After wiping off the excess paint to color the grout in between the bricks I glued the acetate on the window frames and doors.  The reccomendation from most sources is to use some form of white glue to hold it in place, but as I intended to weather the building so that the glass would not really be clear anyways, I used Zap-a-Gap.  This allowed me to install the “glass” much faster than using white glue would have done.  Here is a picture of the building after all the windows and doors had been installed:

The next step was to airbrush a layer of dirt on the building.  Unfortunatly for me I did not thin out the paint far enough so it ended up leaving some rather large splatters.  This ended up working out in the long run as I then used chalk to blend everything together.  Here is a picture showing the roof with one side showing the airbrush and the other showing the chalk blending it in:

I also used chalk to blend on the rest of the building, using a piece of sandpaper to grind the chalk into a fine powder.  I usually use a couple of different colors and use the application brush to blend them.  Here is a picture showing work on the walls of the building:

As you can see in the picture, I also used the chalk on the windows which had the effect of making them very hard to see through (just like most industrial buildings that I see in Oakland, CA).

After doing a little research I found a couple of different techniques, the best of which I found on the NMRA website.  This technique was to paint the walls a brick color, using an airbrush.  Once that had dried I mixed up a batch of watered down white paint.  I brushed this over the wall, covering about one third of the wall.

After allowing it to dry for about one minute I used a rag (an old T shirt) and wiped off the majority of the paint.  This had the affect of removing the white paint off the bricks, leaving the white in the mortar lines.  I was  very pleased with the look, especially considering how quick and easy it was.  Here is the picture of the results:

As you can see it is very bright, but I intend to airbrush and use chalk to complete the look.

I recently started working on a plastic model, the Bakery from ConCor.  It is a rather simple kit, representing a brick building with large windows.  I chose this building since it looks similar to many of the old commercial buildings around Oakland, CA.

I was rather surprised upon opening the box and finding a model molded in a shiny dark blue, and the detail parts in a bright green.  I almost gave up right there, until I looked a little closer and noticed the fine detail molded into the walls of the kit.  I quickly cleaned the parts and assembled them in the magnetic jig, as shown in the last post.  Here is a picture of the assembled walls in the jig:

After using a solvent type glue to assemble the major parts of the model I primed the building inside and out, using a gray primer.  My first attempt at painting the brick was to drybrush the brick color directly over the primer, with rather poor results (still kinda blue).

After this rather poor result I went to the internet for ideas to paint the bricks.  I visited the NMRA website for ideas, which I will discuss in the next post.

Another tool that I recently acquired was the magnetic gluing jig from Micro-Mark.  This is a very simple tool in that it is just a metal plate with edges bent up at 90 degrees, and some magnets for holding pieces.  Using magnets this way allows infinite variation in how they are placed to hold pieces next to each other.

I used this jig in the construction of a recent plastic model.  Since I was using a solvent type glue, this jig allowed me to assemble the parts and hold them in place before applying the glue.

For helping in creating square corners this tool was excellent.

• Overall: 9.5
• Instructions: 10
• Value for price: 10
• Overall quality: 9

After installing the final section of the dock I cut out and assembled the railings on the cork board.  Once these had dried I glued them onto the edge of the dock using Elmer’s wood glue.  I then assembled the ramp leading down from the opening in the wall by using the provided scale lumber.

The next step was to fabricate the rest of the ice skid along the length of the dock.  Using more scale lumber I cut the pieces to length and glued directly on to the deck.  I created stops at either end using scrap pieces.  I set the blocks of “ice” on the skid to see how the final look will be.  If you look next to the opening in the wall under the cooling tower you will see where I added a ladder for roof access.

About the only thing left on this model is to glue the gravel on to the roof panels, and then weather the entire model, which I most likely won’t do until I place it on a layout or diorama.