drawing the wood through some steel wool will remove this 'speckle' effect, it will homogenise the colouring slightly on each board but you already have great definition between the boards.
    Be careful not to draw the boards too much, or vigorously as this will not only remove the speckle , but also the graining, it basically polishes the boards and this is a whole other effect. That's the beauty of these techniques, simple slight variations give different specific results.
    Just 'draw' slowly once or twice from each direction and the speckle will go. Pull, don't push or you'll snap the wood, and don't try to go back and forth, just pinch between some steel wool and pull through.
    Of course this may not be what you are referring to.

    Boards look great, this is going to be a great one to watch....

    Karl.A
  • Thanks Steve and Karl.
    Steve, I was just reading your Stump Creek Lumber RR Office thread. Great work, I was studying the white building portion of it right before I started trying the wet brushing technique on these boards. Yours looks fantastic.

    Karl, Your right I was refering to the speckled colors on the boards, I may have been using a little bit too much chalk in areas. I ended up using the steel wool technique and it took care of it right away. I did find that it left some small pieces of steel in some of the boards, maybe I need a different brand/quality of steel wool. I just used fine grade steel wool from Home Depot or Lowes. It also covered my pants and shirt with steel wool shavings and I wasn't working it very hard.

    I stepped the resolution up a bit on the pictures. Hopefully it will show the detail a bit better.


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    I practiced a little on a scrap piece of wood, once I liked the results I got I jumped right in and colored all the boards.

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    The wet brushing technique was pretty easy to get down. I typically use a decent amount of dry brushing in my models so I tried to just do a terrible job of dry brushing and it worked out well.


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    I managed to get all the colors and brands described in the kit. I'm trusting Brett on this color, it's a bit outside my comfort zone but it will definitely contrast against the white.

    I should make a bit more progress tomorrow, I have Mondays and Tuesdays off with my kids so I can usually get some building done when they are taking their afternoon naps.

    Thanks
    -Steve
  • Glad it helped Steve,
    yes the steel wool can be a bit messy, I try to use it over a sheet of newspaper to catch the fragments, but, it is a great tool for several different uses, of these this is one.

    Boards are looking very nicely aged, nice work on the damp brushing.
    Wise choice following Bretts colours, they will be perfect, don't forget, they're not finished yet...

    Looking forward to nap time.

    Karl.A
  • This should be quite a build. Nice start.
  • edited June 2016
    Welcome Steve! Really looking forward to seeing how you combine the two structures into one diorama, they will fit together quite nicely. Off to a great start I see. The splotchiness occurring can also be minimized by running your finger over the area and smearing the chalk a bit to blend it in. The variation in all the boards achieved with this staining method is wonderful and creates a very natural wall so don't blend too much. Those small knots will be just the right "intensity" once the wood is all glued up on the wall. Subtle but visible. Simply make deeper and wider indentations if you want a more obvious knots on the finished board next time.
  • What grade of steel wool do you prefer? Also, this made me think of the copper sponges one uses to clean soldering iron tips; useful here? There also appears to be actual copper wool and even bronze wool that pops up if you Google the former. Wonder what effect you'd get if you blackened some of this stuff before rubbing (might be a total mess, never tried it myself).
  • Mike, I've never tried a copper sponge or copper wool. I do use 0000 steel wool to remove the fuzziness created after texturing the boards and to remove any rough spots in the boards before texturing and staining.
    SteveF
  • I made a bit more progress this afternoon. I'm happy with the results I'm getting so far with the new techniques, the wet brushing really works out nice. I've used a bunch of other techniques for peeling paint but I think this is the easiest.
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    I framed out the door and window openings with the blue/green wood.

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    I added the wood trim, I also cleaned off the fuzz from the blue pieces. I didn't see it until I took this picture.

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    I added the siding to the left wall. I took this picture outside, my workshop lighting really changed the colors in the pictures. I have 3 stages of working light and each one really changed the color tone.

    -Steve
  • Great progress Steve and nice to "see you" here. You know I'm deep into this build so love seeing what you're doing with it. Wood looks terrific and the wall is very well done to my eye. You're going to love the ride here as this is a great kit and I will enjoy seeing the two come together as well. Maybe this talk will get Bill off dead center and moving along with finishing up his Quincy!
  • Thanks Ken, I've been following both your build and Bill's Quincy build. Fantastic work. I plan to reference both thoroughly as I build this. It's nice to have such great work to reference as I build these structures.

    -Steve
  • Nice of you to say Steve and your work speaks for itself. Really nice to see all the work going on here. Anxiously await your next post...Ken
  • edited June 2016
    Hi Steve! Your work is looking good to me so far! I've found that if I get splotches using the chalk I just apply more alcohol and "drag the pigments out" along the boards. You can always hit them again if you don't like the results. Also, remember that there are two more layers going over the chalks: your Ivory paint, and any final weathering you choose to do, so don't get too bothered early on in the process. Remember that all of the elements will combine to give the finished appearance. Ask me how I know! Looks like we're about at the same stage here. Keep up the good work. One more thing Ken told me. Stop and inspect periodically. take a break and have a look at your work later. That's great for perspective.
  • edited June 2016
    Thanks guys.

    I made a bit more progress over the weekend. I got all the main walls covered and I added the doors and windows. I looked at my finished walls and I felt like the white was too bright for the level of peeling and weathering. I dusted the walls with chalk but I still wasn't happy with the color, I ended up washing over all the walls with A&I and everything looked right to me. Let me know what you think.



