Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou

Thankyou  for including the addendum on how you fixed the mistake.  An illustrated description of the success path is useful, but what do to do to fix mistakes is rare in a publication yet that is real world.

Peter

Thank YOU!

Thank YOU Peter for taking the time to leave a comment! Glad you enjoyed the article and found the "fix" part useful. I agree - it's nice to see how folks address the mistakes they inevitably make. I find it provides a lot of confidence to go ahead and try something new if you know you have a decent chance of getting out of any holes you dig for yourself :^)

Chris

Congrats Chris!

Great article and congrats on having it published in MRH!

Rob Gross

A Farmhouse for Goff Brook

Great "build" article. Excellent photo documentation. I felt like I was at the author's workbench. The part I hate most about modeling buildings is light-proofing the interior walls, but Chris wasn't scared and maybe I shouldn't be either. Loved the back-story too.

LehighVic

Thanks Rob! Hope to see some

Thanks Rob! Hope to see some of your work there soon as well!

Thanks LehighVic!

Really appreciate the feedback and your taking the time to leave a comment. Yeah, light-proofing the walls - heh, as you read - can be a bit sketchy. But one of the lessons I'm learning in this hobby (and, unfortunately, have to continue learning over and over again) is to dive right in. That's certainly not my usual bent, but this project certainly gave me a chance to exercise my "ReWorkIt" muscles a bit.

Glad you liked the photos too - I hope my skills in that area improve with time. But the backstory, I can't take too much credit for - having John Wallace and all his memories around is a real treasure.

Thanks again for your post!

Chris

What if?

What would your approach have been if that excellent kit had not been available?

6 in my future

Great article Chris!  I really enjoyed the read and watching your technique.  I've had 6 of these kits waiting for my coal company town in Ashley Creek.  Your article has me itching to jump forward on my layout and build them!  "Patience, I must learn patience . . . "

Scratchbuilding

Hey Graham Line and thanks for leaving a comment! That's a good question, without a great answer. But I suppose I might have skipped including it - which would have been a shame considering the story behind it. This scene is located right near the end of a peninsula and could easily be "gray space" where your eyes would just glance over generic scenery on the way to the next detailed scene.

But I'd already done a nice bit of work on a bridge scene there over Goff Brook, so it was already a fairly detailed scene (i.e. no eyes just glancing over it) and, of course, John weighed in with his personal reminisces about the area. So at that point there was no easy way around it :^)

So, to answer your question directly - I would eventually have scratchbuilt it, but it would not have gotten done nearly as quickly. Since I found a suitable kit, I was able to put it at the top of my to-do list and knock it off relatively easily. But since I've only just started scratchbuilding, I would have put that sort of project further down the list. Though - admittedly - it would have made a nice first-time scratchbuilding project.

Heh - I guess all that is a long way of just saying "I would have scratchbuilt it." :^)

Chris

Thanks anteaum2666!

Thanks for your feedback! I was really hoping that this article would encourage folks to dive in and try this kit, so I'm glad if it's given you a little push to do the 6 on your bench. I hope you'll post some photos when you do!

Chris

Good job

I liked the article, it was an excellent "how I did that" article in that it seems to show exactly the stuff that needed it. I always get so annoyed by articles (especially in MR) that don't show what I feel are key steps in a build process and only describe them. I saw nothing like that in this case.

The subject was great, too. You hardly ever see articles on structures like this, even though they're everywhere in rural areas. Sure, a farm house may be to 'plain Jane' in a world where everyone would rather build dazzling structures (anyone remember that editorial in MR about the number of haunted houses and pickle factories on layouts?) or just the RR-used ones.

I don't model in the scale of this structure so I'll never be able to re-create the work, but it gave me ideas in case I ever decide to swap out any structures on my own On30 layout or build a photo diorama...

Thanks Lee!

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and especially for your great feedback. As my first article, I wanted to try and strike a good balance between detailed instructions and overdoing it. And your point about the "plain Jane" nature of such structures is spot on - but even nondescript buildings have something to contribute to the story of your layout. Not everybody is as fortunate to have someone on-hand that can provide an actual true backstory for such a generic structure, but that shouldn't keep us from imagining the stories that every structure has to tell. Life is/was lived there and the best modeling conveys that. I really hope I'm on my way to learning how to do that myself!

Thanks again Lee!

Chris

Wall light proofing

Did I miss part of article? How did you light proofing walls?

RE: Wall light proofing

I masked the window areas (to keep overspray from getting to the front and to keep paint off areas where I'd have to glue window glass in) and then shot the backs/insides of the walls with a flat black spray paint.

But that created a problem: the areas that had been masked - and didn't get hit with black paint - would still let light through the walls(!!). So I went back with a black sharpie and blackened those areas.

I figure there's gotta be a better way, but I ultimately decided just to not bother lighting the house %^)

If you - or any others - have suggestions for how I can do better in the future, please let me know!

Wall Light Proofing

I don't know how this is going to work out, but I just built a freight house with an interior scene.  To light proof it, I lined the interior of the building with black electrical tape.  It would have been a lot easier to do BEFORE I installed the lighting and scene itself, so there was lots of fiddling and cutting involved.  I'll post pictures when I get it installed and try out the lighting.

Great Article

Love building structures!  Article was very informative and house turned out great!

Joe

Fantastic!

So many wonderful articles about trains and industries, a really nice change of pace with a beautiful model and realistic weathering! Thank You!

After reading your write up.

After reading your write up. It has sealed the deal to purchase this style of house for my company houses.

Phil

RE: Wall Light Proofing

That's a great tip about using electrical tape to black out the walls. Would love to see the pics when you can post them!

RE: Great Article

Thanks very much for the compliment Joe! I'm glad you enjoyed the article!

RE: Fantastic!

Thanks very much dathbain! I'm glad you appreciated the change of pace a bit and your compliment on the weathering was especially nice, especially since I was so nervous weathering this structure after the time it took to build it! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!

RE: After reading your write up.

Thanks Phil! I'd hoped that the article would encourage folks to give this kit a try. It's a pretty simple build, but can also provide a great base for further detailing if you wish. Of course, it'll be perfect for company houses - especially in the 3-kit pack :^)

I hope you'll post some pictures of your build when you get a chance!

Electrical Tape Lightproofing

Hi Chris,

I wired up my freighthouse over the weekend and tried out the lighting.  I'm happy to announce that the black electrical tape did an excellent job lightproofing the structure.  I've posted a couple of quick photos below.  The first is with the room lights on, and the second with the lights off.  I see no light leaks evident, and the walls aren't glowing, so I'll claim success!

REALLY like this tip!

Sorry I'm just now seeing this – but really amazing photos! Thanks so much for posting them! It looks like this tip is going to work out really well for future black out applications. Thanks again for taking the time to post the pics – and thanks again for your kind words on the article!

Chris