Finished the L1 and Cornerstone's "Union City Roundhouse" Kit

Well, the L1 one is painted, decaled and ready to roll. I started by painting the pewter locomotive shell with cheap automotive primer. Next, I painted the boiler, tender shell, cab and pilot Floquil "Brunswick Green." I used Floquil "Graphite" on the smoke box and ash pans and Pollyscale "PRR Tuscan" on the tender deck and cab roof. When that was don I added decals and sprayed on some inexpensive Dulcote knockoff.

For the coal load in the tender, I took one of the foam inserts that came with the kit and trimmed it to the right shape. Next I coated it with Matte Medium and poured some Creatology black sand (available at Michael's).

Since I'm concentrating on the eastern (Altoona) end of the layout, I decided I needed to get going on building the buildings. Since Altoona was (and still is for that matter) home of a major shop complex, I decided I definitly wanted to include a large locomotive servicing facility. The first building I built for the project is this Cornerstone "Union City Roundhouse" kit.

After the L1 project, this kit was an absolute breeze. Although it's big, it's relativly simple and has few part. I also got lucky and was able to go with the stock colors on all but the roof, chimneys and wall caps, which I painted Floquil "Grimey Black," Testors "Metalic Silver," and Floquil "concrete" respectively. I did go ahead and use gray poster paint to fill in the mortar lines on the brick walls

Where I really went nuts on this building was weathering. First, I coated the whole thing with weather wash. After that, I hit it with some Dulcote. After that dried, I went to town with the chalks. Since this was a busy steam servicing facility, it would have been covered with soot, cinders and ash. With that in mind, I limited the chalk colors to black, gray and white. The exception were the chimneys, which I hit with some brown to simulate rust.

Next up on my to do list are Cornerstones "Modern Coaling Tower" and "Cinder Conveyer and Ash Pit."