Gilding a Lily

Modern 'ready to plant' resin models are great way to get a quick result. With a little extra work they can easily me modified a little to make them different from the chap's next door. Here's how I changed a Skaledale R8956 Mine Shaft Building with a new roof and some overlays.

A bit of trial and error was used to mark out and then cut up some stone effect plastic sheet. I used what I had to hand which looks a little like the smaller stone used in the Mendip area.

Colouring at the later stage is probably more important that the type of stone effect used.
The card, once a good neat fit was then fixed into place with impact adhesive. I was care careful not to use too much glue in fear that it might melt the plastic.

Where 2 sides met, I filed the plastic overlay at a 45 degree angle to avoid an unsightly seam. Some liquid plastic solvent was then washed over the corners to smoothen the effect.

To further change the look of the mine shaft building, I added a hipped roof, again from plastic card. Some Wills corrugated sheeting was laid over to complete the effect. Masking tape was used to create the effect leading between the roof and the shaft.

The next stage was to add some colour. I’m impatient so I like to get the basic colour on quickly. For this I utilise Halford’s aerosol primers. In my arsenal I always have grey, red, white primer and matt black. The can have many applications on model railways from track colouring to weathering.

For the building here I used a mix of red primer and matt black, misting on the paint randomly from a couple of feet away. I used more red on the roof to suggest rust. After this application all over I then masked off the sides and misted on white and grey primer to suggest the effect of dust.

Mendip stone in the Radstock area is very pale, so the next stage was to dry brush on some very pale grey Humbrol matt enamel.

‘Dry brushing’ if you're not familiar with the practice involves using a fairly stiff brush (I favour those cheap children’s one from craft shops like Hobbycraft). A small amount of the chosen paint is applied to the brush, then with some old newspaper or cardboard most of the paint is then removed.

The roof was treated in a similar manner by drybrushing the Wills corrugated sheet to make it look like asbestos.