The Outhouse

There's an old saying - “it's like riding a bicycle”. The problem comes when you were never that good at bicycle riding to start with. I ran into a similar situation when I decided to get back into Model Railroading after a 20 years absence. I had constructed a couple of static military models during that time – a T-62 for example but nothing related to railroading.

The other day I found a free cardstock model from Paper Creek Model Works - an Outhouse of all things! . You can download your own Personal Outhouse here. They have it available in Z, N, HO, S and O scales.

I printed it off twice so I could use one side to model the interior. Some 2”x4” lumber framed the door. I used some 6”x6” lumber to frame up a platform for the structure to sit on- the reason of it will become clear in a moment. The 6”x6” lumber is 'planked' with cardstock (there is a 3-1/4”x2-1/2” board-stock included with the downloaded graphic). Interesting in that regular cardstock that you buy at Walmart is 110 lb and is 0.010” thick. That scales to a 1” board in HO.

Note: For those who model the larger scales and need thicker stock – the answer is to laminate it! Those who model in paper/cardstock regularly will laminate cardstock to 1mm thickness. That is 0.039” - or four sheets of 110lb cardstock. The majority of these modelers use 3M Super 77.

On a side note. For anyone who might be dismissive of paper modelers .. may I direct your attention to an ongoing thread on PaperModelers.com – may I introduce you to Doris, a modeler from the Chez Republic who is modeling the HMS Victory (1798) in 1:96 scale. Her modeling skills are simply – jaw dropping.

Anyway .. back to the Outhouse. Here she is .. minus the roof and door.

The poster on the wall is of Clara Bow for the movie 'IT' (my layout is to be set in 1929). The 'thing' on the seat is the 1929 Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Really. Since printing those out I found some 4”x6” Photo Paper at a discount store that really do print photo quality .. even on my $40 cheap color printer.

Lesson Learned # 1: Use Photo Paper for printed images. (printing the entire model on Photo Paper makes beautiful images. The problem is that you can't fold Photo Paper .. it's brittle. If you cut out each wall and glued that to a substrate then it would be possible – using a matt paper of course)

The other day I had been reading an article on making latex rock molds. That was all well and great .. except I haven't yet found a suitable rock here in Central South Carolina to make a mold of. There may very well be some here – I haven't found any. In an case – I wanted layered sedimentary rock. To that end I decided to make my own so I cast some plaster in some crumpled aluminum foil and scribed my own sedimentary rock. I followed the usual procedures and created my latex rock mold.

I picked up a small 5”x7” wooden plaque at Walmart, glued some blue Styrofoam on it and used the latex mold to make a small cliff. This would give me the opportunity to practice coloring rocks. Here is the rock face. It came out pretty well I think. I started with the 'usual' coloring procedures – an AI wash (Alcohol/India Ink). Dave Frary then has you spray on your Basic Rock Color. The problem I have with that (and with all due respect to Mr. Frary and his excellent modeling) is that you are coloring the highlighted parts of the rock that has been tinted already with the AI wash. I took some White Tempera paint diluted about 50% with water and semi-dry brushed the highlighted surfaces of the rock. What I mean by the 'highlighted' parts of the rock is that I set the casting directly under an overhead light. With just that light on and 'bits' highlighted and other 'bits' shadowed – I semi-dry-brushed the 'highlighted' bits. (by semi-dry-brushing I mean that I had enough paint on the brush to color the rock face without flowing into the cracks and crevices where the AI wash had darkened the plaster. The entire casting was then sprayed with the Basic Rock Color (hereafter referred to as BRC). I followed this with a brush dipped in AI wash and went over all the 'bits' that were in shadow. Next, some BRC mixed with white and dry-brushed the highlighted parts. It was looking pretty good but kinda bland. I took some FolkArt Terra Cotta and dry-brushed lightly across the highlighted parts. I then grabbed a FolkArt 'Coffee Bean' diluted a bit with water and washed the shadows again to give a little color there. When this had all dried a gave an over-all spritz of BRC to blend everything together. Finally .. took some pure white and very very lightly flicked the brush across the highlights.

I glued the Outhouse/Platform to the cliff and partially did the bracing. Worked on the road (it is in very bad shape but will be closed in any case due to falling rock). The pool is various acrylics painted on with an acrylic varnish to simulate water. 

Lesson Learned #2 : Figure a way to make structures removable. This becomes important later on when adding ground-cover.

I wanted a tree on the cliff-top .. one of those old, gnarley, twisted trees with roots running down the side of the cliff. Here my first tree is just sitting on the cliff. Roots and trunk actually came out pretty well but I was unhappy with the limbs of the tree and the foliage so ..

Lesson Learned #3 : Spraying adhesive on the tree armature and then sifting Woodland Scenics ground foam on didn't work. The biggest problem here was that I needed to spray JUST the outer branches. I failed to learn Lesson 3 … and this will come back to bit me on the second tree. 

My second tree started out well. The armature was built from twisted wire with a coating of Modge Podge and Spectra Lock tile grout powder – a technique I got from a tutorial on the Pacific Coast Air Line Railway – 'Making Bark Texture'.

For foliage for my second tree I had the bright idea to cut up Sisal rope into 1/4” lengths and then spray the tree armature and sprinkle on the Sisal for 'instant' twigs and branches. Didn't work. The biggest reason was that .. dummy me .. sprayed top of the tree armature .. not just the outside parts. I have since read from 'grove den' .. the modeler that originated the tree-making process I followed suggests removing fibers that got where you don't want them using your fingers, tweezers and a 'short haired' brush dipped in turpentine. Darn. Link to his 'build a Fir tree' article can be found here. You can see deciduous trees here stating with post #13.

Lesson Learned #4: Remove the 'twigs' from where they aren't supposed to be! That should be prefaced by .. controlling where the spray adhesive goes. I imagine a simple piece of cardboard would suffice for that. Such 'twigs' – from Furnace Filter material or Sisal rope are most likely not necessary for deciduous trees – the Poly Fiber Foliage Woodland Scenics makes would be fine. Their Fine Leaf Foliage is beautiful. I created my own Poly Fiber from Polyfill batting dyed with Rit/Alcohol.

Lesson Learned #5: Spray the Polyfill and sprinkled on the ground foam PRIOR to mounting on the tree. Doing this afterwards means you have a tree with trunk and branches covered with ground foam.

This was a fun and useful exercise. Creating a small diorama .. if only as larg as the palm of you hand is an excellent way to build modeling skills. Make a small section of road .. and work on making that a GOOD road. If you screw it up .. toss it and start again.

I finished the mini-diorama and hopefully .. will take those Lessons Learned .. and uhhh .. learn by them.

Here's some photos of the finished diorama. The colors are too dark ..

Lesson Learned #6 : Lighten the colors up

The roots are too fat (put them on a diet).