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Here is the kit. I liked the old time look of this structure. It reminded me of places that my Dad used to stop at on our family road trips in Central Ohio.
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The instructions are not your typical step-by-step style. They give you exploded drawings with part numbers.
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Here is a typical sprue- this one is for exterior walls. It's not the wood sheets that come with most craftsman kits- it's a fiber-board material. This is before painting with rattle can grey primer.
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Here are the parts for the house base. The kit uses slot-tab type assembly. This type of assembly was new to me but I have to say that even though the parts seemed wobbly when putting them together, they came out as a very sturdy unit.
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Here is the assembled house base before painting with a rattle can grey primer.
I've only seen one other build thread for Showcase Miniatures- it was a Valu Fuel kit put together by Steve Custer and he did his usual fine job. The methods that he used will be very helpful to me as I go along on this kit. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.
That's it for now, more later
I'm following Jeff! Looks like an interesting kit. Thanks for sharing.
Oh , with all those corners, nooks and crannies this looks like a very nice structure.
Jeff,
I'll be following along, too.
Great job so far Jeff.
What an interesting looking structure. So many angles.
Jeff
Jeff,
I'm on the bandwagon as well. Looks like a neat one to build. The stock photo has Jason Jenson weathering and look all over it.
Tom
Hello to everyone looking in. All the angles and different building faces are what interested me in this kit. Jason Jenson built the initial kit for Showcase Miniatures and he did a great job. I think that I am going to use close to the same paint scheme that he did. It just looks right for this type of structure.
I'll be looking in also Jeff..... :)
Neat looking kit, Jeff.
Great to see a foundation.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Greg and Mark, I appreciate the interest in my little build. Mark, I agree with you, a foundation on a building always gives it an added dimension.
This is a new kit maker for me, so I'll be interested to see how you build it, as well as your comments on the design and manufacturing.
dave
Hello Dave, this is a new kit manufacturer to me as well. The only build thread I could find was one that Steve Custer did on this forum for a kit called Valu Fuel. So far all I can tell you is that the customer service is very good. I ordered the kit online thru an easy to follow process and they shipped it to me within 3 days. I also got several emails regarding the status of my order.
As for building the kit, it is different from most others that I have done. I will try to detail the process in this thread. So far I have found that there are many small delicate pieces, but they cut off the fiber board sheet without to much trouble and they are fitting together very well. The manufacturer recommends that you paint the parts while still on the sheet and I have done this so far except for the larger exterior wall sheets.
Follow along with me, I always appreciate your comments and ideas.
Continuing on...
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Here is one of the exterior wall fiberboard sheets. I don't know if that's what the material actually is, but I've seen it called this before.
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Here are some of the walls cut out from the sheet with the back side showing.
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Here are the wall pieces with what they call the window backers attached. This is a peel and stick process and you have to be careful when positioning them.
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Here is a wall piece with the window backer installed. when placing them on the back of the wall you have to make sure that some of the window backer material shows on all four sides of the window opening. The window backer material prevents any window pieces from passing thru the wall piece. I will detail this further on.
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After using my ponce wheel for nail marks and prying up some of the individual clapboards with my #11 blade, I painted the wall pieces with rattle can grey primer. I was going to paint both sides of the walls, but after the paint on the front dried I didn't notice any wall warping so I did not paint the back sides of the wall pieces. I guess I'll find out if this was a mistake as I go along.
That's it for now, more later.
Great looking progress Jeff.
Hello Curt, thanks for checking out my kit build. I'm having fun with this one- it's a different style of kit than I've done in the past
Continuing on...
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Here is a piece of exterior wall after I drybrushed some Desert Sand acrylic paint. I painted all of the window parts, while still on the fiberboard sheet, with a Light Avocado acrylic paint which I applied with a sponge.
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This shows the difference between the sprayed on primer wall and the drybrushed one.
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Here is a picture of the window installation procedure. You can see the purpose of the window backers here. The acetate, which comes precut with the kit, is glued into the opening. I used some Aileen's tacky glue for this. The window backer visible from the front prevents the acetate from falling thru the opening. That's why it is so critical to place the window backer material correctly.
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Here are the parts for one window laid out in order before installation.First the glazing, then an interior sash, then a frame, then the exterior upper sash and finally a trim frame. It's a lot of work for each window, but being the wierd kind of guy that likes this type of thing, I had a lot of fun with it. All of the parts excfept for the glazing are peel and stick. There is one more part to each window that I haven't mentioned here. A window sill is provided for each window, but I wanted to wait until later in the build to install these. I figured that they would just get knocked off during the wall assembly process.
