Zephyr Diner

[Random]

On Wednesday 6/6 2018 Tom Boyd posted a picture of the Zephyr Diner in the daily chat.  I thought the building would make a fun build and set out to do it as quickly as possible (within reason) in HO scale. 

Here is a link to Tom's photo:
http://modelersforum.com/general-daily-discussion/wednesday-the-6th-of-june/?action=dlattach;attach=42902;image


My goal was to capture the look and feel based on the single photo provided.  I started by going though my Tichy door assortment and found a good stand in.  Using this door I scaled the rest of the building to give a reasonable balance.  I laid out the building directly on a sheet of basswood.  I decided on a 2 inch deep structure with a false back made from black heavy card stock. 

Here is the building core with the sides already attached.   I used 1/4 inch square strip would to create the recessed doorway and some smaller strip wood to stiffen the building.  The overall length is about 11 inches.




I used various widths of scale lumber to frame the windows, create trim, and cap the walls.  I prepared a supply of strips pre-painted with titanium white with just a touch of maples yellow deep to give it a little warmth.




The external "roman" window shades are very distinctive and prominent to the look of the diner.   I made mine from striped scrapbooking paper.  I have a supply of it in different colors.  This particular paper came from Hobby Lobby.  I cut the paper the actual size of the window openings and trimmed the bottom edge with pinking sheers to give it the sawtooth edge.  Then I used a small bit of strip wood as a folding block to fold the blind into an accordion shape, making sure it would be narrower than the trim piece extending out from the building above the window.  I added a small amount of canopy glue into the folds on the back side and then placed the shades under weights to dry.  The bottom fold was not glued so that the edge would hang down.




The doors appear to be the same green as the awnings to I gave them a coat of the green I planned to use for the awning.

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Next up, bricks.  I used embossed brick paper from Micro-mark.  It is adhesive backed and I had some on hand.  The building was too long for a single piece to cover it so I used two strips, meeting them in the middle over the door where the sign and awning would hide the joint.

Here is the right side applied.  I started at the middle, rapped around the end wall and around the back.  I trimmed the paper at so that it ended on the back wall edge.  This turned out to be a problem as it did not stick well.  A bit of superglue fixed this.  Next time I would rap it all the way inside the back wall for better adhesion.




And here is the core fully wrapped.




I carefully cut the brick paper along horizontal lines at the openings and then folded it inside to give the brick depth.  This will be visible in the window openings and doorway.




And here is the front with the brick wrapped and trimmed.

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I did a poor job of taking pictures in the next phase as I was working quickly but I'll try to call out the steps.

All of the strip wood used to frame the window were scale dimensional lumber.  The sizes called out below are from member so don't hold me to them.

I used 2x8's  for the top and bottom of the window openings as they matched the thickness of the walls. 

I used 2x6's below the windows applied to covering the edge of the lower sill and extended out beyond the opening left and right.   I eyeballed the extension so that it looked right to me.

Next I glued a single sheet of clear styrene over the window opening on each side.

For the vertical frames I used 2x4s glued on edge.  This allowed half of the brick to show at the sides and gave a nice thin profile to the windows.  The central verticals were glued directly to the clear styrene.

The canopy over the door is made from gray pastel paper which I cut and folded into shape and then painted with the same green as the doors.  Once that dried I cut strips of white pastel paper to make the highlights.  The bottom edge was cut with pinking sheers but I made a second pass with the sheers off setting the cut to double the number of triangles.  This was a bit fiddly to do but working slowly it wasn't too bad.  I then glued that around the bottom of the canopy.

While the canopy dried I laid the building on its back and glued 2x12's on edge over the window openings so that they stick out from the wall. 

As I said before I made the shades from striped paper.   Unfortunately I could not find any green strips.  So this paper was black and white.  I didn't like how it looked with the green awning so I painted over the black stripes with the same green paint as the awning.  I covered the strip on the bottom fold that would show and touched the edges of the folded bits.  The black looks fine where you can see it up in the folds as its in shadow.

The shades were then glued to the underside of these trim boards making sure to get the top of the blind flush with the bottom of the trim.  I folded the bottom edge of the blind so that it would hang down.

I clipped the sign out of the original picture and got a friend to adjust it so that it was square.  I then printed it on mat photo paper sized to fit the space between the windows and top of the wall.  I printed several copies and used the uncovered bits to make the full width of the sign backing.  I wanted to keep the fine black line detail that appears to be the letter attachment wires.

Lastly, I capped the walls with more strip wood painted gray to make the cap stones.



Whew, that was a lot...

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I slowed down a bit here and remembered to take more pictures.

I needed something to make the security gate covering the doors.  I was planning to use wedding veil tule.  I headed off to my neighborhood big box store only to find that it was too fine.  I roamed the craft, party supply, and fabric isles in search of something that would work.   I found this material that when stretched made a nice diamond grid in the right size.




