Downtown Deco - Trackside Tavern

[ReadingBob]

Thanks for the comment Marty and John!  These are fun to build.  I really enjoy the flexibility I have with the painting process.  I just keep working at it until it gets to a point where I'm happy with it.

I'm not going to show all the various stages of painting but here I am applying a light gray to the stones.  They'll get several washes of various colors and a dry brush of the original light gray before they reach a point where I'm pleased with the effect.


I used a craft store acrylic called "Georgia Clay" as the base color for the bricks.  Don't worry about it being too bright.  Washes will adjust the color to something more pleasing.


The doors and windows....well, there's an interesting story with the doors and the windows.  I opted to spray them with a rattle can, some camo green color, rather than an airbrush.  I taped them down to the tray face down and sprayed the back first.  Just to practice with the rattle can and to see if I liked the color.  They looked good.  So, when they dried I flipped them over and sprayed the front.  They didn't look right as I was spraying them.  They looked speckled with light and dark dots of paint.  I tried a couple of coats and only ended up building up layers of speckles.  Arrrghhhh!  I put them aside figuring I'd have to get some replacements.  After the paint set I decided, on a whim, to scrub them with some fine steel wool.  The speckles came off and the underlying surface looked pretty good.  Whew...   So, anyway, at this point I'm dabbing them with a sponge with a little gray paint on it to get a peeling paint effect.  I'll dip them in A&I and drybrush them with and off white after the A&I dries.


I added glazing using MicroScale Industries Micro Kystal Klear.  It's relatively easy to work with (easier than Canopy Glue, bubbles are typically not an issue with this stuff).  You just draw it across the opening to get a film and let it dry.


I'm still adding washes to the building as I work my way along.  It's not there yet but it's starting to take different shades of color which build some character.


More washes...


Continued in a moment.   

[ReadingBob]

At this point, while waiting on a wash to dry, I cut out all the signs and awning with a sharp blade and a steel straight edge.


The instructions say you don't need to do this but it's an old habit with me so I sanded the back of most of the signs to make the paper a little thinner.  I used a fine grit sandpaper and worked from the center out being careful not to sand thru the signs or tear them.


I toned the signs down a bit by first brushing them on the back with a thinned out A&I.  I have my regular A&I bottle and a bottle of plain ol' A handy.  I dip the brush in the plain ol' A first and then the A&I to thin get a thinned version to apply to the signs.  I ended up doing the front of the signs as well.  Most times doing the back tones them down more than enough but this time it didn't have as much of an effect as I would have liked.


I've finished with the washes on the structure and finally got it a state I'm happy with.  Now it's time to start adding the signs.  I used a thinned white glue, applied to the back of the signs and positioned them on the structure.  Don't press down the areas of the sign that will be cut away (where the stucco has fallen off the building).  You can see my 'blue' wall, is now a green wall.     After the glue has set take a sharp knife and carefully trim away the portions of the sign that fell off when the wall crumbled.


The "Beer" sign that's mounted on the front of the building is made up  of two signs and a piece of styrene.  I trimmed the styrene to match the size of the signs and then applied 3M Transfer tape to the styrene and trimmed it to fit.


Peel off the backing of the 3M Transfer Tape and you have a sticky surface to mount the sign on.


More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

Carefully position the signs on the sticky styrene.  Two things can go wrong here, you can get 'em on crooked and/or you can mount them so that one is right side up and the other upside down.  Be careful not to do that.   


When I went to add the doors and windows to the structure I noticed that the front door wasn't recessed enough.  That's easy enough to correct.  The opening is a bit taller than the door so that can be fixed a couple of ways that I'll cover in a moment.


A small square of relatively course sandpaper made quick work of increasing the depth of the opening so the front door would be recessed enough.  After sanding I painted the opening black again and then glued the door in place aligning the bottom edge of the door with the bottom edge of the structure.  I opted to leave a gap at the top which, for the most part, will be hidden by the awning and not noticeable.  Alternately the door could have been mounted flush with the top of the opening and small step could have been made out of some strip wood, painted in a concrete color, which then could be used to cover the gap at the bottom of the door.


I guesstimated how deep the roof should be and glued (using 5 minute epoxy) some strip wood in place to support the roof.


I cut the sheet of styrene (included in the kit) to fit the structure and applied bracing underneath and 3M Transfer Tape on the surface.  Instead of using the roofing material included in the kit I substituted a sheet of roofing paper from Stoney Creek.  Something I picked up at the EXPO.  I thought this structure was certainly worthy of it.   


I made sure my bracing wouldn't interfere with the bracing I had glued to the walls.


More in a moment. 

[ReadingBob]

When I trimmed the roofing paper I left some overhang on all sides that I folded up so it would completely fill in the opening and run ever so slightly up the side of the walls when the roof was placed in the structure.


Oops...that's all I have for pictures today.  I'm hoping to finish this one up this afternoon.  The roof with get a mist of grime and some weathering powders.  The chimney will be added as will some repairs with pitch and I'll try to think of a few more details to add to the roof.  The Beer sign will get mounted on the front as will the awning and some pipes.  I'll cover that and add some final photos when I finish it up.  Thanks for following along!

[ACL1504]

Fantastic job Bob. I like how you finished the signs and walls.

Tom

[cuse]

Great build Bob.


John

[donatode]

Bob,


I really enjoyed following along.  Can't wait for the next "installment" ..... 

[ReadingBob]

Thanks Tom, John and Donato,

Here's the finished structure.  I add some downspouts (which hide the joints) some pitch 'repairs' to the roof, the chimney, the awning and the beer sign.  I did something a little extra when installing the beer sign, rather than simply gluing it to the wall with CA I drilled two tiny holes in it and glued a short piece of wire into each hole.  Then I lined it up on the front wall and used the wire pins as a guide to drill holes into the wall for the wires to go into.  Then I glued it in place.  Just a little extra support for the joint.  I also added some chipboard under the awning (with 3M Transfer Tape) to give it some strength and to keep it from developing a wavy appearance over time.









Oh yeah...I wanted some way for the little people to access the roof so I crafted a 3' square access hatch out of strip wood, chip board and some roofing paper.   





Hope you like it.  Give Randy and Jimmy's hydrocal kits a try.  They're a lot of fun to build and you end up with a really unique looking structure for you layout.   

[rpdylan]

nice job! what did you use for the tar lines on the roof? I like how thin and "understated" they are.

bob c.

[UP Fan]

Really enjoyed following along with this hydrocal build.  Thanks for the ride.       

[ReadingBob]

nice job! what did you use for the tar lines on the roof? I like how thin and "understated" they are.

bob c.

Thanks Bob!  The tar lines are made up of Gallery Glass Liquid Leading (my new favorite pitch thanks to Dave K).  I squeezed out a small blob on a piece of scrap paper and then used a tool, basically a metal handle with a pointy thing on the end  , that I have on my work bench to pick up a little bit and apply it to the roof.  I was shooting for thin and understated so I was really happy when you said that.  Thanks for following along!

[ReadingBob]

Really enjoyed following along with this hydrocal build.  Thanks for the ride.       

Thanks Bob!  I'm glad you enjoyed it.  Always happy to share whatever's on my work bench.   

[S&S RR]

Bob


Another great build thread! And some great tips - I have some new items on my shopping list.  Thanks for sharing.

[Zephyrus52246]

Great structure build, Bob.  A gritty looking trackside building.


Jeff

[GPdemayo]

Well done Bob!