Fogarty's Bait & Tackle Shop - 1/87 scale

[Philip]

Such an imaginative model. I like.

[Mike Stamper]

great model - weathered to the Nth degree !

Cheers

[Sakrison]

Originally Posted by Mike Stamper

great model - weathered to the Nth degree !

Cheers

Thanks, Mike.

Actually, except for the busted down loading dock, the weathering is all in the texture sheets -- Paper Creek's weathered boxcar siding, my photo of a very weathered barn, and photos of old, beat up windows and doors from Texture Library. The stripwood is stained with Hunterline's Weathering Mix.

I guess the only thing I weathered is the barrel -- a wash of thin brown paint on black plastic.

[Kevin WS]

Very nice work - looks splendid.

I enjoy the "distressed" appearance of these type pf models.

[Don Boose]

They remind me of some of the structures and rolling stock on the late John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid model railroad.

Don

[Sakrison]

My father-in-law, from a family of German immigrant wheat farmers, drew a distinction between "Yankee farms" and "German farms." On a Yankee farm, he would say, buildings, machinery, fences, and other flotsam no longer in use are left to decay or rust where they last stood. Fresh paint is an extravagance (except on the house and sometimes even there), mowing around the barn, a waste of effort.

In contrast, a German farm, he would say, is spic & span -- everything in its place, fresh paint on the barns, flower beds on the lawn, old objects and structures repaired, re-used, repurposed, or removed.

As I drive through small towns in Wisconsin, I see mostly something between "Yankee" and "German." I see buildings that look lived in, often older or "remuddled" styles, most well-maintained (to a point), and a few left to deteriorate and finally collapse.

John Allen, George Selios, and other great modelers understood that buildings and other structures don't stay squeaky-clean for long. Normal use and the seasons (especially here in the Great White North) take their toll. Inhabitants stave off decay with patches, repairs, and fresh paint, when they can afford it, but change is not always welcome.

Where the rails pass through town, things may be a little rougher from harder use. Where towns are shrinking, neglect gets a foothold. But pride of place usually trumps neglect, even when resources seem scarce.

This is the atmosphere I aim for in my modeling efforts. It's the landscape -- human and natural -- that I see around me.