Micro-Scale Models The Corner Gas and Oil

[Oldguy]

Time for a new adventure. 

I love gas stations and have a dozen or so sitting around.  I have been intrigued with Micro-Scale Model kits for quite a while now is the time to start one.  It looks like it might be the one for me to jump in and add interior lighting. 

The box is really heavy.  Must be all the cast metal parts. 

Hmmm, ah, ah hum.  Cast.  Plaster.  An absolute solid piece of cast roof.  Well, so much for the interior lighting.  So, let's see what all is involved.
One page of  instructions that points one to a how to page and a drawing.  So six pages of instructions that look fairly thorough.   A decent cut sheet for signs and posters along with a how to convert to  painted signage.  Then a heavy paper sheet of shingle guidelines to be glued onto the roof and color photo.  Wow, four strips of wood and three pieces of wire. 

Well, let's see how I can get into trouble.

[Oldguy]

First of the hop, it has Signal gas signs.  They never made it to the Ozarks, so I'll convert it to Mobil or Texaco as I have J L Innovative signage for these operators.  Then they use the ubiquitous Campbell shingles.  They even include printed ridge caps on heavy duty white paper  But, um, no.  I'll use some 3 tab shingles I got from R S Laserkits.  I decide on a color later.
So, let's look at the castings.  The box said over 70 detail parts.  Yep, there is a bunch.  Not really sure wat some of them are or supposed to be.  Barrels of various sizes, two gas pumps, a pop machine, a bunch of tires, and a couple of trash cans.  There are some wooden keg.  Not sure what they would be doing at a gas station, but what the heck.  Cleaning all these was messy, but easy.  I need thinner fingers.
First up is drilling out two holes (for the hoses) in the plaster gas pumps.  Battery powered drill worked like a charm.  Then it was time to glue the front columns halves together.  I have never had these work out to look decent and these are no exceptions.  Luckily, I have an easy replacement option.
Now it came time to glue some walls together.  The cast base has some floor tabs to aid in aligning the walls.  I have always had issues with joining angled corners.  And this kit is no exception.  I decided to start on what should be the most visible angled joint and added the recommended medium viscosity super glue to the upper portion.  When it flashed, it took a bit of fiddling, but I glued the other angled wall and let it all set over night.
The instructions have one glue all the wall sections together, fill in any open joints, then paint and weather the walls.  Then glue that assembly to the painted and weathered base.  Sounds simple.

[Opa George]

Looks like a good start, Bob.  From the photos, the plaster castings appear to be pretty sharp and well done, maybe with an exception here or there. You appear to be on top of the exceptions, though.  I'll be following with great interest, as I may try a plaster kit or two in the future.
--George

[PRR Modeler]

Looks like a interesting build and I'll be following.

[richbeau]

I built one of the Corner Gas years ago. Loved the unique layout. I'll be checking in...

I've built a number of Micro-Scale Models kits (I still have a few unbuilt). Don Reed the original owner designed architecturally accurate structures. Between Don and Ed Fulaz (http://edfulasz.com/main.htm) they produced some of the finest Hydrocal casting work available anywhere.

Enjoy!
--Rich

[Oldguy]

To finish gluing the building together, I decided to use the glue fixture.  Since there are no wall protrusions, it worked well.
I recently ran across an adhesive called E6000 and so far it works like a charm on plaster.  Once the glue had set overnight, I masked off the corners and rubbed Spackle into the joints.  Once it had partially set, I went over the affected joint lines, and painted the building with Barn Red craft paint.
Then it was on to the base.  I had gotten some fine Bondo and used it to fill in the various bubbles.  Originally, I had planned to use the Bondo in the building joints.  Now I'm glad I didn't. 

The base received a spritz of gray primer.  I will be painting the building concrete a different gray than the driveway portion.

[Zephyrus52246]

I hope those aren't blood stains on the first picture of the base.      I think I have this kit somewhere.  I've built one of the other Microscale stations.  I seem to remember it going together pretty well.


Jeff

[postalkarl]

hey Old Guy:

I will be following along on this one. Don and I are pretty good friends. We go out for lunch know and then.

Karl

[deemery]

Is this the first build thread for a Microscale kit?  I'm glad to see it, I've wondered how those go together.  (There was one with a broken casting on eBay that i was tempted to get.)


dave

[ReadingBob]

Is this the first build thread for a Microscale kit?  I'm glad to see it, I've wondered how those go together.  (There was one with a broken casting on eBay that i was tempted to get.)


dave

Ditto on that.  I have three Micro-Scale kits in the stash but never built one so I'm anxious to see how this goes together.  One is a church which I plan on building and the other two are tall trestle kits (one long and one short) that'll I'll probably never use or build.   

[Oldguy]

I hope I can live up to ya'lls expectations.
One thing that I have dreaded was the application of mortar to the brick joints.  Mainly because the plaster joints are shallow.  I cleaned up the joints and then painted the building with Barn Red craft paint.  I then added a white wash and wiped away the excess.   I wanted to seal the brick first with a matte varnish, but forgot to do it.  I wound up with the typical white overcast on the brick.  But, by wiping some Red Iron Oxide Pan Pastel over the brick, I got the brick color back to an acceptable level.  The replacement brick columns are deeply cut, so a wipe of Spackle was a dream.  Rubbed it in and then drug the brick face across the Spackle jar lip, wiped it clean.  No further action on my part was needed.
Then with great trepidation, I added some A&I to the base.  Except for the dribbles in the garage bays. I didn't like how it came out.  Perhaps my solution was just too dark.  I tried with gray weathering power and then some gray pan pastels.  None fixed the uneven staining.  So I just dabbed some craft gray paint and I'm calling it good.  For now. 


I did have to shave down a couple of the locating tabs on the base.  Those would be the stark white bits on the upper left of the base.

[bparrish]

Bob....

Most of the boys on this forum know that I am a lay down for gas stations.

This is a very cool build.

thanx
Bob

[NEMMRRC]

Cool build so far. E6000 is a great alternative to 5 minute epoxy.

The Micro Scale kits are very nice and railroady. Somehow though, they look just a tad larger than the ought to be to my eye. Perhaps it's the architecturally accurate feature. May kit builders compress their designs to get more building in a given set of model real estate.

Thanks for sharing your build.

Jaime

[Oldguy]

Bob....

Most of the boys on this forum know that I am a lay down for gas stations.

This is a very cool build.

thanx
Bob

I hear ya brother.  I here ya.  I was going through my shelves and found that I have 13 pure gas station kits.  But then, I found duplicates of 3 of them.  Including this one.

[Oldguy]

Micro-Scale was nice enough to include extra small windows to allow the builder to have some partially opened windows.  They can be a bit of a pain to add the small piece of acetate into the upper pane.  I try to fit the window material to each available sash and not one piece for the entire window.  I should note that the garage doors are bi-folds. 

Then, I stated to add some of the signs and calendar pin-ups.