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Here is a look at one of the wall pieces with the windows installed. Like I said, a lot of work because there are a lot of windows in this kit, but I think it was worth it. I really like the way they look.
So far the window processs is the biggest difference in this kit from most other craftsman kits that I have built. Cutting an opening in a wall and gluing in a finished product Tichy window is a lot different than this. To me much more satisfying. Not that the Tichy windows aren't great, but this process shows what would have to be done if we didn't have them.
That's it for now more later.
Looks superb, Jeff.
The dry brushing really makes a difference. I think the fact that the windows aren't quite perfect (like a Tichy window would be) gives them a real one of a kind look. More like white metal windows.
Cheers, Mark.
Jeff,
I really like the sand color you used for dry brushing the walls over the primer. The light avocado is a great complimentary color, too. I agree laser cut windows take a lot longer, but they offer a lot of choices if you want to model any of the windows in various stages of being open. Looks to me like a well designed kit, at least so far.
I like how the windows came out Jeff..... 8)
A great looking wall/windows, Jeff
Terry
Hello Mark, Jerry, Greg and Terry. I'm glad that all of you guys liked the windows. They were a lot of work, but I'm very satisfied with the end product. This is the first kit that I have built using this type of material and I'm enjoying every bit of it so far.
Continuing on...
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Here is a view of the rear wall after drybrushing, painting the exposed foundation, installing windows and a door and placing shades on the inside of the windows. The bottom middle window is modeled to be open with interior shades blowing in the wind.
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Here are the rear and left side walls. You can see how the tab and slots fit together. From looking at the instructions, the corner joint will be covered by trim boards on both sides of the corner.
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I've glued the left side and rear walls to the base which has some interior walls and a second floor ceiling. You can see the gluing surface for the walls around the base perimeter. I also put some glue on the tab and slot corners of the wall.
The next step got me into a little bit of trouble. I "assumed" that the second floor ceiling was the same size as the first floor floor. We all know what happens when we assume. So I merrily placed some glue along the edge of the second floor ceiling because I figured it would further stabilize the walls and make everything tighter.
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Here's a view of the left side wall after gluing it to the base.
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And here's a view of the rear wall. The corner joint fit perfectly. The laser engineering on the parts of this kit are impressive. The glue dried, everything was nice and tight and solid and I was a happy camper.
I just lost a whole post with pictures because my log in time ran out. I usually log in for an hour, but this time it was not enough. Live and learn, I'll repost soon.
Enjoying watching the engineering of this kit, Jeff.
Looks nice and solid with all those interior pieces.
Cheers, Mark.
Great looking modeling Jeff. It's turning out much better than I thought it would when you said it was a heavy paper. The windows remind me of the ones in a BTS kit.
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on March 21, 2024, 03:41:27 PMEnjoying watching the engineering of this kit, Jeff.
Looks nice and solid with all those interior pieces.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, this kit is turning into an adventure. I thought the same thing while building, but stay tuned and you'll see that the interior walls do not help in making the structure solid.
Quote from: PRR Modeler on March 22, 2024, 08:59:59 AMGreat looking modeling Jeff. It's turning out much better than I thought it woukd when you said it was a heavy paper. The windows remind me of tge ones in a BTS kit.
Hello Curt, I didn't know what to expect when I started, but I'm pleasantly surprised so far. I guess we all get into a comfort zone with our familiar wood walls and bracing. The fiberboard or heavy paper as you call it is a different medium, but it's working out very well. I haven't done a BTS kit so far, do they have similiar windows to what I have in this kit ?
I continued on gluing the walls in place. When test fitting the right side wall I noticed a gap between the wall and the interior second floor ceiling. I also noticed that the left side wall was bowed in the middle. I then realized that the second floor ceiling was not the same size as the base floor. So, gluing the walls to the second floor ceiling, which I "assumed" was the right thing to do, was not helping matters at all.
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I took my #11 blade and broke the glue joint between the left side wall and the second floor ceiling. This straightened out the left side wall and gave me the gap between the wall and ceiling. I inserted a vertical piece of 4x6 stripwood between the wall and ceiling as shown and all was well and things were nice and solid again.
