How to paint and weather Adams Ave #1

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi all, since the thread by Downtown Deco, on how to paint and weather the Adams Ave #1, was pulled I thought it would be nice to have a similar one again.

As it happened, I had a kit here that I was going to build anyway. Sure, it´s not as elaborate as Randy´s was, but I think it will show some of the techniques required to paint a Hydrocal kit.

Here is the build:

I had bought three kits from Downtown Deco, which I thought I would use on my layout.
I sat down the night before last and began to put them together.
I started with Adams Ave #1 (and 2 and 3… wich will not be shown so much here)

Last night I had come this far:


Adams Avenue # 2. They have wonderful texture and feel, these kits!


Adams Avenue # 1 & # 3. I have recently rebuilt this part of my layout and the DD kits will look very nice there.

A closer picture, here you can see the background photos (from Kingmill) that will be used as well.
The houses are ready for painting now. and that will not go as fast as building them [:D].

I can highly recommend the Downtown Deco’s kits!
One should be careful though that they are in plaster after all. I was however surprised that the Hydrocal used isn´t as hard as the dental plaster I´m currently working with…
In my kits (Adams #1 & #2) the front walls of the houses had broken (not so surprising after a trip across the Atlantic ocean…), but it was just a matter of using some Loctite CA and glue it toge

2

It is the fact that the plaster sucks the water out of the paint and makes it uneven that is the very reason that I didn’t prime the one I did.

I know that the earlier thread was thinly disguised advertising, but I, for one, don’t mind an instructional thread by a manufacturer that shows us how to complete their products. Who better to demonstrate the proper way to complete the products?

I look forward to following this thread as well.

3

Thanks Dave, I think I will show the painting of Adams Ave #3 as well as it will be different in many ways.

I hope I can inspire someone to take their kits from the shelf and finish ´em [:D]

4

Looks great Michael. You certainly don’t hang about with getting the modelling done.

Jon

5

Thanks, I try to keep up [:D]

I painted the sign on the side wall as well.
The stencil that was in the kit said: “Fast loans”.
Wich I didn´t find suitable for my layouts era (late WW2).
I made my own text instead, wich I placed on the wall and lightly airbrushed the text with a gray/green colour:

I removed the mask and then it looked like this:

The next step was to draw white outlines with a paint marker. I found mine in a artist store.
I Wrote the “Buy” text as well with it:

It doesn´t matter if it isn´t perfect, as you actually will need some hand drawn look in it to suit the weathering style.

This is how it looked after i drew some drop shadows with a regular black sharpie pen and also lightly sanded it to pre-weather it:

I then added a very light Burnt umber wash as well to weather it a bit:

It took no more than an hour to make it, well spent time in my opinion :D.

6

Thanks for picking up the spirit of the original thread. There’s a certain amount of “fear factor” involved with jumping into a new modeling technique, and not many of us are familiar with hydrocal kits. These threads make the task a little less daunting. I am planning to use at least one on my layout, but that is still probably a year or two away.

7

Thanks, I think it was a big “hole” in the knowledge base when they deleted the original thread.

I think it might be time for a MR knowledge center on this Forum that is available for everyone! And that uses such articles as the one from DD.

I think many would use it.

I hope I can help with this thread to make the jump into the unknown a little less fearful!

8

this is how my wife got the kit to look. She used washes of FolkArt acrylic paint.

She also built The Trackside Tavern and is building Addams Ave part 3.

Anyone else as lucky as me?

9

Some updates.
I have built some more on my Downtown Deco buildings, and it’s great to see them painted and detailed.
I have started to paint my Adams Ave # 2:

And I made sure to get some variety on the brick color and concrete.
Then I put some signs on it that I’ve printed out:

Here is how it looks when placed where it is to be on the layout:

Adams Ave # 1 is also being “finished”…

Adams Ave # 3 is also getting some work on it as well:

Now it’s just a bit of lighting and other things that are going to be added…[:D]