TERMS USED IN THIS ARTICLE
DRYBRUSHING: Using a flat brush, dip it sparingly into the paint & wipe it off on a paper towel until
there is hardly any left on the brush. Drag the brush over the surface of your model but don’t paint it.
The residue on your brush will contact the raised part of the kit leaving a lighter color thus highlighting
those details. Always use a lighter shade when dry brushing to allow for the contrast.
WASHING: Mix your paint with a generous amount of thinner to make a more liquid than paint slurry
then paint it on your model. Wipe off the excess.
HINT: Practice, practice, practice always yields better & better results. Try it on old pieces you may deem
expendable. You may discover the experimental piece is worth keeping. I’m always trying new ways of
weathering models.
PART 1
The old MDC Roundhouse “Shanty Town” 3 in 1 Kits have been around for quite some time and can be
found on Ebay at a decent price. These consist of 2 Freight car kits, a small structure kit & detail parts.
They recommend using the cars & building as a feature for your layout’s yard scene. The directions
include suggestions for kitbashing your own unique building.
I recently bought 3 of these kits, each different, but containing similar pieces. I used the freight cars
separately & built the first one, a nice brick “Telegraph Office,” as the directions suggested. Then I took
the 2 nd & added an old boxcar as a storage unit connected to it. Now it was time to get creative with the
third because there were enough pieces left over.
But first, let’s make these 2 buildings look more used & worn, add some detail parts & figures. Making plastic brick look realistic is not very difficult. I use artist oils for all my weathering. A wash of thinned white paint will do nicely. Just wipe off the excess & set it aside to dry.
Finished telegraph building ready for the layout.
Now for the next structure. This pic shows the “brick” on a “stone” building near the door jam with a white wash. We’ll put the brick color in after it dries.
While our brick is drying, let’s work on the stone. First, we will use a black wash, wipe off excess & set it aside.
The stone building is ready for some more weathering.
I already did the box car, which was from my junk box added an extra door from the Roundhouse kit pieces and some decals with decal settling solution . After the decals were well dried, 200 grade sandpaper took just enough off to leave some lettering visible. Rust & white paint dry brushed made the detail “pop.”
Our white has dried so we can drybrush the reddish brick color. I’m mixing a dark & light red with a little white for the brick color.
Next, we revisit the stone piece & drybrush some white visible in this pic upper right corner. Eventually, I’ll drybrush the entire building, maybe twice, to bring out the stone detail
With the loading dock added, here’s what the structure looks like before adding some detail parts. That’s for another article.
