Photo Essay: From Butt-Ugly eBay Throw-in Structure to Layout (Not too Dial-up Friendly)

[Anonymous]

And weathering covers up a shakey paint job! LOL

[dehusman]

Old saying: A good coat of paint will cover a multitude of sins. 8-)

Dave H.

[howmus]

Nice Chip, Nice! You've inspired me to redo some old plastic structures I have had laying around for the last 25 years and have been too lazy to throw out.......

BTW, this was a huge download. You know it took almost 10 seconds to get it on my desktop. I'm not used to having to wait! [;)]

[ereimer]

looks great chip . you ought to send the 'after' photo to the guy who sold the kit [:D]

[Anonymous]

Title was correct, but with a little patience and a click on the refresh button, everything came out even the signature picture. Much improvement from sows ear to silk purse. Thanks for the time and effort to share your efforts. Amazing the sins that can be corrected with a little styreen, lumber and subtle painting. Chalk up another thing DONE!!
Will

[Anonymous]

Nice work, Chip.

[cheese3]

Nice Work!!! It looks Great!!!

[Eriediamond]

Twine is for your fingers so you won't forget any of the orders coming in. [(-D][(-D] Good work here Chip.

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by HighIron2003ar

And put a sign on "Rims fixed" Or even flats fixed and seats stuffed. =)

Took me about maybe 20 seconds to get all the photos into view, no problem!

Ye are going to need boxcars of twine, springs, rims, seats, lumber and fittings etc etc etc....

Dang, every time I turn around I'm having to rersearch something else. I guess if I am going to make a mini diarama of a carriage factory, I'm going to have to know how it works. I can figure the springs, lumber , etc. But what is the twine for?

[Anonymous]

And put a sign on "Rims fixed" Or even flats fixed and seats stuffed. =)

Took me about maybe 20 seconds to get all the photos into view, no problem!

Ye are going to need boxcars of twine, springs, rims, seats, lumber and fittings etc etc etc....

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector

Very nice, Chip. Good step-by-step, too.

Any spillage to be added near/under the hopper? That end of the building, especially at and below hopper level, could have dust or staining spread from hopper inlet and outflow. Just a thought.

I'll get to that when I put it in it's final place. It is going to be a carriage factory. I have a few carriage kits already. There will be a sign by the hopper. Sawdust two bits. Your Wagon.

[trainboyH16-44]

I love it! Took about 10 mins to load, though.
I can't see the last 3 pics or your sig pic for some reason...
you've done a great job, and you had great creative solutions to everything! Great job!
Matthew

[selector]

Very nice, Chip. Good step-by-step, too.

Any spillage to be added near/under the hopper? That end of the building, especially at and below hopper level, could have dust or staining spread from hopper inlet and outflow. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

And I remember that little switcher that showed up from ebay some time ago.

What fine work!

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TrainFreak409

That turned out very nice Chip, great work.[tup] What's your next project?

Tomorrow I am building a passenger platform for the club.

Then I'm going back to work on the craftsman mine I've had going for a few weeks.

I'm not sure after that. I've got a few things in mind.

[oleirish]

Chip
I see you have done it again,what an improvement,the weathering is right on!!
JIM

[Javern]

cool ! yer sorta the Bob Villa of the model train structure world

[TrainFreak409]

That turned out very nice Chip, great work.[tup] What's your next project?

[MisterBeasley]

Nice sequence. Makes me glad for broadband.

To answer your question, I think things like this end up on E-bay precisely because people can't use glue or paint. If they could get results like yours, they wouldn't sell it.

[joeyegarner]

Good work !! You've made quite a transformation. Joey

[SpaceMouse]

This Butt Ugly structure I got on Ebay thrown in with a bunch of other stuff in a "Lot". My layout is short on industry so I'm going to try to make this building look good. I don't know why people who sell stuff on eBay don't know how to use glue and they don't paint anything except to drip, but they all seem to be like this. So on to saving it.



The first thing we have to do fix those doors. I never did figure why people who make these things think that it's cool be able to open doors like these. What do they think where going to do, unload cars and wheel in freight?



So the first thing I'm going to to is make them so they don't move. I cut up couple pieces of styrene and glued them to the back of the frame.



Then I glued the doors to the styrene. Still pretty sorry looking.



So I took some scale 2x12's from my Muir Kit Silver Mine and Trimmed it out.



A little bit of paint and.......Voila!



A while back I learned a technique for making figures more realistic looking. The guy painted the figures black to accent the creases. This building has a lot of relief that I want to take advantage of. Also, since my layout will be set in a small town in 1917 (or 1890 until then), I want a rustic look. The colors I will be using will be close to the originals, just a little closer to railroad colors. Like boxcar red-brown and SP yellow. So the next step is the base coat of the original colors. I'm not too worried about the color completely covering at this point , as the black showing through will add to the aging later.



After 2 coats, I've decided the color is not quite right on the stucco. We'll fix that on the next coat.



Okay, this phase represents what the building would have looked like when it was new. more or less. Notice how the black gives the wood and roof tiles texture. Now comes the point I hate. It's when I have to decide, even though it looks really good, to weather it.



Now to weathering. I'm not going to make this building terribly old, but even after a year or two a building gets dirty. If you've ever owned a black car, you'll know that dirt is gray. So what I like to do is thin out acrylic grey paint with water about 10:1 so that there's just a hint of grey. Below you can see the difference this grey wash can make in the roof.




Likewise you can see the difference it makes in the stucco. I like to run dirty streaks down from the corners of the windows.



You can also see the effect of wash in the wood.



Here I highlight the hinges with flat black.



I repainted the hopper with flat black but it was still quite shiny. It got the gray wash as well (not in this picture.) Notice too that I painted the ground a solid color. This is the base color of the layout right now so it will blend in when goes back in place. Notice that the post in the front left of the hopper support is broken. It would not hold no matter how long I held it in place.



Add a few plants. A little grey and rust rust on the hopper...



Remember the broken support. It is now covered in ivy.



The other side.