A Tale of Two Buildings
It seems that no matter how many structures you build there
is always a need for something special, more buildings or just something you
want to try. This is the story of a time
when all of those needs popped up. I
have kitbashed a few buildings over the years but never built anything using
the modular kits that are available. Now
is the time to push forward. There were
basically two manufacturers that had modular kits available in N Scale,
Woodland Scenics and Walthers. I used
both for two different areas I was working in.
Planning
Not the best looking thing you can have but it serves it's
purpose and gives you an idea of size and fit of the structure. Once the paper
mockup is done, and any adjustments made, You will know how many of each piece
you are going to need to complete your building project. This paper mockup was for the Milling and
Woodwork building just outside the Jeff City Yard. For the backdrop structure I did not use a
mockup.
Milling and Woodwork
- Jeff City Yard Area - Walthers Modulars
As with all building projects it always helps to have a
sharp hobby knife, plenty of applicators for gluing, decent lighting and a good
pair of eyes and a lot of patience. Well
I have 3 of the five anyway. This
structures is actually two buildings connected by an overhead walkway. It may or may not get the connecting walkway
anymore but time will tell.
For this project I used the Walthers Cornerstomne
Modulars kits, I understand these are no
longer available in N Scale. You have to
go back to the planning phase and make sure you have the right quantities of
each of the pieces you will need since the kits come in various types. Kits we used are the;
1) Flat
& Peaked Roofs
2)Small
Walls, Windows and doors
3)Large
Walls and Windows
4)Foundation
and Loading Docks
5) Wall
Columns and Caps
6) Walls
with Vehicle Doors.
I laid out the pieces needed for each wall and then proceeded
to build each side of the main building with the various pieces in my jig. We
have always used MEK for the adhesive in working with plastic models and if you
do make sure it is in a well ventilated area.
Once all walls were assembled it was time to begin attaching
them together to complete the building.
As you can tell I have already made some changes from the paper
mockup. The truck loading dock is now
inset and provided shelter by the 2nd floor.
Assembly of the smaller annex building followed the same
procedures and I still haven't decided if I should join them together or not.
Finally the ultimate
test, how does it look on the layout?
Eventually it will
get painted, detailed and weathered when we finish the Yard area but for now we
will leave this structure.
Jeff City - Superior
Gear backdrop structure - Woodland
Scenic Modules
For the Backdrop structure used the modules available from Woodland Scenics. The modules used were;
1) Two-Story
Blank Walls
2) Two-Story
12 Windows
3)Cornice
4) Dock
Level Freight Doors
5)
Street/Dock level Blank Wall
6) Dock
Level Windows
I had the general idea in my mind what I wanted this
structure to look like so I skipped the mockup and started laying out the
pieces that were going to be used. This
is the area that I was working with, same general area where Stephen provided
the large modern concrete warehouse in the last blog. I also took the time to
start on the scenery in the same area (Next Blog).
I wanted something a
little different than just a flat ground base so I elevated the track a bit
using foam board. The lumber distributor
will sit directly in front of this backdrop building.
While it is a backdrop structure I didn't want something
sitting perfectly flat against the backdrop so the Office walls were angled a
bit and the 2nd floor of the warehouse extended outward from the backdrop.
When I paint a brick structure there are a couple of
techniques that I like to use. On this
structure the brick was painted with acrylic paint that had been thinned with
water. After that had dried I applied a
thin wash of Acrylic paint to simulate the mortar lines. For this wash I used a mixture of aged
concrete and white paint. Doors and
window frames were painted pullman green and the roofs painted grimy
black. A cheap way to give your roofs an
aged appearance is to take some plaster dust, I had just been sanding down a
road to make it smoother, on your fingers and wipe it onto the roof. Cheap easy way to dull down the roof. Mentioning the roofs, I did cheat a little
here. Woodland Scenics do not have a
module with roofs so I cut down some sections from the Walthers Cornerstone
Modulars for this.
Some graffiti was added from Blair Line, some decals from
MicroScale and I used some dry transfers from Woodland Scenics . The dry transfers were used to simulate some
old advertising signage on the building.
This was accomplished by applying the transfer and then taking a knife
and scraping across the sign removing pieces of it. It was then time to pull out the weathering
chalks and add some final weathering before spraying the whole thing down with
clear laquer (Cheaper than Dull Coat).
Finished backdrop structure in pace waiting for the rest of
the scenery to be complete
NEXT UP: Starting Scenery in the Jeff City Area
