I will be attempting to build Sierra West's Wood Cutter's Shack for the Summer Challenge. I am building this for my friend Allan Gartner's High Anxiety RR HO layout. I plan to build it pretty much out of the box, as the details and additional work needed to make it a 30's era rundown shack will challenge my skills enough. Wish me luck, I am a contest virgin! hock:

Wow, look at all that detail!

You're right Kevin. This kit is full of details. It is a true craftsman kit with all the stock wood to measure and cut and bags full of tiny tools, junk, etc. There is an entire chapter in the construction book (50+ pages) dedicated just to painting and weathering all the details. I am looking forward to taking this step to challenge my modeling skills. Sierra West makes some really nice stuff -http://sierrawestscalemodels.com/. Although they are very pricey, I'm sure it's a worthwhile addition to the quality layouts here on THE Gauge...

I love those craftsman kits and all the details that come with them. They don't fit my era, but I do enjoy looking at them. I'm looking forward to seeing the completed project.

OK, here we go with step one... The wood for construction of the building frame, siding and trim has been separated into 3 bags. The first step will be to stain the wood, keeping each bag separate. The method of staining is going to be new to me. Instead of brushing or wiping on the stain, I am going to soak each bag in a separate container for varying times to get a variety of shades of wood.

The mixture is in an old spaghetti sauce jar consisting of approximately 20 oz water, a couple of teaspoons each of india ink, Polly Grimy Black, Polly Oily Black, and Polly Railroad Brown. I have poured enough stain in each container to cover the wood. After about 12 hours, I will check the shade in container 1 - if satisfactory, I will begin taking out random pieces from container 1 over the next few hours. After about 12 hours, I will repeat the process with container 2, after 24 hours repeat again with container 3. The goal is to have many different shades of the brown/gray mixture. After thorough drying, (several days) I will be ready for distressing the wood before assembly.

In the meantime, I will start painting and weathering all the zillions of details like tools, junk, etc......Update after staining is complete....anyone ever tried this method???

is this staining technique in the instructions, or something you came up with? I'm curious to see how it works.

It's from Sierra West Scale Models. I too am interested in how it turns out. I'm glad this expensive kit ($100+) is someone elses! I guess my biggest concern is warping. The stock materials are very small, some only 3/64 sticks. Let's all say a prayer

Been away for a while, took a group to Trinidad and Tobago for 10 days of world-class scuba diving. Update on the Woodshack project.....When we last visited, I had put a stain recipe in three different containers and let 3 different batches of stock wood soak for different times. Container 1 soaked for about 24 hours before I started taking random pieces out to dry for the next 12 hours or so. I repeated the process for the 2nd container after about 36 hours, and again with the 3rd container after about 48 hours. After 10 days' of drying on paper towels on a flat surface while I left the country, the wood did indeed come out varying shades and with little imperfections that will look good on the final product. The picture below does not do it justice, I'm much better at underwater photography than land photos for sure... Hopefully you can get some idea of what they really look like in the picture. I tried to take them outside with macro set up, not happy with results. Any photo tips would be appreciated so you can get better pics next post.

Next step will be to distress the tiny pieces of wood using a new stiff wire brush and the trusty ole' #11 blade to nasty things up a bit. You might notice a dark spot on one of the pieces, I hope that will make a nice knothole in the wood.

All in all I like the way it turned out. I think the advantage to this technique vs traditional painting is the randomness of the stain, it doesn't look like it was wiped or painted with a brush. It looks a little more natural.

So far lessons learned are:
1) Use more india ink in the recipe, it would probably speed up the process....
2) Have replacement marble counter tops ready for installation immediately after pouring stain....
3) When told by you-know-who to take it outside, don't do it on a windy day....
4) When hiking thru the jungle less than 7 miles from Hugo Chavez country, don't wear camoflouge shorts!

Comments and suggestions are welcome and needed, especially for the close-up photos.....More after I visit good ole' Dad tomorrow...

scubadude Wrote:Been away for a while, took a group to Trinidad and Tobago for 10 days of world-class scuba diving.

Dontcha just hate it when "work" takes you away from modelling?

scubadude Wrote:So far lessons learned are:
1) Use more india ink in the recipe, it would probably speed up the process....
2) Have replacement marble counter tops ready for installation immediately after pouring stain....
3) When told by you-know-who to take it outside, don't do it on a windy day....
4) When hiking thru the jungle less than 7 miles from Hugo Chavez country, don't wear camoflouge shorts!

Was #3 above a direct result of #2, or is that an installment yet to come?

I think the wood staining experiment turned out well, and at least you had something to occupy your time while waiting for it to happen. I'm looking forward to seeing this develop.

Wayne

Yeah Doc, work gets in the way of everything. Although I am fortunate to be able to make a living doing something I am truly passionate about. But make no mistake, diving is the pleasant part, running a retail business, even if it is a scuba shop can sometimes take the fun out of it

Yep, #3 is a direct result of #2

Exactly!

In the mid-seventies, I was fresh out of college and product design positions were few and far between. I took a job managing a brand new hobby shop in a Mall. It was essentially me ... and me ... six days a week, 13 hours a day until I built clientel to the point where the store was making enough doh-re-me that I could hire a couple high school kids to help out in the afternoons, evenings and on Saturdays. I ended up doing custom builds and custom paint at night and on Sundays for a few extra bucks. [Pennsylvania had "Blue Laws" and we were closed on Sundays.] Model railroading took over my whole life, seven days a week. It very quickly became NOT fun any more! It was business and I never got to do any of my own stuff!

[There was one positive thing, though ... I bought things at cost, which was "40-off" back then. I have enough stuff now to build without buying very much except solvents, adhesives and paints.)

OK, project update.....I framed the front wall of the woodshack. Might as well have framed a real wall, not too difficult, but very time consuming (over 2 hours). The process included a scale template with wax paper on top which was used as the guide to cut and glue the studs directly on the template to be removed later.

The new lessons learned added to my list include:
5) Before beginning, go to optometrist and get latest prescription glasses needed...this stuff is small! hock:
6) Use really really sharp #11's...
7) Don't let the dogs hang out near the workbench to "fetch" flying pieces of wood that will be needed later....


After completing the distressing and aging of the wood, next step after glue is dry will be to start nailing (ooops, I mean glue) siding on the wall and install window.....

You're off to a nice start Richard. Framing just like a real building!

Progress update.....front wall is completed except for window. After weathering and distressing the slats for the wall, I started nailing, err gluing from the bottom up using a block of wood as a guide to keep it straight, then just proceeded up the wall until about the center, then repeated process from top down, meeting in the middle. I covered the openings for the door and window and overlapped each end. All trimmed up after glue dried. Now that the wall is complete, I do like how the staining technique worked out, very random colors and blemishes. I took a new wire brush to add "character" and dug a few holes here and there and sliced and diced a few boards to add to the effect. Eventually, there will be tools and junk added to the interior frame of the walls. Might take a pin and punch some nail holes over the studs. At the very end, I will rub on some leftover stain to dirty up the frayed and rotten wood holes.

I think it looks pretty good, especially for a rookie..... Hope you can get a feel from the pictures.

Latest lesson learned:
8) Don't lay your ruler in a puddle of glue!

Next step will be to complete the other 3 walls....later

Latest update....rear wall finished. On to the side walls.... Taking the weekend off, hope to at least get the four walls and the shed assembled today....Happy 4th everyone!