A shed for Samson in 009: details and mortar...

I tend to model in fits and starts, and sometimes make a fair bit of progress in one evening, especially if I've been mulling a model over in my mind. My new engine shed has benefitted from such a start in the past 24 hours...

When you last saw this on my workbench the basic structure was in one piece, but the finishing details were still to be added. I'd been pondering how to treat the roof on the brick 'addition' and whether to add guttering - as well as how to fashion lintels and window sills...

In the end the guttering was added - plastic rod microstrip from Slaters, carefully pared down to half round deliberately a bit twisted so it looks old - mounted on tiny L brackets, on the wonk - and then downpipes in the same material with very find microstrip forming brackets. The roof joint also had a section of the plastic rod adding, and the doors got a strengthening plank on the inside to hold them together.

The door and window lintels and sill were more microstrip - carefully distressed at the edges and cut to overlap the pattern of stones in the Slaters embossed wall, so to appear part of the construction. The door also received a handle, and the brick wall of the extension has a few brackets for a ladder or buckets or something (not sure yet!). The extension roof was done in the same corrugated material as the main roof with a replacement panel shown. The chimney was topped with a square of 30thou styrene and some plastic Evergreen tube, with a half round section on the top.

I've been re-reading one of my teenage era books - the one that started more serious modelling for me, 'The Art of Weathering' by Martyn Welch. There is a short section on buildings, and this has rekindled my passion for them, hence the progress I expect, but it also gives some tips and techniques that I had long forgotten. It describes a great technique for brick and stonework using Slaters materials - one that I'm excited to re-discover, as I've struggled a little to get a good result in recent years. It starts with a mortar coat all over - not a thin dribble into the mortar lines, but all over, the stone the brick the lot. Let is nearly dry, and then use a tissue moistened with white spirit and start to remove the paint from the flat surfaces of the stone and bricks.

I'm really pleased with the result, and since then I've painted the roof grey too to start the process of reproducing a corrugated iron or asbestos (not decided yet) roof. Next step with the walls is to begin to carefully dry brush the raised sections with relevant colours... More soon...