Bar Mills Tribute Kit 1

[Opa George]

Nice job George.

Thanks much, Curt. I have to give Bar Mills credit for a design that is dripping with character.
--George

[Opa George]

Looking great, George, and really enjoying your thread. Walls look super. Tell us about your signs...created in Photoshop?

Thank you, Dave! Here are some comments on the signs.

"Seaside Piano" was made from a Woodland Scenics dry transfer lettering set, with a painted on white acrylic drop shadow. I used one of my smallest detail brushes and slightly thinned (water) white acrylic craft paint for the shadow. I learned a very important lesson this time: don't use chalks on a surface that you may later want to apply rub-on transfers. I was doing ok until the "o" in piano, and it absolutely would not adhere. I suppose I could have hit it with an overspray of matte to fix the chalk in place, but I didn't want to spray the entire structure yet and was afraid it would change the appearance of the wall.  Long story short, I finally got enough of an "o" in place and filled in with a good quality Mars Black acrylic medium.

The small baseball poster (Kansas City Monarchs vs Memphis Red Sox) is from a classic Negro Leagues baseball poster collection posted online. The Keystone Moviegraph and Radiopticon ad is also from some classic online ads. Both were saved as jpg's and printed on glossy cardstock at Staples. I could print at home, but the big box print shops have equipment that can reproduce truer color in fine detail. More on that later--I could do an entire thread on that topic alone.

Finally, the main business sign: Seaside Symphonium and Nickelodeon Co. That was produced in MS Word and printed on a color laser printer on a beige "presentation" paper--probably about 30 lb weight. Below is the actual image I used:


The image above is large. I did print this size, but I also printed smaller versions. Once you have a jpg image like the one above, you can easily resize it. The one on the building is about one-quarter of the image above.

As mentioned, I made the picture in MS Word by manipulating the font in a text box. I like text boxes for creating signs because you can move them around freely in relation to other images in the sign--in this case the image of the symphonium machine at the left. If you right click on the text, you can play with all the options to get just the right spacing.  Similarly, I used a fancy font and played with the artistic effects to get the colors I wanted. When I was happy, I took a screen shot (Print Screen), pasted in "Paint," and cropped the resulting image to just the sign, and finally, saved the cropped portion as a jpg, which you see above.

--George

[Dave K.]

Great info...thanks, George!👍🏻

[Lynnb]

Some great ideas for signs.

[jerryrbeach]

George,


That is a wonderful explanation of the process you used to do your signs.  The "symphonium" sign is pure dynamite! 

[postalkarl]

Hey George:

WOW is all I can say. Looks just beautiful. I have a special interest in this as I just love this kit.

Karl

[ndwolf68]

Wow!  That's awesome!  And, I love the sign and business you've chosen!  Just really awesome!
R/,
Norm

[Opa George]

Thanks for the kind words, Norm, Karl and Jerry. I added rafter tails today, vents and some other details, and dry-brushed the roof to highlight the texture. Here is the progress so far, one view:


And the other side:


Photos show a few things to fix: some of the roof exhausts are shiny, and the roof cap has lifted up in one spot. But otherwise so far so good. I have some finishing details on this structure: light fixtures and some other tiny details, but we're about ready to move on to the next structure in this kit. Looking forward to that one as it features an engineered pronounced roof sag. Should be interesting.

Speaking of roofs--I like the effect that Artie suggested in burnishing the rolled roofing, then highlight it. I dry-brushed with white to bring out the texture and added inkahol and dusted with gray, burnt umber, burnt sienna and black pastel chalks. A close-up below.


All for now.
George

[vinceg]

George -- this is fantastic. I am loving watching this come together.

[PRR Modeler]

Beautiful job George.

[rpdylan]

Love the walls George! Great job. You are working fast on this!

[Janbouli]

WOW, looks fantastic George

[jerryrbeach]

George,


I really like how the colors and weathering tie everything together so well.  It is a compliment to the manufacturer and modeler when a structure screams, "I could have been real", and this does without a doubt. 

[Opa George]

George -- this is fantastic. I am loving watching this come together.

Thanks, Vince. I am very pleased with it so far and really enjoying the build.
George

[Opa George]

Beautiful job George.

Thanks for the support, Curt!
George