#304 O Scale BlueSky Company

Karl.A

So, whats in the box ???

Opening and unpacking the main box is no small project in itself. The box is jam full of all the exquisite SierraWest goodies that makes Brett the best in the business.
Working down through the layers reveals one great component after another, I thought I was at the end when I reached the manual at the bottom of the box, but no, there was still more to come underneath, roofing paper, view blocks, subroofs.......

The main barn and warehouse walls are built over lasercut stud walls, these look awesome and are great to work with.

The cookhouse, WOW!! that is one large chunk of resin....

The cookhouse is just one of over 170 indivdual resin castings in this kit, Brett never was skimpy on his castings before but this takes it to a whole new level....

As well as all the resin there are also of course a few metal castings... Five bags of them!!
There are probably more metal detail parts than resin but I was too tired to count. Brett has separated out some of the metal parts which make up certain items, this not only looks great when you are unpacking but will make things so much easier during assembly of these components. Thanks Brett.

The miscellaneous metal bag.

Components for building the Tractor under repair, this is a mini kit in itself!! Cool!!

Well thats some of whats in the box,
obviously there is also.....plans, manual, templates, a bunch of laser cut jigs, stripwood, subwalls ,signs, chain, brass and styrene, corrugated roofing....it just goes on and on.

Well I'm off for a lay down after all that 'exercise' and excitement., maybe more later....

Karl.A

toddmc09

Having the pre-assembled /cut stud walls is a great help, I never mind building the board on board part, but I always got tired of building the framing. This is a great idea and makes the thought of building a larger kit like this more attractive. Looks like a fun build.

I am currently working on an older sawmill kit ( I bought it before the Twin Mills Kit was available and I am building/kitbashing on it to give it more size) from another kit producer, While it's nice in it's own way, I have spent a huge amount of time cleaning up flash and mold lines and Brett's castings are so much cleaner and detailed and their are so many more of them. Having the castings in their own individual bag is nice too. Man if I had a gold mine I would have a special wing on my house just for all these kits.

Todd

Karl.A

Thanks for the post Todd,
the laser cut studs are certainly a time saver and a great innovation.

Spent some time working on the siding for the main barn. Deep graining and tooth pick knots.
I put knots in 1/3 of the boards and I will mix these in with regular weathered boards randomly as they are applied over the framing.

The result will hopefully be knotty, but not over powering.

Karl.A

Wes

That siding is just fantastic Karl. Did you do all the graining with a wire brush?

Karl.A

Thanks very much Wes,
yes, all the graining was done with a couple of different wire brushes.

Karl.A

Kevin

YM, the siding looks great!!! How the h.... do you do that again?
KOM

Wes

Hi

Ive been busy with this kit over the last couple of weeks and here are some progress pictures.

I look forward to your comments. As always im always open to suggestions.

Bill

Wow! Your brick work is geat, Wes! "Red" brick isn't only red...there's usually many shades of red. (I guess that can be said of all brick colors, for that matter.) I can see you've got some bright reds, some on the orange-ish side, and some deep reds that look like thoise bricks that baked too long. It's such a nice casting and I think you nailed it. Do you have any of the other sides finished?

Your wood has a nice range of colors and I like the way you did the "Shelby's" lettering.

The only suggestion I would make (and this is pretty minor) is on the wood walls. You may want to darken the bottoms of the walls to suggest some water damage. This picture isn't the best example since the wood has been painted, but I think it shows how a building is affected by the elements:

At the top, you can see that almost all the white paint is present, but at the bottom there's none and the wood appears to be damaged. On your model, you can touch the bottom edges with a little A/I and let it wick upward:

Looking forward to more!
Bill

UncleJT

Looking real nice Wes, thanks for keeping us updated.

I found a bundle of scrap boards today that I plan to use as practice boards for coloring/weathering before I dive into my first SW kit. Hopefully I can start to experiment some tomorrow.

Karl.A

Great looking brickwork Wes, you really captured and showed off the depth and character of the casting nicely.

have fun with the practising JT, you'll see how easy it is. Post any questions you may have as there are plenty of great modelers here willing to assist.

Karl.A

Wes

Thank you guys. Much appreciated.

Bill I will definately add some AI to the bottom of the walls. Thanks for that ref picture. It sure is helpfull.

Ive completed all 3 sides of the brick structure.

Jt go mad with the practice boards. You will be amazed at how easy you get great results. You cant go wrong with Bretts instructions.

Karl your beautifully carved casting made it a pleasure to work with.

Jim

Karl,

You are absolutely right! This kit looks fantastic, and your castings ARE definitely the best.
The brickwork on the Cookhouse is the best brickwork I have seen in any scale model. Beautiful work! Brett, I'm chomping at the bit !

Jim

Karl.A

Thanks Jim, the castings are all Brett's, and yes, they are unquestionably the best.

I was fortunate enough to be able to help out with the cookhouse, I'm glad that you like it and it makes me proud to have a small contribution in such a great kit.

Karl.A

brownbr

Karl,

I love your knothole technique and have been experimenting with it. To vary the sizes of the knots are you poking the toothpicks in from both sides?

admin

vary the size of the hole made and how far the tapered toothpick is inserted - no need to go at it from both sides...

Wes

Hi everyone

I continue to work slowly through this build. Dont you just hate it when you dying to build something, but 1:1 things get in the way?[:-banghead][:-banghead]

Anyway, i have completed the stair case that is used to gain access to the top floor of the main barn. the one set of pillars on the bottom landing is a bit off, but that will be fixed.

The main loading dock infront of the barn is also complete. Somehow a smudge of green paint ended up on the front of it. Ill try remove that tonight, or otherwise use an old tyre as a bumper to try and hide it.

Some further weathering will be added later on when i start putting the buildings together.

As always, all critique and suggestions are welcome.

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