I needed about a 3" square of it to make the gate but I came in a role 21 inches wide and 30 feet long.   Fortunately it was only about $3.50.   I'm set for security gates for life.   And chain link fence if I ever model a larger scale.  The material was sold as a 4th of July decoration banner and came in different colors.  White made the most sense.

I cut out my 3" square and placed it under some weights to pull the material to the diamond shape I wanted.






At first I thought the silver flat strips would add to the texture but when I stretched it out I released they would not be oriented correctly.  Using some tweezers the foil strips easily pulled out of the material.




And now I have a supply of packing strap debris.




I painted the material with thinned white glue to help stiffen it and hold it in the diamond shape.




And then I forgot to take more pictures.    Once the glue was dried I placed some masking tape across it to make a bottom reverence and then measured out the size of the opening. I then marked all 4 sides with masking tape.  I then took two small strips of wood to make the side frames and glued them to the top of the material.  I weighted this down and left it overnight to ensure I had a good bond.   

Next up was the letters for the sign.  But it's getting late.  I'll post that bit tomorrow.

Cheers

[Random]

Wait, stop the presses!  I did get a picture of the finished gate before I attached it to the building.



I painted it with a rusty brown color.  I the coverage wasn't great so it got a second coat later.

Cheers

[Janbouli]

Thanks for sharing Roger , looks great and learned a few things, like the embossed walls.

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It would have been easy to print out the sign and just apply it to the structure but I wanted to create the 3d effect,  so I took one of my photo prints and carefully cut out each individual letter.







To make the letters stand away from the sigh I used some small styrene strips from my junk box.  I used their width and cut lengths to give the letters support in hopes they will not warp.




I spaced the letters equally across the sign so that it started and ended at approximately the same location over the windows as in the original photo. 




The gaps between the sign board backing pieces  where a little stark so I worked some artist pastel into the gaps to blend them together.  The effect worked well enough.  I also touched up the the letters where the red pulled away while cutting them out.


The roof is made from heavy card stock with a sheet of sandpaper glued over it.  I then took a muddy mix of color from my pallet and thinned it to make a wash and brushed it over the sandpaper.

Here is the finished building.

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I wanted to see how fast I could finish this build so there are areas that could be improved.

- I thought the black area inside the D, P, and R would read as shadow but it is too stark verses the real shadows.  I would take the time to cut those centers out next time.

- Even after the pastels the gaps in the sign backing still detract.  Next time I would take the time to edit the photo to make a blank background that would print as one section.

- I complete forgot to cut the wall caping stones into individual stones.   This can be done after the fact but just pressing grooves into the wood with a dull blade.

- The letters would probably stand out better if I took the time to paint the edges black.


Overall I'm pretty happy with the results.

[Random]

I mentioned my paint pallet above.  I have switch all of my painting to the method suggested by Troels Kirk in his DVD. Here is my current pallet.

The area to the left is my concrete color. I can vary the color depending on how much gray and Naples yellow I load in the brush.  The middle is various oxides and some mars black.  This gives me everything from nice dark browns to rusts to bright red (rarely used).  The top right is where I made the awning greens.  SAP green mixed with Naples yellow to soften it a bit and add warmth.




Cheers

[tom.boyd.125]

Roger,
WOW !!!
Tommy

[vinceg]

I mentioned my paint pallet above.  I have switch all of my painting to the method suggested by Troels Kirk in his DVD. Here is my current pallet.

The area to the left is my concrete color. I can vary the color depending on how much gray and Naples yellow I load in the brush.  The middle is various oxides and some mars black.  This gives me everything from nice dark browns to rusts to bright red (rarely used).  The top right is where I made the awning greens.  SAP green mixed with Naples yellow to soften it a bit and add warmth.

Cheers

Looks like a very expensive appetizer at a five-star restaurant.

[Zephyrus52246]

Great looking scratchbuild.  I'm not just saying that because it has Zephyr on it.   


Jeff

[Random]

Thanks guys.  This would have made a great monster model works kit.  Its right in his wheel house.

Jeff - your comment made me remember something.  When I was a kid around 12-13 I had a set of Athearn Blue Box F units.  They started life as best I can remember as Santa Fe yellow and blue units.  At some point saw the VIA units and repainted them.  Then later I ran across a picture of this really cool silver CB&Q F unit and I had to have it.  I called my local shop to see if they had decals for a CB&Q F& and they said they did.  I got my mother to drive me over to pick them up.  When the owner pulled them out I was dismayed to see the red cigar band decals that came to a point.  This was clearly not the gleaming chrome scheme with stripes.   I described what I wanted and he pulled out a set of E unit passenger decals.  Now that was what I was looking for.  My reference picture what basically nose on and I had no idea there was a different locomotive than the F.  Well, I bought those decals, took them home and repainted them bright silver and had myself a set of F7 E unit passenger engines.  It didn't stick though.  Too many other shiny things.

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice build.

[Zephyrus52246]

Actually there were several sets of silver F3s built for the California Zephyr. 


Jeff