Peterpools

Phil Looking mighty good and deciding on the markings - decals is always a tough call for sure. The Tiger scheme surely looks mighty tempting.

Scott Looking mighty good as you're taming the Cutlass for sure. Any chance of finding a way to add a bit more weight to the nose are to help prevent her from falling back to being a tail sitter? 🤞

Rob Coming together just beautifully and the gloss finish is superb. MFH attention to detail is amazing.

Jani Right with Gus and Martin - looking mighty good.

Paul Prety cool, I never saw live steam actually run and it seems to run well. Is there a way of changing speeds so it can run on a layout?

Phil Welcome onboard; Outstanding! Would love to see some photographs of your work as we're expanding the scope of our modeling interests now on the forum. The Yard Office is a multi media kit, four hydrocal walls and basswood, everything is cut to size by the builder and carefully glued in place with either Elmers Glue-All or Titebond Yellow Glue. Of course, brush painting is the name of the game and hopefully after all these years, my weathering will be realistic. All the casting I'm working on are white metal ort even 3D printed these days - amazing for sure.

Paul Much appreciated and your model RR live steam sounds awesome. Would love to see some photos of your equipment.

Thanks Rob, so very much appreciated. Yup, the mojo is back and in full swing - thank goodness for that. So glad you're onboard for the rail journey and enjoying the build. Back in the day, I predominately built HO and O scale craftsmen structure kits from basswood and hydrocal, as both have always been my favorite mediums to work in. Hydrocal brick and masonry walls are more work as they need a lot of clean up and getting them to have the proper look takes time and an artistic eye, which you surely have. Looking forward to you tackling and working your magic on a few plaster structures down the road.

Rob OMG, first time I've seen this video and the finish is far from good ... you're so right in it's no way to promote the product. I can't believe this is the best results straight out of the bottle and I'm going to be having breakfast with my brother this morning and ask him about this, as it's 180 degrees opposite of the results I get from my Tamiya go to clears. I'm positive the results shown are the way it was applied, which is so different them mine plus the paint base was no polished at all. Going to buy a bottle of the AK 1K and test for myself. Thanks for doing some additional research that I should have done myself before the first post.

Paul Nice progress for sure but those tracks, they would drive be nuts, no closer to insanity! Looking mighty good.

Thanks Chris, your comments are so greatly appreciated. I do enjoy building these types of kits as they allow for a different type of creativity, with for me the emphasis being on how I feel the structure would have appeared after time in its natural environment. Different as compared to our reasoning of how we add weathering to a model. Just my thoughts but for me, a huge mojo builder and the fun is back.

Peter Magnificent work as always - the pinnacle of our hobby's craftmanship and skill. 🏆🏆🏆

Rob Clear gloss work is an art by itself and for the few car models I've built, I went to town on them. Always starting with a super smooth paint finish and with the last step before the gloss work being a Tamiya anti-static brush for a final wipe down. My preferred gloss clears these days are Tamiya X22 and Tamiya LP-9. Numerous, thin wet coats do the trick for me but model car guys as my brother, seem to prefer 2K and 1K clears which are way too dangerous for me to consider using. My brother sent me an email the other day, saying AK as a new 1K clear available now and he has watched videos and reviews that it is an awesome product, producing a deep, clear gloss finish. I haven't tried it as I am very conservative in how I paint and what I use as being a cancer survivor. The traditional 2K clears are a urethane based and AK 1K is an acrylic based product (not positive). In either case, precautions need to be taken. If I was painting a museum quality MFH, that most likely would be the route I think I would go and of course, wearing an approved respirator and shooting in a spray booth as well. I always use both when air brushing to be on the safe side and then leave plenty of time to air out my hobby room as well. Just my two cents.

Scott Nice fix and the Cutlass is looking mighty good, now that she is up on her legs.

Paul. A figure builder at heart .. hope you will build a few for the forum.

Rob Your mate surely had it made - fantastic collection and the firehouse to boot. Of course, while I loved Vettes, I never actually owned one, instead going the sport car route in my college days, owning an MGB and then a Triumph TR250. My wife's car when we were married was a Triumph GT6 and we were a two sport car verry young family. My favorite was the Triumph TR250 but I sold that so I could afford my airplane, a Piper PA22 Colt. Memories for sure.

Scott, I wish I could. For me, it found memories of the best times for sure.