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Next I glued in the right side and front walls, with again using vertical 4x6 stripwood in the gap and evrything was good. I'm not sure why the ceiling piece was not the same size as the base floor below. I guess I should have laid it onto the base floor to make sure it was the same size before proceeding. As you can see in the picture I glued a piece of 1/8 square stripwood between the gable end peaks for more gluing siurface for the roof cards. This was not in the instructions, just a habit of mine when building kits.
I should mention here that this kit is not for someone without previous experience building craftsman kits. The instructions do not provide step by step points for building the kit and the parts are not all labeled. Having built more than a few craftsman kits and also scratchbuilding several structures, the instructions were clear enough for me.
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Moving on, the next step called for installing rafters on the front bump out. Asa you can see in the picture I pre-painted the sheet with my trim color. I used a sponge to do this. The rafter pieces came out of the sheet fairly easily. You do need a new blade in your cutting tool to do this.
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The rafters have been installed. They fit perfectly in the slots in the gable end wall and the front bump out wall. The engineering of the laser cut pieces is impressive.
The next step called for gluing what they called the sub roof cards onto the structure. When test fitting these pieces I found that the tabs did not fit into the slots all that easily. I think it's because of the paint I added to the walls. It was an easy matter to use one of my small files to open the slots in the roof cards a little. They then fit onto the tops of the walls easily. here are a few pictures showing the sub roof cards installed.
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There were some small gaps between the sub roof pieces so I used some blue painters tape as flashing to close those gaps.
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That's it for now, more later.
Great looking progress Jeff.
Jeff,
Your build is progressing nicely. While I'm not a fan of tab and slot construction, this kit seems to fit together precisely for the most part. Your color choices and attention to detail are definitely on point. Thanks for taking the time to share this build with us.
Quote from: PRR Modeler on March 23, 2024, 08:49:39 AMGreat looking progress Jeff.
Hello Curt, thanks for looking in and for the kind words
Quote from: jerryrbeach on March 23, 2024, 09:02:46 AMJeff,
Your build is progressing nicely. While I'm not a fan of tab and slot construction, this kit seems to fit together precisely for the most part. Your color choices and attention to detail are definitely on point. Thanks for taking the time to share this build with us.
Hello Jerry, this is my first time with this type of kit construction. You are right, things are fitting together precisely. I've had to make only minor adjustments so far, but as we all know, that's where the fun is.
The problem I have with tab-and-slot (when it's done precisely) is it's really hard to bash the model. When the tabs & slots aren't well aligned, they are really difficult to assemble. So it's good to hear this one is on the 'precisely' side.
dave
This is coming along really well, Jeff. It's an impressive looking kit and you're doing an outstanding job with it!
Quote from: deemery on March 23, 2024, 06:35:23 PMThe problem I have with tab-and-slot (when it's done precisely) is it's really hard to bash the model. When the tabs & slots aren't well aligned, they are really difficult to assemble. So it's good to hear this one is on the 'precisely' side.
dave
Hello Dave, you're right about the inability to kit bash this type of kit. It is engineered to be built just as it is, with little to no room for free lancing. Also, I think I mispoke when using the term precisely. Precise to me means darn near perfect and I have had to make some minor adjustments as I go along. I have to remember that the pieces are made to fit together as they are made. When the modeler adds paints, washes and other surface covering materials, the wall or piece surface is changed and that makes fitting the pieces together just a little more difficult.
Quote from: ReadingBob on March 24, 2024, 09:44:06 AMThis is coming along really well, Jeff. It's an impressive looking kit and you're doing an outstanding job with it!
Hello Bob, thanks for looking in. I'm pleased with how the kit is turning out and thank you for the kind words.
Continuing on...
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The next step was to work on the second story dormer that overhangs the left side porch. The side walls fit into the slots on the roof card with a little bit of adjustment with a small file. I glued them in place as shown. the front wall of the dormer is showm laying next to the side porch. At the bottom of the front wall and also on the face of the left side you can see green pieces with slots on the top. These are for the floor joists that will be installed next. In this picture you can also see the colored paper that I glued onto the back of the window openings for window shades.
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The front wall fit well with the slots and tabs lining up nicely. After the glue dried I started to install the floor joists. I first glued the middle joist in. I had to flex the front wall slightly to get it to fit properly. The end of the joist fit nicely into the small slots on the green pieces.
The rest of the floor joists went in with only a little bit of trimming for length. These joists will be difficult to see once the model is completed, but they are still a nice touch to the overall appearance.
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Next are the rafter tails. The rafter tails are laser cut with a little tail that is meant to go into the little slots visible in this picture. I had a difficult time fitting the small rafter tail tail into the small slots with my shaky hands, it's not easy getting old, so...
