FOS The Terminal

[NKP768]

Really looks good George

Doug

[ACL1504]

George,

This is absolutely fantastic. Can't get enough of this one.

Tom

[postalkarl]

Hey Opa George:

This kit is looking just great so far. Keep the pics flowing.

Karl

[Opa George]

Thank you, Dave, Doug, Tom and Karl!
Time to add the roof. Nothing very exciting here. In test fitting the roof, I found that it seemed to lay slightly low with regard to the stucco pillar. To remedy that, I added strips of 1/16 x 1/32 all along the tops of the walls to raise the roof about 1/32 inch. Another test fit and the roof now met the stucco pillar. By the way, the roof is notched out for the stucco wall, but in my build, it did not seem to need the notch since the stucco is mounted flush with the clapboard.  Instead of bracing the actual cardboard roof, I added horizontal braces flush with the top of the side walls.


Here the cardboard roof is glued in place.


I had previously colored a sheet of roofing paper in light gray, and cut it along the guide lines into 3 scale-foot wide strips of rolled roofing. I proceeded to glue my rolled roofing to the cardboard roof using white glue, and here is where I ran into trouble. The extra moisture from the glue caused warping of the roof right along the hole for the skylight. In hindsight, I should have braced/framed the underside of the cardboard roof around that opening.

Problem number two. I forged ahead, hoping the warped edge would smooth out as it dried. I outlined the edges of the rolled roofing with a fine-point "charcoal" alcohol marker. When finished, I did not like the final result. I decided to apply a second layer of rolled roofing right over the first, and this time I did not use the marker. Better.  I think with chalk weathering it will look ok.

No pics of that as I weighted it down to take out the warp and am hoping for the best when all is dry. We'll see tomorrow.

Worse case, I remove the roof and start over.  I should have pics of the result tomorrow.
--George

[vinceg]

Thanks for the tips along the way, George. Very helpful. I'm like you -- I don't care for the marker outline thing. Always looks a little fake to me even tho I see that sort of thing on roof tops when I take the commuter train downtown. Somehow it just doesn't look right on a model (to me).

[Opa George]

Thanks for the tips along the way, George. Very helpful. I'm like you -- I don't care for the marker outline thing. Always looks a little fake to me even tho I see that sort of thing on roof tops when I take the commuter train downtown. Somehow it just doesn't look right on a model (to me).

I am happy to post my experiences with this one, Vince. Truth is, I am really enjoying this kit and can't wait to get back to it each evening.  I checked it this morning and to my happy surprise, it dried perfectly flat and looked much better than I remembered when I last left it. Maybe just covering those lines helped.  Maybe the craftsman kit fairy visited overnight!  I'll post a pic after work.
--George

[Opa George]

This morning, after weighting it and allowing it to dry, the roof looked much better. It will look even better after the weathering stage, but I'm holding off on that step until I get the rest of the details on.  One of my remedies was to brace the warped skylight opening from the top with stained strip wood (Hunterline Light Gray), to represent a base for the skylight. The skylight walls are very thin and would not hold a bead of glue well, so I added strip wood bracing to the inside bottom edge. I then glued it down with wood glue, set a heavy object on top, and let it set. Below is the resulting roof so far.


While that dried I assembled the two rooftop sheds. The door and window for these are plastic castings. I colored the roof edges with "Charcoal" alcohol marker, and added two contrasting colors of rolled roofing.


The black square on the roof of the larger shed is black construction paper, to represent a base plate for a chimney pipe.  We're getting close to assembly of that really exciting feature: the large rooftop sign!
--George

[PRR Modeler]

Nice modeling George. Did the skylight come with the kit.

[Opa George]

Nice modeling George. Did the skylight come with the kit.

Thanks, Curt. Yes, it is included in the kit. -- George

[Opa George]

I began building the rooftop sign using the standard trick (per the kit instructions) of taping wax paper over the full-scale template and building the support structure on the wax paper. It worked like a charm. A tiny dot of glue holds the uprights to the wax paper. All horizontal pieces were glued to the uprights next.  Note that I lightly (quick dip in the bottle) pre-stained the scale and dimensional wood with Hunterline Driftwood and let it dry before cutting it.


I used toothpicks to apply the wood glue. The actual laser-cut sign was painted--first a primer coat in white, then one line in red and one line in blue. I used rattle-can spray paint in quick bursts--allowing it to dry between colors. Because the sign is thin and flat, it was very easy to just lay a piece of newspaper as a mask over the part I didn't want to paint.  Below, the letters are just lying over the wood structure to test fit.


Note that the letters are, as you might suspect, very fragile. I handled and moved them only with tweezers or a toothpick. Here you need to make a decision whether to cut away the frets that join the letters and words, or to attach the entire piece to the wood structure as is.  I chose to cut away most of the frets on the top "See America" and middle "By Bus" lines.  Below, I am gluing the pieces in place. I decided to keep the frets on the bottom line "Coast to Coast" for two reasons. First, I found placing the individual "by bus" letters difficult to keep straight.  Second, I rather liked the look of the frets on the bottom font. It gives it a streamlined quality in keeping with the art deco style.


I let it dry and then removed it from the wax paper.  The application of the letters added strength, and I found it easy to work with at this stage.


I made a hole in the roof for the extra-long anchoring upright piece, and glued the front of the sign in place on the bus terminal. It is drying overnight before adding the supports to the back.  I also added a few cast metal rooftop vents from the kit.


It is shaping up nicely, now. More work tomorrow.
--George

[rpdylan]

wow, super nice work! This is coming out so nice. The sign coloring is spot on, ,,, the stucco came out nice, are you going to weather/ dirty up the stucco portion or leave it alone? Looks like you're going to have to get some buses!!

[Dave K.]

Just great!

[Opa George]

wow, super nice work! This is coming out so nice. The sign coloring is spot on, ,,, the stucco came out nice, are you going to weather/ dirty up the stucco portion or leave it alone? Looks like you're going to have to get some buses!!

Thanks, Bob! I do plan to weather the stucco--give it a grayish cast. Ditto on the roof and other exposed walls. I may keep the back alley part dirtier and go easy on the front for a nice public image. On buses--I was able to find two Jordan 21-passenger buses for a decent price.
--George

[Opa George]

Just great!

Thanks much, Dave. 

[PRR Modeler]

George that is a terrific looking sign.