Building a Pair of O scale Outhouses

I'm always adding new details to the On30 Thunder Mesa layout, and this week it's a pair of rustic outhouses from Wild West Scale Models. It's a fun little kit (link below), and an easy way to add realistic detail and character to scenes with these necessities of frontier life. Just don't forget to watch for splinters and, please, shut the door. Lots of modeling, weathering and finishing techniques in this step by step build.
Thanks for watching, amigos!
Dave
Wild West Scale Models Outhouses: www.wildwestmo...
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Music courtesy KZbin Audio Library, attribution given where available.
"Country Cue 1" courtesy of Audionautix, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon....
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"Jeremiah's Song" - Dan Lebowitz, KZbin Audio Library

[@scottmccloud9029]

As far as out houses go, those are outstanding.

[@dkaustin98]

No two holers? Nice job. My grandfather had skids under his on the farm with an eye bolt. He would hook a chain to the outhouse and the tractor to drag it over the new hole. The pile of dirt from the new hole back filled the old hole. Old newspaper had dual purpose or you could use a corncob.

[@w.rustylane5650]

I was hoping to see you scratch build an outhouse. Oh well. All I really need are dimensions. Cheers from eastern TN

[@chemech]

I've had some really good looking tarpaper roof results from 400 and 600 grit emery paper... the texture holds the weathering really nicely as yo apply it. 400 grit is about 0.0015", or 0.037mm, which scales out to about 1/16" in O scale. This is a reasonable approximation of the gravel size on asphalt shingles as well.

[@andrewpalm2103]

This was a very well done tutorial on building laser-cut structures. Your relaxed style and thorough explanations are great. Cheers from Wisconsin!

[@heybabe8438]

Only thing missing from those great builds is some 0 gauge flies!!!!

[@wolfgangpfeilergartenbahnd6530]

Great work for an important building

[@PaulsinMo]

My grandfather put the outhouse indoors around 1974😬. Another great video!

[@davevan8864]

One of my cousins here in WV had an out house up into the 1970's. As a city kid at the time I was terrified of the sagging floor boards. The county made them go indoor late 70's Using a out house dead of Winter builds character!!!!

[@steffenrosmus9177]

Hope is was an ground floor only one, I hate those double deckers.

[@jerelmani]

Nice work Dave I realy enjoy your videos and watching the progress on your layout. Very artistic

[@joesask857]

nice thanks man

[@blackrabbithandcraft4124]

Needs a green led in the hole

[@raymondrussell500]

One of the first structures i ever built for my as of yet un built on30 western town. All other buildings are also done, just waiting for the landscape. ( it’s been a long wait). Lol. Thanks for sharing!

[@vincenthuying98]

Dear Dave, can’t say I’m fully informed on the North American outhouse; although on the history of the European version I can tell you that the brick ones were often installed over a kind of septic tank. Those underground tanks were initially also constructed from brick. In short there were two versions in use. 1st the ‘stacked pit,’ with an ‘open’ bottom and a wall with openings, of left out bricks, in the lower layers of the wall. 2nd the fully masoned septic tank, hence fully enclosed, thus a true tank. Disadvantage of the first version, the fact that all the fluids seep through. Consequently the coarse debris piles up in the pit and needed to be removed regularly. Disadvantage of the 2nd, it needs an overflow. All the fluids and debris remains in the tank. Adding the proverbial dead chicken starts a fermentation process which eats away most of the coarse debris. This, with the overflow of the fluids, which doesn’t produce potable water, but at least less contaminated, has a much longer stretched period of time, before the pit needed to be emptied. Of course, I realize that such construction was much more suited for wetter soils. At least such soils where folks didn’t wish to dig a new ‘hole’ when during winter the groundwater level was much higher and digging deep enough simply wasn’t possible!! Great vid, love the results and the levels of detail you added to the Thunder Mesa!! Cheerio

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Good episode. Hidden Mickey spotted. 👍

[@enzoscratch35]

Tus trabajos son asombrosos.!!

[@swamppy4880]

And a sears catalog for t.p.

[@craiglowrey9550]

In answer to your question, "why is the door open", I visited MANY outhouses in the Chilcotin, interior of BC, Canada. Most near 100 years old. The doors always faced east, to catch the morning sun. And, many never had a door, for the same reason. NOW ya know, eh? 😁

[@LMR78]

It’s quite odd that my grandfather has an old outhouse on his land, which was built by my great great grandfather in the early 1900s.

[@markdeschane4467]

Who made the guy using the Outhouse???

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

He's an O scale Rail King figure

[@markdeschane4467]

Are these Outhouse Kits available anywhere?

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

As I mention in the video, they are from Wild West Scale Models. The link is in video the description.

[@timrafeld9795]

What manufacturer made the peel and stick shingles?