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I then cut the little tail off of the piece. You can see the pieces with the little tail on top and the two below with the tail cut off. This made it much easier for me to get the rafter tail in place using the slot as a guide for positioning. As I said before, I think that the paint on the piece added enough thickness to make fitting it into the slot a little more difficult.
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Here are some of the rafter tails after completion.
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Next up is the roofing material. The kit provides a sheet of standing seam metal looking peel and stick paper. The sheet as it comes with the kit is white. I first sprayed it with a rattle can grey primer and when dry sprayed it again with a rattle can metallic looking color. I then brushed on a brown wash to take away the shine of the sprayed on paint.
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I then sponged on several different rust colors to show some wear and tear to the roof. I guess I got to busy working to take any pictures, but the peel and stick roof pieces went on easily.
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I didn't have any problems until I put the peak cover piece in place- see here. This piece is only an 1/8 inch wide and it didn't cover the gap as well as I wanted it to. Maybe I didn't place the dormer roof piece up as high as I should, but the blue tape that I used to seal the sub-roof card gaps is visible. Also, the long ridge cover piece did not bend easily and the peel and stick adhesive did not let me lay the piece as flat on the roof as I wanted it to.
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Here is the roof material sheet after all of the pieces have been cut out. I'm thinking of trying to form a new, slightly wider ridge cap with the border material from this sheet.
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Looking ahead a little. Not all of the kit pieces are identified in the instructions. For example, this sheet is labeled building trim. It is left up to the modeler to figure out where all of the pieces must go. Not complaining, just letting you know what comes with the kit. It wouldn't be any fun without challenges, right.
That's it for now, more later.
Everything is coming together nicely. Great job on the kit.
Hello Curt, thanks for looking in, I appreciate the interest in my kit build.
Continuing on...
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I removed the ridge caps that came with the kit. After looking at the top of the dormer roof, I began to think that I did not place it properly.
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This is a view of the low edge of the dormer roof from below. I have a lot of overhang. Since the roof piece was peel and stick I thought I could remove it and re-position it a little higher up. Nope, The stick part of peel and stick, at least on big pieces like this roof piece means it is stuck on for good. I didn't want to destroy the roof so...
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I painted the visible blue tape with some silver craft paint I had on hand.
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Next, I turned to the remains of the roof sheet and cut up the edges to give me some pieces to work with.
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Here is the kit ridge cap on the left and the piece I cut from the roof sheet on the right. It is almost twice as thick. I think I can work with this.
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After gluing on my home made ridge cap pieces, this is what it looked like. Not perfect, but better than it was.
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The top of the dormer roof looks better now.
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Here is a view of the roof from above. I still need to work on the coloring of metal roofs, but I'm getting a little better.
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Next I started the building trim installation. This picture shows the gable end area. There are three pieces of trim here. On the top of the gable wall are two pieces. One placed on top of the other and then stuck on the wall. The third piece is placed on the edge of the sub-roof cards. I think it looks good.
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Next I started on the posts and handrails of the left side porch. They provide two additional pieces for each post called post thickeners. You place one on each side of the post to give it some added girth. They also give you some pieces to place on top of the handrails. This was not an easy task with my shaky hands.
That's it for now, more later.
Jeff;
I just had a chance to catch up on your project. Very interesting and educational. You explain things well and I learned a lot. The project is really coming along and looks great. Thanks for sharing.
Jim
Looking good. You're making great progress on this interesting kit.
Jeff
There was a period where EVERY lasercut kit maker did a building with an overhanging 2nd story. They always rubbed me the wrong way, because structurally those aren't very common.
But you're certainly getting good results as you work through the kit.
dave
Looking real find Jeff..... 8)
Quote from: Jim Donovan on March 29, 2024, 08:09:38 AMJeff;
I just had a chance to catch up on your project. Very interesting and educational. You explain things well and I learned a lot. The project is really coming along and looks great. Thanks for sharing.
Jim
Hello Jim, thank you very much for looking in on my little build. I'm just trying to do a build thread as I learned how to on this forum before it went dark. Since the forum has come back I've noticed a lack of step by step build threads and more of just a social theme. I hope that this will improve as time goes by. I was disheartened by Tom ACL's announcement that he would no longer be doing that type of thread, I learned a great deal from Tom. I know that there are many very fine modelers out there and I hope that some of them come back and continue what this forum is all about. Sorry about my speech here, but I felt like I just had to say what I've been thinking out loud.
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on March 29, 2024, 08:11:13 AMLooking good. You're making great progress on this interesting kit.
Jeff
Hello Jeff, it is an interesting kit isn't it. I've never done this type of kit before and I have had a great time building it.
Quote from: deemery on March 29, 2024, 09:41:15 AMThere was a period where EVERY lasercut kit maker did a building with an overhanging 2nd story. They always rubbed me the wrong way, because structurally those aren't very common.
But you're certainly getting good results as you work through the kit.
dave
Hello Dave, I was kind of waiting for you to voice your opinion about the structural integrity of this structure. You are right as always, but the building does have an interesting look. That's what drew me to buy the kit in the first place.
Quote from: GPdemayo on March 30, 2024, 08:51:51 AMLooking real find Jeff..... 8)
Hello Greg, thank you
Well, I remember seeing a couple of those overhanging 2nd story on prototype structures, and saying to myself, "Yup, there IS a prototype for everything!"
dave
Next it's time to start some of the small sub-assemblies that go onto the structure. First is the large GAS double sided sign that goes onto the front peak of the house.
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Taped to the paper is the frame for the large GAS sign. The kit does not provide any backing for the actual sign, so I decided to build a stripwood back. First I taped the frame to some paper and then drew some lines to form the perimeter of the frame.
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Next I cut some 2x6 stripwood to the proper length. I made sure to get them all the same length by using my chopper, shown in the picture. I got this tool from Micro Mark and I use it all the time.
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I laid the 2x6 pieces inside the frame outline and taped them in place. I then cut three pieces to glue on the back to hold everything in place. The three pieces will line up with the three vertical pieces in the kit frame.
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I then dipped the completed sign backer in my A&I solution to give it and aged, weathered look. Then I made the second side.
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Here are the completed sign frame, the two side sign backers and the two signs.
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Here is the sign in it's place on the roof. I haven't glued it yet. I'm waiting to place the structure on it's base before gluing on the small fragile sub-assemblies.The blank wall of the house is where the gas station building will butt up against the house.
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Here's a look at the rear of the house. I still have to add some steps below the door and a small roof above the door. I'm waiting to add these small pieces until after I place the structure on it's base. Otherwise I'm sure that they would be knocked off several times.
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Here's a look at the left side of the house. A small wall mount AC unit will be added to the left of the second story windows. Again, I'm waiting to add this small piece.
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The front of the house is shown here. I still need to add some stairs and handrails on the front side of the porcch.
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I like the look of the GAS sign on the roof.
Jeff, none of the images from your last post showed up for me, and I get 'file not found' when trying to open the link.
(Some forum applications have problems when the image is too big, or when the image name contains spaces or similar non-alphanumeric characters.)
dave
Next are some gas price signs that are meant to lay flat on the roof. The signs that came with the kit show gas prices in the .70 cent range. These prices do not reflect my time period which is the late 1940's.
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On my computer, I made some new gas price numbers. I tried to match the font style and color and also the background color. The new prices come closer to the 1940's prices.
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Here are the new gas prices glued onto the sign sheet. I then copied this sheet to arrive at the final signs that I will use.
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As you can see I did not lay the gas price signs flat on the roof. I built some sign braces and glued them to the back of the signs and then glued them to the kit supplied sign frames that are laying flat on the roof. I like this look a little better, plus it gave me an opportunity to do something a little different than the kit called for.
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Here's another look at the gas price signs with the braces that hold them up from the roof surface.
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This is one busy roof surface. The laddder glued to the roof came with the kit. There is one for each side.
That's it for now, more later.
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I'm not sure what went wrong with my last post. Everything looked alright when I was working on it. I double checked the size of the pictures, they are 750x500 pixels, which is the size of picture that I always use.
Here is a try with one of the pictures, we'll see if this works.
well that one worked, here are the other pictures.
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Hope this works
Now the pictures from my original post have showed up. The mysteries of computers strikes again.
That roof looks terrific, Jeff. Great finish and weathering. The signs and ladders add a lot of visual interest. Nice job changing the prices to match the era you're modeling. This is going to be a real eye catcher on your layout.
Really nice Jeff...I like the roof coloring and really like that unusual sign.
Quote from: ReadingBob on April 03, 2024, 07:26:36 AMThat roof looks terrific, Jeff. Great finish and weathering. The signs and ladders add a lot of visual interest. Nice job changing the prices to match the era you're modeling. This is going to be a real eye catcher on your layout.
Hello Bob, thanks for looking in on my build. You're right, there are a lot of nice details that came with the kit. I thought it would be more difficult to do the change price thing, but it worked out pretty well.
Quote from: cuse on April 03, 2024, 08:11:18 AMReally nice Jeff...I like the roof coloring and really like that unusual sign.
Hello cuse, thanks for the kind words.
I've gone about as far as I can with the house for now. All I have left are the stairs for the right side and rear and a couple of small wall mount details. I am going to wait until the house is glued to the base before I do these details.
But I have a whole other building to put together. This kit is like two kits in one.
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As you can see here, the house is only part of the whole kit. I can now start on the gas staation part.
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Here is the bag with all the parts for the gas station.
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Here are the parts for the gas station laid out
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Here I have the wall pieces ready for painting.
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And here are the waall pieces painted with rattle can grey primer.
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The window backer pieces have been applied to the back of the walls. This is a peel and stick step.
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Here, again, you can see the window backer pieces around the perimeter of the window and door openings.
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I decided to paint the trim for the store with a red craft paint. I sponged the paint on the sheet with the window and door trim pieces.
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Here are the pieces for a door laid out. First the glazing is glued onto the opening. I used Aileen's tacky glue for this. Next the door is placed in the opening, then the first door trim and then the exterior door trim. All of these pieces are peel and stick.
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I dry brushed the walls with a white wash craft paint.
That's it for now, more later.
Continuing on...
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The front wall of the gas station has the door and windows installed along with some signs that came with the kit.
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I'm starting to assemble the walls. I bought the metal tray and the stand up magnets from Micro mark. This is a very handy tool that is reasonably priced. It helps keep walls square when gluing them together.
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The red strips at the top of the interior walls are being glued in here. the roof cards have to be installed from the botttom and they rest on the red strips.
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The front roof card has been installed. It fit perfectly. The laser cut accuracy on this kit is impressive.
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The kit comes with an interior floor and one interior wall. I painted the bottom of the wall red and also added a few signs. I built a service counter with a front sign to give some semblance of an active inside to the gas station. It turns out that you can't see inside the building when the front canopy is added to the building. If I had added some interior lighting, then it would have been visible, but I have not attempted to do that as of yet.
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The canopy that attaches to the front of the gas station has beeen assembled and the signs have been glued on. The trusses fit well, but were a little finicky to get into the slots on the two sides of the canopy square.
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The roof card for the top of the canopy has been added. It fit well, but there were some small open spaces around the edges, so...
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I added some pieces of stripwood from my stash to dress out the roof edges.
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Next were some more gas price signs that go on top of the canopy roof. after gluing the pieces together, I wanted them to have a little more stability so I added a cross brace near the bottom of the back braces. I used some of the material from the sheet edges for the small horizontal cross braces.
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After adding the gas price signs, using the same techniques that I used for the signs on the house roof, I found that the signs were front heavy and would not stand on their own. I then added a couple of pieces of stripwood between the signs to allow them to stand up on their own.
That's it for now, more later.
Continuing on...
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My next step was to create the base for the structure. As is my usual, I cut a piece of thin styrene to the shape of the space available on my layout. I placed the structure on the styrene and outlined it's perimeter and then covered the building's footprint with blue painters tape. I then painted the whole piece with rattle can grey primer. For the grass area, I painted it with a craft brown color and while still wet I sprinkled on a sifted base ground cover which is dirt from my yard. I then mixed in some green and then black colors as well. I then drizzled on some water and matte medium mix to hold everything in place. The concrete area was first marked out in about 9 scale foot blocks, or the width of my steel 12 inch rule. I then painted the area with a light grey colored chalk paint. This area will be weathered with chalk colors later.
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When I bought this kit from Showcase miniatures, I also bought this nifty little automotive service rack. I thought that the mechanics needed a little tool and shade shed, so I decided to scratch build one. I placed a paper outline of the shape on the base to get the right size.
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I then made an outline drawing on a piece of paper to work with.
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I made stripwood framed walls using 2x6 scale wood dipped in my A&I solution. The wall cladding will be 2x8 wood boards seen on the right.
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Here is the finished mechanic's shed in position next to the gas station and the service rack. I made a simple roof card from cardboard and used some colored paper cut into 3/8 inch wide strips for the roof covering. I didn't put many detail parts here because this little scene is on the backside of the structure and mostly out of view when it will be placed on my layout.
A couple of quick pictures of the automotive service rack. As you can see the parts come laser cut on a sheet of fiberboard. I sponged on a red color and when dry, followed it up with a little black. I painted both sides of the sheet. The small parts fit together well, as all the parts in the gas station kit did. I used white wood glue for this.
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The house has been glued to the base and the basic scenery ground cover has been added. Here, you can see the back door stairs, handrails and small roof. These small details wre kind of finicky to work with, but with a little patience they came out well. At least I think they did.
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The newspaper machine, the ice machine and the soda machine all came with the kit. The gas pumps that came with the kit were a little too modern for my time period. Luckily, Showcase Miniatures has a gas station accesories detail pack which had the gas pumps appropriate for my era. After painting the pumps, the signs were very small to add on, but again I think, worth the effort. I only did one side of the pumps- my shaky hands balked at doing both sides. It was a little difficult to get the canopy, the canopy support poles and the gas pump island all glued together, but it came out well.
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Here's a picture of the side porch steps and handrails. The little bench came with the kit- there are two of them. The guys playing checkers also came from Showcase Miniatures along with the dog taking a nap in the previous picture.
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Here's a view of the mechanics shed glued onto the side of the gas station.
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Here is a drone view of the many roofs. I plan on adding a few more roof details.
Continuing on...
I decided to add some fencing and a wood slat fence to the border of my little scene. Fencing was not included with the kit, so I had to scratch build them.
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As always when I scratch build, the first step is to make a scale drawing. The bottom diagram is for a two rail wood fence and the top one is for the wood slat fence. The two rail fence is four HO scale feet high and the posts are 8 scale feet apart. The wood slat fence is 6 scale feet high and again the posts are 8 scale feet apart.
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Again as always especally when making fencing, I used my trusty chopper to make a lot of similiar pieces. I got this from Micro Mark at a relatively cheap price.
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Here is the first section of two rail wood fence. I usually dip the stripwood into my A&I solution before building fencing. I used 2x6 wood for the rails and I think I used 8x8 wood for the posts.
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Here is a section of the wood slat fence. I used the same 8x8 for the posts, 2x6 for the horizontal runners and 2x8 for the wood slats. After cutting the 2x8 pieces I use my #11 blade to weather them a little. I cut corners off the top and bottom of some and cut slivers off of the sides of some others. This is a small thing, but it makes a big difference in the finished product.
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Here is a finished section of the wood slat fence. As you can see I drybrushed some color on the fence and then added some signs. Building fencing requires some time, but the end resuly is always worth it- at least it is for me.
That's it for now, more later.
This build makes me re-think my skillset. Doing what it takes must be your mantra.
Looking great, Jeff.
Scuppers and downpipes for the flat roofs with parapet walls might be a nice detail to add. All the different roofs look awesome. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. Fences came out nice and rustic. The posts look the same thickness as the palings to me - which might make them 6x6's? Anyway - no matter. Enjoying your updates.
Cheers, Mark.
Doing a great job Jeff , and thanks for sharing all the steps of the build.
You've done a great job with this kit. So many angles, different materials and finishes. Wonderful.
Wonderful! The dog taking a nap is the perfect touch for this scene. ;)
Quote from: MartyO on April 12, 2024, 08:09:56 PMThis build makes me re-think my skillset. Doing what it takes must be your mantra.
Hello Marty, your skillset is on fine display with your wonderful waterfront diorama. I think that we all do what it takes to build our little worlds. It's fun.
Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on April 13, 2024, 01:29:56 AMLooking great, Jeff.
Scuppers and downpipes for the flat roofs with parapet walls might be a nice detail to add. All the different roofs look awesome. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. Fences came out nice and rustic. The posts look the same thickness as the palings to me - which might make them 6x6's? Anyway - no matter. Enjoying your updates.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. You're right about the scuppers and downspouts- I have to look into that.
Quote from: Janbouli on April 13, 2024, 03:13:11 AMDoing a great job Jeff , and thanks for sharing all the steps of the build.
Hello Jan, thank you. I'm just trying to do what I have learned from a lot of fine build threads on this forum in the past.
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on April 13, 2024, 09:32:46 AMYou've done a great job with this kit. So many angles, different materials and finishes. Wonderful.
Hello Jeff, this has been an interesting kit to build. I've had a lot of fun with it. This was my first all fiberboard material kit and I have had to learn a few new things while going through the process, but it's all been a good time.
