Silicon Valley Lines
For almost 18 years, I had a few Walther's Milwaukee Beer and Ale kits sitting in my "personal hobby shop." I had always wanted to create a large industry for the Silicon Valley Lines model railroad club, but with a stressful day job, and a son involved with FIRST Robotics, the time to spend working on such a large task felt like it was it would never happen.
Fast Forward to 2020, where We have have all seen amazing "COVID Projects" other model railroaders have built during lockdown. I felt a sudden sense of urgency to actually get something accomplished. It was time to build a Brewery.
SVL is an operations oriented club in a large space. While striking from an architectural perspective, the Walthers kit harkens back to an earlier era where large industries are compressed to fit on smaller layouts. I initially purchased multiple brewery kits with an intent to create a unique build, but after examining the available space at the club, I needed to take a different route. While I was flipping through old MR articles, I ran across an article describing the then "brand new" DPM modular wall system. I realized that the arched window wall sections could be used to build a nice warehouse to connect with the original kit.
Inspiration from an old MR Article
After taking some measurements at the club, I glued up some of the wall sections and soon had a chance to check a "dry fit" of the resulting complex:
DPM + Walthers = Bigger Complex
Now that I had a plan, it was time to do the most daunting part of the project, painting. I washed all of the plastic parts in warm soapy water. It was easy to start with the DPM walls, as no masking was needed.
Once the walls were covered with a basic brick red, I followed a technique from a Jason Jensen and sponge painted the flat red walls with a few different brick red, oxide red, and burnt red acrylic paints. Because I had started with a red primer, A wash of AK Interactive Deck Tan and Medium Grey was flowed into the cracks and crevices to give the impression of mortar. This wash was a very subjective process, and multiple coats were needed until I was happy with the look.
DPM Walls with base colors (top) and mortar wash (bottom)
Finally, BRICK colored walls
The most time consuming step was masking the Walthers walls. The foundation is stone block, but other small sandstone features riddle the wall castings. Thankfully, I had lots of Tamiya masking tape:
Such Masking.
The tape allowed me to paint the "sandstone" a mix of AK Light Earth and Medium Grey. I painted the stone foundation with Medium Grey mixed with a small bit Deck Tan, and the used a Burnt Umber wash.
So Worth It!
After I was happy with the overall look, I sealed all the walls with AK Matte Varnish. When that was dry, I went back with a few of the enamel washes to "grunge" up the foundation, added some weathering chalks and another final flat spray. I'm super happy with the results so far:
Front (Track) Side of the Brewery
Back (Truck Docks)
