Model Kit | Faller Country Chapel with Scenic Accents

This is the Country Chapel model kit by Faller.

The kit comes pre-colored but I decided to give it a go over anyway with similar colored paints. I guess I can't get over the plasticy sheen of an unpainted kit. Interestingly enough, Model Color's Field Blue matched the original colored plastic of the roof of the chapel exactly! The white walls were painted with MC's Ivory White.

Country Chapel model kit by Faller

The bronzed plastic of the bell tower looked pretty good so I left it alone.

For a couple of weeks, that is, before I decided to give it a once over with Humbrol 171 Antique Bronze. Ah, much better..
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Bell steeple painted with Humbrol Antique Bronze

I did some simple weathering to this structure which involved using black and brown crayons on the white walls. Black crayon is also great for crisping up some of the details -- I use it on corners and for structural accents. The exposed brick effect was accomplished by dry-brushing matt dark red paint.

I created the vine effect on the side walls by drawing thin lines of PVA glue with a toothpick and then sprinkling light-green Woodland Scenics Fine Turf over the area. The glue lines catch the turf while the excess falls away, creating the 'vine' effect.

Vine on the chapel walls created with PVA glue and Woodland Scenics Fine Turf

I spent a good part of my pre-adolescence building model planes, tanks and ships by the likes of Airfix, Revell and Tamiya. I found the quality, fit and detail pretty good overall.

Airfix and Revell were in my opinion the best as far as fit -- the parts all went seamlessley together 99% of the time. Tamiya led the pack (back then in the late 70s) as far as detail but the parts at times did not fit together perfectly and a certain amount of modification with an X-acto blade and glue was required.

Having come into model railroading and finding myself once again working with model kits, I can say for a fact that the scenic models that I've worked with so far do not even come close as far as detail or quality of fit to the brands I mentioned earlier. A lot of times, parts to be have to be glued together 'freehand' -- no alignment guides are molded on the plastic to align the pieces together.

On the bell tower on this model for example, it would have been the industry standard to provide guide 'nibs and holes' to align the steeple on top of the wooden framework. Instead one has to slap on a liberal amount of glue and align the steeple to the frame by eye, making fine adjustments before the glue has a chance to completely dry.


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The Country Chapel as it appears on the layout. Don't ask how the congregation is supposed to get up that hill.. 

Instructions are also often unclear, or completely lacking, and one has to reference the picture on the box for clues. Oh well, these manufacturers must give us model railwaymen too much credit as far as our kit-building skills. If only Tamiya were to enter the model railroad market..

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Distant view of the Country Chapel

Post afterthought:
Having said all that, I do find that the LifeLike Trains and Atlas plastic kits that I've recently worked on to be of good quality, with precision fit and detail an experienced kit modeller would come to expect.

More model kit buildings on The Sunny Model Railroad:

Western Homestead Shanty by Life-Like models

Country Chapel by Faller

Sanding Tower Model Kit by Faller

Atlas Picket Fence and Gate Kit

Constance Signal Tower Model Kit by Faller



 

Model Kit | Western Homestead Shanty by Life-Like Trains

This is a Life-Like Trains model of a Western Homestead Shanty. The kit came in pristine white with a grey roof so I decided to do some simple weathering to make it look more realistic.

Laundry day at the shanty. But seriously, who would live here?

I first painted the walls with Model Color Ivory. The Model Color series of paints comes in little plastic bottles. They wash off with water when still wet which is great when cleaning brushes. I thought that the slate grey finish on the roof that came stock with the kit looked pretty good so I decided to not repaint it.

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Glaring white plastic walls weathered to look like the real thing. Note rust stains on the walls below the pipes.

To weather the walls I wet-brushed very dilute India ink to bring out the 'grain' of the wood -- these kits are finely detailed! Using tissue paper I dabbed off the excess so that it wouldn't appear too dark.

I then drybrushed Humbrol Matt Black 33, Matt Earth 29 and Model Color Basalt Grey very sparingly. To add rust to the pipes I used Humbrol Matt Rust 113 which I find comes very close to the real thing. I also drybrushed some of the Rust onto the walls below the pipes to give the impression of rust stains. I drybrushed in streaks the same colors for the roof.

To create creeping grass on the sides of the shanty's walls I used a toothpick to finely smear a small quantity of PVA glue and then sprinkled Woodland Scenics light green fine turf. You can even create vines by drawing hairlines of PVA with a toothpick and then sprinkling fine turf. The turf will adhere to the fine lines of PVA and look like vines.

But what's that blue Porsche doing in front of the Shanty?

Lastly, I used white thread for the clotheslines and hung the 'laundry' supplied with the kit.

Looking at these pics reminds me that I have to get around to concealing the edges of the plastic base by blending it into the turf.


More model kit buildings on The Sunny Model Railroad:

Country Chapel by Faller

Sanding Tower Model Kit by Faller

Atlas Picket Fence and Gate Kit

Constance Signal Tower Model Kit by Faller

Model Railroad Scenery | Plaster, Paint and Ground Cover

The stack of newspaper wads from the previous post has been transformed into the mountain scene you see below.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the creation process -- I had my hands covered in wet plaster!

View of the completed mountain. Hard to believe it's just a wad of newspaper covered in plaster.  

Basically it involved covering the paper wads in plaster cloth (I used two brands, Woodland Scenics and Activa Rigid-Wrap, which are basically the same, as well as being similarly expensive!), painting it over with a matte tan paint and then adding ground cover of various textures and colors.

Nothing in scenic nature is uniform or consistent so I used as many ground cover colors and textures as I could obtain.

For added texture in areas devoid of ground cover, I used plaster of paris to create the rough, rocky detail you see in the second pic below.



Burnt umber, raw sienna and a light brush with dilute india ink turns the white plaster into something resembling rock. 

When the plaster thoroughly dried, I used applied dilute burnt umber and raw sienna acrylic paints, using the 'leopard-spot' technique. This involves using a sponge brush and dabbing the various colors on in a random pattern of spots.

Then, using very dilute india ink, I brushed a wash over the whole thing. The india ink gets into the little crevices and brings out the detail of the 'rock'. A very important step!  

Instant realism!



A Fleischmann goods train rolls past a plaster rock face.