Day 32 - Chimney

What's an old house without a chimney?  This kit is a little different than many because it has the chimney that  is located in the center of the house.  This is actually a great design since the heat from the fireplace would be more evenly distributed throughout the house.

The chimney that came with the kit is a plastic unit that isn't the best quality.  I wonder if the folks at Branchline Trains make them themselves or purchase them from a supplier?  The issue with the chimney is that all four sides are slightly concave which makes the corners stick out.  You can't see it real well in the picture below, but it is very obvious looking at it real time.  I use my hobby knife to trim the edges which improves it.

There are many different brick colors that I can use.  I'll use the Rust-O-Leum(tm) Professional red primer to paint the chimney.  This color is a little darker and brownish than most red primers and I like it for "old" brick.  Note to Scott Perry - Sorry, since it says "Professional" you won't be able to use it! ;-)

I'll need to hold the chimney while painting.  I could: A.) Sand the bottom flat and stick it on a piece of cardboard; or B.) Drill a small hole in the bottom and insert a screw.  I figure that (B) is faster so I use my hobby knife to drill a hole by spinning it round and round in the bottom.  This only takes less than a minute to complete.

Next I insert a drywall screw I happen to have sitting around being careful not to insert it too far and split the chimney.  Now it's off to the Giant paint booth (outside).  I have a paint booth inside, but it's easier just to step outside of my basement door in the wide open outdoors and I don't have to use a paint mask.

While the paint is drying I locate my mortar.  I've tried many different methods of doing mortar and found that I like Roberts Brick Mortar  http://www.robertsbrickmortar.com/  the best.  The main reason is control - you can put it on, let it dry and then wipe it off.  Too much mortar? - wipe off some more.  Too little mortar? - put on more!  It might seem a little pricey but trust me when I say that it's worth it.  This jar is probably enough to last me a lifetime.

Now the paint is dry on the chimney.  It looks very bland, but I'll fix that.

The picture that comes with the kit has the chimney, horizontal cap, and flue the same red color.  Notice also that there's no mortar between the bricks!  We know in real life that isn't the way a chimney looks.  I paint the horizontal cap Polly Scale(tm) "Concrete" and don't go for full coverage.  Like the dirty white over the gray for the house siding I want variations in the concrete color.

The flue on many chimneys is made from glazed Tera cotta tile pipe.  I was going to custom mix some craft paint when what did I find in my paint box?  A brand new unopened bottle of Tera cotta paint!  Not only that, but this paint was on sale and only cost me 59 cents!  I use my smallest brush and my magnifying viewer to paint the flue keeping paint off of the horizontal cap.

For the mortar mix the instructions say to "shake, then stir if necessary" before using.  I shook the heck out of it and when I opened it there were still BIG blogs-o-goop inside.  I stirred it thoroughly and then gave it a good shake.  Here I'm applying the mortar mix on the chimney.

Here it is coated and drying.  The instructions say let it dry to a light powder and then wipe with a damp cloth.  I probably put more on then what was necessary, but that's the beauty of this stuff - you really can't mess up!

I didn't follow the instructions to remove the mortar with a damp cloth, but used a dry brush wiping carefully diagonally across the brick.  Here's the result.

Now Grandpa's house has some age on it and I don't believe the mortar lines, horizontal cap, and flue would look this nice.  Time for some aging!  You can buy a number of high prices fancy weathering liquids and powders, but I stick with my cheap 70% rubbing alcohol with 2 tsps of black India ink added.    I first test the mix by pouring a little in a cup and dipping the corner of a paper towel in it to see how dark it is.  It's a good thing that I did that here as it was WAY too strong.  I thinned the mix in my cup about 75% more with alcohol.

Here is the result of one coat of the weathering liquid once it has dried.  Now that looks like an old chimney!

This is a different view so you can see the horizontal cap and flu better.

It's a lot of work for one chimney, but it's the highest item on the structure and your eye will be drawn to it.  Here's a before & after - you be the judge.

I had to deal with an issue when installing the chimney on the house as the supporting structure wasn't level.  Now we could go with a crooked chimney as they do exist in the real world; however, most people will probably think that is was shoddy modeling work.  The overcome the issue I put a bunch of hot glue on the underside of the chimney and held it level in the structure until the glue cooled.  The little piece of wood sticking up at the base of the chimney is for reinforcement and will be hidden by the shingles

Next up: Shingles!