Hotel and Grill

[Random]

So, I spent a few days not feeling well and many hours flipping thought pictures from the FSM thread and got really attached to the Leroy's Grill building.  I had a couple of store fronts left over from a chopped up DMP kit (I think) and had been pondering using them in a build for a while.  After playing in the parts box to find windows and doors I devised a plan.




I don't believe these are the exact windows used.  I suspect those may be some of George's on castings but the feel is there.  I'm looking for inspired by rather than copied anyway.

So here goes:

I have two of the store fronts.  So I made copies of them to work with.




I cut paper store fronts to use as design templates.




I marked up a master for cutting positions. 




I went though several iterations until I found the design I liked best.




And here is the final design.  There will be much filing involved in getting all of the sections together cleanly.

[postalkarl]

Hi Roger:

The store front came out nicely. Not sure but I think George used to use Magnuson Kit parts for some of his store fronts.

Karl 

[Random]

Karl  -  You're probably right for the store fronts.  I think my DPM donors are working out pretty well. 


Here are the storefront components after about 3 hours of sanding with a NWSL True Sander.   If I try something like this again I will have to give serious consideration to some manner of powered sander. 




The entrance doors to the right are going to join the window front at a 45 degree angle.  I need to decide how the two bits will attach.  After today's sanding marathon beveling both on a 45 doesn't sound like much fun.

[madharry]

Bob Lunde (now Lunde Studios) was the designer of both Magnuson and DPM kits so the store fronts should be similar.

Mike

[ReadingBob]

Hi Roger,

It looks like you're off to a great start on this one.  It'll be fun to follow along with your build.   

[GPdemayo]

Great start Roger.....this looks like it will be interesting when you get it done. 

[Random]

Mike  -  I met Bob Lunde at a train show in Houston a few years ago and talked with him at length about the Magnuson kits.  They have always been favorites of mine. I was surprised to hear that he wasn't happy with them.  He felt the bricks were too course.  He was also offering a deal that was simply too good and I left with examples of his new line.  They are very nice. 

Bob and Gregory, thank you.  This one is fun.

To that end, I spent some time today working on it.  I did some final work on the store front and glued it up.  I also got to work designing the upper stories. 

I decided to design the upper floors as the siding sheets I have are only wide enough for those.  I'll have to add the siding for the lower floor and the gable ends to that, but this will give me a solid core.

Referring to the pictures in this post:   http://modelersforum.com/the-official-fsm-layout-thread!/franklin-south-manchester-railroad-2016-from-the-air/msg59021/#msg59021 I counted off trim boards to roughly match the layout.  My windows scale out pretty close to those in the original based on the number of trim boards.

I counted out a horizontal grid with 2 boards above, 14 boards for the window course, 5 boards between the top and lower course and allowed the remainder below the lower windows.   You can see where I numbered the boards on the left end of the board.  I laid out the horizontal spacing based on multiples of window widths.  One width to the left, on with between the first two, about 1.5 between the next and so on.  Again, the goal was to replicate the feel of the original.  I checked this against the width of the storefront windows to ensure it balanced as well.  Once I was satisfied I marked out window locations on the siding sheet.

This picture shows the front and right walls with the wall ends marked and windows in the basic location.




Here is a closer shot of the front wall.




Then I finalized the cut marks for the windows.




I raised everything up on some half inch foam in order to make sure I liked how the store fronts balanced with the upper floor.  Raising it up allowed me to put the entrance doors on a 45 degree angle setback at the right end.  The store front is shown after I cemented the sections together.  The will need some sanding and filling to clean up the joints and I am still not certain how I want to have the corner posts at the right interact between the front wall and the doors.




Here you can see all 4 wall sections.  I started with the front wall and worked to the right.  The right end has separate upper and lower sections due to the shed roof.  The back wall at the far right does not appear to have any openings in the photos.  I'm debating if I should add some windows as I don't know how it will end up being located on a layout.  But it appears that the hallway to access the hotel rooms runs on the back wall with all of the rooms facing the front so maybe they are not needed.  It would certainly reduce the noise from the tracks.  The left wall shown to the left side of the picture was cut from a separate piece of siding.




