help building N-Scale American Model Builders Country Grain Elevator

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I just received my Country Grain Elevator kit from American Model Builders. It is Laserkit primarily of wood (thin wood at that). I’ve never assembled a kit like this before but used to “scratch build” crude building of balsa wood back in the 50’s and 60’s as a kid into model railroading. So here are some questions:

  1. paint first and assemble later or other way around?

  2. paint brush or spray paint (I don’t have an airbrush system)

  3. what kinds of paint to use? I bought Testor Poly Scale water based ink thinking I could water it down to a thin wash over the wood surface…

Looking for suggestions as I’d like to get started on this baby.

Thanks-

Youngbob

2

Hi, 1) Paint first, at least the inside. It will prevent warpage. 2) Either way will work. Spray will get into the nooks better and be uniformed, or you can brush for a more uneven weathered look . Using bothe methods will give you a “lived” in look though. 3) Any flat paint will work. I built the same kit and used what I had laying around-I used rustoleum red-brown primer and painted the trim with dark brown I used for my models. Came out nice. Your wash will work great for that “weathered” look. I hope this helped. KCC

3

PAINT FIRST AND WATCH YOU GLUE!!! I bought an N scale barn (can’t remember company but something with ‘mountain’ in it and logo had W. VA.) and hobby shop (I call it train store as that’s all they do) advised to paint first. Well I did, and even bought some (overpriced) wood glue, but wasn’t working well and used some other glue IIRC ca glue. Well the second glue type warped the wood so my long barn walls bow in at the top.

As for paint I used a nice little water-based (acrylic?) craft paint from waly-market. I believe it is called Apple Creek, the brand came suggested in the kit instructions. Around 50 cents a bottle, bottles are good sized, and decent selection in colors. The ‘tomato red’ worked well for the barn walls and the gray color will look good for some weather spots and the white worked well for the barn trim.

I got it all in one day and spent a few hours spread over a weekend with the intent to show it off in the week-end photo fun post, but didn’t finish it in time, sorta forgot about and lost interest, then got to busy to finish it, and now we moved so I don’t know where everything is.