Family Folk Art Restoration

I come from a line of crafty women.  Both grandmothers were creative, artistic people.  From my Dad's mother came rolled-paper beads and crocheted dish cloths.  From my Mom's mother came painting and well, an unusual folk-art sense.  It is that creativity that gave birth to a set of figurines depicting the Nativity.  

Granny worked for the Celanese corporation as a quality control technician testing samples of 'dope', the airplane-cement like material that was spun into fibers for cigarette filters.  Once the testing was complete, the mostly-full tube of dope was thrown away.  Granny saw an opportunity and used the residual dope as a media to cover aluminum foil armatures to make Mary, Joseph, shepherds and Magi.  

But Jesus...Jesus wasn't made from dope.  I'm not sure why, but she chose to make him from some sort of clay.  The manger was foil, dope and coffee stir sticks.  But the baby was made from clay.  I'm sure there's some deeper theological meaning which can be applied in this situation, but not at this time.  For the moment I was concerned with the practical application of glue to that substance, whatever it is.  The baby was beginning to break into pieces.  That just won't do.

The other night I carefully cleaned the old straw from the baby and gently washed him with dish soap and water.  He had become sticky somehow, and was gathering grot.  After drying I applied a dab of Aleene's Quick Grab Tacky Glue to one break, stuck the legs in place and waited overnight.  Success!  The joint was good.  So I glued the remaining bits, gathered some fresh straw, and placed him back in the manger.

We live in a place where the threat of fire is real, each year.  We have bags packed year round in case we need to evacuate in a hurry.  After the pets are collected there's a short list of personal effects to grab.  This nativity scene is high on that list.  It is truly priceless and irreplaceable.  Thank you, Granny.

With Thanks to Mr. Ed

 

Before we left Washington State our neighbor gifted to us this wonderful Christmas Train.  I've mentioned him before - he also gave us a few tombstones which we've since customized for our own Pet Cemetery.  As soon as Halloween was over and the yard cleared, Ed's front lawn and house facade became a Christmas wonderland of lights and decorations.  

We used to have a more extensive collection of outdoor lights but sadly they gave up the ghost years ago.  Incandescent blue globes lined our fence top.  Gradually the color chipped away and I even repainted them once with rattle can blue paint.  One string kept getting 'shorter' as I borrowed functioning bulbs to replaced the burnt out ones.  Eventually they just got to be too much work to maintain.

Maybe next year we'll add chasing rope lights to simulate track along which this train can travel.  And of course it will need a destination...perhaps a manger scene?  And ooh - the Grinch could be hiding in the trees ready to ambush the train and swipe all those presents.  Oh, OH!  And the train has to be leaving Santa's workshop...seems the model railroader's curse of expansion isn't limited to the train room.  Ah well, maybe next year.

He Painted EVERYTHING!

Just watch.  You'll see.  No, really, watch this first.  If you're in a hurry, skip to 8:30.

I'm not a military modeler.  I messed around with airplane and sci-fi kits very briefly as a kid, but that's about as close as I came.  Still, I appreciate good model making and finishing.  I found this channel via suggestions to watch his diorama construction videos.  Wow.  "A tiny bit better" he says?  No, the results are stunning. 

But more than the results, it is the process I find most interesting.  Many fantasy model makers, tabletop wargamers, and military modelers do one thing VERY differently than model railroaders when building a diorama.  They may use the same scenic materials, adhesives and paints, but it is in how they apply them where the difference is most apparent, or rather, the sequence of application, with an extra step.

Model railroaders or folks who make model railroad dioramas will generally select materials based on color - a certain color dirt, another color palate of grasses, etc.  We may tint with washes or powders, but essentially we're relying on the color of the material to be at least a base for the finished color.  Texture is important as well, but we tend to look to the color of the material since we're spoiled for choice.  There is such a variety of colorful scenic materials out there (but try to find gray grass...).

Other model makers, like Martin from Night Shift in the video above, focus more on the texture of the material first, and the color second.  Get the texture right, and then you can paint it any color you like.  In the video above, he applies ground cover from dirt to grass to special photo etched plants.  Then he paints it.  All of it.  He paints it dark brown.  All of it.  Dirt, grass, plants, all of it.  Brown.  

I've never seen that.  I've never seen anyone fully scenic a diorama base then paint the whole thing brown.  I've never seen that.

As alluded to above, I have seen other diorama makers paint the whole thing black then work up the color with washes, drybrushing, etc.  But that doesn't usually include the grasses or other elements added later.  Buildings, sure, and of course rocks and even the dirt.  But all of it?  And then to bring back the color so precisely!  

This does enable him to do some precision work, matching the color and texture of the mud in the ground to the color and texture of the mud on the tank treads.  It unifies the scene naturally by utilizing  the same color palate throughout.  But is it really necessary?  Is it worth the extra effort?  And what would our miniature railroad worlds look like if we applied a similar process to them?  Is that even possible?

I'm still processing this.  Scope me, I'm outta here.

 

Yes, This IS Narrow Gauge!

Asked, and answered.  See this post for the question.  Here's a video I stumbled across that proves, definitively, the answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY93ir1zwmQ

From the video description:

"Some nifty HOn3 coaches I recently picked up, painted up by the previous owner (I re-painted the roof tops, which were pretty worn/damaged). The coaches have fully die-cast bodies which sit on wooden frames, and are quite heavy! These three alone were causing the 0-4-0 to slip just a bit at the top of the steepest incline on the layout. They are quite attractively painted and detailed, and make a very nice addition to the fleet."

I've been a subscriber to S. A. Hamann's channel for some time, and I'm not sure how I missed this video before.  Maybe I had other things on my mind back in March of 2016.  Even so, I'm glad I found it now.  Seems I'm not the only modeler out there who likes a colorful paint scheme!  

Oh, the narrow gauge bug is biting HARD!

Milk & Mail - Baggage Improvements

Making progress again on the Binkley Shorty Baggage.  Here are two images; the roof and its improvements, and the underbody detail.

Upgrades to the roof include a screen overlay and framing for the clerestory sides, simulated canvas covering for the roof, and drip strips over the doors.  Prior to these additions I also used square styrene stock to extend the clerestory overhang down along the curved ends of the roof.  This is a detail often missing from these cars where the modeler has to shape the bullnose ends.  Here the bullnose profile has been provided as a metal casting but it must be filed to match the width of the clerestory sides and the overhang profile extended somehow.  I precurved the styrene and attached it with cyanoacrylate adhesive.

The floor received an air tank made from dowel 'turned' in a drill and shaped with files to simulate the bands around the tank and reduce its size.  The kit came with a brass casting for the tank but I will use it on the combine.  I chose to add the brake cylinder and levers casting though the instructions don't call for it.  It is a Binkley/Red Ball part.

Next will be a little more work on the sides, adding the end railings, assembling the Walthers trucks, and priming.  After that I will apply a similar roof treatment and underbody detail to the combine.  I may just get these cars completed by Christmas...but I'm in no hurry, so we'll see.  Thanks for reading and following along with this project.