Two cities layout.

[Random]

Setting up your first business is confusing and time consuming.  Hopefully it takes off.

But, back to modeling. 

Anyone like walls?  These are my castings painted.  For the castings with deep relief I first paint it with a dark ink stain and then work the colors from dark to lighter into the walls.  Its all done with artist acrylics mixed as I work on a pallet with a half inch round brush.  After drying overnight I dry brushed titanium white vertically to add light.




This next photo is the completed tunnel liner.  It consists of 5 full castings and one partial casting cut down with an old razor saw that will never cut anything but plaster again.  The lower straight portions of the tunnel liner are cut from my wall castings.  (The lower strip will go on the other side.)  I inked this as well and then painted it with a darker gray.   After drying I again dry brushed titanium white to simulate calcium buildup from water penetration.  I also added a few more distinct leak lines. 




Next I need to decide on the tunnel road surface.  I'm probably going to go with some form of cobblestone.

Cheers!

[Rail and Tie]

very nicely done!  The castings came out perfectly.  Can't wait to see what you do with them installed.

[Mark Dalrymple]

The castings look terrific, Dennis!

Cheers, mark.

[Random]

I wanted a cobble stone road for the tunnel.  I decided to go with some latex road that I bought ages ago from Kancali.com.   They appear to be out of business which is a shame.  This is an interesting material and being thin latex sheet you can easily use it on uneven roads.  So, of course, I put it in a flat tunnel.   

I painted the sheet a dark gray and then went back over with lighter grays, tans and white to highlight the stones.




I marked the position with the tunnel casting and then installed the latex road.   After it dried I painted the area next to it a dark gray just to ensure no bare plywood would show if there was a gap.




Next I installed all of the wall sections and tunnel portals.  Note the lone portal on the far side of the tunnel.




Then I installed decking over the tunnel to complete the track base.




The tunnel has a surprise inside.   It came out pretty nice.



The tunnel lights are 3 "fairy lights" cut from a string 50.  They are battery powered LEDs that run on 3 volts.  You can find similar strings on Amazon for less than $10.  I recommend getting the "warm" LED. 

This photo shows the liner with the lower walls attached and the lights installed.





With my big workbench clear of trees for the moment I added the lower walls to the sides of the hotel.  These will be covered by adjoining structures so they are made from foamcore.






Cheers!

[Mark Dalrymple]

Really love that view down the tunnel, Rodger!

Cheers, Mark.

[Random]

Thanks Mark.  I am quite happy with how that tunnel came out and may lower the hill in front of it to allow a better view.

So, remember that large hotel that is suppose to be a background structure?  I was looking at the big windows and thinking I should add some interior detail right up against them in the event you could see into them in between foreground buildings.  I decided to divide the ground floor and make the right two thirds the hotel lobby and the left third a tavern.  I did a little googling of tavern names in the Boston area and ran across one featuring a dragon. 

Then I got carried away.

I created a dragon themed tavern with a full front seating area.  The booth seats are make from milled passenger car seat stock.  The floor and wall are scrapbooking paper.  The art is printed thumbnails from a screen grab of an image search.  (If your search includes "framed" many of them will already have the frames around the image.)  The bar at the back is an image from the web printed on photo paper.  It only covers a portion of the back wall so the dividers were added from chipboard and create the impression that the bar continues to the right and staff can access the kitchen to the left.  There might even be a dart board back there somewhere. 




From over head you can see how the bar only partially covering the back wall.  The wall between the tavern and the lobby is chipboard and the back wall is foam core (I ran out of black chipboard).




The hotel lobby uses more of the same printed art but with a landscape and still life theme.  The wood door to the right is another printed image as is the front desk.  In this case I separated the desk from the mail sorter in the background.  I attached the mail sorter to the back wall and the front desk to a thin bit of foam core.  This will allow me to add a clerk or two behind the desk.  The opening in the left leads to the elevator lobby, which is another printed image.




From the back you can see how the ground floor installs into the building.  The base is also chipboard which warped when I added the flooring paper.  I had to use heavy weights to hold it flat while the canopy glue dried attaching it to the front and side walls.  (I also had a sheet of waxed paper underneath so that the hotel didn't become a permanent part of the workbench.)




Here is the view into the tavern from the street.




And here is the view into the lobby.

[Random]

I always struggle with choosing names but in this case I wanted to pay homage to the man who inspired this entire scene.  So I chose the "St. George Tavern" which also ties in with the dragons.  The signs are printed on paper and attached to the inside of the window glazing.





The hotel lobby was very bare so I made some lounge chairs from blocks of balsa wood and chipboard for the sides and back.  I simply scaled them from a figure and painted them a brown to simulate leather.




I decided to group the chairs in pairs so I made some small tables to go with each grouping from small bits of wood.   In the back you can see tables for the tavern booths.  They are made from stripwood, bits of dowel and black chipboard for the tops.  I painted the tables with a brush and when dried they had a wood grained look to them (a happy accident).




With the booths installed the tavern is ready for customers.







