FOS' DeGraw's Poultry Market & Gordo's Fried Chicken

[ACL1504]

I will follow too.
Eric Québec city

Eric,

Thanks very much, the more the merrier!

Tom

[ACL1504]

This is going to be a fun build and a great structure addition to my Atlantic and Southern RR. As you can see there are plenty of color photos for reference as well as an excellent instruction pamplet, a Doug Foscale Tip Sheet and lots of other neat stuff! Did I mention the signs are fantastic? No, okay then, the signs in the kit are fantastic! Nuff said so let's get to the building of the last place the chickens see the light of day!

Whenever I start a new build, I always start with new blades in the knives.

When removing the walls, I used a #17 Xacto blade. I placed the flat edge of the blade against the section to be cut off. If there are two sections together, I'll make the cut in the middle and trim with an emory board or #11 blade.



Once all the wall sections were removed, I test fit all the windows and doors in the openings. If you've followed any of my other builds you know this is standard for me. It's either a curse or a blessing but the end result is that I don't want any surprises down the road. When the walls are painted and the signs are in place I don't want to start enlarging window/door openings.

The opening were all true and everything fit. I've never had an issue with any of Doug's window/door openings but I stay true to my method all the same. Like I said, it's either a curse or a blessing.



Another habit I have is to square the laser cut edges. I'll use an emory board held flat and the piece to be sanded is passed over the emory board. It only takes a few light passes. In the photo below I'm showing how I do it. NOTE: Also in this photo I'm holding a fragile part at the top and not the bottom. This is to show you the squaring process. Always hold the part to be sanded, especially a fragile one like this, at the bottom and close to the emory board. This way the part won't break on you! Well, hopefully anyway!



NOTE: If you have a kit where there is alot of extra wood on the carrying sheet, don't throw it away! I always keep them and use them to practice painting different colors, painting techniques, weathering, etc.



Tom

[ReadingBob]

'bout time we saw you building something.   

[ACL1504]

Doug includes in this particular kit a card showing the proper locations for the bracing, trim and other details. I followed his suggestions for the bracing. After gluing the bracing on the backs of the walls, I set all the sections on the workbench and used weights to hold the bracing in place while they dried.

[ACL1504]

'bout time we saw you building something.   

Amen Brother, Amen! Thanks for checking in Bob! I appreciate you following along.

Tom

[ACL1504]

On the other forum, Gman (one of the Leadbetter clan from Arkansas), made a comment about my Diet Pepsi sitting on a heart shaped coaster.
Here is the story on the so called "heart shaped coaster"!   A true story also.

My father was the sort of person who kept things of importance or items from a particular moment in time! As an example, I have many World Series tickets and rain checks from 1950 to 1958, old programs, etc. from when he used to go to the World Series with my mother and friends.

So, on to this story! My dad was the Mayor of the City of Orlando from 1967-1980. During that time he wanted to be the only person to have the decision making authority over the Orlando Police and Orlando Fire Depts. NOTE: My father, while serving as the Mayor, attended the Police Academy and was also a Certified Police Officer (the only Mayor in the USA who has done it) with all the powers of arrest. He was the Mayor for the City but was  also the Director of Public Safety for the Police and Fire from 1967-1973. When I was hired, he had to give up the title as to not violate the Florida State Statute on Nepotism.

I was sworn in as a rookie law enforcement officer in October 1973! I had to go City Hall and have the Director of Public Safety, (Dad) swear me in as one of Orlando's Finest! I wasn't the finest just one of them! Back then it was a tradition for the rookie to have a shoulder patch cut from the right sleeve. My father had his "Man Friday" cut mine off! That was the last I ever saw of that shoulder patch until January of 2000!

He and I were sitting in his apartment one afternoon and he gave me a small box. I opened the box and encased in clear acrylic was my rookie cop shoulder patch! He signed the back as seen in the photo below. I use it as a coaster on my workbench! I have clear tape over the back so I don't rub off his note to me.

Now, it is time for a Diet Pepsi!

Tom

[bparrish]

Great story ! ! ! !

thanx
Bob

[gnatshop]

Awesome rememberance of a fine, outstanding man!
You inherited his good heart and mind. (Applause if they had a smiley!)

[Mike Engler]

When removing the walls, I used a #17 Xacto blade. I placed the flat edge of the blade against the section to be cut off. If there are two sections together, I'll make the cut in the middle and trim with an emory board or #11 blade.



Tom

Tom- an interesting thread. It's not clear to me which piece has the flat side of the #17 blade against it- the carrying piece or the piece that goes on the model? Thanks.

[ACL1504]

Mike,

Thanks for stopping by. Great question as I did leave the explanation open ended.

The FLAT side of the blade goes next to the model wall. If two walls are together, separated by the little tab the laser left to hold them together, I try to use caution and use the flat side on the wall sides there as well.

Tom

[S&S RR]

Wow - your summer thread is underway.  Great story about your Dad. I will be following along.

[ACL1504]

Wow - your summer thread is underway.  Great story about your Dad. I will be following along.

John,

Thank you for the kind words, very much appreciated. I hope to get this one finished by the end of summer. After all, I have a ton of benchwork ahead of me!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Well, after the walls were braced and the glue dried, I applied a coat of A&I wash. I was concerned about the large walls warping so I applied a coat of A&I to the back sides as well thinking this would help or stop the warping.

Oh no, nothing that simple. The morning after the wash was applied I found the two large walls were warped anyway. I've never had this happen before. DANG IT!







No matter how I looked at them, they were still warped, kinda like Gnatman, I'm just saying! 

I used the bracing supplied with the kit, 1/16 sq." which should have been strong enough to prevent the warping. I thought for a moment I'd straighten it out when I glued the walls together but decided to just replace the bracing with larger pieces.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I decided to remove the bracing and replace it with scale 12X12" bracing. I'm not sure if the bracing in the kit was 8X8 or 10X10. Maybe I got the bracing pieces wet with the A&I and this caused my problem. Anyway, no problem as I needed to removed the glued on bracing.

Here is how I did it without wetting the walls to soften the glue or more importantly, causing damage or breaking the stock walls.

I took a new #17 Xacto blade and put a slight bend in it. I used a standard size plier to make the bend. It doesn't take much, trust me here and don't ask why I know! I just know this kind of minutia.



Using the new blade, I slipped it under the old bracing on one side and carefully pushed it forward. I repeated the process on the other side and worked forward.





The bracing came off with ease!

I then used fine grit sandpaper to clean the glued spot (not shown). Some of the bracing came off clean and some was holding on for life! Once the large piece was removed, I used the blade to carefully remove the rest. The #17 blade bent at an angle was perfect for getting under the braces.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Okay, the old thinner bracing was removed and the scale 12 X 12's were added in the same locations. I added a couple of horizontal braces as well.



I applied a second coat of A&I wash/stain to the front side of the walls and kept it off the new bracing. The next day I had no warping of walls.

Up next is the choosing of colors for the kit! Continued early next week!