Here's the Church and Here's the Steeple--and a modeling tip

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’ve been working on this church for forever. I bought it, based upon looking at the box…

…and assumed it was a clapboard church that would fit perfectly in the West and be an easy model to build. Well, when I opened it, it turned out to have a stone or marble design. So determined to make it work, I set about painting it. It took a lot longer than I expected, more than 6 hours per each of the main sides and less for the smaller pieces. Working 16-20 hours a week on it, it took 3 weeks to paint.

Now for the tip. After getting it together, it looked naked without the stained glass. But when I put it in, it made the work I put so much time into, look like a cheap plastic model. My wife came up with a solution. She mixed a purple mix of acrylic paint into acrylic gloss medium. This had the effect of toning down the plasticy look and making it look more like real, slightly faded stained glass.





2

Chip, real nice job, the stone work is very photogenic

3

very good job,

4

Very nice work! Chip, You should do a tutorial on painting stone work!
I would love to put it on my upcoming web site.
David

5

Beautiful stone work. I can see why it took so long. OK, I remember the old song that went:

One day of prayin’, and six wild nights of fun,
The odds against goin’ to Heaven, six-to-one.

So, Chip, time to get started on that saloon…

6

Now all you need is the good Reverend on the steps, greeting some arriving parishioners – the girls from Tillie’s, in their work clothes (parlor, not bedroom.)

Seriously, beautiful job. Almost (but not quite) makes me wi***hat my prototype was sufficiently Christian to justify owning it. (the Kiso Forest was/is the source of the cedar timbers used to maintain the Ise Shrine, one of the centers of the Shinto religion.)

Chuck

7

Chuck,

I look forward to seeing your Shinto Shrine among the gardens. Be sure the cherry blossoms are on bloom.

8

Great job! Cox47

9

Looks good, you did a good job on it.

10

Very nice mouse! [yeah]

11

Now THAT is something to be proud of, Chip. Very nice! I slap mine together, and they look every inch like it.

-Crandell[:I]

12

I’ve been thinking about his all day. Since I didn’t take pictures of the process, I can’t do a photos essay. I can however, talk about each aspect of the process. Save all the photos, including the box, and I’ll write to them.

13

I can see why it took so long to paint. Amazing job!

14

Well, I’m impressed! The stone work looks like the real thing, no wonder it took so long. I have a building that has just the base in stone and I won’t even consider trying to get it to look as good as yours.
Jarrell

15

Jarrell,

There’s something you don’t see everyday. At least, I’ve never seen it before. I read down to see Jeffery’s comment and saw that you had commented. Then I looked at the forum and neither had your name shown up, nor did the post bump.

Anyone else ever seen that?

Edit: I just counted the mumber of posts and it is off by one. Jarrell, I guess MR doesn’t think your opnion counts.

16

I agree, the stone work looks exceptional, but the shingles and trimwork do too.

Beyoind that, the front door is a piece of art, that is one FINE looking slab of wood.

Great work, Chip!

…I hate to even bring this up, but in the pics, there appears to be just the slightest uneven gap above the large drip mold between the first and second story of the steeple. It might be a lighting issue, but it appears to be a case where some of the paint along that groove adhered to both edges and created a sort of fillet in there, but not all the way across.

If it’s not a trick of the light, I’d think that either another coat of paint in there, would fill it out, or a folded piece of 220 grit would knock down the fillets and make it even all the way across without lessening the shadow line, which is clearly intended to be there.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even mention this, Chip, but I know how you are about your models, and us carpenters have to watch out for each other. Most folks wouldn’t even notice this, but I once worked for a guy who demanded absolute perfection, and he gigged me on door cracks that took long tapered shims around the frame to the exact same depth, but which were still visually uneven, by probably less than a 64th or even a 128th over six feet. Once you’ve been driven to look for these, it’s impossible to unlearn it.

:slight_smile:

Regardless, that is awesome work, museum grade in my book. I’ve already decided that nobody’ else’s work is going on our layout, with the exception of a couple buildings from my dad’s ancient layout, but I’d make an exception for this church.

17

Nice work! Wanna do one for me?

18

There are several places that the photographs pointed out to me. Dang camera can see better than I can. Thanks for noticing the door. It’s my favorite part. It didn’t take long, but I used two colors of paint swirled on the same bru***o get a grain look.

19

Uh, well, uh, no.

20

“Dang camera can see better than I can.”

Now there’s a tip, right there. Thanks, I’ll be putting that to work from here on.

That, uh, door paint process will be in the “how-to”…right?

:slight_smile: