This week I made a start on my new structure for the tribute to Rocky Point Harbor. On George’s original, he has the “Izzy Fish Co.” next to Saulenas’.
I debated for a while on whether to scratch build the whole thing or kitbash. During a flick through FOS Scale’s catalog, I noticed that “Gordon Novelty Co” bore similar resemblance to “Izzy Fish”, and so I decided to use it.
First order of business was to brace the walls. Doug was sparing in his bracing guides, but I followed them anyway. Unfortunately for me, my gut was right and I ended up fighting the warp on these big walls for a couple of days. No matter, I got them flat after a while and was pleased with the color/staining.
I used Hunterline’s Blue/Grey, followed by light, streaking use of their Driftwood and then Dark Brown at the extreme edges — letting it wick into the lumber. I did a few passes of each stain, and tied everything together with a light wash of a warm white Acrylic. These multiple passes definitely exacerbated the lack of bracing.
I painted all the windows and doors with an airbrush, with a flat grey base coat, and then layers of beige and off-whites.
I added the 1/16 trim (also stained with the Blue Grey) and then dressed the windows using my easy hack I recently posted. Some windows were left to be dressed for real, deepening the illusion.
Next up, I made a small push-out structure, similar to the one found on Izzy Fish.
This will overhang onto the Saulenas’ roof, so I pulled it off the shelf and made sure to glue everything accordingly.
Before I assembled the walls, I decided to scrap the included dormer in favor of scratch building a larger, flat roof design (also in line with Izzy Fish). I used clapboard from Northeastern Scale Lumber and a Tichy window. The shingles were from a roll, like found in FSM kits.
One last thing I did was design new signs! My building was to become “Siekirk’s Seafood” — in tribute to another great modeler. I used an old “Prunier” poster and re-made it for my own world.
With the walls all prepared, I began assembling.
The main roofing was also shingled using Shake Shingles from KC’s workshop. Scale 2×6 was used to add trim around the roof’s edge. I added my own capping on the second floor roof, the same lumber I used for Saulenas’ cap.
This has put me around 70% done. I’ve still got a number of things to do, including finishing the structure, weathering, detailing, adding signs, organic growth, placing Preisers etc etc.
Big shout out to Doug at FOS Scale for putting together an amazing kit.
More soon.
by on January 8, 2021
