CO-OP Storage Shed

The CO-OP Storage Shed was being sold at my local hobby store on clearance.  It is listed as being sold under the Walthers Cornerstone Series, but I believe it is produced by someone else and sold under the Walthers name.  Nothing wrong with that, just a bit of information, as you may be able to find this product from a different manufacture.

This is a very simple project.  There are very few parts for this structure.  In fact there are more "extra" parts for other structures sold by Walthers in the Cornerstone Series than there are used for this structure.  This will allow for me to add to my parts bin.

Here is a picture of all the parts within the package.

With the structures required parts removed from the spurs.  In fact the two tan side wall parts with the single window located in the lower right corner of the picture are not needed for the project.

Here are all the items for the parts bin.

Because the structure is so simple and there are so many extra parts, I think this would be a good candidate for some heavy kitbashing.  I am not 100% sure what I want to do to the building, but I will be adding a loading dock area to make it more functional in a city environment.  More details to follow as I plan some more bashing.

Modern Engine House - Weathering

I wanted the Modern Engine House to be a well used and weathered building.  The roofs of buildings rarely get any attention unless there is a leak or a roof vent has something within it.  And why bother really, only people in airplanes or hot-air balloons can see it.

 
To weather the building I used weathering powders and a few dry brushes.  The weathering powders I used were from A.I.M. Products. Never purchased anything from them other than these powders, but I am very happy with the results.  I would recommend their powders to others.

As their own website and included recommendation letter states, "These powders are quite intense so please put some paper under the model you are weathering to catch any excess and reduce chances of making any mess." so I took their warning.  It did not take much powder to create the effect I was looking for.  I also put a piece of paper under the building when weathering to reduce any mess and gather the excess powder.

I used three stiff brushes to apply the powder to the building.  One fine line artist brush, one narrow artist brush and one small foam brush.  I used the fine brush to apply spot specific rust powder to the roof vents and all metal items on the building (door trim, roll-up door housing, etc).  The narrow brush was used to spread the dark powders on the roof and common areas where exhaust/grease develop over time.  It was also used to spread the earth powder at the bottom edge of the building.

 

The foam brush I used to help blend and fade the powders all over.

Back to the powders from A.I.M., as reported they are intense and do not take much to get the wanted effect.  At the rate that I used these powders, they will last me another 50 years.  Testing the rust on a white sheet of paper I learned that dipping the brush into the powder put too much powder on the brush, even if I just put the end into the power.  Instead, I kept the lid on the powder container, held the lid top closed tight with my thumb, and shook the power until it placed a fine layer of dust onto the lid.  I then removed the lid and used the brush to gather up the fine dust layer within the lid.  Practicing the application process helped too.

I am happy with the weathering results.  This is basically the end of the road for the building.  Any suggestions or comments?  On to the next project.

Modern Engine House (60-001)

Modern Engine House.  My first project.  Below are some of the pictures I took while putting the building together.  Follow along as I have (almost) completed this project:

 

I thought this would be a good first project for me to help develop my skills.  It is modern and fairly simple, making it a good target for customization.  Opening the box to make sure all the parts were present, as there are only a few small parts, was easy.  All the small parts are in a small plastic bag to prevent them getting lost.

Following the instructions, I took out one of the building ends.  Seeing as I do not have a layout to put the building on when complete, I'm pretty free to customize it as I see fit.  Here is a picture before I took the hobby knife out.   Take note of the guide lines.

As the box picture suggests, I used the guide lines and a steel straight edge, to cut two openings into the building end, allowing two engines access into the building. 

I then added the roll-up door trim and roll-up door housings.  Gluing the trim is not easy.  This was the most difficult part of putting the building together.  The directions say, "there are two steps in the trim with one having a slightly longer leg."  It took me awhile to figure out what that meant, but basically once figured out gluing and holding it in place while the glue dried was tricky.  Putting to much pressure on the trim causes it to move out of place.  I ended up using a small piece of cardboard bent to the correct width.

Here is a diagram of the trim.  When it says "slight" it is very slight.  This is not to scale, but about 10000x bigger than real life.  It's very "slight" but important you install the longer leg in the correct position.

Also, I did not paint building walls before installing the trim and roll-up door housings.  I should have.  Trying to paint around them after being installed was more difficult than it should have been.

Wanting to make the building a little bit different than normal, I only cut out one of the rear roll-up doors out from the plastic.  I imagine the one side of the building being closed and used as repair area/paint section, while the other allows for maintenance on engines as they pass through.

The next task was to install the man doors into the building.  This is made easy as two ribs in the wall, once cut out, are the same width as the man door.  Some minor sanding allows for the door to go right in.

Here is the final location of the man doors on my engine house.

Looking to modify the modern engine house to make it my own, I used some scrap styrene to create a few slight features to the building.  The upper wall section below, I mounted a square styrene piece cut to fit and a round flat plastic piece, making a large housing for a vent.

In the lower wall section, I cut a piece of styrene spur free and it had a rounded end, so I mounted it flush to the "ground" and square to the wall.  I image this being a storage tank or other misc building item.

Below are pictures of walls and trim painted.  I wanted to give the building some age and wear, so I brush painted on a base coat of tan, after having washed and let dry the parts.  Once the base coat was dry I applied a coat of Imperial light blue paint over all but the trim, door housing and man doors.  I cleaned up the over paint with a wet paper towel.

I next finished painting the trim and glued the structure together, making sure all the corners were square.  Having the corners not square once glued, would have made installing the roof near impossible.

Here is a picture of one of the pieces before trimming the flash and sanding the joint.  The flash here was surprising think, but this could be on purpose, because the sanding of the joint can take some work to get correct.  Better to have too much material then not enough.

 Here is a picture with the roof fit into place.

Here is the other side of the building.  I have also installed the metal roof vents.

Prior to installing the roof vents, I brush painted the roof reefer white.  The styrene was already a off-white color, so I did not put on a base coat.  I dry brushed on the reefer white, making sure to cover the entire surface, but not worrying about any thin or excess paint.  I imagine the roof does not receive much attention from building maintenance, so thin spots would be likely.

Weathering is to come next.

Finally, being my first N Scale Project, I thought it would be a good idea to complete the entire project before posting anything.  Now that I'm all but done, I think I was wrong.  Next time I'll post as I go along.  Weathering the building is up next.