The Hotel also needed a name so in keeping with my theme I give you the Hotel St. George.  I created the signs and printed them on clear film.  I then attached this to the back of the glazing to give the effect of paint on the window glass.

[Random]

The hotel clearly needed an awning to keep arriving guests and their luggage dry as they arrive.  (This is still just a background building?!)  I designed an awning in software based on some I found on Google street view.  I created a design file and cut it out with my hand-me-down ScanNCut machine in 130 lb watercolor paper.




I built up the paper layers over a strip wood core leaving the middle hollow to allow for lighting.  (Background building??)




The top was installed with a slight overhang on the front and sides.




While the awning dried I designed a sign to go on the roof.  Advertising is key after all.   I designed the signs in software, created vector files, and then a cutting file for the ScanNcut.  (This is not an advertisement for ScanNCut.  It was gifted to me second hand and not perfect, but free is free.  And its darn handy within its limits.)  I designed the sign to cut backwards so that I could glue on the wood strips before removing it from the sheet.  This kept the lettering in the correct alignment.  The strips will form the mounting boards for the finished sign.




I designed a basic support tower for the roof sign, got out the Chopper and made eight of them (four for each sign).




I added some diagonal stiffeners and then decided to make iron connector plates to link the timbers.  I scanned a tower, loaded the image into my design software and designed the plates directly on the tower image.  Then headed back to the cutting machine.  It cut out a supply of plates while I ate dinner.  Marvelous!




One thing this particular machine will not do (or I've not figured out how to do yet) is emboss bolt heads or rivets.  So I spent about 4 hours hand embossing and installing the plates on both sides of all eight towers.  The results were worth the effort.




One final bit of assembly was necessary to keep the awning from falling onto the sidewalk.  These chain supports are made with EMD cab unit lift rings and some craft store chain.  Opening a link and inserting it though the lift ring was a bit of a chore, but it will be more interesting than the old fishing line support.




As of this evening the awning, roof signs, and roof sign support towers have been painted and are drying. 

That is a lot for one update but it has been about 10 days. 

If you're curious, I did all of the computer design (window signs and cutting machine files) in Affinity Designer on the Mac.  Its far cheeper than the Adobe products and creates the vector graphic files required to load into the software for the cutting machine.  I then import the vector file into the cutting machines software and arrange it to fit on the material to be cut.  That software exports a file that tells the machine where to cut.  This particular machine is able to scan an image, pick the edges and use that to cut another material but it is designed for large craft items and does a poor job on anything with fine detail.  Using the vector design software is a must for anything small and intricate. 

That's all for now.

Cheers.

[jerryrbeach]

Roger,

WOW!  Where do I start?  I love the Dragon Lounge!  Really cool concept and awesome execution.  The lobby is outstanding, too.  Thank you so much for including the techniques you used for the window signs.  Those signs really add a unique touch.  Are you sure this is a background building??

[Rail and Tie]

As usual, I have to comment on anyone doing such a great job detailing the interior of their structures!  Excellent work!  Now you just have 200 guest rooms to do!!

Very good work on the tavern!!

[Mark Dalrymple]

Awesome!

This is looking spectacular, Rodger!  Thanks for sharing all your techniques.

Cheers, Mark.

[jimmillho]

WOW, what more can I say.

Jim

[ACL1504]

Roger,

I'll just keep it short and agree with all the other comments. This is just a wonderful build thread.

Tom

[Random]

The hotel is almost complete.  I finished the awning.  There is still the water tank for the roof to build. 

I felt the awning was a bit too plain so I added another layer of detail using a layer of stripwood and another paper roof section with the middle cut out.  This creates a raised lip around the awning which makes sense as it would trap and channel water to drainage pipes.  I also made some finials from beads and a pin head.




Here is the completed awning ready for paint.




I sprayed the awning with the same green paint as the hotel front.  Once dry both the awning and the hotel were dry brushed with titanium white.  I set the awning in place to plan the support locations.




The lift ring for each chain was attached to the top of the roof behind the raised lip with a bit of superglue (and a lot of patience).




At this point I also added signage to the awning.   The hotel name is on the front and both ends.  These signs were printed on matte photo paper which was then thinned and attached with canopy glue.




I supported the awning on wooden block and attached it to the front of the hotel with a thin bead of canopy glue along the back edge of the roof.




With the blocks still in place I attached each chain's upper lift ring to the front of the building.  I had to cut a notch in the back of each lift ring to fit over the relief of the building front.  This was very tedious and frustrating but the results were worth it.  You can see a bit of wire showing below the awning.  I plumbed the lights prior to installing the awning to preserve my sanity.




After the lift rings dried I attached the lights to the underside of the awning with small applications of gel type superglue and large applications of patience.  Here we have the hotel with lights working.  There is a bulb under the awning in front of each door and two bulbs in the lobby.  There is a single bulb in the tavern giving it a darker mood.




Here is an alternate angle.  You can see the hotel name on the side of the awning.




The roof signs are complete as well.  The lettering was painted to match the hotel building and the support frames were painted with the green of the entry and awning.






Cheers.

[Dennis Bourey]

looking good there Roger..........Dennis