Minimal Modeling Monday

After the last post, and in an attempt to give my brain a bit of a break, I've decided to try and push the pendulum perceptibly towards more modeling and less mulling. So, herewith, a short update:

You might recall from last week's "Modeling Monday" that I'd started the picket fence to go with the arbor in front of the house across Fernwood Street from John Wallace's house - and had even given it a nice fresh coat of paint.

Looks really nice - but perhaps a bit too nice. The only time I've ever seen a wooden picket fence look THIS white is for about the first 10 minute after it's newly painted.

So, after a "dry fit" on the layout, but before planting it in place, I decided to take it - and some other items - down to the paint shop.

In addition to weathering the picket fence, I wanted also to do my "wood" effect on the black styrene parts that came with the billboards.

You may recall the photo above from the post where I first started the billboards (about 1/2 way down the post). As you can see, these "wood" parts started as just plain black styrene.

After using my "woodifying" technique (well, to give proper credit, it's Brett Wiley's technique), this is how they came out. Definitely click on the image for a closer look.

As great as I think it came out, I still prefer to use wood to represent wood - then all that would be needed is just a coat of stain and some light weathering, rather than six(!) different colors of drybrushing!

While in the paint shop - and listening to my favorite podcast - I painted up the bits that ChrisZ sent to me a few weeks back. Here are some crossing signs above...

... and the old time crossing sign, with the round sign attached.

And that picket fence and arbor? Check it out...

Now THAT looks like a typical picket fence. Don't worry - that long section is the section that will go between the house and the railroad tracks. The other two sections are supposed to look weathered, but not quite ready for a new coat of paint. Of course, I may have to weather the house a bit more to match. Or add a little more white paint to the fence . . .

With weathering, I'm learning that it's best to build up slowwwwly because it's easy to overdo it and a little goes a long way. The effect should be subtle. Thankfully, weathering is also often easy to reverse.

I thought I'd be installing the fence tonight, but ran out of time. Let me know what you think - or you can wait until you see it in front of the house before rendering your verdict.

No matter though - at least I'm getting out of my head and back to the layout a bit. Hope you're able to make some progress too!