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    The color on this wall matches the rest. The lighting made it strange.
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  • Steve, Nice work. If you notice, the nail holes are not prominent anymore, which is a good thing. I also notice that the green is more subdued which in my opinion is a good thing also. As you can see, Brett gives you plenty of opportunity to make "artistic" decisions as you build. So far, I like the decisions that you have made. My only question relates to the last picture. What's going on on the right side? Phil
  • edited June 2016
    I like it! As for myself, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I did get the nail holes done, and I got started on the windows & doors. They have been painted with the Khaki paint and I'll be doing the green next. That resin impregnated cardboard is actually pretty tough stuff. The double sided tape I used grabbed the parts pretty hard and I had to tug relatively hard to get them loose & turned over. I didn't damage a single one. It's nice to have others working at the same time. Drags you back to the bench!
  • Thanks guys.

    Phil, that area will be covered so it doesn't require any color.

    Alan, I had the same issues with the double sided tape. I thought I was going to break one for sure, I really had to rock them free. I didn't use the terry cloth technique for the windows and doors, instead I used a very stiff brush, removed most of the paint and used a blotting type motion to apply the paint. I agree with the simultaneous build threads, I read Ken's thread and get motivated to push forward.

    -Steve
  • Great progress Steve. The walls look great and I really like the weathering you did on the doors, windows and associated trim. Look forward to seeing the walls together.

    I made sure, as Brett recommends, to stick just a tiny portion of the corner of all the laser cut sheet parts to the double sided tape for painting so they are easy to remove. Great stuff here guys....
  • Thanks Ken. I tried to make everything extra dirty. I always tend to model on the grimy/dirty side. I've been reading over your thread trying to get an idea of what to expect, you keep setting the bar higher and higher each post.

    This really is a fantastic kit everything goes together so easily and the instructions couldn't be any clearer.

    I finished and glued the walls together for the addition today. Everything went pretty smoothly, I'm familiar with the board on board clapboard from The Shipyard. It really is the best way to get some interesting and weathered siding. All the pieces were colored the same way, I did add a wash of A&I over the finished walls the darken them up a bit and pull some of the details out.

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    Thanks for checking in. Tomorrow I hope to glue the addition on, add some signage and details.

    -Steve
  • I made some more progress this week. I installed the addition, the loading dock awning and glued all the main walls together.

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    Addition is glued in place.
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    The walls are together and I added the bumper and hanging tire castings to the wall.

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    I added the awning but I haven't finished detailing the roof yet.
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    I plan on detailing the awning roof and starting on the tower siding today.

    Thanks for checking in.
    -Steve
  • Looking real good Steve. I like the worn boards on the clapboard siding and the contrast with the vertical siding on the main building. The doors and windows are nicely weathered.
    SteveF
  • Looks awesome Steve. All your coloring and weathering blends together really nicely.

    Thanks for sharing...
    Alan
  • Wonderful job Steve. Very accurate and well executed. Great siding (paint peel turned out perfect), great corners, well put together. Shaping up to be a terrific build, well done...Ken
  • When I first met Brett he told me the first thing he looks at when he evaluates a model structure are the corners. Folks, Steve is going to get an "A".
  • Hi Steve,
    Awesome job. The board on board looks great. I really like the coloration on the boards below the loading docks. Each of the builds is very unique and personalized. Very cool.
    Ditto what everyone has said. Keep up the great work.

    Jim
  • Thanks for the nice comments everyone, I should have some progress pictures later today. I finished siding the tower and added all the doors and windows last night.
  • I made a bit more progress this week, walls for tower, windows and doors and signs are complete.

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    I really like the way the freight door looks, its made with stripwood glued inside a laser cut frame. I weathered my wood pretty severely but you could tone it down if you wanted too. I weathered the doors and windows with brown chalk but I wanted to get some more of the white back so I brushed them with white chalk.

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    I held the freight door up to the light so you can see how much the split board add to the door.

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    I cut the sign out using some very sharp scissors I got from Michaels. They are for stenciling I think.
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    I glued the sign to the boards.

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    I cut some lines in the sign in line with the boards and coated the sign in chalk.

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    Here's the sign glued to the from of the building, I also glued all the walls together.

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    Thanks for checking in.

    -Steve
  • Great looking Tower walls Steve. Sign is very well done. Love that next to the last pic...terrific look...Ken
  • edited July 2016
    Thanks Ken.

    I made a bit more progress this weekend.

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    I colored and weathered the concrete dock casting, the instructions call for a layering of different grays to give the dock is weathered appearance. I made a bit of a mistake weathering it, I added several layers of chalk and when weathering some rust stains using chalk/alcohol wash I completely overdid it. I then tried to use some clean alcohol to thin and tone it down, it created a gray/black/rust wash over the front of the casting. I ended up really liking the look, it brought out all the detail in the casting. I was going for a pretty heavily weathered concrete look so it worked out.

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    I also added some junk to the top of the dock roof.

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    I mocked up the tower to the siding and found the wall on the main structure was warped pretty bad leaving a large gap. You can't see it in the picture but it was about 1/32 of an inch, no good. The wall warped because I used a A&I wash over it after I added all the siding, I wanted a pretty heavily weathered wall. I stepped outside of the instructions on that one, not a flaw in the design of the kit.

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    I pulled the corner braces off and added some bracing to try to pull it back again. It worked fine.

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    The tower isn't glued on yet but everything is mocked up. I will further correct the minor gap near the peak when I glue everything together.

    Thanks for checking in.

    -Steve
  • Looking great Steve. I really love the way your tower turned out... Doors look fantastic!
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