Monday, August 12, 2013

CO-OP Storage Shed - Part 4

With the recent addition of some more paint, I went ahead and added the final touches to the door hardware on the storage shed.  Using Flat Aluminium paint, I dripped the end of a fine brush into the cap for the jar, gathering up just a little paint.  I then dragged it over the door railing and door hangers/clips, giving it just a touch of metal appearance.

Before:

After:

Done:

Hobby Store Trip

As I had threatened, I went to the hobby store for some more supplies to add to my collection.


I purchased a bunch more paint: Model Master US Navy Blue, Wood, Medium Green. Polly Scale CNW Yellow, Dark Green, Railbox Yellow, Pullman Green, GN Big Sky Blue, Flat Aluminium (yes, that is how it is spelled on the jar) and Aged Concrete.

I also purchased a large quantity of sheet styrene (plain, v-groove, metal siding, board and batten, etc).  I purchased some quick dry gluing agent to help speed up glue curing times.  Lastly I purchased a hobby miter box for cutting wood and plastic.  It has a very fine tooth cutting blade. In all I spent about $117 on supplies, including tax.

Monday, August 5, 2013

CO-OP Storage Shed - Part 3

Another Month gone by, another project complete.  While I'm happy to have this project finished, posting every month really isn't likely to keep people coming back.  I'll try to do better.

As mentioned in the last update on the CO-OP Storage Shed, all that remained was to glue the walls together, painting, putting the roof on and weathering.

Using a 90-degree clamp, I butted the end together, to make nice square joints.  The clamp then holds the surfaces together while the glue sets.  I let the joints dry for 2 hours before releasing the clamp.  The model it self has raised edges inside to help align the walls.

Once two sets of opposite corners were glued together, putting the two sets together only required a flat surface to make the joints square.  There is some slight warping in the plastic that can be adjusted by gluing the top and bottom at different times.


I the slight bend in the styrene is okay and will be pushed square when the base is added later.  Here is a test fit of the base, just to make sure.


With the base inserted into the bottom, the bottom edge of the walls a squared up.  The upper part of the walls will square up when the roof is put into place.

With everything glued up (except the roof) and test fitted, it was time to paint and weather the CO-OP.  I again see this building as being in a downtown setting, seeing delivery trucks pulling up for their loads, getting a lot of use.  A picture before the paint and weather is applied.


I painted the base (retaining wall) section first.  Again this will be very dirty, but you need to be able to see the timbers making up the wall.  I mixed equal parts Polly Scale Earth and Polly Scale Mud and applied a light coat of paint it to the base.  Once dry, I added four large drops of Polly Scale Oily Black to the remaining paint mix as a highlight coat for the darker/worn areas on the timber.





I then set the base aside to dry and started to work on the CO-OP walls.  The wood detail on the styrene is pretty nice and deep, so I didn't want to put a heavy coat of paint over it.  Though looking back maybe a worn out heavy coat would help show the buildings age.  I instead used a thinned Grimmy Black, to just age the base styrene color (tan).  I took the time to think about where the likely build up of grim and dirt would occur on the building during it's years in use.  I pretty happy with it's look.


Lastly, I painted the roof while the building dried.  The styrene is molded in a gray color, which is close to looking like metal roofing but is more flat than what I'm used to seeing.  Again, thinking the base color was close and usable, I used Tamiya Chrome Silver and dry brushed the roof with a wide brush.


I wanted to have areas that made the roof look worn and sun beaten.  I took the cap of the paint jar, and used what paint was at the top of cap as my paint source.  I then just dry brushed the paint in the same general direction as the roof lines.  The effect put a dull shine on the roof, where sun and rain water worn down the metallic metal shine.  Once the paint dried, I went back and did the same thing with some "rust" weathering powder.  I dry brushed very very little power from the lid of the container, just to highlight some imperfections in the styrene and roof vent area.

I applied the same technique to weather the roof vent, to be put on later, once the roof was glued together.

Not really much to show with gluing the roof together.  The kit has raised edges on the outer edges of the roof ends to help with placement and gluing.  Once both sides were aligned during a test fit, I placed glue on the top of each outside wall and placed both roof pieces in place.  With the glue dry, I turned the building over and used masking tape to help close any remaining gap between the joints of the roof.  I then glued the two together, sealing the joint closed.  I then removed the tape and attached the roof vent.


The final item was to glue the base/retaining wall to the CO-OP building.  Because I made the base to fit inside of the building, like the original kit base, it was a simple matter of slipping the building around the edges and gluing it in place.  The fit was go enough that I didn't even need to use glue to hold it in place, but I placed a small drop in each corner, just in case.

When I purchase some more paint down the road, I'll go back and touch up all the door pieces/rails, but until then here is the final product: