Gents.....
I was prompted to this today as Matt put up a great series of photos about his Ellicott structure using this brick material.
Some months ago, the editor of the NMRA magazine ran a series of stories about women in the hobby. One lady in particular got my attention. She was scratch building the various houses that she had lived in. it got me started on my thinking about this. I then later discovered some brick sheet from Monster Model Works of Colorado.
I ordered some and it is just great. It's pretty fragile but I have found ways to resist cracking and breaking along the grain.
The first photo is a Google Earth photo of the house on the west side of Chicago. Our family held this building from 1921 to 1969.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-031121143708-51052294.jpeg)
So here is the structure framed up. I used several sizes of styrene for the window sills and the windows will be Tichy Train Group material that I found pretty good matches for. They had to be adjusted for masonry use rather than the wide facings that most of their castings use.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-031121143708-510531377.jpeg)
I am just now starting on the painting of the brick so that is an adventure.
I'll put up a photo in a day or two.
For now.....
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-031121143708-51054422.jpeg)
Bob,
Wow, fantastic job on the house. I guess I'll need to get some of the MMW brick for a build.
Tom ;D
Very nice work Bob!
Very nice and with personal importance.
That's awesome, Bob! I really enjoy the problem solving of scratchbuilding to a prototype. You have nailed the details and really captured the original. Just great!
Matt
Time to get the popcorn ready. Another great build thread to follow along. ;D
Looking really good.
Bob,
Nice start on your hometown project.
Tommy
Bob
Great project, I will be following along.
Hey Bob:
What can I say but WOW!!!! very nice work so far. Can't wait to see this one finished.
Karl
Very nice
Eric
Much have been rich folks to own both floors. ;) My mother's parents owned a three floor brownstone in South Chicago. An interesting project you've started. Looks great so far.
Jeff
Jeff.............. thanx for looking in
Actually no about affluence. My grandfather almost lost it twice, once in 1932 and then again when the balloon note was to come out in 1951.
The reason he was never able to rent out the second floor is that there was always someone in the family that needed the apartment.
First was my great grandmother, his mother-in-law, from 1923 to 1937 and then he let it out to my mom's older brother for a few years where he hardly collected anything on that deal . For only a few years during the war he rented it out from 1943-45 for about 25 bux a month. Again sort of a family deal.
It's a weird thing about the Greeks....... everyone is family ! ! ! !
The apartment sat vacant for a year and then my mom's brother came back and held it until he was called up for Korea. We moved there in late 51 and held the apartment until we sold the place in 1969. I was in Viet Nam at the time so I had no part in getting it sold.
While we were there we paid 60 bux a month and that was the only real money he ever held on the place.
The 50's were great years to grow up......
Again....... thanx for looking in.
see ya
Bob
Very nice start. Love the scratch builds that have meaning for the builder. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Mark
Very nice Bob.
Jerry
Looking forward to seeing the finished project, Bob. :)
Thank you all....
I finished the color on the brick last night but I can't get the gallery to take photos this morning.
So I'll wait a while and see if it changes its mind.
Thanx all
Bob
So here are some shots of the brick work done. It needs some clean up but it is mostly there.
There are five different layers of paint. First I shot the whole thing with flat grey (cheap) primer. Second was a layer of medium tan Polly S. Then I change medium. That is code for different kind of paint. Many paints are a solvent for themselves. If you go back and forth between acrylic and distillate base you won't plow up the previous. Distillates are worse for this than acrylics.
Third was another layer of distillate that was sort of a maroon. Then another layer of acrylic that was pretty orange. Then finally a distillate that was REALLY maroon and pretty dark at that.
All of the coats after blasting it with the spray primer were dry brushed in various directions. It gives a great multi colored appearance that really does not come well in the photos. But here it is.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-051121141347-510742136.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-051121141347-510762050.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-051121141347-51077188.jpeg)
Excellent coloring and build Bob.
So I got some bench time before we leave in the morning to go see that grand kids in Portland'
Here are two photos of the ground floor with the windows installed. These are the easy ones as the interior will not be seen so I could put glass behind and simply press the windows into the openings and secure them with a dot of superglue in each corner.
The second floor will not be so easy. I'll need to cut the glass exactly to the window size and put the entire unit in as one piece. Then I can case out the windows from the inside with stained strip wood.
So for now.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-071121014752-510801958.jpeg)
And another.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-071121014753-51081375.jpeg)
Back in a few days...
So impressive , the house itself but especially your building it.
Excellent looking brick building.
Bob
Beautiful work - have fun with the Grandkids!
Such a masterful job, Bob.
We lived in a very similar looking building for several years, except ours was a four-plex and we lived in the upper right section. My bedroom was the back porch off the kitchen. Not fun during the Midwest winters, but delightful during the summers.
