A New Barn for the White River Division

 

Northeastern Scale Models Inc.

STS Series Dairy Barn

My new addition for the White River Division is a third barn. As I like an open rural feel to my layout, farmland and farm structures dominate the White River Division. I picked up a Northeastern dairy barn at a train show I attended in January. It is a nice small laser kit. In N scale this barn would look great as a background scene. I recall seeing this done on Dick Elwell's layout a few years ago and it may have been the Northeastern kit. I guess in O scale a HO scale barn would do the same near the backdrop.

I did actually read the instructions before I began, but as usual I did not follow them all that closely. My model was going to have three of the 5 doors open so they were assembled and set aside till the structure was finished. I began the main structure by staining the floor and walls inside and out with Hunterline original (now Creosote) weathering mix. I did have to press the parts till they dried, as they began to curl up. I glued the main assembly together adding the windows and doors that were left closed. Everything was given a coat of weathering mix. I did leave the roof off till the walls were painted. White glue was used for most of the attachments during construction.

The walls have a coat of Hunterline weathering stain applied and the roofing is painted black. I used the roof panels to keep the ends from warping by temporarily attaching a few. They came off while painting and adding interior details.

The corner bracing and door track was added but not yet stained.

For the walls once the weather mix dried I added thin washes of Floquil caboose red, followed by grime and reefer white. I then did a little dry brushing of the red followed by some chalk weathering with red first, then white and Gray. The window trim got a wash of reefer white. When I say wash I mean I dip my brush in the paint only applying a little then dipping it into lacquer thinner. I then apply this to the trim or structure. If the wash is to strong I just dip the brush in more thinner and apply over the area I just brushed.

The Hunterline weathering mix alone looked good, even before I added any paint which could have worked for a really weathered barn. But I like some colour and two sides were done with a lot of colour showing or the shaded side of the building and two sides have just a hint of colour as the weather side of the structure.

I added the glaze to the windows before the roof was applied. I also added some interior details at this point also. Details are found just inside the doorways since one can not see all the way inside.

The paint is applied and interior detail can be seen through the open doors.

The interior details can be seen at the other end of the barn when the doors are applied in the  open position. The roll roofing still needs to be applied.

The roof sections all got a coat of black paint before application. I was going to use my BEST black rolled tar paper but realised I did not have enough. I went with BEST 36" steel Gray #3036 rolled tar paper roofing. I needed almost two packs to complete the roof. Once applied I added some black chalk on the seams. I did also scribe some additional seams before chalking. The roof then got a very light spray of Floquil grimy black to blend it all together.

I added the doors that I wanted to leave in the open position. They are attached with Walthers Goo. At first I was not going to build the cupola since I liked the look of the barn without it on, but thought it would give the barn a more New England feel with one on. Once built I weathered and painted the cupola the same as the rest of the structure. I did give it more red then the wall since I wanted it to stand out. Included with the cupola is copper self adhesive roofing. This was cut into 8 triangles and applied. The copper roof was given a light dusting of Floquil grimy black and some chalk weathering. I have in other occasions sprayed a hint of green to reflect the effects of weathering in copper. This was done with Penn Central green. Walthers Goo holds the cupola on the roof.

The cupola is underway and the roofing is partly applied.

The cupola is completed and weathering mix has been applied. The copper cupola cover is cut using the roofing cutouts. 8 triangles are needed.

The last bit of chalk weathering is added with streaks of black, brown and white from the roof lines and windows and doors. Now I have to decide which area of the layout can handle another barn...to be continued in another blog post....George Dutka