About That Chair...

 ...the one I mentioned in the previous post.  Here 'tis, in situ:

Peak Peeve

Okay, this may sound like a criticism, because it is.  However, I offer it in the most constructive and encouraging spirit so please take it as such.  I have a pet peeve when it comes to how modelers treat the roof ridges of their structures.  Too often have I seen what is clearly outstanding work and thoughtful effort put into a model building only to cap it off, literally, with an unprototypical folded strip of paper or some such shortcut, which is then weathered to match the shingles.  No.

If you're going to shingle a roof, the cap shingles along the ridge need to be just that - individual cap shingles laid according to prototype practice.  Modern homes sometimes have a metal ridge cap over composite shingles, but that's not what I'm talking about.  If you are modeling a metal roof, then a folded strip of paper or styrene painted to match the rest of the roofing material is perfectly acceptable.  But, if you're modeling an earlier era of shingled roofing then there might be another option - the decorative ridge trim.

Here again however is another tempting trap - to just stand the trim along the ridge by itself.  WRONG.  These ornate trim features found on Victorian structures were made to not only add character to the structure but also protect the ridge.  The trim was flanked by flashing that supported the ornate vertical piece and rested on the top row of shingles on each side of the ridge.  Typically it was cast as one piece or built up to make one unit which was attached to the ridge.

This is easily modeled as I have done by painting paper strips to match the trim and gluing them in place.  Simple.  After all have been applied I will go over the trim and strips with a second coat of paint to cover any imperfections.  In this photo you can hopefully see the strips applied beneath the ridges in the front while the others in the back do not yet have it.  The strip in this case is 1/16" wide (high) and trimmed to fit, in order to give the right "reveal" to the shingles below.  The paper material is basic brown paper bag, the same as the shingles.

Admittedly we all pick and choose.  We all decide for which details we will pursue prototype fidelity and on which details we will compromise.  Track is perhaps the most common example.  How many layouts have you visited where the rail was either left unpainted or painted a garish rusty red?  And joint bars or turnout details?  I suspect most folks don't add them, but running trains draws the eye to the track and really well done track detail looks terrific. 

I suspect we've become accustomed to seeing less-detailed track in the same way we accept a strip of folded paper as a ridge cap on a shingled roof.  A quick image search for "decorative ridge trim" will bring many prototype examples and the solution to the problem is, in this case, pretty simple.  I think it looks pretty good, too.

Back on Station II

I say I'm back on station again because I had neglected this project again.  But now I'm re-engaged and hopefully this time I'll carry it across the finish line.  In addition to some roof work, I'm finalizing the interior details.  The only major custom work left is the ticket window bars...that's something I'm looking forward to seeing, but not necessarily doing.  It will be a challenge, to be sure.

This post however is about the stove.  Even in Florida a stove in the waiting room or even a fireplace was common.  Winters were cold and coffee was enjoyed year 'round so my Ocala Springs station had to have one.  I'd primed and painted the casting itself a while back but hadn't installed it for lack of a good stove pipe.  I was all set to bend one from heavy wire when I remembered I had saved a few sprues in my bits box.

The nice thing about sprues is they come with elbows and angles built-in, for replicating all sorts of piping.  This sprue segment in particular came from a Jordan kit, already black, so no need to paint.  I drilled into the casting as well as the sprue and CA'd a little bit of wire between as an alignment pin.  Then when that was dry I carefully glued the stove in place...though not carefully enough as I still managed to get glue on the chimney.  Hopefully the mistake won't be that visible through the windows.

Station Details

Some old, some new, some no longer available except second hand.  Scale is HO.

The chair is from Vector Cut, and is laser cut taskboard.  Brilliant little kit; too bad the company is on hiatus with no sign of returning anytime soon.  The spitoon (cuspidor) water cooler, stove, desk lamp, typewriter and clock with signs are all Scale Structures Limited.  I scratchbuilt the little table beneath the water cooler.  The signs I will scan in and whiten in Gimp, while the clock may be a candidate for Oyumaru and Milliput reproduction, keeping the original as a master.  The benches are Atlas, I believe, but I can't be sure.  The calendars, Chero-Cola signs and election posters are all found online.  Lastly, the pattern at the bottom of each shot is a tin ceiling tile image I found and 'tiled' using Gimp image editing software. 

The station has been under construction for far too long now.  It is time to push forward and finish this structure, so look for more posts in the weeks ahead.

Design Intuition

Something just didn't feel right about the eaves of the Fallburgh, er, Pine Branch Park station.  I decided it might need a strip of trim along the joint where the wall meets the overhang.  After a bit of searching I discovered my intuition was correct.  Where board and batten siding meets the roof, on Victorian-era structures, there is indeed a simple trim board, most of the time.

The fancy filagree gets the attention out along the edge of the roof and this kit allows for that with some fine little castings.  But where it is deficient is, interestingly enough, in a rather obvious place.  Or, perhaps, not so obvious.  Maybe that's why it wasn't included, as the designers felt it wouldn't be seen and so decided to save stripwood and the modeler's time by leaving it out.  The definitive, authoritative source (Fallberg's collection of Fiddletown & Copperopolis drawings) shows the station in several scenes but sadly, all portray the structural element in question in deep shadow.  No doubt he'd have drawn it in if it had been necessary, as his attention to architectural detail is impressive in other places.

