As I said last time, I had reached the point where I had to paint before I could finish construction. Here is the base with steps and sidewalk attached. The masking tape covers where the walls will glue to the base. (I hate to scrape paint off flat surfaces to get a good glue joint.) Next I primed the whole base with dark gray Painter's Touch Primer by Rustoleum. White and Red-Brown primers are also available from them. Modellers all have their favorite primers, and these are the only ones I use. After the primer had dried, I masked around the steps and sidewalk. (I'm sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of this.)
Remember I was deciding which shade of blue to use? I went with a shade midway between them. The one kit's plastic was so dark, it almost didn't seem real. The other kit's was light enough to be blue-gray. This is Polly-S Conrail Blue. (Just a little lighter than Game's Workshop's Ultramarine Blue, which I would have used if I had a can left from my Space Marines fling.) I masked off everything but the brickwork.
Removing masking tape is a messy business. You want to remove the tape as soon as possible after spraying. I let the paint dry overnight before masking off everything but the bottom 'concrete' section.
The dock and rear wall together. The wall did not need any masking, except for some strips on the backside where it will be glued.
The front with Annex.
Leftover cement blocks and a fan from a kit window, and I've blocked up two windows. (There will be a smokestack rising there.)
Here you can see one of my goofs. There was a fair amount of paint bleed-under around the doors and vents. This is partly due to not burnishing the tape tight enough to the plastic, and partly to my impatience. I had finished painting the brickwork blue, and cleaned the airbrush, when I decided the trim on the new addition should be the same color blue. Instead of loading the airbrush up again, I decided to hand paint. The problem was I really loaded the brush and slathered it on. It wicked up under the tape. Had I used the airbrush, I wouldn't have had this problem at all. Oh well, a few minutes with a scribe and a chisel blade, and the evidence was mostly gone.
The back wall. I brush painted all the foundations, the stoop, and the steps with my choice of light gray to represent 'concrete.' Also notice the primered base.
The sidewalk on the end, it has some nice cracks in it which will show up after weathering. This was such a large piece that I sprayed it rather than brushing. (Actually, after brush painting all the foundations, I went back with the airbrush and carefully filled-in and evened-out.) Wooo, I need to install some stairs under that upper door before someone gets hurt.
The steps to the dock are 'concrete' too. The fan housing is flat aluminum.
Once the wall sections are glued to the base and to each other (and it won't be long), open joints like the one between the block and the brick will disappear. The next major construction will be the roof for the center section. Another major consideration is what color to paint the window frames. The kit's are molded in a light green, which I kind of like. Plus, I don't want to stray too far from Art's vision.
OK, a little unfinished business. I never really showed the results of thinning the roof over the Annex, from the last post. Here are a couple of shots so you can judge if it was worth the effort.
That's all for now. Tune in next time to see my choice of green for the trim work. Thanks for looking. Don
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