Tool Shed and Used Ties

 I received an email from Imagine That Laser Art (I'm on their list) a couple of weeks ago highlighting this new laser cut wooden Line Side Tool Shed structure kit of theirs, and decided I'd give this one a try.

I thought the $12.99 price for the kit seemed pretty reasonable, so I ordered one, which arrived in the mail about 5 days later.

Here's a look at the kit's parts...

And about an hour or two later, the assembled building on the workbench.  I assembled it with one door left slightly open. I painted the shed with a craft paint called "Barn Wood", and then brushed on a little bit of black weathering powder. I didn't paint the darker trim pieces at all.

And so now, where to put the shed?  Well, at the end of the JSSX yard, I've had this jumbled pile of plastic track ties sitting there and I'd wanted to do something with them (often thinking I should just throw them out already).

I took the ties over to the workbench and cut them apart and also trimmed off all of the little plastic nubs that represent spike heads.  Tedious?  Yes, and it didn't get any less so later on.

With the cutting and trimming all done, I dropped them all into a cardboard tray and took them outside and sprayed them all with Testors rattle can flat black.  Following that, I randomly misted the ties with grimy black and a lighter gray craft paint.

And back to the tedious stuff, I brushed each tie with a bit of Pan Pastels burnt umber and/or burnt sienna where the tie plates would have been.  And then I glued the ties together into a long, low pile.  This all took quite a while to say the least.

Things got a little more fun though after I cut a piece of foam board to fit the intended location on the layout.  I painted the foam board brown and marked on it where I wanted the tool shed and used tie pile to go.  Then applied sifted dirt (thanks Brian), gravel, and ground foam. There's a stack of rail that I also added just to try to balance out the scene a little bit.

Still on the bench of course, but pretty well finished up.

And so here's a few looks with the shed and used ties scene in place at the far end of the JSSX yard.  I've added some ground foam and gravel to hide the seam/gap between the foam board and the rest of the layout.

And a couple more looks...