Continuing on...



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.



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.



I then made an outline drawing on a piece of paper to work with.



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.



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.

Hello Rollin, that will be quite an impressive town when done. That big FOS kit will take some work, but the end result will be worth all the effort.

Hello Cuse, if you follow Mark's drawing that will be one impressive scene for your new layout. Can't wait to see what you do.

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.



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...



I added some pieces of stripwood from my stash to dress out the roof edges.



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.



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...




The front wall of the gas station has the door and windows installed along with some signs that came with the kit.



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.



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.



The front roof card has been installed. It fit perfectly. The laser cut accuracy on this kit is impressive.



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.

The window backer pieces have been applied to the back of the walls. This is a peel and stick step.



Here, again, you can see the window backer pieces around the perimeter of the window and door openings.



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.



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.



I dry brushed the walls with a white wash craft paint.

That's it for now, more later.

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.



As you can see here, the house is only part of the whole kit. I can now start on the gas staation part.



Here is the bag with all the parts for the gas station.



Here are the parts for the gas station laid out



Here I have the wall pieces ready for painting.



And here are the waall pieces painted with rattle can grey primer.

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.

Now the pictures from my original post have showed up. The mysteries of computers strikes again.

well that one worked, here are the other pictures.









Hope this works

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.

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.



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.



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.



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.



Here's another look at the gas price signs with the braces that hold them up from the roof surface.



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.

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.



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.



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.



The front of the house is shown here. I still need to add some stairs and handrails on the front side of the porcch.



I like the look of the GAS sign on the roof.

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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



Here are the completed sign frame, the two side sign backers and the two signs.

Hello Jerry, thank you for the kind words, sorry for the late reply.