Milepost 606
A while back, I showed you a set of four larger shanties that I had built recently. I described three of them but left the fourth one, the red one, for a separate post since it's a special one. I simply refer to it as... Ray's Place.
Ray is another model railroading friend of mine. He's the guy who usually sends me photos that I share with you of scratchbuild buildings that I can only dream of building. Some have even called him the Wizard of Styrene. Titles like that are for others to bestow, but Ray is very good. Most recently, I shared his country store with you, an N scale building he built for his father's layout (Milepost 594, June 4).
But Ray has a dark, mysterious side to him as well... he likes to watch anime movies where things seem to always be getting blown up! He once sent the rest of us a link to an old Army training film of... how to derail a train... with explosives! And from time to time, he suggests that a possible solution to a seemingly sticky situation is... more thermite! So with this in mind, I refer to my fourth shanty, the red one, as Ray's Place. It will be located at my new mine complex as the place to store... you guessed it... EXPLOSIVES!
On the serious side, old mines did have small shacks similar to this one that were painted red or some other bright color where the mining explosives were stored. People generally didn't hang out in that area but it was painted like that to make it highly visible and to signify its use. As to the shed model itself, it follows the same design & technique that I used on the other three except for the roof. On this one, I wanted something a little different so I cut a piece of corrugated roofing to the proper size. I scored the top of it where the ridge would be then carefully bent it without breaking it into two pieces. Next, I ran a thin bead of glue down through the small groove created by the bend then let it sit in place on the shed. When the glue set, the roof remained the proper shape and was ready for painting. Just to be sure, I did glue a small scrap of round shaft in the inside in the crease to give that joint extra strength. I also glued a very small scrap of styrene to the underside so that I'd have a place to grab the roof for painting.
A few quick shots of silver spray paint did the job and it was into the paint dryer for several hours to dry & cure. Actually, the next day, I went to work on the rust first using some orange paint followed by some light brown then finally some dark brown. This way, I made the rust spots progressively worse looking. Before the paint dried, I did wipe some of it off with a paper towel. This kind of blended the colors more and lightened them up a little as well. After the paint dried, the roof was glued into place and the entire model was washed with my grungy black India ink and alcohol wash. Now it looks like a building that has seen its share of neglect... the perfect place to store some dynamite! Gee, I wonder if that metal roof will attract lightning??!?
dlm
Those shanties look so genuine, especially with the rust on the roof. Yeah, they resemble those in old mines. It's so amazing that you guys can create miniature pieces like this. And what's even more amazing is that they're exactly the replica of those real ones.
Posted by: Eugene Head | November 19, 2012 at 02:58 PM