Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Project Update: Houligan's Alley by FSM

Raglan Road progress is very slow right now. I will tell the reason in its own post some time later.
So... I have been doing some work on Houligan's Alley as well. Let me start with the instructions. Some people claim they are the best in the hobby. I agree that by following them one would end up with great model. My problem is that there is too much reading and very few diagrams. When I build Bar Mills kit I usually I don't read until I get to particular point in construction. I may not read at all if diagrams are clear enough. I use diagrams to determine how parts have to be prepared i.e. whenever stained with A&I to represent weathered wood or stained with Driftwood replacement and then what color which parts have to be painted. Then I prepare all parts at once. It is nearly impossible to do this with FSM kit. I have attempted to read through the instructions several times and have failed so far. All I have managed to do is to read several steps ahead so I can prepare at least few parts ahead of time. Therefore, I don't have to wait for paint or stain to dry when I need them. To some people FSM instructions are perfect but to me they are just all right.
First up is Casey Woodworking building. It is stucco structure what is nice break after doing so many clapboard ones. I used FSM way of doing stucco since I thought it would produce uneven rough look I wanted. Airbrushing water putty or using Sandstone paint would have given too uniform look. The stucco turned out to be rough enough for my taste but don't forget I am from Europe and our stucco is really smooth.
I painted the walls with Polyscale Aged Concrete instead Floquil and I had some minor issues. Water putty leaked out through the paint a little so I painted the walls second time. That possibly has taken away some stucco roughness but not too much. I painted the bricks with Georgia Clay craft paint. For limestone streaks I used white oil paint wash. And while doing this I made a mistake. I made streaks to go up on one wall because what I thought was bottom was actually top. I tried removing stain but without much of success. I will try weathering powders later when I don't need to handle the wall anymore. Perhaps I should have not added limestone streaks to that wall at all since it is well covered from the rain.


1 comment:

  1. Earlier FSM kits' instructions included full size drawings (HO scale). However, many began trading the instructions in order to copy the kits. Plus, the kits got so large that including full size drawings was not practical.

    Nevertheless, it is of great help to have diagrams when building a kit.

    FSM instructions are super for learning weathering techniques.

    Jaime

    ReplyDelete