Hallo Herr Stuhr,

I used standard model paints to paint it. I knew the facade was sandstone, so I took a piece of sprue to the hobby shop and started looking at military colors. I wanted a flat finish for the color coat and Arika Braun '42 was the closest match to the plastic color I could find. I bought some 15 jars of the paint and poured it into a clean one quart paint can and added the quantity of thinner the manufacturer recommended. For the final color coat I wanted to use an airbrush so I could get into tight corners and windows without getting a heavy buildup on the adjacent areas. I also decided to spray a light coat of primer before I sprayed the color coat. The paint companies claim primer will provide a better "bite" to the plastic and I wanted a light base color under the Africa Braun color coat. I knew if it came out too light, that I could darken it with the weather pastels.

The weathering pastels are a Spanish product called Vallejo Pigments. These are standard pastels ground down to a very fine powder. They are offered in packets of four different colors. I used mostly the browns and red. They are applied with makeup brushes. The larger brushes provided the best effect. If you find that it's too heavy or too much, small triangular sponges used to remove makeup will pick it right off the surface. This was a perfect technique to make the mortar on the brick interior stand out. Once I had it where I wanted, I sealed it with a dust coat of Testors flat clear lacquer. The lacquer will mute the pastels. If the weathering is too light, apply some more pastels and then spray a second clear coat.

I also managed to find a perfect match for the grey plastic. Model Master makes both a spray and brush color that was perfect. For some reason the jar is called engine grey and the spray is called Panzer grey, but they both have the same Federal Stock number- FS 36076. Since this was a perfect match for the grey, I did not prime those items before applying the grey.

https://www.micromark.com/weathering.html

https://www.micromark.co...tel-brush-set,11344.html

http://shop.cinemasecret...recut-makeup-sponge.html


The order of finish application from left to right:







At the moment, I am taking a break from the station. I needed to get away from it for a while and I also need to build, test and tune another slot car for a Proxy race beginning in two months. I have the good fortune of running the number 1 plate and want to enter the best car I can. While winning the series is difficult and may not be in the cards for me this year, I also want to make sure the number 1 car is not an embarrassment either.

I should be back at in in about 4-6 weeks.

Hello Tom,

I suffered a mild setback with the roof, but I have that sorted out now and I am very close.

The center roof panels are fixed (glued) in place and the panels to either side lay in place with a small lap joint where they butt together. Once I had the center panels glued in, I discovered another alignment problem. The two panels were to far apart where they meet at the peak. So I had to remove them and separate the two pieces forming the two assemblies and work backwards to get it correct. First I glued the small panels to the center outer sidewall. Then I worked on the placement of the two larger panels that reach up to the peak. When I got the gap where I needed it for the peak, I had a gap at the seam in the roof.



So I am in the process of filling the rather large gap with model hobby putty and then sanding it smooth. The gap was large and deep enough that it will take more than one or even two coats of putty to get it just right. The putty shrinks as it dries so one coat isn't going to get it where I want.







Once I have the gap filled and painted it will essentially be finished.

I need to get back at it and put it to bed.

After all these months, Progress!

I had worked this kit fast and furious for several months, clearing each problem as they presented themselves. Then the roof problem. I needed a break. So I got the roof panels fit so I knew I could move forward and took some time away from it. The problem is, when you get away from a project, it can be hard to get back. I loath filling and sanding. It is just so tedious. But I have the seams all filled now and it is ready for paint. It took four coats of filler to get it where I wanted. Three to fill the seam and a fourth to clean up the small voids you get as you spread the filler with a spatula. When wiped with a damp sponge it looks good. A smooth transition from filler to plastic. Now I just need the weather to break. It is too large to fit in my paint booth, so I'll have to spray it in the garage with the door open. Hopefully we'll get the temperature I need in a couple weeks.





Edit: An experiment. The filler looked great when wet, but sometimes you can't tell for sure until there is some color on the filler. Since masking this will be a big job, I decided to brush some grey onto the filler to see how it looks. To my satisfaction, it looks great. I'll lightly sand it to remove the brush strokes and I am satisfied it truly is ready for paint. The pieces in same order as above:

Edited by user 30 March 2015 03:16:03(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Now that my enthusiasm has been renewed, I am forging ahead.

