Part 13 Working On A Dream: The O Scale Bond's Funeral Home Diorama Project
Working On A Dream: The O Scale Bond's Funeral Home Diorama Project
Part Thirteen: The Rear Area Construction
Welcome to Lucky 13 ! And 3 installments in a day! I told you I was behind schedule ! In this installment we are back to the building again. The first parts of this tutorial have been mostly working on the main building. Today we go to the rear of Bond's main building. This is the part of the building that has 3 main features. #1 The chapel entrance, #2 The Garage Area and #3 The handicap ramp. The building's exterior is that of random course stone with cinder block.. The Chapel has a small pre-fab style entrance and the ramp is a 2 level elevation type..
This part of the building is on a downgrade compared to the main structure so we took into consideration for when it sits on the module.. The follow three photos show the part of Bonds this installment is talking about.
First part of course is erecting the walls which we actually did when we did the main structure. All parts are made of the same Crescent 205 hot press illustration board we used for the main building and sprayed it with Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Flat Spray (Krylon # 53530).. Wood supports in the corners provide stability.(Figures 1, 2 and 3)
Now the harder part. The random Course Stone has a unique color to it. Don provided samples of the stone for us to match the paint up. We used Plastruct Random Course Stone styrene sheets (Part PS-61) and Cement Block (Part PS-106) for the exterior covering. Then matching up acrylic paints for the exterior colors. (Figure 4)
With the random course stone sheets, we first apply a base color to it. After drying we applied a second coat. When dried, we spray the sheets with Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Gloss Spray. The gloss is use for when we paint the mortar joints and overcoat on.. It won?t make the paint stain or blotch on the sheets. (Figure 5)
The next step is the tedious one. There are random colors and shades of stone within the walls. So with 6 to 8 different colors, we randomly paint stones on the sheets different colors. We go back every so often to sheets we did to make sure there is enough random colors to the sheets and that they are random enough. Again after they dry, we spray them with the Krylon Gloss. (Figure 6)
With the glosscoat dry, we then give each sheet a watered-down weather wash. This tones down the brightness of the stones to give it the aged look. But this won?t be the final weathering. That will come towards the end with Artist Pastels & Charcoals. After setting it aside to dry again, It is Gloss-Time again. (Figure 7)
For the final, we mortar the stones in the same fashion we do the bricks. The beige "haze" it will create on the stones is ok because the actual stone has the same. Like I said this is the final paint coat to in so when dry we now spray it with Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Flat Spray to take the sheen away and give it a natural finish. (Figure 8).
We take the same approach with the Concrete Block styrene sheets. First by painting them a pale grayish, the a gloss coat, followed by a mortar coat with a final dull coat overspray. The concrete block plays a big roll on the back wall of this area. (Figure 9)
After everything dries fully, we can now install the styrene to the walls. Yes, it is the same approach as we did on the main building's stone sheets and siding. One note before installing.... As some of you might know, Plastruct sheets at time are very out of square. Sometimes you can lose quite of bit of stock after square the sheets up. We square up the sheets before painting and if you didn't do that as of yet. This is a good time too. (Figure 10).
After all the sheets are installed we let the adhesive cure before cutting the windows and doors out. And that is the basics of this part of the back. We are now ready for the windows, doors, chapel entrance and ramp. (Figures 11, 12 & 13)
Well that is the latest. The next installment will be building and installing the windows, doors, chapel entrance, the ramp and some of the lighting in this area. That will be on in the next few days.
Well I hope once more you are enjoying this project. I am keeping them coming faster now. I might be in the hospital again and of all times over the Thanksgiving Weekend. Hoping not but I might so I will have plenty of time to write more for this.
Hope you enjoy 
Mark
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