Who doesn’t enjoy looking at the fine details that often are associated with a larger craftsman type structure kit? We have all seen them in photos around the internet, or in person at a model railroad show, or perhaps you have taken the plunge and built one yourself. Big name kit manufactures make many of these higher priced super structures and then pack them with cast metal details, extra structural trim, and more complex design that draws the attention of anyone viewing it. I personally love them!
The reason they get the attention of the observer is simple. It Pops! Every scale foot there is a detail. I’m not only talking about the cast metal parts like a barrel here or a crate there, but even the unmentioned details such as the grains in the wood or a knot hole, a rusty bolt, how the paint peels off a steel oil tank, any signage like an open sign inside a doorway, etc. You name it, if you can make it visible and distinguishable in your scale, you have just improved upon the basic and created complexity.
Yeah But…What Is That All Gonna Cost or Take?
You don’t have to spend a few hundred dollars every time you want to make your structure “pop” You can easily do it with any size or priced kit. In the example we will use today we took a very charming little kit from KC’s Workshop called Bob’s Bait and Beer. Great kit, designed for anyone to make. You don’t have to be an accomplished “Master Modeler” to build this kit, it’s a snap to build, in fact it is called an “its a snap kit” 2.5″x3.5″ and it is a tiny footprint. But with a little creativity and the odds and ends, scraps, bits and pieces left over from kits, kitbashing, and scratch building that all of us modelers seem to accumulate like those tv hoarder shows, you can cram pack your kit with character, and it might not cost you a thing extra. (throw nothing away!) And this kit gained a new found volume that makes it appear bigger than it truly is.
Gameplan
You don’t need a huge gameplan going into it, but some basics steps and it starts with when you first start building the structure. However, don’t get us wrong, some of the best detailed projects we have seen and have built were done post build as afterthoughts. Everyone has a method and style all their own, and like so much else in this hobby no one’s is better than the next and it is your world how you want it. Look at your building as you construct it and decide what walls will be most prominently visible. Will a wall of another structure or trees block that view? You will probably not want to waste time doing too much more than the buildings paint scheme.
Layers
Layering is the process of several or many various mediums (primers, paints, stains, pastel/pigments, washes, etc) being applied in layers, or in conjunction with each other to achieve an overall effect. Each application provides its own element to bring texture and detail to a model that far exceeds the appearance of just some basic paint or single layer. In some articles in the very near future we will explain how we do the above with wood. This is an important process in the detailing of your model.
But layering is not only in how you paint and stain or applying your weathering mediums. You also want to layer with your signage. How it is applied, overlapping a newer sign over a faded one, or fading it with dry sponge painting whites or light gray paint along its edges (another soon to come article). You can put posters over a painted on wall sign or take it even a step further and add some graffitti on top of the posters giving it a triple effect. See where we are going here? On your roof, sure you can just lay some decent looking roofing tar paper or shingles, but add a strip of another colored paper to it as a recent repair job, or take the backside of your hobby knife and scratch up the edges like we described in a recent article and you have just added a layered effect. Top it off with some weathering chalks and you triple it. take your white paint on the brush, dry brush it a bit on a paper towel, then using a scrap of cardboard holding the brush a few inches in front of your target on the roof, and scrape it quickly over the cardboard piece letting it spray tiny drops of white in a section. Presto, you have bird droppings (poop) giving you a fourth layer.
On this model we even made our own rooftop billboard and tried to give it depth. Double sided so it can be seen on a pier from either side we gave it a stained wood frame support that is visible sticking out the tops and sides and aged the sign to make it look like it would receive some salty air and mist. We learned how to make billboards by making them many times over from kits by FOS, Bar Mills, etc. and it is because of their instruction that we helped develop an eye for depth, and it is relatively easy once you build a couple. (again, practice)
You can have doors and windows straight from the box and painted, or you can take a thin wire brush and scratch them gently giving them some wood grain and it ages instantly if you have some gray paint under your primary color. take a very fine tip brush (00 or 05 liner or detail brushes work for me) with some black or tin color and give your door some hinges, door knobs, etc. When dried, put on a rust wash with some burnt sienna and water (ratio 1/5 or greater) and you have just triple or quad layered your door. When practiced enough the results are remarkable.
