Tucker's Farm gets a partial re-paint

I have an O-gauge size structure in my kitchen, right above the sink. It's an old Lemax building (I think from Michaels craft store) called Tucker's Farm, and it's an old-time red barn.

Does this structure look a bit familiar? A similar one ran in an article in the October 2002 issue (p. 52), in a story about a Halloween layout. This small layout was a CTT project layout back in the day, and it now resides in my basement because my husband took it home after the project was finished.

At the time, we had a cat named Tucker, and my grandparents owned a farm for many decades. My kitchen had a cow/farm theme, so we "needed" this structure! Jim bought me a duplicate and of course an O gauge-size Tucker metal cat (from Arttista) to sit on the front stoop of the barn.

After so many years of being exposed to dust and sprinkles of water, Tucker's Farm needed a re-paint.

An aging barn in need of a re-paint

I first rinsed off the entire structure. Sadly, a bunch of paint went with the it, especially on the silo tops. I let it dry completely.

I used squeeze-bottle acrylic paints for the entire project: red, a green I made by blending two shades of green, beige, and black. I also used a white paint pen for the doors. On the bottom front, I made a wash by diluting the black paint and let it flow into the crevices to form a darker "mortar" color. I also used a black Sharpie to touch up the lettering above the doors.

I had some difficulty painting the door outlines. The ceramic immediately sucked in all of the paint pen color. They aren't perfect, but they look better than before.

I did not paint the silo bodies or the silver roof of the barn. I will likely go back and re-paint the roof, but I don't know if they make a silver acrylic paint, so stay tuned for a possible update on this. 

New paint!

I decided to do this blog post AFTER doing the re-paint, so I only have two so-so photos. (Lesson learned.)

However, I'm happy with the results. Tucker's Farm is back in service in the kitchen again.

Our late great Tucker kitty. He loved watching me carve pumpkins at Halloween time.