Peterpools

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.

Rob I can only imagine that feeling - must be grand. Just an amazing story and adventure as to the work and creative portion of your life. Mine is as dull as it gets compared to yours. Funny but I would never think your all-time favorite car would be the Citroen DS - doesn't look 'cool' to my generation. We grew up with 'Vettes. Cobras, Sportcars and the GTO. (1964). My all-time favorite is the 1967 427 'Vette' roadster. So, with the Cobra in your stash, I'll be waiting and waiting for it to hit your bench.

Carl Looking mighty good in the spray booth - you're now in the fun painting / finishing stages - my favorite part of any build.

Rob And here I sit wining about pending a few hundred dollars for detail sets ... my apologies. What an awesome choice for your just ending MFH buying spree; the Ferrari 250 TRI/61. I am in absolute envy and can't wait for you to start and bringing us along on each of your journeys. Of course, I'll be hoping the Cobra is your next adventure. Quite a story on your career evolution and how you found the path to follow. 🏆

Paul, now that's a plan for sure.

Thanks, Mike for the information and ideas. You're also correct in the addons have gotten to be very expensive and out of hand; The kit: $35 Eduard PE; $45 with shipping Infinity Set with shipping" $133 Paints $? I never dreamed such an inexpensive kit would turn into a bottomless hole for all the details needed. At this point, I just have no desire to keep spending money on the kit and will build it OOB, best as I can.

Carl catching up and some amazing progress. Front office looks mighty good and with all the alignment and fit issues correcting at this stage of the build, I tip my cap more then a few times, as all is looking incredibly good. Just seems the project has stored up a lot of these little hidden gems and which are keeping you from the paint booth. Terrific work

Nice work on the Airscale seat belts - they look great. Glad time and the mojo is back I've been suffering the same with my mojo and looks as if it's finally returning.

Mark So glad Reskit is sending you the replacement rudder. Nice work on the Aires gear bay - looks tremendous and the detail is amazing.

Rob Surely some nice progress and some very delicate and precise work at the. Fingers crossed but my money is riding on you.🤞

Paul Nice group of supplies and more DSPIAE fine tools. They should surely give you a huge discount as you have become their number one fan and after we have seen some much of their tools through your update, You're a great ambassador for sure.

Full Armor ... great question - I'm going to be doing some research on it today myself. At 76, I tend to be a lot less steady these days and any that will help would be a mega improvement when working with such tiny parts and even brush painting as well.

Thanks Chris As we use to say in the old day - what a bummer! Just bit off way more then I could chew but I'll finish the Fletcher after my donor kit arrives in a bit - just going to do the build within my abilities at this stage of the game, going mostly OOB.

Thanks Kev I right with you and Mike and will be finishing the Fletcher over the next month or so, just a lot less PE and mostly OOB. Ordering a donor kit and then I get her back on the bench. My goal is to finish with adding all the handrails and anything else is a huge plus for me.

Mike Glad you bought the ANZY tweezers, they are awesome. I've only used them a few times and found them to work much better then I originally though as they are so pointy and sharp. My workhorse tweezers are all Tamiya and coupled with the ANZY tweezers, have everything covered. I'm going to check out the Dumont tweezers and see what I can use.

Thanks John It's up and running and in what us seniors surely would call; Hight Gear.

Thanks Chris I've was a model railroad for decades and actually built a few model railroads back in the day. The hobby encompasses so many disciplines and you learn so many skills from woodworking, electronics, wiring, building the actual railroad, motive power, rolling stock scenery, to of course mt favorite part: structure building. When my interests changed and I moved onto scale modeling, most of the skills I had learned over the years seemed to transfer well. Now, I'm back to doing what I enjoyed most in model railroading: structures and diorama, which mesh so well with my modeling. Best of all, my mojo is back and I'm enjoying bench time again. Hydrocal is a plaster that is used in model railroad for scenery and craftsman structure kits. Resin is replacing the hydrocal in a good portion of those type of kits today for numerous reasons is used for brick and masonry walls. Downside of hydrocal: messy and very fragile. I'm doing cartwheels that the guys are interested in my structure builds and I'll go a bit more into techniques as I proceed with the Yard Offcie. . BTW, I have my eye open and I'm waiting for the new Arma 1/48 P-39 - going to be my next aircraft build for sure.