Little Gold House
I'm finishing up my latest wood structure kit - this one is by Mountaineer Precision Products (Kit #1) called "Historic Little Blue House - LaGrange, Kentucky". It's based on a real structure that is still standing in Kentucky. As you can see I didn't finish it in blue. I usually don't finish a structure in the same color as the kit shows and I prefer gold for this kit.
The kit has a 6" x 5" footprint and is well made. The gold color is actually a chaulk that I rubbed on the wood. I really like the way it doesn't fill the pores of the wood and allows the grain to show.
The foundation is kind of wacky in that it's two layers of wood. I used putty to fill the crack between the layers and painted it a concrete gray.
The differences in the shades of gold is the natural result of applying the chaulk and then handling the structure.
The roof stack didn't come with the kit. It's a piece of brass tubing that is drilled out the inside to thin the wall. The metal roof is painted gray, then brushed with a very thin solution of metalic silver and thinner. I used chaulks to add dirt and rust to the silver/gray.
All the pictures of the kit show three chimneys; however, the kit only came with two and the roof was only notched for two.
There were some fairly large gaps where the chimneys went into the roof. I used my old "tar" formula to fill the gaps (gray paint & white glue). I take some of the tar out of the bottle and let it dry and thicken to the point where it will fill the gaps.
See those two verticle lines? I don't know what caused them!
The porch columns are plastic. I liked the detail wood work on the front of the porch. The little house will probably be part of the neighborhood in the back of Hoovertown.
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Comments
Very nice!
That's a nice little model. Thanks for showing it.
Dave
Working on the N Scale chainsaw
N Scale '70s/80s era
HO Scale "Collector" '70s/80s era
GMT-6
Nice model
Thanks for sharing this. You did a great job. And thanks for sharing some of your techiques (chalk rub; roof "tar" mix); I've added them to my notebook. I noticed you added weathering low on the walls, a detail many times not noticed on the prototype, so not added to the model. It's another thing that adds to the authenticity of the scene.
Could the vertical lines on the left end be from interior glue lines that soaked through a bit?
Thanks, again.
Don
Rincon Pacific Rwy, 1960. HO scale std. gauge - interchange with SP.
DCC-NCE, CMRI, JMRI
Great weathering
Your weathering is great!! I agree with the comment on the lower level splash up.
Harold
Little Gold House
Dave,
Thank you for your kind words.
Rick
http://richlawnrailroad.com/?page_id=497
Time Zone: GMT - 4
The Richlawn Railroad - Featuring the L&N
Little Gold House
Don,
I appreciate you kind comments. You have a sharp eye on picking up on the dirt along the bottom of the walls. You were also right on about the glue causing the vertical lines. When I checked the inside of the structure I have 1/8" square wood supports glued on those areas to keep from warping. I think in the future that I will seal the interior walls with a sealer before gluing on the supports...and use less glue.
By the way, on my "tar" it is important when filling large gaps to let the mixture start to set up until it's pretty thick so it won't just flow thru the gaps. For bigger gaps I stuff some tissue paper in the gap first. It may take a few coats of the tar to fill / level the are.
Rick
http://richlawnrailroad.com/?page_id=497
Time Zone: GMT - 4
The Richlawn Railroad - Featuring the L&N
Little Gold House
Harold,
Thank you! I do my final weathing once the structure is on the layout under it's usual lighting and among the colors of the landscape.
Rick
http://richlawnrailroad.com/?page_id=497
Time Zone: GMT - 4
The Richlawn Railroad - Featuring the L&N
Would sealig the wood before gluing affect the bond?
I'm wondering if sealing the inside of the wood before gluing in the reinforcement might cause the bond to fail when you glue it. It occurs to me that perhaps painting a thin coat of glue to the inside of the wood walls as you glue the supports in place would cause the entire exterior to have a uniform color. The color of the stripes aren't a bad color, just enough different from the rest of the building to be noticed. I think I would experiment with a piece of bass wood before trying something with a laser kit.
Nice
Nice structure Rick. Thanks for the photos.
Rob Spangler
Nice!
Great looking structure.
The weathering is exceptional IMO.
Thanks for sharing it.
Any tips on weathering a structure like this?
Foundation Question
Rick,
I took particular interest in your post becuase the little gold house is very similar to houses in Kitzmiller MD an area I plan to model. Thanks for posting it. It looks great.
I have a question about the foundation relative to the time period. What year would this house have been built? Was it typical to use a concrete foundation at that time?
The prototypical information I have collected for Kitzmiller so far (admittingly very incomplete) shows no concrete foundations. They are all stone block or brick, or combination thereof. I really like your foundation method as I think it will look very good once "embedded" into the scene. If this foundation is correct for the house then I will incorporate a few into the Kitzmiller scene. Hopefully they will come out as nice as yours.
-a
Alan
Walk-in, Double Deck, HO, 1969, Freelance, 28'x32', DCCwww.LKOrailroad.com