Not Just Wood Structures
I know we tend to focus a lot on wood structures here at HO Scale Customs, but there are some amazingly awesome plastic structure kits out there that you can take a lot further by layering. Don’t just paint and glue your plastic brick walls together and call it a day! Look deeper into that brick. work on your mortar techniques, there are many. Find what works for you. Don’t look at brick as just a single flat surface. It doesn’t have to be. Visit any brick building in
a city and I assure you that you will find details you never imagined extending out from that brick. Pipes, down spouts, fire escapes, boarded windows, your window dressings, phone and electric lines entering the building, and duct work for ventilation, and a boundless array of configurations for signage! Think deep people, think deep. Pop that plastic! Every layer brings you closer and closer to real.
What About The Small Detail Parts?
The small detailed parts and items like junk, tires, boxes, oil drums, etc. need to be layered too for awesome results.
Start by painting them in dull or earthtones, and use only occasional bright colors for items that it would be obvious they need those shades, and do them with flat paints. Give them a light wash of india ink/alcohol to dull them down a bit, or brush them with a bit of dusty brown pigment chalks.
Now that you have given them their shade by paint and light weathering, you will want to layer them in placement! Yes where they are located they can be placed, stacked, leaning on each other. To get that great look of a busy scene by how they are placed, especially in a group of items, you will notice on this bait shop we mentioned that they are arranged in a corner of a building or along a wall and done so by thinking about it in a sort of physics manner. Who stacks junk and rusty items left outside all neat and orderly in the 1:1 real life scale? Only the most obsessive compulsive is the answer. Make your items visible but partially hidden. Think of each area you want to fill in terms of invisible tiny
squares. In square A, put tall items to the wall or back of your mental picture frame. Things like Acetylene tanks, oil drums, barrels etc. Mix them up, and “stack to back”. You can then take one or two of those items and add in front of the items in square A. Then add in front the medium to smaller items into your next square B. Keep them in uneven numbers stack something small on top of the loner barrel (square C), and then fill any spots with tiny items. For kicks and giggles put an empty drum without a lid in front of the whole mess but not touching them and stuff it with some broken boards or a broom or something that can be seen sticking out of the top of it. Add a stray dog figure or a hobo sitting on a crate, creating square D. See how the scene builds?? This process is layering as well. if you weathered them with some texture you could be well into six to eight layers.
A lot to take in perhaps, and it will take some practice, but your results will be remarkable real and natural looking. Some small scraps of paper crinkled up a bit can give you some stray trash or newspapers. A great resource for making your own trash is done by a great modeler Kathy Milatt in a video she created called how to model scrap ground. (click this link here for that video)
Create Your Own Stuff Sometimes
You can use your imagination many times in this hobby to create detail parts that you might not have. Other times to get a very true look, you will have to purchase what you want but if you shop you can find it from many manufacturers of these types of parts. But in the photo of Bob’s bait shop I wanted some bait buckets for on the bait sales counter. I simply took a super small diameter dowel rod and cut scale bucket length pieces, painted them with an acrylic tin paint, and then cut extremely thin florist wire you can get at box craft stores like Michaels, AC Moore or Hobby Lobby (use your coupon from their sites ALWAYS) and I glued on some bucket handles. A very light wash of the rust to make them look used and I had some buckets to put bait in.
Wrap Up
Look deeper into your modeling. Go outside and look at stuff and take mental pictures of how things are layered in real life. Yes, you can recreate that and it doesn’t take a master modeler to do so! All you have to do is think about what materials you may have or you can get at your local craft store, or even from model railroad detail producers to achieve the look you want. It takes some practice sometimes, but that only makes this more rewarding when you pull off the look you desire. And remember, always remember, that look you desire is the only one in this hobby that matters!
As promised we will do some more specific articles in the near future on layering different aspects and get into each one a bit more in depth.
