These two industrial units are the first of a series of buildings that are designed to be used for any 20th Century and near future conflict. The final commission will see about a dozen buildings of all sizes so when they are all together they will make quite a sight.
I used three photos as inspiration. These were supplied by the customer to give a feel of what he was looking for.
The last two photos are of the same building but from a different angle. These photos gave me the ideas I needed to help me make the models. They needed to be substantial buildings and made from brick. I liked the multiple stories of the large building along with its tall chimney, roof vents and large entry doors. The white building looked interesting because it was white but I liked the wire running round the outside of the walls as well as the small roofs over a couple of doors.
This is what I came up with:
Both buildings are brick built. I use plastic sheets from South Eastern Fine cast. They make a good range of sheets but importantly they come in big sheets so you don't have to worry about joins as often. They are also made from white plastic which gives you lots of options for painting. The roofs are both corrugated iron sheets. I use Slater's plasticard for this. Their sheets are smaller than the South Eastern Fine cast sheets but I cut them into smaller panels anyway so, in this instance, size doesn't matter.
All the other details come from the railway modelling O gauge ranges. Railway companies are great sources of industrial model details and I strongly recommend you hunt them out.
Once I had built the models (the usual foam board heavily braced and then clad in the plasticard). I painted them. The white building is straight forward with a white base coat, washed in raw umber and then highlighted in white again. The brick coloured building starts with a base of raw sienna. When that is dry I give it a coat of burnt umber (to give it a red shade) followed by a wash of black. In this case I still felt it was a bit light so gave it another wash of burnt umber. The washes give lots of colour and shade variations which make a potentially dull brick wall far more interesting and eye catching. The final coat is a dry brush of deep cream colour. This adds even more variation and lifts all the colour a little.
The roof was painted with a base coat of grey followed by a couple of washes of raw umber and then dry brushed in a couple of lighter shades of grey followed by a final dry brush of cream.
All the other details were painted various colours and then the final touch was the weathering with lots of water and rust marks all over the walls and roof. I generally use raw umber but can also use black if I need a heavier effect.
That is them done. I have a larger factory just about done so will photograph that and try to get some group shots and post that later this week.
