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This is a scratch build from a few years ago. It is the biggest structure I've designed and built so far. Designed to represent a big old wooden mill building which expanded as business grew...in this case The Norfolk Shirt factory. It was a huge hunk to handle especially once it reached its final completion stage. It completely fills a corner and provides a couple freight car loads per operating session. All the exterior siding is hand cut scrap wood veneer, applied board by board. The only commercial product used in this build was the window/door castings. Total cost maybe $20 bux, and three months of evenings. Hope you like it...

Bob

Norfolk Shirt Project [120)Norfolk Shirt Project [121)IMG_0647

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W&W posted:
Boo Man posted:

 

I am painting my backdrop.  Here is a before and after.  

Boo Man,   Your backdrop looks great.  Are you an artist??

 

Yes.  I'm a B.S. artist, but not a painter.  

I painted the concrete walls blue and then did the clouds using white spray paint and cloud stencils several years ago.  The clouds took a couple hours to do.  Getting back into my layout, I was interested in improving the background before moving forward.  

I searched Youtube for painting backdrops and came across Chris Lyon's videos on painting backdrops. His youtube name is CNLVN.  "PART 1: PAINTING BACKDROPS FOR LARGE LAYOUTS" is the first of five videos he has posted.  Search either to find him.  In the five part series, he covers exactly what you need to do it and actually does 25 feet of wall on a guys layout.  He demonstrates all the techniques.  I just watched the vids over a couple times to make sure I was duplicating his technique.    

The 19 feet you see pictured only took me 3 hours to paint.  I am not done because I am going to add foreground trees and bushes.  The entire premise of his technique is to create depth. I worked on the 35 foot wall yesterday and got about 27 feet across in 2 hours.  Chris's technique is easy and fun.  I was intimidated at first to start, but after doing it for a while found anyone can do it.   

If anyone's interested, I got the paints out of Singapore.  It was a place called Overjoyed.  $9.17 for 500ml of the Pebeo paints he used.  I could not find those paints except in 60ml and 100ml tubes for much more than that price in the U.S.  When you buy $70.00, Overjoyed eats the shipping costs.  The brushes I used were purchased at Michaels.  Just to give you an idea, I used a little less than one 500ml of primary yellow and maybe a quarter of the 500ml of mars black to do this 19 feet.  The paint is going farther than I thought it would.  I bought too much.  

I recommend the technique.  You'll spend more time watching the videos and chasing down the materials than actually doing the painting.  That's great!!!

 Flanger's fantastic building would look great in front of this type of backdrop.  I also love the difference in the detailing between the siding and the main in Flanger's shot.  That's exceptional work.  

 

Last edited by Boo Man
flanger posted:

This is a scratch build from a few years ago. It is the biggest structure I've designed and built so far. Designed to represent a big old wooden mill building which expanded as business grew...in this case The Norfolk Shirt factory. It was a huge hunk to handle especially once it reached its final completion stage. It completely fills a corner and provides a couple freight car loads per operating session. All the exterior siding is hand cut scrap wood veneer, applied board by board. The only commercial product used in this build was the window/door castings. Total cost maybe $20 bux, and three months of evenings. Hope you like it...

Bob

Norfolk Shirt Project [120)Norfolk Shirt Project [121)IMG_0647

Beautiful building and scene. Looks great!

I am finishing up on a three bay locomotive shed (need to place decals).

The one part of this build that was different was the customer specification that the lights run off of track power. Since the lights I use have a 16V maximum rating I sought help on the forum and gunrunnerjohn came though. I soldered 1N4001 rectifying diodes to the power line running to each group of three bulbs. This effectively changed the voltage waveform from AC to DC and cut the peak voltage in half. With a transformer running 18.5 VAC the voltage across the lamps is 7.5 VDC. The lamps are rated for 16 volts max so there is plenty of leeway.

Joe

3 Bay Locomotive Shed 0013 Bay Locomotive Shed 0023 Bay Locomotive Shed 0033 Bay Locomotive Shed 0053 Bay Locomotive Shed 0063 Bay Locomotive Shed 007

 

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  • 3 Bay Locomotive Shed 007

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