In these images below the trim is far from complete but enough is in to show the obvious difference.

Back on Station

Work has resumed on the Fallburgh Station kit.  A while back I made interior wainscoting and chair rail/trim using Gimp.  The donor image was a door I found online.  I liked the classic lines of the door and the color.  Here are the doors, wainscoting and trim printed on plain paper:

Here are the doors in the office:

And here's the other side of the office as seen from the street-side doors:

I've also given the exterior walls a few light coats of a basic acrylic black wash to enhance the board and batten detail and tone down the stark white color.  The green trim and windows also received a highlight coat of Seminole Green, just a shade lighter and a bit more yellow than the Forest Green I used as the primary trim color.  This is to give them a little depth and represent sunlight.

Since these images were taken I've added all the wainscoting and some of the chair rail.  I left them separate in order to allow for any discrepancy in height from the floor to the bottom of the windows.  However, it has been a real pain to get the chair rail glued in without grunting and grumbling.  Even so, the effect is really nice. 

I have also built a desk out of balsa for the office, and have a few other pieces of furniture along with accessories like a clock and a phone to go in.  Some of these are castings, some printed and some scratchbuilt.  I also have a station master, courtesy of Model Power, that will eventually take up residence in the office.

Much more to do, but it's great fun and I'll share more as it happens.

White Walls, Green Trim

Airbrushed Delta Ceramcoat Acrylics, thinned with windshield wiper fluid.

White and Forest Green

Here's a tip; paint in the garage in the morning when it's cool, then let it dry and cure throughout the day when it's pushing 100 out there.  I started painting the corner trim and rafter tails, but decided to brush paint those.  The castings were primed with rattle can gray primer whereas the wood was not.

Slingin Shingles

I was well on my way applying shingles to the Fallburgh station when I realized I'd need to do something about the valleys.  Usually there's some sort of flashing to direct rainwater down the roof, rather than allowing it to seep into the attic.  So I Googled cedar shake shingles images and found some inspiration.  Seems like most of the time, especially on older applications, the flashing is copper.

I used the same brown paper bag I had used for the shingles to make the flashing.  I painted a section of paper with a metallic copper paint and let it dry before cutting it into strips.  This I used at the bend in the roof at the change in pitch.  I actually creased the strip and applied the next row of shingles on the steeper pitched roof over the paper. 

For the valley itself where the gabled portion meets the main roof, I just painted the roof card with the copper paint.

As of this post the roof is 97% shingled, with only the top row of shingles to apply before I add the fancy decorative roof trim, an etched brass part, and then the horizontal 'cap' shingles alongside that.  The trim, along with all the metal castings in the kit, has been primed and is awaiting paint.

Fallburgh on the Back Porch

 My morning beverage, an Americano with cream

This is the time of year when the evenings and the mornings are beautiful, even if the midday heat is just a bit too much.  Our Spring was wet enough and warm enough for mosquitoes, but that doesn't deter me.  California skeeters seem to be slower and less aggressive than the quick little biters I grew up with in Florida.  Or maybe I'm just not as sweet as I used to be.  ha.

 My morning companion, Maggie

Anyway, I used the lovely weather as an opportunity to advance the progress on the Fallburgh Station kit.  I decided to build an interior.  This meant diverging from the instructions and using 1/32" plywood as full-wall bracing instead of square strip stock in the corners.  I will also be including a floor and ceiling that will serve as stiffeners to keep the walls from bowing, hopefully.  The coup de grace will be a strip of specialty stock I found in my pile of dollhouse wood that I will use as bracing disguised as crown molding.

 Walls coming together!

There will be an office, a waiting room and a baggage room on the first floor, along with an un-modeled stairwell to an un-modeled second floor.  That space will serve as a wiring conduit to run to LED lights in the ceiling.  No indoor plumbing, but electric lights!  I haven't decided how far I want to take the detailing inside, but there will be rudimentary furniture and some figures.

This kit has now passed what I am calling, the "structure kit Rubicon".  That is, the point of no return beyond which the kit will not go back in the box.  Most rolling stock will go back in the box it came in after you build it.  Most craftsman kit structures will not.  Alia Iacta Est. 

Craft Nite at Grace - Fallburgh

This is the first post in a sometimes series; probably monthly.  That's because once a month there's a craft night at my church, Grace Lutheran, Ukiah.  At my previous congregation in Washington there was a similar craft night where each person brings whatever they're working on, be it quilting or knitting or model building or toll painting, etc. and spends a few hours working and chatting and snacking.  It is a fellowship event with a craft theme.

I brought Fallburgh Station by Sequoia Models, along with my portable workbench and a handful of tools.  I spent about an hour cleaning castings with an Xacto blade and file.  Before I could get to the next step of trimming battens the boys got antsy and I took them home.  An hour entertaining themselves with paper crafts and snacks was about their limit.  Later in the week I pulled out the kit onto the back porch when the weather was lovely and did the batten trimming.  This is a photo in-process:

This is a great kit and I look forward to continuing to work on it whether on craft night or in between, so posts about the station will be sporadic.  Work continues on the Mogul, and I'll update that thread soon.