Well it has been a busy few weeks again, the good part is it has been all model railroading related.  I am working on four HO scale kit structures and a small N scale layout all for a friend.  Because of these the poor Hudson was sidelined for most of the time.

Construction

In the way of construction not much happened, but I have some paint on the building and starting to move in a great new direction.

Minor Arch Work

Before I could begin to paint the building I had to add a little thickness to the Hudson’s arched windows.  The bottom layer is only .010″ thick and I wanted it to be at least .030″.  I had planned this when I first cut the arched windows on the digital craft cutter, and so I cut the filler pieces at the same time.  I had to snap-out the pieces and then glued them to the back of the arches.  After I did this twice to all of the arches, I was now ready for paint.

Paint – take 1

I began on the least visible portion of the building with detail and that would be the left side.  Initially I started to stain all of the stone work with a india ink/alcohol mixture.  I liked the results but not for this building, it was way too grey.  I then painted some of the brick with Polly Scale Aged Concrete to see if it looked better against something other than white.  It did not help much so I tried using Polly Scale Concrete on the stone work.  That did not help much either.

I selected these two colors because in the photos the brick and the stone are only a few shades off from each other.  I was on the right track but everything was way too dark.  I became frustrated and let the building sit for a few days so I could get my mind off it and work on other projects.

Paint – take 2

I had gone to the hobby store to see if there has something else that would work, nothing was found.  I knew I would have to mix my own colors to get what I needed and it turned out to be a simple mix.  For the brick color I roughly made a 50/50 mixture of Aged Concrete and Reefer White.  I tested it and liked what I saw.  For the stone I basically did it in a similar manor, but this time I did a 25/75 mix of Concrete and Reefer White.  Again, this worked very well.

Now that I had what I liked, I need to cover up the failed mess on the building.  I sprayed the building with some flat white paint which took me back to square one and gave me a good base coat as well.

I started by painting the brick first by using my mixture, for the most part it came out very well.  In a few spots it was a little blotchy but this was quickly solved with a fast second coat.

The stone work was done for the most part, the same way as the brick.  I would thin the paint down a little so no details would be lost.

Conclusion

I am in the woks right now to mask off all the window areas so I can spray it in.  The bottom floors will be painted when I finish the store fronts and the back will be painted when I have rooftop mechanical building done.

The building is coming together nicely and am now in a rush to finish it because of my next, very exciting project coming up as soon as I am done.