101 The Navajo Mining Railway - Depot Shakes Part III

Still working on the roof tonight...let's finish one side.

We continue with the same pattern.  I'm careful to stop once in a while and look at the roof from a distance to see if I'm in alignment.  More glue!

Shake, shake, shake...Senora....shake your roofy line...

I'm listening to a tv show on Mars.  Very interesting.  I like documentaries when I'm working on things that require a lot of attention, but can be boring.

Done!  Oh, I like that!  Great color and texture.  It really jumps out at you.

Here we take a test to see how it looks with the depot side.  Awesome.  I love it.  The work is so worth the effort.

Houston, we have a problem.  I'm thinking I might be a few shakes short of a shiver.  This is a real predicament as if I don't have enough and have to make more at the end, they may not look the same and the roof will look funny.  If I don't take the time to make some more, I could be hurting.  If I had a very accurate gram scale I probably could use it to figure out if I have enough.  Not worth trying to count.  I'll ponder it for a day...stay tuned!

Thanks to all for the great feedback on video cameras!  I appreciate it!

100 The Navajo Mining Railway - Depot Shakes Ctd...

I'm going to spend about 45 minutes putting shakes on the roof.

This is a slow, painstaking process, but an excellent way to learn patience and attention to detail.  I put on some easy listening music (Pink Floyd) and proceeded to shake!  I put the glue on a bit heavier than normal to give some hold to the shakes.

Slowly but surely, three rows are completed.  I'm careful to keep them straight and to try to overlap them as much as possible.

The silver grey color comes out well, along with some natural browns already in the wood.  Four lines done!

Here we wrap up the night with five lines done.  Yes, it takes time, but the effect is striking when its complete.  You can't get a roof like this, even with laser shingles.

099 The Navajo Mining Railway - Depot Windows and Shakes

Ok, let's mess up the entire shop tonight!  Both workbenches!

 Pardon the lousy pictures.  I'm tired and just wanted to build for a change.

 

First I test fit all the windows and doors into the painted walls.  Using and emery board I sanded some of the openings for a less snug fit.

The windows should be straight and level, and snug right up to the wall.  Oops...that one doesn't.  Sand, sand, sand!

I test fit the doors into the door frames...all good!

Using Depot Buff paint I paint the door panels on the outside of the door.  No need to paint the ones inside as I never step foot into the building.

To give the structure a lived in feeling, I open both doors and glue them in with gap filling CA adhesive, using a toothpick to prop them open, and some Zip Kicker to lock them in place.

I turn the two long walls over and will let them dry.  So much for the mess on Desk 2!

Over on Desk 1 we have a bad case of the shingles.  Shakes, actually.  First, I draw one foot apart alignment lines on the roof sections.  This is where the top of the shake will go.

Eight hours later (just kidding) I've go a line of shakes glued one at a time with Elmer's white glue forming a nice line.  You HAVE to get these perfectly straight or you will see the error a mile away.

The shakes overlap the sides just a tiny bit.

Here is a little better picture.  Ok, only 80 more hours to go, and about 10 repeat episodes of Gilligan's Island.  RIP, Professor.

Tune in next time for the Shakes!

098 The Navajo Mining Railway - Painting the Depot

The depot is not that old, but has been baking in the southern Utah desert for some time.  Paint doesn't hold up well in the bright sun and intense heat.  That is the effect we are after.

I fire up the airbrush booth.  We're going to shoot two colors today; depot buff and roof brown.  The window castings are the roof brown parts.

My little compressor is purring like a kitten.  I purchased it from Harbor Freight about 10 years ago, and its worked flawlessly.

We'll be using the new Model H today, Paasche's long time heavy duty airbrush.  When you buy your first one, this should be what you get.

I moved my airbrush holder down to the table and installed the airbrush with a color cup.

Using acrylic roof brown I gave the castings a good coating.  Actually I gave them about 10 light coatings all sprayed from different angles.  I'll put these aside to dry.

After a quick brush cleanout with water, I put on the color jar since I'm going to use a lot more paint for the depot sides.  I'm using Floquil Depot Buff, a solvent paint.  Yes, there is a fireplace with a pilot light right behind me, but we won't spray enough solvent to blow up the house.

Gently and slowly I paint the depot sides.  I don't want them heavily covered except at the top where the roof line will protect the wood siding from the sun.  The roof is only painted where the underneath will be exposed.

While that dries my friend Mark and his son Eric come over.  We discuss the finer points of fuselage assembly on a Corsair by Revell.  Its great fun to share the hobby with friends, especially the young ones!  I'll spend all the time with him he needs.

I retape and flip all the casting over, and shoot them again several times.

We'll set these aside to dry for 24 hours.

What a mess!  That is the only thing I don't like about airbrushing.  Generally I save up a bunch of projects and do them all at once.

I gun the sides again and wrap up for the day.

The airbrush gets a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner, as do all the associated parts.  Next time...we assemble the walls!

097 The Navajo Mining Railway - Finish Shakes and Get Ready To Paint the Depot

Let's finish up the shakes now that I'm back from a week long trip.  I'm so far behind!

Chop, chop, chop.  Almost done!  Just a few more boards to go.

There!  That is what about 640 O-scale shakes look like.  But we don't need them bright white!

I grab the old stand by black boot dye and alcohol mix, put everything in a tray and start dying.

I drop all the shakes in a shallow pan and add the dye, and stir until done.

Using an old pair of tweezers I hoist them out and put them on a paper towel to dry.

Even when using just one color dye, the shakes all take own their own color due to the density of the wood used in the stir sticks.

Once the liquid is off the shingles and absorbed in the paper towel, I put them in a paper plate to finish drying.  I'll stir them several times.

Next, we need to fit the wall sections to make sure they will go together well.

The bottom of this one has a bit of a problem.  I cut the support just a little too long.

Here you can see the extra length.  I cut it off with a fresh razor blade and sanded it smooth wit a fine sanding block.  Each wall section was checked and sanded to fit.

There will be a corner board that goes in this slot.  I checked it carefully to make sure I have a good fit.

Each corner is checked and marked with a corresponding letter so that I know which way to assemble the walls.

There!  Sanded, smooth and perfectly fit.

Now to prep the walls for painting.  We're almost done!  I will use rubber cement to spot cover areas of the wall where I want pealing paint.

Normally I use a dollar store throw away brush for this step.

Using the brush I dab on small amounts of rubber cement here and there.  Once it dries I'll paint over it, then remove it with a rubber eraser.  This will give the effect of peeling paint, and will show the weathered wood.

Let's prepare the windows and doors.  Using a sheet of cardboard that I use for painting, I'll affix the detail parts to it for airbrushing.

I use Scotch brand double sided tape, or masking tape put into a loop and pressed on to the cardboard.

I stuck all the windows and doors (being careful to count and make sure I had all of them) on to the tape with their back side out for painting.   After the first coat, I'll turn them over and paint the front side.

There!  I have paints, and paintable parts.  Next stop...the airbrush booth!