Quote from: ReadingBob on April 13, 2024, 10:47:52 AMWonderful! The dog taking a nap is the perfect touch for this scene. ;)
Hello Bob, you're right, a sleeping dog is a can't miss item.
Continuing on...
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I have an empty corner of concrete here and I wanted to put up a pole sign.
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I thought that a round area enclosed with concrete curbs would look right for the corner.
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I decided to use some 8x8 left over from my fence building for the curb material. I painted the stripwood with my go to concrete color which is a chalk paint called Parisan Grey that I picked up at a Michaels store.
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Using my scale drawing, I measured the length of each curb piece.
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And using my trusty chopper I cut 8 pieces to the same length.
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The pole sign that came with the kit is on the left. After assembling this "guy pointing" sign, I decided that I wasn't happy with the way it looked.
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The gas station accessories detail kit that I got from Showcase Miniatures had a pole sign included. Here you see the instruction sheet, the printed graphics and the fiberboard sheet which I sponged with my red trim paint. The previous picture shows the round gas signs cut out from the graphic sheet.
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Here is the pole sign installed at the corner of the gas station. I glued the concrete curb pieces in place first, then glued in the pole sign. The pole sign came with two flat pieces for the pole base, but you can't see them here because I covered them with some of my ballast material. I then added a little dirt area with some ground cover. It's time to add some more detail castings and then place the station in it's place on my layout.
In my next post I'll show some pictures of the mostly finished kit before planting it on the layout.
Very nice..... 8)
Thank you Greg
Continuing on...
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This gas station is a styrene City Classics kit and this is an area that I have wanted to upgrade with a craftsmankit for some time. I've looked longingly at many gas station kits, but when I saw Fred's One Stop, I knew this was the one for this area.
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So the gas station and scenery are gone- down to the plywood shelf.
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I cut a piece of Homosote, or as Home Depot calls it here in the desert "sound deadening board", to fit the space and glued it down.
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I used drywall joint compound around the perimeter to blend the edges into the contours of the surrounding area. The blue tape is placed on the edge of the road to protect the road surface.
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I also put some blue tape along the top edge of my fascia board and then painted everything with a brown base color.
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The gas station has been put into it's place and I have done some basic scenery around the edges to blend it into it's new home.
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I'm very happy with how my "new" gas station looks on the layout. I still have some more scenery work to do and some more detail castings to add, but for now I'm going to call this build finished.
This Showcase Miniatures kit was a pleasant surprise for me to build. This was my first all fiberboard , slot and tab kit. I was very impressed with the laser cut accuracy of the parts. Everything fit together very well, with only a few minor adjustments that I'm sure were my fault. I would recommend this kit to anyone who has some prior experience building craftsman kits. This is not a beginners kit.
Jason Jenson did the build for the manufacturer and the pictures that come with the kit are of his build. He did his usual fine job. I was looking at pictures of Cliff Powers new layout and came upon his version of this kit, if you want a look at another modeler's version.
That's it for now, on to the next one.
Looks great on the layout Jeff.....well done. 8)
That looks good and the angle makes it fill the scene quite nicely.
dave
Well sited on the layout. Nice scene.
Jeff
Quote from: GPdemayo on April 19, 2024, 08:08:11 AMLooks great on the layout Jeff.....well done. 8)
Hello Greg, thanks for looking in and for the kind words.
Quote from: deemery on April 19, 2024, 08:49:09 AMThat looks good and the angle makes it fill the scene quite nicely.
dave
Hello Dave, I was worried that I would have trouble fitting the build into my space. I was forced to place it at an angle, but I think that it worked out well in the end.
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on April 19, 2024, 09:19:48 AMWell sited on the layout. Nice scene.
Jeff
Hello Jeff, thank you. I'm very happy with the kit and I think it makes a nice addition to the layout.
Jeff,
That's a neat looking structure you added to your railroad. Excellent job ! Great work ! Very impressive !
Tommy
Jeff,
Great looking scene, very well done.
Tom
Quote from: tom.boyd.125 on June 19, 2024, 12:47:27 PMJeff,
That's a neat looking structure you added to your railroad. Excellent job ! Great work ! Very impressive !
Tommy
Hello Tommy, thank you for the kind words. I had a lot of fun with this kit and am very pleased with how it turned out.
Quote from: ACL1504 on June 19, 2024, 03:15:25 PMJeff,
Great looking scene, very well done.
Tom
Hello Tom, thanks for looking in. I also like how my gas station scene turned out. There is a lot happening in a small space. Lots to look at.