Drug Store Saga, Part IV

I began adding color to the trim using a palate similar to what I used on the Queen Anne Cottage for the NMRBO22.  In fact, the colors are identical - Black Cherry, Almond and Butter Cream (doesn't that sound delicious) but the placement is not.  Whereas on the Queen Anne the windows were Butter Cream, here the windows are Black Cherry, though they look more like Cranberry.  See, I was going to make them white, so I primed them gray and applied the white paint sprayed from above allowing the gray to make an artificial shadow (aka, the zenithal highlight technique).  Then I changed my mind and decided to airbrush them Black Cherry.

Oh I was so happy with how well my new compressor worked, how I was able to dial in the pressure and thin the paint just right to achieve a smooth even coat.  Yes, craft paint can be airbrushed as long as it is thinned and strained and sprayed using a higher pressure than say, oils or inks, but not so high as to spatter.  The appropriate thinner, in my case I used Liquitex Acrylic Airbrush Medium, will allow the paint to lay down and spread out before drying instead of going on all speckly.  It all looked so good.

The windows have been "washed" but still appear slightly brighter than the other parts.

But then I compared the Black Cherry on the windows to the Black Cherry on the other details, the ones I had only primed gray.  Reds are usually translucent (relatively) and this red was no exception.  Over the white primed windows I had a brilliant sanguine glow and on the gray primed parts, a dull purple.  Ugh.  So to fix this I've been slopping on a thinned mix of Black Cherry, black ink wash and brown ink wash to fill the recesses.  I like the brighter red on the raised areas so I'll keep it while darkening the shadows and filtering the whole paint job overall slightly darker.  On the gray-primed Black Cherry bits I'll simply dry brush highlight with a lighter shade of Black Cherry.  Fingers crossed.

Still needs paint (and roofing material).

I rolled a little snake of Miliput to create a fillet behind the parapet wall castings.  They weren't really deep enough to cover the thickness of the wall itself.  This repair looks realistic, like something masons would do to cap off a wall and tie in the ornate front detail.  I also began painting that detail, opting for a simple Butter Cream background and Black Cherry on the raised bits.  In studying actual Victorian paint schemes, I found that most original schemes were not as ornate as we've painted them since.  What we think of as "Victorian" color schemes today are really quite gaudy and complex compared to what was often done originally.

I also added the quoins to the corners between the upper and lower trim.  Let me tell you...that was the easy part.  Fitting the parapet trim was challenging, but not terrible.  Fitting the lower trim where the bay window section must be made from three pieces took some forethought and engineering.  Fortunately I could follow the example of the upper detail and miter the corners to match.  I think it looks pretty good.

Up next?  Who knows.  This project has been all over the place in terms of any logical sequence or lack thereof.  I've got the floor/base cut to fit.  Maybe LEDs.  We'll see.  Plenty of painting to do and some details still to make.  I'm going to try applying dry transfer letters to clear styrene for the big storefront windows.  Still shooting for a March 1 completion in order to begin work on the NMRBO24 diorama at the starting line.

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.