Hi everyone!
I am just starting into this hobby and I finished my first model. It’s a co-op storage shed from Walthers. My goal was to make it look old and dirty.
What do you think? Should I add some details or is there something else I could do to improve it?
Hey, [#welcome] to the forum! Your first posting will be moderated, so please be patient. That building looks terrific! If you want us to be picky, I would say that there could be more rust on the roof. You could also add some lights. If it will be some kind of depot near tracks, you could add ramps and decks, with some crates and feed sacks. Workers hauling things will make it come alive too. Otherwise, it’s nice as is!
Simon
Looks really good to me. Will it be displayed in the foreground? If so, more detail may be in order. Depending on the era, maybe an electrical drop with a meter and exterior light fixtures. For a background model it looks fine the way it is. Most additional details will probably be on the ground around the shed. Things like weeds, empty barrels, pallets, delivery vehicles, busted sacks, etc. Great work, especially for a first model!
Outstanding work for a first shot! [bow]
Paint and weathering are actually the toughest part of modeling in my mind. At least that’s what I feel about my own work.
Yes, more detail is in order. You could go ahead on the building itself, to a certain degree. However, things like a power drop connection might be better determined once you have a site to place it at. The same goes with a host of details that could be adjacent to the building.
Sometimes it’s better to get this far and pause, waiting for more inspiration when you plant it, as well as whatever may occur to you out of the blue between now and then. Don’t be afraid to detail it now, though, if the impulse strikes. I have old buildings I reuse and the changes you can make are often a lot of fun in themselves.
Brava on your first weathering effort? I too have that shed. It’s a nice addition to your layout.
Perhaps add some gutters to it or small industrial structures (pallets, crates, etc.)?
It looks like the large doors are separate pieces. Are they still removeable? When I see large doors, I want to open one of them up and build a small “shadow-box” interior, in this case with boxes and bags stacked inside. It gives you an opportunity to light a building in what otherwise might be a dark corner.
[#welcome]
A lovely model. As others have mentioned, add items around, figures etc. People on the way in. People with their purchases. It makes the building and gives a reason to be there. ‘A living building’ part of a Living Model Railroad.
If you are not sure where to put the ‘little people’, go to any store; sit in your car and people watch. A multitude of things happen.
Have people doing little things. Stop walking to the store and turning to check little Johnny is following. Another locking (or unlocking) the automobile door are just a couple. Dare to be different.
Look forward to see more.
David
In addition to what others have said, I would dry brush a little rust on the roof ventilator. Consider putting a poster or advertisement on a wall.
Nice work!
Hi ModelTrain,
I think it looks pretty good! I like some of the suggestions that others have made, like having one of the doors open showing a few inside details. I love lighting as well, especially if you plan on running your trains at night.
Other details like docks and detrius around the shed will add to the scene, and as David (NorthBrit) suggested, figures can add a lot. You might want to study his layout to see some examples of the sort of story telling with figures that he referred to. He is quite good at it.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/284615.aspx
We look forward to seeing your future work. You are off to a good start.
Cheers!!
Dave
Thank you Simon for the welcome.
I built this building to make it look like it’s made of wood so I think rust would be out of the question for the roof no?
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It is unlikely that your roof would be made of wood only. The vertical lines on the roof are designed to mimic standing seam metal roofing. In other words, the roof is made with long strips of metal that go from the eaves to the ridge, and they are joined together with an overlapping seam that stands up perpendicular to the roof surface.
Metal roofing for industrial structures in the 60s would typically be galvanized, although it could be painted any colour you want. If the galvanized roof was new it would be a matt silver/gray, but it usually didn’t take long before rust would start to show. Your weathering on the roof suggests a much older installation.
I think that the easiest thing to do would be to leave it as is. If you want to model a galvanized roof looks newer, go back and paint it silver and then add as many vertical rust stains as you want. Using dry brushing will give the best results for the rust stains. If you want to get really detailed, you could just show some rust towards one side of each of the panels. The application of the galvanizing was often uneven so it is very common to see panels from the same production run with more rust on one side than the other.
The other thing you could add is a ridge cap. There might even be one in the kit. If one wasn’t supplied, a ridge cap could be made out of heavy paper (manila envelope or file folder).
As far as cutting out a door, don’t be afraid to try it. Use a fresh x-acto blade and just score the edge of the door repeatedly. Eventually the cut will go through. You may have to put a partial floor in the building where the open door is. The leftover parts in the kit might be suitable for that.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Dave
Hi Bear,
Okay, be like that![swg][(-D][(-D]
Those roofs would be neat to model.
I hope you realize that I was referring specifically to the OP’s project. I didn’t intend to imply that there were no wooden roofs at all. I edited my introductory sentences to make my comment more focused.
Cheers!!
