I'm getting ready for the Cranberry Wharf phase one! Boy, that eirht foot long wharf will be a challenge!!!

The Fertilizer & Guano Co at the north end of the wharf is my first build. A simple warehouse with water on one side and a covered loading platform for trucks on the other. Office facilities in one end with doors on both sides. Perhaps all shingle roof, perhaps corrugated steel to get some rust color + shingles over the office area.

This is the original idea scetch, as seen from the north:

And here's todays scetch of the water front seen from the west:

Well, I couldn't resist going to the modeling table tonight... The dog had been perfectly behaved all day, madam was smiling understandingly, and the train house will have to wait a day or two...

So I've drawn a full size master plan of the eight foot long wharf, then laid out the four sides of the twelve inches long Fertilizer & Guano Co on the end of Cranberry wharf on 1 mm styrene, snapped them out and made the openings for diverse Grandt and Tichy stuff... There is a couple of sliding doors on the waterfront side, as per the recent sketch, and two sets of large doors on the loading platform side. A narrow office section in one end both sides.

Tomorrow... paper strip planking etc. Having fun again!

 

Difficult to get things done when our son and almost daughter in love is staying for a long weekend... but I've managed to get a little modeling action.
As always, I began by Jackson Pollocking three sheets of differently colored Canson pastel papers with several shades of red, black, white and payne's grey. I mainly stippled paint on with a big, splayed brush.

 

I cut the papers up into 5 mm strips for the walls and 3 mm for the sliding doors (later to be colored like the windows and doors)
 

I painted the Tichy and Grandt Line stuff a mottled light grey splodgy style, again with the huge stiff brush. Since this warehouse deals in guano, I've tried to catch the smelly birddroppings theme in the paint jobs... I can always dampen the effect later with a small brush...

I covered the walls and sliding doors with double adhesive carpet tape, and applied the strips, both vertically on wall and doors, then horizontally as overlapping clapboard on the office part. A few prepainted pieces of wood was also stuck down, as preparation for the door sliding mechanisms. Detailing and hand lettering to follow.
 

I've started the next two walls in the same fashion as the waterfront one, and have detailed the latter some more, with hand lettering on sign and wall, lights (non working), and the rusty door stuff (deliberately offsetting the nbw's to get that worn-down, lived-in look). I've weathered a little more with acrylics, but will keep the rest until the building is assembled, to equalize the sides a bit.
 

This structure is an exiting build, as I'm taking the paint job to the borderline... I know I'm on the edge of grotesque in the peeling paint and weathering department on this one, but hope it will turn out nicely in the big picture. Otherwise there's nothing a bit of paint can't cover up! My goal is to have the Cranberry wharf and town become a somewhat smelly, musty and worn, slightly scary place. A place where fishermen and sailors come to drink, play cards and whatever. The finer travellers arriving at the passenger ferry stop will feel insecure and alone here...

Two more walls! The end and the inland side. The
curved lettering was hand drawn on a piece of paper, aided by a compass, then transferred with a graphite paper to the siding. Antique white and black acrylics for the text, and any mishap easily corrected with various red splodges.

 

The inland side will have a raised loading dock, with a roof over it.

I'll make a sign for the office on that side as well.

 

After the test fitting, I can't wait to assemble the warehouse tonight.

Tonight I got the "offices" lettering painted, plus a sign advertizing chew tobacco.

I then braced and assembled the building, which turned out a bit bigger than expected, but nice and chunky. The paint job will have to do, since there must have been a lot of acidious discharge from the sacks of guano seeping through the walls, ruining the paint. The back wall is unfinished since it will rest against the next warehouse in line, The Norwegian Klippfisk and Lutefisk Importers, which also will be my next build.

tobacco sign was simply printed on airmail paper (very thin), glued on, and weathered with acrylics.

I draw the letters in pencil first, then the white paint, clean up with the wall color, then greyish black shadows, and clean up again. When you get used to it, it's not all that difficult, since you always can cover up your mistakes. I do the lettering on locomotives and rolling stock that way too.

I've lived in Norway for 21 years, and my wife is from Kristiansund, the capital of klippfisk, so I know the kluppfisk and awful lutefisk too well. But Maine has a big nordic, mostly swedish, population, and they eat lutefisk as well, so I thought it would be a plausible industry... and smelly enough for Cranberry. Klippfisk is good food though!

Tonights progress report... a very, very worn rolled roofing job!

I began the roofing by cutting 2 cm strips from my favorite Canson pastel paper in a quiet green. The subroof of cardboard was scribed for simulated planking, and given a quick wash with mixed earth colors on a big brush. I sanded the paper with a small motor tool, to give the jagged, decomposing edges. Green dust everywhere! Then glued the strips on with white glue with a little overlap.

A chimney from a big drinking straw and two vents, for the smelly stuff, made from tube rivets, were added. Drybrushed seagull droppings and general grime and salt bleaching.

Final progress report for the Fertilizer & Guano Co! I can't do more until it is installed on the big Cranberry wharf...
Today I've built a simple loading platform from stripwood. I made a roof over it from stripwood, cardboard and corrugated aluminum. Painted several times with reds and oranges and dark grey acrylics, immediately dusted with scrapings from various rust colored dry pastels.

The norwegian klipfisk (salted, dried cod) importes next door have been complaining too often, so mr. Hurd has arrived, hired to try and save the building from falling apart. A massive task!

I'd better start building that norwegian company tomorrow then....

 

My original Cranberry Wharf sketch from a year ago has now become a big size watercolor... the first from my Coast Line RR. It's fun to paint a totally fictional place.

A soft morning light over the tired wharf, like the background will be later on. I'm looking forward to building that open warehouse on the left... a simple building with lots of aged, bare wood.

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