The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[Carolina Northern]

Dave,

It's all the little touches that add up to make your layout so special.

Don

[davefoxx]

Now that I feel more comfortable with the skills necessary to pull off a brick structure, I’m going to move to a second brick warehouse.  That first building is a background model; this one will be upfront and center.  This poor kit has at least three layers of paint on it already from aborted attempts at recreating brick.  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  Step One is to blow the dust off.



DFF

[EJN]

I have the same Walthers kit, but I realized it wouldn't quite fit where I intended to put it, so I cut down the structure to a smaller size.
Not painted at this point.

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[davefoxx]

I have the same Walthers kit, but I realized it wouldn't quite fit where I intended to put it, so I cut down the structure to a smaller size.
Not painted at this point.

@EJN,

Ooh, I like that.  Makes it unique and all your own.  Well done.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Continuing on with the second brick warehouse project, I sponged on three different colors of craft paint: Brick Red, Terracotta, and Burnt Orange.



Then, using a toothpick as an applicator, I spent three or four hours painting individual bricks with the same three craft paints.  You have to overdo this, because the application of lightweight spackling as mortar will tone this down significantly.  The more variety there is, the more realistic it will look when complete.



Here’s the current status of the project.  I used a microbrush and gray craft paint for the windowsills, and I spray painted the foundation with just about the last of my Testors Light Aircraft Gray.  I also shot a coat of dark gray primer on the roof.  The next steps will be a coat of Dullcote over everything once these paints have cured for a couple of days and then the mortarwork.



DFF

[ronw1970]

Looks fantastic

[davefoxx]

Yesterday, I sprayed a light gray primer over the roof, patching one area to keep the black portion as a roof repair.



That left a very stark roof, so I weathered it with powders and Dullcote.



Today, I got one wall mortared with lightweight spackling and weathered with powders. Although I’d like to tone down the weathering, I’m scared to Dullcote the walls, because of an anticipated chemical reaction between the spackling and the Dullcote.



DFF

[wazzou]

I’m scared to Dullcote the walls, because of an anticipated chemical reaction between the spackling and the Dullcote.

DFF

That’s never been my experience Dave.

[amato1969]

@davefoxx I am digging your weathering of the concrete foundation.  It's tough to capture that grey/tan look, nicely done!

  Frank

[John]

Can I send you my structures to weather   

[DirtyD79]

That brickwork looks amazing. I like the different shades of colors and how some of the individual bricks stand out.

[davefoxx]

That brickwork on the end wall was bothering me, because it was overweathered.  I was trying to hide some sins.  So, I took a damp paper towel and wiped that wall section down.  I learned something doing that, which I’ll get to in a minute.  Anyhoo, here’s what the wall looks like now.  Much better, and you can see the individually hand-painted bricks again, which I had spent hours meticulously doing.  So, that’s a good thing.



A close-up, showing the brick detail.



I may add a touch of weathering back on that end wall, since I scrubbed most of that off.  In the meantime, about that lesson that I learned.  As many know, I am a lazy and impatient model railroader.  However, seeing how that “cured” lightweight spackling stood up to some serious scrubbing, I applied the spackling to the front wall and walked away.  A day or two later, I used a damp paper towel again to work that spackling into a less splotchy result.  This worked well.  Here is that wall with NO weathering yet.  I like it.  Once dry, the spackling doesn’t so easily wipe away, giving more control into shaping the mortar joints.



Oh, and for my late-1980s CSXT era, I bought a ScaleTrains GP30 RDMT.  A slug!  Yes, there is no prime mover sound effect- just traction motors (along with the other miscellaneous locomotive sounds).  It’s now speed-matched, remapped, and consisted to its GP40-2 mother.



DFF

[mu26aeh]

Nice work Dave !  But ya gotta change the road number on that mother to 6427 Otherwise that slug is adopted

[Chris333]

There used to be 2 of those GP30 slugs stationed at the end of my road:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3594473

[davefoxx]

Nice work Dave !  But ya gotta change the road number on that mother to 6427 Otherwise that slug is adopted

Yeah, I know.  I don’t own any CSXT GP40-2s in the correct number series that became mother units, not to mention No. 6427*.  I’ll put it on the to-do list, and I’ll get around to it in, oh, say . . . about thirty years. 

*It actually amazes me how long Nos. 6427 and 2225 were mated.  According to rrpicturearchives.net, from the late-1980s until at least 2017.  Wow.

DFF