First Entry................. Let's Begin !

Well let's just start with a simple Helloooooooooooo & welcome to my blog. I had a few friends on Facebook who asked me for some help in how to build their model railroad buildings without have them look like they just came out of the box. So this little blog is going to help them and the rest of the world in doing that. Remember you can use this also in other hobbies like slot car racing, doll houses, dioramas, etc.

Remember if you have any questions or comments about this blog entry or anything. Just post it in the comment area down below this entry and I will reply.

Why me? Well it is my line of work. My wife and I have been operating M&M Scale Structures (mmscalestructures.com) for about 7 years now. When have made over 1100 kit bashed and scratch built model structures for private, corporate, club & museum layouts. We done everything from recreating Downtown Schenectady, NY to The Wildwood, NJ Boardwalk !  Besides that, I actually have been steady in this hobby since I was 5, so for 42 years but who is counting :)

Well with all that out of the way............... Let's Begin !!!

Our 1st project to kick off the series is we are going to build, paint & detail a Hydrocal model building kit in N Scale from Downtown Deco called Addams Avenue III. It is a urban looking run down tenement style building. Hydrocal for those who don't know is a harder Plaster-Of-Paris. Though still fragile, it is a lot more durable than plain plaster. And it details really nice when weathered.

Tools needed are your basic for model building. A hobby knife with a sharp blade, sand paper, sanding block or even one of the wife's emery boards, a ruler, a hobby square and glue. Glue can be funny, for this project you can use Elmer's White Glue but it takes a long time to dry. I use a good contact cement (Walther's GOO is great & available @ hobby shops) & CA type glue (aka Crazy Glue). A good place to get CA glue inexpensively is a dollar store like Dollar Tree. There you can get the same pack of 3 tubes for a buck that costs you $4.50 at the Home Depot. Also use the GEL type of CA glue because the bond is better on porous surfaces, fills cracks and is a lot easier to work with (See Photo Below). 
 

 First thing we do after inspecting the contents of the box (With Hydrocal models, make sure there are no broken parts in the box, if so look at the instructions for repairing or replacing them) is taking to "flash" off the casted pieces & "truing" up the pieces to be square. So using a hobby knife and emery board I start to remove the flash. Flash is the extra casting material (Hydrocal, styrene if it is a plastic kit, wood or resin) that remains attached to the part after it is casted. Just take a little at a time off then sand very lightly flush (See Photo Below). 



 Some pieces of flash are bigger and thicker so on a Hydrocal kit you must very carefully trim the flash off a little at a time (See Photo Below). 
 

 On smoother part of the walls, you can get very little air bubbles. these can be scraped off with the hobby knife until smooth (See Photo Below). 


One thing I have noticed with some commercial Hydrocal model kits is that after the model has been on the market for some time and more have been produced, the later ones become somewhat "out of whack". What I mean is that in time the latex mold becomes stretched & worn. So with that happening the pieces aren't true or square. In fact some models can have a real "tilted" look to them.

Downtown Deco makes real quality items but the fact is that this kit I got is most likely going to be one of the last ones from this mold or series. The walls are shifted a bit either right or left so I didn't quite true them to snug. I would have taken a bit more of the casting off it I gone that road. The seams on at least 2 sides have daylight showing through them. But not to worry ! I have a great resolve to this that will be shown here when we get to detailing the building. So from here , we are going to glue this sucker together.

I take my Goo (That doesn't sound nice LOL) and put a bead along the INSIDE leading edge of each corner I am going to glue. This way any excess won't come out the outside edged of the model. I let the Goo set up a few minutes which you always do with any contact cement (See Photo Below).

Then I take my square (In my case I use my square sanding block) and attach the two piece together. Repeat the same steps for the other 2 pieces and let both sets enough time to set up. Usually about 1/2 hour when using GOO (See Photo Below).

 After they both set, cement the 2 together following the same procedure as above. Allow ample time to set up again as with the 1st set.

Now to add a little extra holding power. Take a tube of the CA Gel Glue and run a bead along the 4 inside corners at the seams. This will add extra holding power to your model. I use a little accelerator (Zip Kicker is good to use) on the CA glue to make it set up and dry faster. This will also allow the CA to expand a bit inside the seams which is great because the model has a few wide gaps as explained above (But no this isn't the trick I was talking about to hide the gaps. That will come later) (See Photo Below).  



 OK, now that we got it together, painting here will be the next step. This is where the fun starts. We will talk about types of paint, prep, painting and the over finish in the next blog entry.

So until then remember............ IT IS A HOBBY AND SUPPOSE TO BE FUN, NOT A CHORE !  Sometime the little extra effort really pays off.

Hope you enjoyed the first segment and hope to see you for the next one !

Mark.