FOS The Terminal

[Opa George]

Thank you Curt, and thank you, Tom!  All of the support on this forum is very helpful.

Finishing the alley wall of the mill had me a little anxious for a few reasons. First, it is thin cardboard instead of thicker, more rigid wood siding, and second, it comes after attaching the bus terminal, so the entire assembly is much more difficult to handle.

The relative thinness of the wall also left a gap where the terminal wall joined. It was in brainstorming ideas to fill that gap that I found my solution to finishing the entire wall. I decided to fill the gap with a piece of cereal box cardboard, and in working out the needed dimensions hit upon the idea of just making it large enough to fit the entire wall. Below is my "filler wall" along with the first billboard sign to install.


It took some fitting and checking to get the door and window openings to match the original wall, but after that, applying the other signs and wall finishes was easy.  Below is the new wall nearly ready to install right over the original wall.


And below is the alley entrance for the buses, with most building details installed. I plan to add more rain gutters, maybe a few more vent pipes and etc to the buildings, but structurally, this leg of the kit is mostly done. This represents about the half-way point of kit construction. Still to come is the livery stable, paddocks, shed, Canal Street Market along with the outdoor sales area, and finally the interior of the alley bus entrance.

--George

[Janbouli]

Fantastic, can't wait to see it on your layout.

[Opa George]

Here are all of the walls and roof sections of the livery building. Note that the carrier sheet from the bus terminal concrete island pieces is the first floor roof. Bracing is installed, but not trim.


Here are the lower walls with the first few layers of finish:  Distressed with wire brushes, A & I wash followed by dry-brushed acrylic red. White trim installed and doors and windows installed.  All pretty straightforward. No surprises or "gotcha"s to warn about on these steps.


Thanks for checking in!
--George

[PRR Modeler]

Looks good George.  Are the walls a paper product?

[Opa George]

Looks good George.  Are the walls a paper product?

Thanks, Curt. The walls shown painted red are wood siding milled to represent board and batten siding. The other walls are cardboard. The next step will be to color 2x10 stripwood and cut it to apply board-by-board over the cardboard.
--George

[Dave K.]

Your walls with all the signs look great! Your thread is definitely one to save for reference.

[Opa George]

Thanks, Dave, I appreciate the support.
I lost a few pictures from my camera, but here are a few progress pics. Below are the upper walls, which are cardboard with individual stripwood (2x10) boards installed.  By this time I had already installed a few windows and applied the LIVERY stencil.  I think I got a bit heavy-handed with the paint on the stencil and will sand it a bit to fade it.


The larger wall above will go against the bus terminal, so only a small visible portion received boards. I am typically very frugal with my use of supplied stripwood, but at this step, I fell woefully short of 2x10s and had to dip into my stock from the LHS.

I used wood glue to attach the boards. When the walls had dried, the glue had significantly warped the thin cardboard backing walls. So I added much more bracing than indicated on the plans. By this point, I could figure out how all the walls went together and feel confident in my bracing placement.


In trial fitting of walls, I found that the bracing diagram in the kit has an error. Two adjoining walls have end bracing and one of them will need to have the bracing removed at the joint.  But that won't be a problem. I'll illustrate that later when I attached the walls.
--George

[PRR Modeler]

Looks interesting George.

[Jerry]

Nice coloring George.  You using paint or pastels for the coloring?

Jerry

[Opa George]

Nice coloring George.  You using paint or pastels for the coloring?

Jerry

Jerry, thanks for asking. I forgot to mention coloring the individual boards. I have been eager to try Brett Gallant's technique of coloring stripwood with pastel chalks, and this seemed like an ideal opportunity.

I have a really old set of soft pastel chalks that I have been using for ages, for modelling, so I can't say what exact color I used. It was a medium red and I added in some browns and grays for variety. Basically, you shave on some powdered chalk and then wash it in with a heavy application of alcohol.  For variety, I did a few boards in a light blue and some in gray as well.

The resulting boards have a really good, aged appearance, with a chalky finish that looks like deteriorating paint. The chalky finish was why I used a heavier than average application of white paint for the LIVERY stencil, as I was afraid a light application from the stippling brush would just come off.  I don't think I needed to worry about that.
--George

[Opa George]

I joined the two hinged wall sections to make the upper story. Below, as they looked clamped and drying. You can see where I notched the bracing on the bottom of the rear wall so that it joined cleanly to the lower story wall.  In addition, I removed the white trim from the right end of that lower story wall so that the rear wall would join flush to the sidewalk base.


Here is a shot of the structure so far, with second story joined to the first story. This took quite a bit of fitting to get something satisfactory. It is not perfect--one upper wall does not join flush to the lower wall face, so I allowed a slight overhang as the best option. I think for a building with way more odd angles than right angles (even the roof slopes), this is my happy point. The weird angles are what gives it character.


In fitting, at the corner joint closest to the camera, which is also the sharpest angle, some boards pushed away. I will repair that once it totally dries.

The other side. You can sort of see the extra overhang, which is on the front wall second story just to the right of the door--it goes from flush at the near corner to about 1/32 overhang by the time it gets to the loft overhang.


--George

[MAP]

Coming along nicely George.  Thanks for all of the pics and techniques you're sharing with us.

[PRR Modeler]

Looks good George.  I bet all those angles are a pain in the butt.

[Opa George]

Thank you, Mark, and thank you, Curt. The angles are indeed presenting me with an interesting build, for sure. But I can't say I'm not enjoying solving the "puzzle."

Below is  the basic structure with an extra bit of bracing at the front. This will give me a better surface to which I will glue the roof. You can also see a short piece of flooring inside the loft door to support some details.  I also added a brownstone curb to the concrete under the overhang.


Below is the main roof with scrap wood from some of the carrier sheets used for bracing. The roof needs to flex a little when installed--the slope of two opposing walls is different, one being steeper than the other--so I did not go crazy with bracing, opting for the thinner scrap wood.


More later.
--George

[ACL1504]

George,

This is a great kit and your build and thread are wonderful.

I can't wait to start mine, and of course I have no idea when that will be.

Tom