I glued the three left and three right roof assemblies together forming one big left panel and right panel. The fit between the pieces was going to leave an open joint since they didn't fit each other exactly. I followed the instructions creating three assemblies for each side and then found I had some trouble getting them to fit together just right. So I decided I needed to glue the three assemblies together into one complete piece. If you are building a station of your own, my recommendation is to glue the six panels that make up one side all together, then glue in the six ribs that connect the panels across the peak. If you glue the ribs in first, they will cause some trouble as you twist them to get the panel sections to line up. I actually had mine all perfectly square. I glued the ribs to one piece, fabricated a go-no go gauge from a block of wood to get them all at the same spacing across the peak and while gluing in the opposite roof panel I placed the assembly on a table with back light and pushed them into position so no light was seen under either roof panel. This placed them square to each other and all panels had the same spacing across the peak. Even then they did not line up side by side the way I wanted, forcing me to glue them together into the left and right halves.

Then I found they were an 1/8 inch to long. No surprise really since the pieces that formed the track platform were also an 1/8 inch to long. So I marked how much I needed to remove



Cut a piece of wood to support the roof...



...and then sanded off the material that had to go...



...once I was close, I sanded the rest by hand.

The complete station with the roof and peak in place. The seven pieces that form the peak are also all glued together. I am going to glue a thin metal plate to the the left and right halves of the roof and then hold the peak in place with magnets.





Now I need to paint and weather the roof pieces and it is finished other than the lighting and interior details for the train platforms. Once it is finished I will take it outside and do some detail and overall photos with a digital SLR camera.

I couldn't find any light fixtures that were the era I wanted and had warm white LEDs. So I have had to make my own. I got the lamp shades from Walthers and the rest is brass tube and U channel. The U channel will rest on the pieces that form the roof support, the same pieces that support the catenary.

The building masked and ready to paint the two center roof panels



Painted and a few streaks of dirt for weathering



The paint for the two side roof panels should be here Monday. I have to paint those and the peak and install 24 light fixtures and it will be finished less the Preiserlings. A few more hours. Phew!

Hi Matt,

A picture I have been hoarding from the web

Don't entirely let it distract you from your current course of action tho



I think I got it from Google earth, it was probably taken from the Radisson Hotel

Hello Glen, I thought I would answer your questions here and not hijack Shane's thread with all his great news. Just to re-iterate, great score Shane, it is a fun challenge.

The peak sits precariously on the roof. There is also some places where the peak does not make contact with the roof. I bought some round rare earth magnets with a counter sunk hole in the center. I am going to screw these to plastic thick wall tubing and then glue the tubing inside the peak. Similar to the body mounting posts I make for my scratch build slotcars. I'll work the length of the tubing so it will pull the peak down in contact with the roof. This will also hold it in place and it will not be as likely to fall off. I glued some 22 gauge metal plates to the center roof panel ribs and to the ribs of the left and right roof panels. They can be seen in the picture below. This will provide the metal needed for the magnets which I believe are literally on a slow boat from China.



I need to place some streaks of dirt on the left and right roof panels and clear coat them. Our weather the past week has been below normal temps and quite damp. The clear lacquer will fog and dry cloudy in the high humidity causing those panels to not match the finished center roof panels, so I am waiting for a nice day. These come infrequently in the Midwest US in April.

The 24 light fixtures were not as time consuming as I had predicted. I looked high and low for an LED fixture that would fit Era 3 and decided they just didn't exist. The thought of scratch building 24 lamps was a bit off putting, but it went quickly. I made a jig to help me along the way. First I had to get the right angle between the U channel and the 1/16 inch tubing. A few trial and errors later with a radial arm saw, I got the angle I needed. Then I held the tube to the left side of the vertical groove and soldered the two pieces together.



Now the reflector. The wire in the wood piece has a slight bend in it, this kept the 1/16 inch OD brass tube in the proper relationship to the shade. A bit of heat again from the soldering iron and some silver solder flowed into the joint and they were ready for paint.



Wiring went much easier than I thought. I was able to do five an hour. 24 ready to glue into place:



I have tried to make everything serviceable, or where it would be impossible to reach, permanent. The track is screwed into place with machine screws and nuts with nyloc inserts so they will never come loose. I have decided for wiring the lights I will place two copper 1/16 inch tubes at the peak running the length of the building. The wire for each pair of lights on a roof truss will be soldered to the two copper tubes. If a light should fail, a little heat from a soldering iron and it will be easily isolated from the rest of the lamps. No need to cut off shrink tubing and trying to work with wire connections that become too short in length as you may need to remake a connection. I will glue the light fixtures in place with a hot glue gun. I have found hot glue very reliable and easily removed when needed. I am waiting for the copper tubing. I plan to mark the roof truss placement on the tubing, mask those areas and paint the rest of it grey to match the interior of the roof.

I re-read this thread earlier today. About a year ago I said that all that was left was the roof. It seemed such an easy task then.

I feel like the urchin in the movie looking in through the window at all the people enjoying themselves ...



I wondered where the bat had come from that has appeared in the left hand side of the picture ... then I realised what the big black shape was ...