Over the Holiday season I took my remaining vacation days off. It allowed me to relax and work on some models I had in my mind. One was a structure for my friend Steve Swanson. He is into minerals, mining and railroads. I thought to myself mining engineer and assay office would be the perfect structure. It is O-scale. The shingles are evergreen scale models real cedar shingles.

I scratch built the entire structure from strip wood. I distressed the wood, and lightly sanded it to remove the fuzz. I then used an alcohol and  (Kooh-i-noor brand) waterproof black technical pen ink. I penciled out the walls on architectural card stock. The wood was then glued on the surface. I also added a slight whitewash color paint to the upper parts of the wood on the wall. The rest was small details and grandt line windows. 

Small mineral samples have been placed on the front porch, and in the sill of the window. 

In the next picture below you can see the white wash paint effect I did.

The stove pipe I scratch built out of brass tube, sheet and wire.

The rust streak is a special rust wash I make myself.