Building Shady Grove Texaco by Bar Mills Pt.2

This is the season. FSM has announced their new kit. After several years of disappointment they have finally released something I really like. Still no credit card or PayPal orders though. I truly believe not accepting them is hurting the sales. It is much easier to put something on a credit card than spend hard earned cash. It is even easier to buy with PayPal Credit and have 6 months to pay. With several major kits releases coming every fall majority of modelers have to make decisions which one or two to get. Guess who wins. The one who makes it easier to order. Anyway, I am not running FSM. Nor polls, nor hurting sales can't convince them to add something as simple as PayPal button to their web site.
While I was typing Southriver Modelworks has released their latest which may as well be their very last kit. It is smaller than usual but still very interesting kit. People will line up over night to get this one. I may grab 5 of them and then profit on eBay.
Today's update isn't really new. I cut out diorama base, applied dirt and some scenery at the same time as for FOS Magic Shop. The thought was that I could do more by working on several dioramas at once. Time savings would come from gathering all tools and supplies and cleaning afterwords. I would have to do all this only once. It worked in some degree. I had three dioramas and they were taking up too much space. I had to move them around to get access and it wasn't convenient. Most likely I won't do this again unless I get more space.
The pictures are perhaps 6 weeks old but I haven't done anything to diorama since then so they reflect true current status.

Building The Millett Creamery by South River Modelworks Pt.3

I am back after a month or so of hiatus. First I took one week of vacation. I was on the way home and already planning my next modeling steps when things got really bad. Because of that I had to extend my time off and fly to Arizona for a few days. After returning back I had hard time getting back into modeling. Ironic thing is that I always complain about how I am tired of working with my brain and how nice it would be making for living with my hands. I found out hard way that unoccupied brain isn't what I want under certain circumstances. Therefore I spent quite a bit of time mindlessly watching TV instead of building models. I feel better now although "whys" and "what ifs" still pop up in my head from time to time.
All right. Time for pictures.

Building The Millett Creamery by South River Modelworks Pt.2

I had quite eventful several weeks or so. That affected my ability to work on models somewhat and a lot on ability to take pictures and update my blog. The major events with biggest impact have been adoption of a kitten and lightning taking out half or even more of house electronics. The kitten is becoming less needy as she grows and I have been able to restore our equipment to near pre-lighning level by obtaining new or fixing. Finally I am able to spend more time in my modeling room.
Speaking of Millett Creamery my path leading to this point wasn't all straight. After test fitting the additions I realized that outer side of one of the side walls of the main building had shape of a bow vertically and horizontally. Of corse, it had to be the one where clapboard office attaches just to make it more interesting. I couldn't fill the gap with drywall spackle like between brick wall sections. To solve the issue I have decided to move whole addition forward so that it extends by the thickness of clapboard wall and cut into stone foundation so that clapboard wall overlaps main building wall a little covering up the gap. I also have had to make few other adjustments there and there too to make everything fit. Given circumstances I am pleased with the end result. However, I am not done yet. I will have to redraw all docks as well since they wrap around some parts of the additions and as designed they won't work anymore.

Building The Millett Creamery by South River Modelworks Pt.1

To begin with I must say that last Tucker and Cook build update was the very last one. I don't own it anymore. It is on the way to its new owner and I won't be building diorama. I was struggling trying to find good idea for it anyway. The Tucker and Cook being gone opens up some shelf space for new projects. There is new one that will fit there perfectly.
I have been working on SRMW The Millett Creamery for a few weeks now. This is one of Bob's earlier plaster kits. I found all parts to be well packed, intact and good quality. However, there was a little issue. Instead of two different walls for the front and back of the middle section I had two of the same. In a worst case I could have used those walls and no one would most likely have noticed but I decided to email Bob VG and ask he had any spares. I figured it was very long shot since the kit is from early 90s I believe. Bob VG replied that he had one but made of urethane. I had some concerns about shrink ratio but got it anyway. I found that I was right when the wall came in. It was about 3/32" narrower that the one made of plaster. I could sand down opposite wall to match the width but I would have had very narrow area between the windows and side wall what wouldn't have looked right. Instead made urethane wall wider. First I glued 3/64" square stripwood on each side towards back. Then I filled front part with DAS clay. When it was dry I sanded clay flush with the wall and scribed some bricks and stones where needed. Then I glued all four walls together and filled the gaps with lightweight spackle. I can't stain this hybrid anymore so the next step is to prime and paint it.

