Building a Background Building | 2 Comments - Click Here :

    Keith Hayes - A challenge we face as modelers is that kit builders design buildings for street appeal. Except that most railroads run along the sides of buildings or at the rear. In Leadville, the railroad runs along the long side of lots, so there should be lots of building sides, not ends facing the track. I am always on the lookout for a good building side. During a recent visit to Silverton, I found a great stone building with a neat painted sign.

     One thing I look for is a nice window and door composition. The fact that this building is stone also caught my eye. I have the perfect spot for this building, right at the Depot lead. I also discovered a great product manufactured by Chooch—peel and stick stone made from urethane. I had given some to Darel and he showed how he used this on his well cistern. Here is an opportunity to make a whole building!

    I selected some Grandt windows and doors and created a styrene substructure from 0.040 Evergreen sheet. I used braces liberally, and as I wanted to simulate a building with thick, structural stone walls, I set the windows in about ¼”. Were I to do it again, I would have made the openings a bit wider (or even flared them) to account for the thickness of the urethane sheet.

    I forget what the front of the prototype is, but I had some styrene brick sheet, and used this for the front, along with a storefront window from Grandt. I also used a piece of strip styrene to simulate a cut stone header. I also built up a cornice from pieces of strip styrene.

    I applied the stone to the side, and was sure to cut the stone on the end (and the brick) to create the appearance that the stone and brick are weaved together. At the windows, I carefully marked where the openings were in the substructure on the urethane, and sliced the urethane at the top and bottom of the openings and down the middle. Then I carefully sliced the top face of the stone at the two side jambs and folded the stone back into the openings. I filled the fresh gap at the corner with Squadron Putty, though Golden’s Gloss Medium or some white glue could work as well. I also filled the vertical joints at the head of each opening to create a continuous stone header.

    The urethane is cast in a stony tan color with a bit of a white wash. It is flexible and porous, and paintable, but fussy. I overworked the color, and in the end, painted the stone with craft paints, and hand painted each mortar joint to get the effect of a thick-set stone joint.

    I have yet to finish the sign on the building, which will be a nice, large painted billboard sign. There will be a board fence (from Bar Mills) to further help hide the building base and provide some layering. Try this stone product on a background building—it comes in several sizes and is easy to work with.

Keith Hayes

Leadville in Sn3