The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[davefoxx]

More paint!



DFF

[Chris333]

That must be a Walther's kit (that is made for them by another MFG I can't remember right now) I have a couple. Molded in color and some parts are more than one color. A pain to paint.

[davefoxx]

“A window every night!”

[davefoxx]

A facade every night, too.  This one section got white paint tonight.  The adjacent buildings will get a buff color, and the stores out of picture to the right will get yet another off-white variety.  I used Google maps for inspiration.



DFF

[davefoxx]

This morning, I applied some mortar to the red brick building, using lightweight spackling.  Let’s see ‘em use ground goop for that.    I then weathered the structure with powder chalks, sprayed a clear flat coat, and installed the doors and windows.  I still need to install the steps at the front and back door.  I didn’t like the way the kit applied a door on the outside to cover that bricked opening.  So, I cut and fit the door to fit the opening from the inside.  Not perfect, but better.  Hunter green added some variety.





DFF

[davefoxx]

The lack of steps bothered me, so I went back to the kit and pulled the steps out for the front and back doors.  I removed a spot of paint from the sidewalks and glued the steps in place.  Now, this little block of buildings keys into place.  I did this on the SAL station that I built, and the structures won’t move around, which is nice.  I also don’t have to glue the buildings down, so I can still move them, if necessary, to protect them during other layout construction.  I took the opportunity, since the steps needed painting, to cut in more sidewalk lines.







DFF

[DKS]

This morning, I applied some mortar to the red brick building, using lightweight spackling.  Let’s see ‘em use ground goop for that. 

Wouldn't think of trying. But I do really like using gouache. You can apply it in layers until it's the way you want, and wash it all off with water if you want to start over.

[davefoxx]

I’m not familiar with gouache paint, DKS.  I’ll have to look that up.  That finish looks really good.

DFF

[DKS]

I%u2019m not familiar with gouache paint, DKS.  I%u2019ll have to look that up.  That finish looks really good.

DFF

Thanks. It's actually a very fancy form of poster paint: it's water soluble when dry, and has a super-flat finish. I use white, plus a drop of yellow ochre to warm it up a little, mixed roughly 1:1 with water. Brush on, let dry. Repeat until the color is right. Then very gently wipe it with a barely damp paper towel to remove the haze.

[davefoxx]

Thanks. It's actually a very fancy form of poster paint: it's water soluble when dry, and has a super-flat finish. I use white, plus a drop of yellow ochre to warm it up a little, mixed roughly 1:1 with water. Brush on, let dry. Repeat until the color is right. Then very gently wipe it with a barely damp paper towel to remove the haze.

Ooh, thanks for the secret formula.  Me guessing at colors is a no-no.  I might give that a shot on the large furniture warehouse.  It would take me forever to apply that “mortar” with lightweight spackling.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Instead of hand-painting the windows, which likely would become a disaster, I tried masking the windows to this Walthers building.  Like DPM buildings, these are one-piece walls, which require intricate painting.  I let the tape overlap the window,  so I could cut it at the corners and fold it in to mask the brick/sides of the opening.  This experiment mostly worked.  I got a little bleed at the bottom right of the lower window, but it could be much worse, not to mention more time-consuming, if I tried to hand-paint that.





DFF

[muktown128]

Dave,

I just repainted my bathroom a couple of weeks ago and had some paint bleed under the blue masking tape.  A little paint bleed is prototypical.

On a completely different note, I had to inspect some SD70ACe locomotives in Australia 5 years ago for my job and one of the units with peeling paint still had the blue masking tape on the unit where the masked the area to apply another color. 

The trip was probably the best work trip I ever had - the company paid me to go to Australia to take pictures of trains for almost 2 weeks!  I will say that after taking pictures of over 100 locomotives over a period of 8-9 twelve hours days, I had my fill of trains.  As an added bonus, the guy from the customer I was working with was an N-scale modeler and the other guy from the customer who was their on site rep was also an N-scale modeler.  We had a nice afternoon one day sitting in the locomotive repair shop talking about model trains.

Scott

[LIRR]

I had quite a few DPM kits on my previous N scale layout…painting can be tedious. I painted the last few by spraying the window color, then brush painting the bricks and masonry lintels.

[Ian MacMillan]

I've been using the yellow delicate Frog Tape. Works really well and almost 0 blead.

[davefoxx]

I spent between thirty and forty-five minutes masking this evening just to paint four windows (the second floor of the rear facade of the tan building).  Confirming what everyone knows, these types of model kits are no fun to paint.  But, “a window every night!”



DFF