Hi Hubert, very much appreciated. The Yard Office is destined for its home on my brother layout which is set in the late 1980 - 1990, (CSX) and his layout is all diesel. The structure's weathering will continue as I proceed with the build, as I tend to weather structures in stages, and this is only the first stage. I try not to go too overboard, and don't want to overdo it as a lot of model railroaders tend to in my humble opinion. While railyards, no matter what the time period, are sooty and dirty places, railroads tried to maintain their equipment and facilities as best as they could within limits. Of course, since the structure is going on my brother's railroad, I always leave it up to him as how much weathering to do.

Rob The Mudguards are brilliant - what a finish and the decal stripes are perfect. On the tank, I couldn't see the imperfection with the paintwork but after seeing the tank in a NMF with the decals - it's the only way to fly! 🏆

I've used an optivisor for year but moved onto a magnifying lamp when I started wearing Varilux Progressive lenses, as my I would need trifocals and they just never worked for me. Without my glasses, I can't read a book or see close up - distance is none issue.

Rob Looking at your choice from an engineering and artistic view, yest I can fully appreciate your 'feelings and desires' and why it is your 'dream' car. For us Baby Boomers here in the states, it was all about horsepower, cubic inches and speed. Days gone by for sure but still, some wonderful memories. Yesterday I was at one of our local shopping centers and parked right to me was a magnificent 1966 Corvette Coupe; my heart was pounding. The owner just happened to just come back from shopping and we spent a good half hour talking and reliving days gone by. BTW, he bought the Vette new in 1966.

Thanks, Dennis, so very much appreciated. So far rediscovering structure kits is proving to be the mojo builder I needed and will be a nice alternative build to aircraft modeling, keeping things fresh and wanting to be at the bench as much as possible.

BRICK WALLS AND THE GRANITE FOUNDATION UNDERWAY It’s been an incredibly long time since I tackled a set of hydrocal walls (basically a soft plaster) and to reach this point in the build, a boatload of time, including oodles of hand brush painting. The four walls are built up and basically finished on the flat, with the windows, doors and signage added as well as the first stages of weathering. Additional signage has been ordered (I need to buy a small office color printer as my photographic printer just isn’t suited for this) as well as additional detail castings from various vendors, to help add more ‘life’ to the structure – just not enough supplied with the kit. First up was to sand and true up the inside faces of all four walls, as well as the two sidewall casting ends. There were a good number of air bubbles in the castings (large and small), which I filled with thinned-out DAP Spackle and when dry, re-scribed the brick and motor lines. The bricks on the walls are supposed to be aged and somewhat in a random pattern, well worn and stained from all the engine exhausts and oil fumes in the yard and I wanted to keep that look. Then I primed the walls with Mr. Surfacer 1200 heavily diluted and when dry, went to town dabbing on the three initial acrylic colors for the base layer, replicating the random weathered and worn look of old brick. Acrylic craft paints were used: Napa Red, Toasted Terre Cotta and Dark Brown. Then I followed up, brush painting what seemed like hundreds of individual bricks with Tamiya: Red Brown and craft paints: Napa Red, Terra Cotta. and Bark Brown. The all the basic wood work and concrete were initially painted Tamiya FX55 Deck Tan, as the base color for additional weathering. Twill was the old go to color but isn’t available any more. The Granite Foundation was painted with Tamiya light gray and followed up with a wash of Model Air Nato Black. The mortar was a wash of Tamiya Nato Black. At this point all the mortar was added with heavily diluted Tamiya XF 55. Dry brushing is still to come. The windows are a killer for sure: two laser cut mullions per window, needing to be primed, painted and weathered and then clear acetate needed to be cut for each sash and glued in place. Of course, being hydrocal the window openings weren’t very square and gluing the windows assemblies into place was easily a high cuss factor. At this point, the four basic walls are ready to be joined and added to the wooden portion of the Yard Office. From here comes a lot more weathering, waiting for the additional castings to arrive, the roof and load platform are ready to be built up and added. I’ve been finding myself sleeping little and at the bench way more then normal, including into the wee hours of the morning and the lack of sleep is creeping in. Oh, has the mojo returned.

Awesome 1/200 detail set. Looking forward to your build.

Scott So glad Hubert helped point out the nose gear problem and you were able to take action. Nice going for sure.