Dang Bob! Another fine model. Very Very Cool.
;D ;D 8)
Bruce.....
Now I need to figure out where to put it on the railroad. Using forced perspective in a lot of areas it tends to look bigger than most structures in possible locations. What a problem huh....!?!!?!?!?!?
Thanx for looking in
Bob
Nice looking build Bob.
Doug
Just keeps looking better and better. Nice brick coloring.
Jeff
Hey Bob:
This project is looking just great. I just can't wait to see more. I just love how you've assembled the walls to look like your house.
Karl
So I got the windows in this week. There are some adjustments still out there but it's coming together.
This brick stuff from Monster is great.
Now on to the interior..........
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-191121125317-511261418.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-191121125318-51156283.jpeg)
Excellent work Bob! Love the window detail.
So I got back to this project.......... recall I was interrupted by the school house project when the grand kids came for Christmas..
I had no idea when I started this that there would be so many glue steps and the need for yellow glue and super glue. Yellow glue was needed for initial holding of stuff together and allowing for minor adjustments for square before setting aside. Super glue was needed for simple strength as it would need to be handled so much during the steps of construction.
For whatever reasons in Chicago, there are google earth photos taken in the alleys so I had at least some recollection of what was there. They have since replaced some of the railing with stuff that has a spacing. I am building this as it was in 1950 so there are no spaces.
This will get de-fuzzed before painting.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-200122171128-51759230.jpeg)
The roof is to be removable so appearances from the top need to be maintained also.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-200122171128-51758834.jpeg)
There will be a 2x12 around the edge of the sliding roof so you cannot see under.
I would have liked to not use a 4x12 on the back edge to tie the verticals together but there was no enough strength otherwise. It is not visible with the roof in place.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-200122171128-517572124.jpeg)
More later
So here is a look at the back porch from the alley.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-200122173229.jpeg)
Other than the slats changed not much is different from 50+ years ago
More later
What a great project. It looks awesome.
Great job on the porch framing Bob..... 8)
looking good Bob , is that broken railing part of the plan ;) or wasn't it broken when you lived there.
Looks like someone tried to put his head through the railing on the prototype photo....
dave
Quote from: deemery on January 21, 2022, 02:04:38 PM
Looks like someone tried to put his head through the railing on the prototype photo....
dave
Would have been a small head , probably not Bob ;) ;D
US building codes changed sometime in the last 15-20 years, to restrict the allowable space between railing posts. That's apparently because some kid got his/her head stuck in between them. We found that out the hard way when the home inspector pointed that out ot the people purchasing our previous house, and we were forced to redo them "to code."
dave
Hey Bob:
Looking just great. Can't wait to see more.
Karl
The railings were tongue and groove boards so they were closed as I have made them. That spaced stuff was put there after 1983 when I took some photos while on a visit to Chicago.
Thanx all
Bob
So I got the house sorta planted...... I still need to glue down the sidewalk and make up the flower boxes that were on the front of the house. The mountings are still on the today photo but the boxes that were sandstone are long gone.
I'm modeling the house in 1950 so they will need to be there. My grandfather was into petunias so every spring we would go down to Green Street (I couldn't begin to make that one up) and come home with two flats for the boxes. I'll get that done soon.
For now..........here is a street level view of the house.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-230122221749-517841685.jpeg)
I did not have a lot of locations for this on my railroad as this structure has a large footprint. It ended up along the trolley line in Boise. I wish that I had lived this close to the tracks in while growing up in Chicago. As it was, we practically "lived" in the Milwaukee Road yard at Cragin, about three blocks away. This was in the last years of steam and the near retirement engineers would pull us up into the locomotive and let us ring the bell and blow the whistle. Great times to grow up.
Then here is the back porch with some paint on it.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-230122221749-517851235.jpeg)
A view from a higher vantage point.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-230122221749-517861872.jpeg)
Here is a photo from Google earth today.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/81-230122221749-517872239.jpeg)
That looks awesome , great job Bob.
Jan is right, that is a great model.
Jim D
Oh wow! That's wonderful Bob. What a great project and great addition to the layout. :)
Beautiful modeling Bob. I'm sure it will be a highlight on the layout for you. The side facing the tracks could almost be a large brick tower.
Fantastic! I remember, not too fondly of living in a similar 4 plex. My bedroom was the back porch. (no back stairs)
Looks like it was made for that spot on your pike. A wonderful model.
Jeff
Thank you all..............
see ya
Bob
Bob,
Nice memory created by a great hometown modeler...
Tommy
hey Bob:
Very nicely done. Like it's place on the RR.
Karl