Building The Magic Shop by FOS Scale Models Pt. N + 3

It is Friday and I have all night to myself. There are no more high school soccer games to attend. I am sure I will miss them. Actually I am missing them already. Well... On a brighter side I will have more modeling time.
Nothing mentionable happened since last post while I was working on the Magic Shop. All it was just plain and boring figure painting.
Here it is final result with some earlier progress photos that I wanted to post but never got around doing it.

Building The Magic Shop by FOS Scale Models Pt. N + 2

I am wondering if I have a problem with math, or my vision, or perhaps both. I saw on eBay today that someone is willing to pay $57 before shipping for 100 feet of 1x8 HO scale stripwood. Northeastern Scale Lumber sells 12 pack of 11 inch long pieces for $3.50. That is $3.50 for 11 feet. A little more than 9 packs make 100 feet. It is about $32. Now if you get fifty 2 ft. long pieces then they are $0.38 per piece. 100 feet would cost you $19. Perhaps shipping would be a bit higher but $57... Someone must have really deep pockets or very big ego.
Back to the build... I needed more sidewalk for my Ideal Hosiery diorama than it was provided in the kit so I made it out of 1/16" thick matboard. The advantage of using it instead of sheet basswood is that matboard is cheap and easier to work with. The down side is that it tends to swell and warp during scenery application phase which involves a lot of liquid, i.e. wet water and matte medium. This time around I have decided to soak sidewalk edges with CA. Guess what? I didn't observe any swelling or warping so I used the same technique when making a boardwalk as well. First I cut out the boardwalk base out of matboard 1/8" narrower than I wanted the boardwalk to be. Then I soaked the edges with CA. After CA had dried I glued 1/16" square stripwood on each side and then covered the top with 2x8 striwood. I believe this sandwich method is easier and more durable than traditional real life like.

Building Trawler by Maritime Art Pt.1

This is a little unusual for me. It isn't a structure. It is a boat but for the purpose of adding notches on my craftsman kit stick I will count it.
The manufacturer of the kit is gone and search for Maritime Art produces a long list links which have nothing to do with HO scale models. A little hint to future kit makers. Don't pick a name for your company or product line that has very broad meaning. If you do you will get lost in a sea of Google search results. Anyway, I have managed to find few pictures of other kits by the same manufacturer and that was it. No reviews, no on-line builds. I figured I was on my own.
First thing I noticed after opening the box that kit had big number of small parts and the hull with very uneven surface. I started with filling all nooks and crannies with epoxy. I don't know if that was the best way to do it but it worked somewhat. In some places the epoxy layer peeled off. Perhaps because it was very thin. I thought of using automotive filler but whenever I use it to fill bubble holes in resin detail parts it comes off. I was afraid I was going to get same results here too since the hull is made of resin. After I got through this step I found that instructions were a little hard to read. They were full of ship terms which I was not familiar with. The diagrams with those terms and arrows pointing to appropriate parts of the boat made it easier though. After I figured out what I was supposed to do I needed to glue some pieces of styrene to the hull. I thought epoxy would do the job but styrene kept detaching. Then I tried CA. In general I don't like using it but I find it useful in certain situations. I guess it was certain situation.
The progress is slow as there is some learning curve. I do one step and then go to the next. Sometimes it means I can't do it right away. I will get through this eventually. The next one will be much easier.