And here are all 4 walls cut out and ready for the windows to be opened up.  It appears that I will need to trim 2-3 courses of siding from the bottom of the front wall to balance the overall hight.  Obviously I'll need to extend the right and left sides and back to created the first floor for those.  And of course the end gables.  On the top left section you can see a tracing mark for the upper section of stairs leading to the 3rd floor door.

[Random]

Got a bit of work done tonight on finishing out the walls. The lower extensions are cut and marked for doors as well as the gable end upper sections.  The front wall was trimmed a bit at the bottom to clear the storefront windows.  You can see the notch on the right end wall.  The back wall will get a plain "concrete" lower wall I think to reduce the amount of milled siding used.  It appears that George did something similar on the original.




Next up will be sanding the storefront windows to clean up the butt joints and figuring out the interface of that and the doors on a 45 degree inset.  Also, all those lovely window opening need to be cut.

[LongHornCaddy]

You're doing a nice job.  Thanks for the pictures

[Random]

Thanks, I'm having fun with this one.

I just finished an hour or so with a sharp knife cutting out the window openings.  I primed all the windows earlier and need to let them dry before I sand to a final fit.

[postalkarl]

Hi Roger:

Looks great so far. What are you gonna do for the sign. I believe George used dry transfers for the Leroy's sign hiligthed with red paint. Not to mention being able to get those fonts.

These are difficult to come by these days as the computer has kinda made them obsolete. Woodland scenics still makes some but probably not big enough. 

Maybe the sign could be computer generated on a green background. I think this method would work out well. Let Me know what you think.

Karl

[Random]

Thanks Karl.

I remember reading about how George would hand paint the drop shadows under dry transfer letters.  I'm not sure how I'll approach the signs.  I may try to hunt down some lettering on the web.  The big sign could be done with a printed sign but the signs on the siding really need to look painted onto the boards.  Things to ponder. 


Last night was the moment for me to do my flight attendant impersonation.  Brace! Brace! Brace!   Does anyone ever have enough weights?




This morning things looked good.




I used plain basswood for the lower extension on the back wall.  This will be painted to represent a concrete wall.  From the shots I've been able to find this appears to be what George did on his.




Here are all the walls laid out with the store fronts.




And I decided to get out the masking tape and do a reality check to make sure everything fits so far. 





The main roof will be from card.  I've not done that large a roof in card stock before and I suspect I'm going to need to install a ridge beam to keep it from sagging over time. 

[bparrish]

Roger...

For a building this cool you might consider framing it out.  Card stock that large is rather unstable and would need a lot of bracing.

Besides.......... Even though others might not see it... You'll know what is in there.  Framing a roof is a lot of fun.   I can answer questions as to how to speed the process and avoid a lot of tedious cutting of parts.

see ya
Bob

[Random]

Bob,  framing out the roof is a thought.  I'm not sure I want to go there with this one.  I was thinking of using some triangular supports so that the roof was removable.  I may want to put interior baffles in it so that it can be lit.  You're roof framing looks very nice.  Its tempting.


Karl, I've spent far too much brain power on the sign today.  I think George used dry transfer letters, embellished them, then added the red drop shadow.  I've had no luck finding the dry transfer letting today.  It seems to be a thing of the past.   But I did find a new way to drive yourself mad.  Try choosing a font from here:  http://www.1001fonts.com   They have vintage fonts separated into decades.  I'm also not sure I want to use the same name George did.  It was meant to be in the style of, not a copy.   But who knows.  I do plan to use similar colors. 

[Random]

Karl,  I have a font update.   I think I found about as close as I'm going to get.  http://www.1001fonts.com/angleterre-book-font.html    You can put in your own phrase at the bottom of the page.  It looks very close to the original except for the swirl to the left of the L and P.  I suspect those were added.  Also the apostrophe is more filled in on George's.  Next issue is the ever present problem of white decals.   But its a start.