I added on the lettering using dry transfer decals.  After adding the small lettering I decided to redo it in another location.  I find that is one of the nice things about dry transfer is that they are relatively easy to remove if you decide against them.  I did this by using the tip of a hobby knife to scratch them off.

I then added all of the final details, using grab-irons from a detail upgrade kit available for this model.  I decided that buying the upgrade kit would produce better results than trying to make them myself.  For the next kit I will think twice about them, because while they certainly were convenient it would be easy to make them.  Included in this detail kit was an etched metal kit for the end ladders.  This would have been a very good looking upgrade, however I found that my soldering skills were not up to the task – they will make good additions to a scrap pile some where on the layout.

After final touch-up, I sprayed the model with dull-cote.  I didn’t bother masking the windows as I did not put an interior in it.  I then used chalk to weather the caboose.

I have to thank my wife for the beautiful picture of the completed project taken on my “work in progress” layout.

After reviewing some of my previous posts, I realized that I hadn’t put up the final pictures of this fine model.  So, without further ado, here they are:

(I just had to say that, lol)

Here is a picture of the rear of the house, showing off the back porch.

And here is a view of the right side of the house.  You can see the seams on each end of this wall.  This is so I can remove this wall with little damage to the building if I ever decide to put an interior into it.  When I place it on a layout I will cover this seam with ivy.  I will also lightly weather the house after it is in place to fit the location.

After assembling the major structures I decided to permanently attach the smaller building to the larger building.  I didn’t like how the kit had it as two separate buildings.  I removed the shorter wall on the smaller structure and fitted it against the larger one.  I used some of the scrap pieces to fill in the gaps, covered with putty.  After waiting for the putty to dry, I touched up the joints.

I started the painting the brick by using white paint and creating a wash.  After letting it dry for a couple of minutes I used a rag and wiped the paint from the bricks, leaving it in the mortar.

The picture above shows the wash in place before being wiped off.  The following picture shows the walls after I have wiped off the excess paint.  As you can see it stays fairly bright, but this will be taken care of by using chalks to bring down the tone and making it dirty.

As you can see in this picture I used old t-shirts as rags, something that I have a large supply of as part of my job includes welding

I constructed the front porch using the same techniques as I did on the back, building a wood frame under the floor and using it as a mounting point for the lattice.  I didn’t bother installing legs on this one either, however it would have helped in the installation by keeping the back corner of the porch up while waiting for the glue to set.

I painted directly over the cardstock for the porch floor and continued with the assembly of the porch.  When installing the gingerbread I found that it was much easier when using a curved pair of tweezers to hold them.  I used the same technique as before on the gravel for the roof, painting the surface with roof brown, followed by a coat of scenic cement, and then sprinkling on the ballast.  I then used a pipette to add cement where needed.  I found in a couple of spots the ballest ended up getting stuck on the walls higher than I wanted.  The best solution for this was to use an x-acto knife to push these spots down before the glue dried.

I assembled the back porch following the directions.  The cut out piece seemed to fit a little bit strange so I had to do some cutting to get it to fit correctly.  I used Elmer’s wood glue to hold the pieces together.  In the foreground of the picture you can see how I framed the porch with scale lumber, and after it had dried I used the pieces of lattice to build up the rest of the porch.  I didn’t bother installing any posts going down as you can’t see them anyways.

I then painted the porch and installed all of the “gingerbread around the edges of the roof.  The roof was painted with Floquil’s roof brown and then covered with fine ballast to provide texture.  Using the ballast is a good way to cover the small cuts and adjustments that were needed on the roof.  Also in this picture you can see where I added the “spears into the gingerbread around the roof of the model.  I had to use putty around some of them to fill in the gaps, but it was easy to hide the patches.