29 January 2022

Two new buildings!

Yesterday I turned 50, so after waking up and commiserating with myself I got on with the standard birthday stuff: doing the dishes. Yay. Then I finally got to open my pressies from Alicia, and I was a happy bunny.

These awesome buildings are again by Atomic Laser Cut Designs, from their Mean Streets range of MDF scenery. The left one is Brownstone 1A and the other is Store Front 3.

As usual they were easy to dry-fit together on the kitchen table after I'd worked out which walls went where (they don't come with instructions). Both will be painted to have a business on the bottom floor and flats above, much like you see on any average British or American small-town high street. I think I know what those businesses will be, but I might change my mind as I go along.

The're pretty much identical, so here's a look at one of them.

Some of the pegs need to be trimmed to fit better, as you can see from the roof bit above, but this is a pretty minor thing given all the other parts fit together really well. The window frames are very well made and match the gaps in the walls perfectly. They'll be painted separately from the building and glued on later.

Although I like the idea of a brick building, the mortar lines aren't etched in too deep and would be a bugger to paint. And the fact that bricks are rarely a uniform colour and I'd need to paint random ones in different shades really doesn't appeal. I recently bought two pots of terracotta craft paint, so hopefully that'll be enough to do both buildings. I would use spray paint but there's a blizzard forecast for later today and it's already been snowing for hours, so a trip to Walmart is out.

I'm undecided on whether to basecoat them with the texture spray again; I think I'll have to otherwise there'll be nothing to drybrush. If I do, I'll have to mask off the areas where the frames go otherwise I'll be in a world of hurt.

The holes above the door are for a canopy. It's MDF so I don't know how realistic it'll look, so right now I'm planning on leaving it off and covering the holes with a sign. The lower half of the frontages will be painted different colours from the top, sides and back.

As for accessories, I'm running out of the TTCombat vents I've used on my previous buildings. I've looked for more online, but unless I want to shell out for shipping from the UK or Germany I appear to be out of luck. I'm going to have to dig out my Oyumaru stuff and mould some more out of Milliput.

As for covering the gaps at the corners, I don't want to use coffee stirrer sticks again. I have an idea as to how to do it, and if it doesn't work I'll use filler. Apart from that, I can't wait to get started on them.

On Thursday I found my last Reaper dumpster and finally finished it off. I'd already sprayed it with the rust-brown primer and put Liquid Mask on it at some point last year, so it was just a case of giving it a top colour and scraping off the paint. I used a spray paint called Paprika, which is a nice warm red-orange shade, but it didn't cover the primer too well (which is what also went wrong with my yellow shipping container). Still, it looks grotty enough.

Once the paint was peeled off, I added some more graffiti by drawing it on with a pencil and going over the lines with paint. I'm well happy with the raccoon on the front, and all the designs came out better than I thought. The yellow one on the left was supposed to be a vertical tag but ended up going a bit Eldar, and I decided to keep it that way. My freehanding skills have really come along recently.

The buildings weren't the only gifts from Alicia. Almost unbelievably we have a British Scottish store about 10 minutes down the road from us, so I also received this bounty:


Needless to say, the pasty and Double Decker vanished within 20 minutes, and today I'll be working my way through the Jammie Dodgers.

12 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Matt, sounds like you did very well, and the buildings are a great start for you to work your magic on, and look forward to seeing what you do on them.
    The dumpster looks great, and your freehand has come a long way from your first tentative steps you took, keep at it.
    Amazing what food stuffs you miss living in another country ! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dave, I've almost got over being 50 LOL! I really am looking forward to painting and detailing these and I'm going to make a start tomorrow. My freehanding has come a long way and I'm more confident in doing it now, and I have a fifth dumpster on the way from Amazon :-)

      You'd be surprised at how much I miss some British foods since moving to the US. I went through an amazing craving for Branston Pickle back in 2005 and was over the moon to find it in a local supermarket! I still miss mince pies, steak and kidney pie and mushy peas!

      Delete
  2. Nice birthday haul, Matt. If what's outside your window is anything like what's outside mine today, you'll have plenty of time to work on those buildings! Actually, I can't presently see out my windows as they are quite fully covered by blown snow, and it's not due to stop for many hours. I think there's at least a foot out there already.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Keith! Luckily we didn't get too much snow, and the state is superb at keeping the roads clear. I made it to Walmart today and picked up the spray paint I need for these buildings. Hope you're OK in your corner of New England!

      Delete
  3. Happy Birthday matey, really nice buildings there, more nice work on the dumpster too, you graffiti just gets better and better. Before you know it you'll be "tagging" everything in the local area! 😁

    Cheers Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Roger! I have plenty of graffiti planned for these buildings and I can't wait to crack on with them. There's very little to tag where I live, but the "stop" sign at the top of our road has "don't" above it and "loving" below. Gotta love VT!

      Delete
  4. O a very happy birthday mate! 50! A milestone, you are officially an old duffer now!

    New buildings look great and that dumpster with the trash panda is ace!

    (O and very jealous of the goodies from home! *drooling*)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I certainly feel like an old duffer, Dai, but thankfully no one sent me a Marks & Sparks cardigan and slippers LOL! Thanks for the kind words!

      Delete
  5. You young'uns get far too much these days, in my day... etc.
    Happy Birthday and congrats on getting some (imo) sensible presents.
    Love the buildings even though I thought intially they were two identical ones - doh!
    I had a similar problem with my Sarissa townhouse and went for stippling bricks in different colours (even on the same brick) - it took a long time but I felt it was worth it. fter the bricks had suffient paint and was dry, I then scattered a fine layer of talcum pwoder over the , which when lightly wiped left the mortr joints visible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha! Cheers, Joe, and although I think the bricks would look good painted I just don't have the patience to do them. I do have an idea to show some, though, so hopefully it'll work.

      Delete
  6. Happy belated and number 50 at that! You may have quite a few years of wisdom on me, mate but its good to see that we both are like kids still when the gifts come out! I can't wait to see how the buildings turn out and the dumpster is really awesome. If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were Banksy in a past life ;) I'm disappointed that you didn't get any Quality Street in your Scottish treats there. Its been a while since I've had it but I remember their candy being pretty good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I am coming to terms with being 50 LOL! And I'm definitely a big kid at heart! I do miss Quality Street, they were a Christmas staple when I was little. But a Double Decker is almost as good :-)

      The buildings are being worked on and there should be an update soon!

      Delete