Dave
[quote user=“hon30critter”]
ModelTrain
I built this building to make it look like it’s made of wood so I think rust would be out of the question for the roof no? Maybe it doesn’t look like it’s made of wood?
It is unlikely that your roof would be made of wood only. The vertical lines on the roof are designed to mimic standing seam metal roofing. In other words, the roof is made with long strips of metal that go from the eaves to the ridge, and they are joined together with an overlapping seam that stands up perpendicular to the roof surface.
Metal roofing for industrial structures in the 60s would typically be galvanized, although it could be painted any colour you want. If the galvanized roof was new it would be a matt silver/gray, but it usually didn’t take long before rust would start to show. Your weathering on the roof suggests a much older installation.
I think that the easiest thing to do would be to leave it as is. If you want to model a galvanized roof looks newer, go back and paint it silver and then add as many vertical rust stains as you want. Using dry brushing will give the best results for the rust stains. If you want to get really detailed, you could just show some rust towards one side of each of the panels. The application of the galvanizing was often uneven so it is very common to see panels from the same production run with more rust on one side than the other.
The other thing you could add is a ridge cap. There might even be one in the kit. If one wasn’t supplied, a ridge cap could be made out of heavy paper (manila envelope or file folder).
As far as cutting out a door, don’t be afraid to try it. Use a fresh x-acto blade and just score the edge of the door repeatedly. Eventually the cut will go through. You may have to put a partial floor in the building where the open door is. The leftover parts in the
Here is another picture of my shed.
A ridge cap could be as simple as a piece of sheet metal, bent into an inverted"V", at the roof’s ridge, which matches the slope of the roof, but there are also other types, such as double ones, where the roof sheathing is slipped into a gap between two connected "V"s, the sheathing sitting atop the lower one, and under the upper one. Its purpose is to keep the roof from leaking at the ridge.
If you’re from southern Canada, my guess would be Welland, Ontario, where there’s always been a fairly prominent French-speaking community.
Those Walthers structures are included with several of Walthers larger kits, as outbuildings. They do have a floor supported by the pilings…
Here’s one at V.A.Wagner’s lumber yard in Lowbanks…
Here’s an aerial view of the lumber yard…
The structure at right was picked-up off the “used” table at a now long-gone hobbyshop. I tidied it up a bit, then added the electric meter and the chimney. The two structures at left were scratchbuilt, somewhat compressed versions of their prototypes.
This is the same warehouse kit, but I built it on a “concrete” foundation (.060" sheet styrene)…
…and a view from the other side…<
We wouldn’t have known, your English is excellent. If you look at the pic of the roof from directly overhead, you will notice there is a seam where the left side meets the right side, at the top.
Just like your model this would exist in real life with either shingles or metal. A ridge cap overlaps the peak of the roof to cover the seam. On metal roofs it would be metal.
That is really something to be proud of. Your weathering is remarkable. For a first attempt, that is unbelievable.
As others have pointed out, there is some room for improvement, but I would not touch those walls at all.
[Y]
-Kevin
[quote user=“doctorwayne”]
A ridge cap could be as simple as a piece of sheet metal, bent into an inverted"V", at the roof’s ridge, which matches the slope of the roof, but there are also other types, such as double ones, where the roof sheathing is slipped into a gap between two connected "V"s, the sheathing sitting atop the lower one, and under the upper one. Its purpose is to keep the roof from leaking at the ridge.
ModelTrain
From: Southern Canada
Because I speak normally french, there are some english expressions I have never heard of like “ridge cap”. What is a ridge cap exactly?
If you’re from southern Canada, my guess would be Welland, Ontario, where there’s always been a fairly prominent French-speaking community.
Those Walthers structures are included with several of Walthers larger kits, as outbuildings. They do have a floor supported by the pilings…
Here’s one at V.A.Wagner’s lumber yard in Lowbanks…
Here’s an aerial view of the lumber yard…
The structure at right was picked-up off the “used” table at a now long-gone hobbyshop. I tidied it up a bit, then added the electric meter and the chimney. The two structures at left were scratchbuilt, somewhat compressed versions of their prototypes.
This is the same warehouse kit, but I built it on a “concrete” foundation (.060" sheet styrene)…
Hi ModelTrain,
The Tamiya weathering kit would probably have the right colours to mimic rust. Otherwise you could use some of the reddish brown paints that you used on the roof already.
Are you familiar with ‘dry brushing’? That is where you take a brush (preferably a rather stiff brush), get a bit of paint on it, and then wipe most of the paint off on a paper towel. The small amount of paint left of the brush will give you a rust pattern that is feathered at the edges just like the real thing. It may take several applications to get the depth of rust that you want.
This is a rather crude example (one of my first attempts at scratchbuilding). The picture makes the rust look darker than it is. You can see the ridge cap too:
Dave