Hello Matt, add my name to the list of people that are very impressed with your build. The turret looks amazing and thank you for the tutorial on building it. I also like your method of placing newspapers in a window. That's something we've all seen many times in the real world, but rarely see in the modeled world. Good job.

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.







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.

Continuing on...



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.



So the gas station and scenery are gone- down to the plywood shelf.



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.



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.



I also put some blue tape along the top edge of my fascia board and then painted everything with a brown base color.

 

Thank you Greg

Hello Tom, you must still be tired from all your yard work, or did you rename your railroad.

Hello Rollin, you're off to a great start. Don't you love the magnetic jig ? I use mine all the time and can't believe how I used to assemble walls before I got it.

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.



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.



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.

Continuing on...



I have an empty corner of concrete here and I wanted to put up a pole sign.



I thought that a round area enclosed with concrete curbs would look right for the corner.



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.



Using my scale drawing, I measured the length of each curb piece.



And using my trusty chopper I cut 8 pieces to the same length.

Hello Mark, what great progress you are making on your empire. You have a lot of mountain building to do, can't wait to see it.

Hello Tom, I'm really enjoying your version of the REA complex here and on the other forum. I'm sorry to hear you say that you won't be doing anymore detailed build threads in the future. I always learn something new while following along on your adventures.

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...

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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.

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.



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.



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.



Here's a view of the mechanics shed glued onto the side of the gas station.



Here is a drone view of the many roofs. I plan on adding a few more roof details.

That's a good start to what will be one very impressive scene. Can't wait to see it finished. We need lots of pictures.

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.