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.

Building Majestic Theater by Laser Art Pt.1

Yet another Laser Art kit. I knew it was coming some day. I agreed to do it awhile ago. The kit itself isn't very interesting but I am adding Miller Engineering signs so that may bump up interest level a little.
When I agreed to do it I didn't know how challenging it may be. The signs are on larger side a little, there are laser cut holes in the front wall for marquee and theater sign that come with the kit, the marquee from the kit can't be used because it has 90 degree angles and ME sign can't bend like that.
As the first step I plugged up two theater sign holes with stripwood before painting. I cut and sanded it flush with clapboards. Then I proceeded to making new marquee. My first attempt was a belly flop. I made it out of matboard. The problem with this material is that it likes to separate into layers when it is shaped to wrap around an arch. I soaked the edges with CA but I still wasn't confident that the sign wouldn't peel off with a layer of matboard later on. The other issue was that I made it wrong size and didn't account for ticket booth. Therefore, I scrapped it. I don't have much love for styrene but I couldn't think of any other material that would do the job. After built new marquee out of styrene I cut slots in the front wall for sign connectors. The rest is pretty standard i.e. priming, painting, weathering...

Building The Waterfront by Bulders in Scale Pt.6

The time is flying, pictures are accumulating and I am falling behind... I have one excuse and a good one.
This past weekend I attended Finescale Model Railroad EXPO 2015 in Scranton, PA. I had couple of very busy days. My goal was to see as many clinics as I could. It was a mistake. Primary goal should be to talk to as many fellow modelers and manufacturers as you possibly can. I went to a number of clinics, got very tired, and lost some interest somewhat. I ended up skipping one clinic on Friday and one on Saturday because of that. Also it is no secret that the EXPO is built around structure aspect of the hobby. How many new things get invented, discovered related to structure building every year? I would say not so many. Then how many don't get posted on the web? Even less. Therefore if you are not living in a cave most likely you know about many inventions and discoveries already. If you are newbie then the clinics are good place to learn. Make sure you take notes because handouts usually are very compressed or none at all. As far as I know only Brett from Sierra West Scale Models has his clinic available online. So if you don't take notes you won't remember even 5% right after you leave and even much less after a week. As for myself, I picked one or two things I can use from each clinic. Some of them will make my live easier or more interesting and I could perfectly continue with my life without knowing the others. Anyway next time I will focus more on social aspect of the gathering.
What does this all have to do with The Waterfront? Absolutely nothing. I shipped it to its owner right before I left for Scranton. It has been delivered and all I have left are the pictures.