Wicked Wanda's by Bar Mills - Chandler's Assay & Claims build #002

Well, I lost some of the photos of the wall construction.  When I figure out where they went I'll post them.

 The walls were assembled and the decking has begun.   This is incredibly difficult to do.  Study the photos carefully and take your time. Check, check and double check as thing get out of plumb quickly.

 I didn't paint the walkway with white paint, just a driftwood base and an ink wash.  Note you must but the corner boards on first before the stairs.  The corner boards are self sticking, but don't trust them.  Glue them in place.  Mine were moving around and finally I had to go back and hit them with ACC.

 See the pole in the middle with the white glue on the bottom?  I almost never got it straight and wound up covering the glue spot with a detail  Put this one in first!

 I got some of the parts mixed up after painting and spent a lot of time trying to figure out which was which.  Best to keep them in some kind of order when painting as many of them look alike but are slightly different in size.

If I had it to do over again, I would have completely finished the roof before I did the railings.  Putting on the roof and shingles I broke several boards.  The model is VERY delicate.

 Small clothes pins worked great for holding the railing in place without damaging it. I highly recommend you build the long staircase separately (cut the stair off the deck board) then mount it in place.  Your stairs will be much more straight than mine.

 The roof didn't fit perfectly so there was a large amount of sanding and adjusting.

 I should have put the rafters on FIRST before installing the roof.  It would have been easier.

 I love this model but wouldn't use the paper shingles next time.  They are very hard to keep straight and they don't cut very well.  Do this before you put the roof on and it should be easier.

 The shingles weren't sticking very well, and the small roof below fell off completely.  I made a 50/50 Elmer's glue and water solution and applied it to the roof a few sections at a time before shingling.  That worked perfectly.

 Do the large sections first, then cut of the balance of the strip for the short sections on the gable.

 Crease the tar paper sections before installing them, and use glue.

 Instead of using the smaller "tar paper" strips, I cut the bottom off the sheet and used the wider strip for the peak of the roof.  Worked very well.

I let the roof shingles dry thoroughly and repaired what damage I had done to the railing.

I wasn't real happy with the color choices so I finally went with a lighter brown.  Here are some test strips I made.

 The acrylic paint doesn't like to stick to the laser paper shingles, so I had to wash it a couple of times to get it dark, going for a cedar shingle that wasn't turning gray yet.

 The sign is a real Assay Office sign that I found on the net.  Was better than my artwork.

 Using Dr. Ben's Scale Consortium weathering powders I treated the roof with dark brown, light brown and hints of black to kill the shine and show wear.

 Details in the kit that I used were the crates, barrels, and wheel barrow.  Additional parts I used were Old Man Chandler, and some bags of ore for testing.  Mud and dirt were used on the walk ways.

 I used all four lights, painted them green and put them over each of the doors using a #76 drill bit and some ACC.

 I'm not happy with the chimney and it may have to be replaced.  The casting wasn't made for the pitch of the roof, and I didn't have the right brick red color.  Even after priming it wouldn't hold paint.  I covered it with a solution of acrylic black and water to tone it down.  The casting finally had to be put on with 90 second two-part epoxy.

 More tar and weathering were put around the chimney.

 This was a fun model to build and it has a lot of character.  Have fun building yours!