C.A. Gotts Fish Finished

Well C. A. Gotts Wholesale Fish is open for business.  As you can tell they've been around for a while.  Like the sign says, "Quality Seafood, known as the best"!  They should maybe invest in some newer delivery trucks I think.

An aerial view.  The pavement is 1/4" poster board.  It was
1st spray painted with an oil base paint, to prevent warping,
then I etched the the paving lines into it and followed with

a couple coats of Woodland Scenics concrete and an alcohol

and India ink wash.

A mini-metals ice delivery truck was
converted into their seafood delivery truck.
I actually made 2 of them.  I stripped off the
factory applied graphics with some 70%
isopropyl alcohol and then added some
smaller sized signs like those on the building.

The larger loading dock roof is some textured
paper that I did some dry brushing of pumpkin,
pigskin, and burnt sienna acrylic paints.  The decking
has a red wine vinegar and steel wool stain.

The foundation for the smaller is a strip
of Chooch products flexible walls, that's
stained and dry brushed.  The grass is a
bit of flocking from the grass-master and
some strips of tufts that I rip off of rolls
of the Heki long grass mats. Underneath
all of the grass is a fine layer of real sifted
dirt.

Just an opposing side view.  You can see the
sign on the truck and some figures thrown in
for activity.  I lifted up the smaller building with
the stone foundation so it has a larger loading dock
in the front.  You can also see the manhole cover
just to the side of the truck.  It's a simple printed one
that I kind of smushed into the pavement so it's edges
don't stand up.

C.A. Gotts Fish #2

Things are moving along in the fish business...Here's an update of the progress.  Next a little diorama of the scene.

Pre-rolled roofing on the 2 story newer structure

Blue painters tape on all the joints and
you can see the over hang roof rafter
detail.

I spread the rolled roofing with
a coat of Elmers extra strength
glue stick glue.  It's very easy to
apply with your finger.

As you can see the glue starts
out blue, but it dries clear.  It also
rubs right off your finger.

I add more blue painters tape over the
ridge and down the valleys on the roof
I paint over the tape with shades of gray and
metallic's, to simulate a metal ridge cap and
valleys.

I dry brush the rolled roofing with flat black
and white paint.  The sign framing is just scrap
wood and all the raw wood is stained using a
red wine vinegar and steel wool stain.

C. A. Gotts Wholesale Fish Part I

2 Posts in 1 day?  Whew...... Here's a project I've been working on, among many.  It's not really a kit bash per say, but a joining of 2 wood structures to make 1 company, the C.A. Gotts Wholesale Fish company.

       

Kit 1 is the Rabbit Hash store.

It's an  Ok structure, but there's a big

 difference in the quality of the pieces

between the  2 kits.

Kit 2 is the tool and Die Company.  This kit

has better wood, thickness wise and

the instructions were much better.

  

Starting the Tool and Die, using the

Micro-mark framing jig.

Rabbit Hash was the one I did first.  The sign is

too dark.  The building is sitting on a pink foam

base and then I used the self-adhesive wall

material.  I left out the right side windows

because it's where the building's will adjoin.

Here's an overhead shot with weathered and non-weathered rolled roofing material.  I use extra strength Elmers "Blue" glue stix to attach the roofing material (which is just the dark gray construction paper included in the kits).  It's really easy to use.  Simply slide the roofing strip along the face of the paper and lay it down on the roof.  It's really tacky and can be moved around if the placement isn't right. It goes on blue so you can see that you have covered the entire piece of paper, but it dries clear and is paintable.  I dry brushed the roofing after it was all laid out.

More to come.....

Visiting Model Railroader Magazine

It's been a busy summer so far.  However, back in June I paid a quick visit to MRM and was graciously given a tour by Steven Otte.  One of the biggest surprise for me was the the MR&T, the staffs layout was on the 2nd floor.  Don't ask me why, maybe it comes from being so used to seeing folks layouts in their basements, but that's kind of where I expected to see it as well.  I was privileged to see the new project layout, which was just about done at the time of my visit.  Another surprise was that the work shop at MR was much smaller than I thought that it would be.  They really work efficiently within the space they have!  If you ever pay a visit to Kalmbach take full advantage of when they say that you can take pictures.  I could kick myself for not snapping away a lot more!!  It was all so very interesting and Steven was a great tour guide.  Cody was off this day because it was his anniversary with Kalmbach and they are given the day off for it (Nice) and I saw a lot of the other staff working around the place, but I didn't want to bother them as I felt they were alreay doing me a great favor by letting me nose around their world on their time.  Thank you to Steven and all at MRM for a nice visit!  Below are a couple of the far too few photos I took.  However, it does give me a very good excuse to make a return trip!  

   

A look at the new project layout
it's very inspirational to say the least
Kent Johnson is working on a
larger scale layout in the background.

      

This is a coal dump & the main line
run that can be connected to
another section & continue on.

The modelling as you can see
from even my amateur photo's
is exceptional!  Fantastic detailing!

Miners houses near the mine.
Really nice terrain and structures.

  

      

The inspiration for my current layout
"The Beer Line"
It looked even better in person!

Another view of the Beer Line.
This is where, for whatever reason I stopped
taking photos.  Big mistake, because right
around the corner of this hallway that the
beer line is in is the MR&T.