Hotel and Grill

[postalkarl]

Hi Roger:

Looks great. Can't to see this on finished.

Karl

[Powersteamguy1790]

The build and sign work look great Roger.

Stay cool and run steam........

[S&S RR]

Very nicely done!  I'm enjoying the thread.

[Random]

After much debate I've decided to put off the black signs for now.  My eventual layout is planned to be set in 1940 so prices may change.  Plus I might want to change the name of the hotel.  But Leroy's is a go. 

That said I've done a little more painting.  I wanted the upper walls and the Pool sign to be faded.  So I mixed up some very thin white paint.  15 parts extender/thinner to 1 part "white wash".  Both are regular craft paints.  I also painted the big sign board the darker color.  It will be finished separately and applied to the front of the building.  (This gives me infinite opportunity to get it right)




Once the walls were faded I decided to start the glue up.  Here we have 4 walls and the store front set in place.




And here is were we stand this morning.  All of the main walls are in place and the store front has a first coat of dark green.  It needs another coat.  I also painted corner posts and windows last night.  Those need another coat too.




I need to cut some spacers to put in the long box portion of the building to keep it from bowing. 

More to come.

Cheers

[Rail and Tie]

That is coming along fabulously! Instant 1930's-1940's!  Very nice work.

[Random]

Thanks everyone.  More progress this evening.

I got a couple of spacers made from card stock into the large portion of the building to keep things square and another coat of paint on the windows and storefront.   While those dried I started on the Leroy's Grill sign.

The sign board is the length of the building (inside the end posts) and 3/4 of an inch tall.  Its cut from 1/8" thick basswood and has 3 or 4 coats of paint on it to get the grain to go away.  I cut the stencil to the same with to make it easier to position.



It took four passes with the stenciling brush to get the coverage I wanted.  There are a couple of runs under where I rushed things but those will clean up with the tip of an x-acto knife once the paint dries.



A few hours and two episodes of Lemony Snickets later and the paint was dry enough to scrap off the oopses and fill in the lettering.  I also added the flourish on the L freehand.  The next step for the sign will be the red drop shadow.




With pretty much everything in a holding pattern I was pondering if there was anything I could work on and realized I needed to transition the store front into the right wall.  I needed a wedge shaped piece to fill the angle created there.  This is a 1/8" square piece of strip wood cut in half vertically.  I cut it roughly with an x-acto knife and a bit of luck and then sanded it down the rest of the way.  Then I painted the two sides that will be exposed with the darker trim color.  This was a bugger to photograph.  The camera did not want to focus on anything but the background.



Next will be applying trim and windows.  I'll also need to start figuring out the left end of the building.  I plan to have the news stand and shoe shine stand.  Somewhere in my stash of photos I think I have some color photos of old magazines.

Cheers

[Janbouli]

I'm loving this .

[S&S RR]

Very nicely done!

[Random]

Couldn't sleep tonight so I did some more work after the house settled.

I added corner posts, windows and doors.  Its starting to look like a building.










I also added that angled half post that will tie into the store front.

[Twopoint2]

Nice job on the build so far Roger.

[Random]

Thanks Jim.

By total random luck and no planning what so ever, the thickness of the upper portion of the store front happened to be the same as the thickness of the wall board plus stiffening strip wood.  So, in order to attach the store front to the building I was able to glue a strip of thick balsa to the lower back of the wall, let that dry and then glue the store front onto that lip.  It's also got a bead of glue along the top and on the right of the main door.  It worked out really well.







Here's a shot of the bracing strip.





After the storefront dried I did a test fit of the big sign and found out it was 1/8" too tall.  So I set up a new blade and sliced 1/16" from the top and bottom of the sign.  The fit is just right.   Now I just need to repaint the top and bottom of the sign green and tackle the red drop shadow.





I really like how this is coming together.  The next bit will be figuring out the news stand and shoeshine stand to the left.

Cheers

[Random]

More progress on the build.  I used some black card to block out the left side of the building and to give some structure to the left end of the store front windows.  This will form the left wall of the restaurant and the back wall for the newsstand and shoeshine stand.  The card is there for structure only and will be covered.  I also started working on the interior of the restaurant.  The gray wall is scrapbooking paper that had a nice texture.  I'm going to add a strip of dark green to form wainscoting.  The left wall will get the same treatment.




I've also built up a base for the structure.  The bottom is 1/16" basswood sized to make the buildings foundation and underlay the sidewalk.  Then I cut a piece of 3/16" balsa to form the riser inside the building.  This brings the floor up to the bottom of the storefront and forms the sidewalk. Note that the balsa is set back on the sides and back to allow the building to sit down around the middle portion.  This makes a nice friction connection between the two and will allow the building to lift off the base to access the interior.





Here is the building installed on the base. 




Here is a closeup of the area where the newsstand will be placed.  Note how the wall to the left drops below the floor level.  This post is were I made a deviation from the original building. The original had a thin wall here but I installed the stiffening strip wood all the way to the bottom.  Rather than try to cut it away I just continued the siding down the post and added another corner post.  I think it looks good and gives a contrast to the opposite corner.




And finally a view thought the windows into the restaurant.  The interior will have a pool table to the left and tables to the right.  A door in the left back corner will lead to the kitchen. 




That's all for now.

Cheers

[donatode]

Very Nice...!!

[Random]

Thanks Donato.

So I did a bit more work today. I'm getting into some of the fiddly stuff where I'm designing as I go.

The two bottom floor side doors sit lower than the main floor level so I decided to cut in steps since you might catch a glimpse of that interface from the front windows.  I cut away the thicker balsa layer inside of the door and then built up steps with thinner wood.  On the right side the step got the same flooring as the restaurant.  I made the cutout in the wrong spot so I had to make an adjustment that left a seam in the flooring but it should be hidden behind the hostess counter.




On the newsstand side the steps will get painted along with the sidewalk.




I decided to box in the left side area with some vertical scribed siding. This will form the side and back walls for the newsstand and shoeshine stand.  It got a coat of brown paint which will be darkened by an ink wash.  The right wall needs a red and white shoeshine sign.   





I also trimmed the front sidewalk slightly to square it with the building and marked out a grid for the sidewalk.  This was done with a light pass of an x-acto knife followed by a sharp pencil to deepen and widen the grooves slightly.  I'm thinking about using the wood burner to set these into the balsa.  I need to test that first thought.  I've never used one on wood as soft as balsa.





Here's the building on the base with the marked sidewalk.  I rounded the front right turn in the sidewalk to give it a more finished look.




I also added some blocking around the door to mount the inside walls.  This was also done on the right side.  On the left side I gave it a quick coat of the same paint as the inside walls just in case it shows around the edges.   




Next up will be the sales counter and right wall for the newsstand.

Cheers.

[cuse]

This is a really great build... lot's of ingenuity at work here. Thanks for sharing.


John