FOS The Wacther Apartments

ReadingBob · May 31, 2020, 12:21:20 PM

Quote from: tom.boyd.125 on May 20, 2020, 11:46:31 AM
Bob,
Great progress and your photos are great reference material for all modelers.
Tommy

Thanks Tommy! Yes, I hope this helps others who tackle this one. I found a few challenges along the way. Nothing insurmountable though.

ReadingBob · May 31, 2020, 12:30:19 PM

Okay, time for an update. Back to the minor issue of some of the doors not fitting. I lined the side and top of the door opening with some thin strip wood first.

The opening was a little too small so I sanded the opening and the doors until they fit in place.

The door frame, on all but this one

, concealed the strip wood. I'm not worried about this one though. It's at the rear and probably won't be visible to anyone if/when I find a place to plant this a layout some day.

Here are the two roof top access sheds, pretty much done, except for the addition of a few broken boards here and there. Each a little model in its own right.

I covered the main roof with 3M Transfer Tape. The only thing to be cautious of here is to make sure you do the top of the roof and not the underside. It only fits on one way.

I trimmed the transfer tape to fit with an X-Acto knife. Sometimes I use a small set of scissors for this but for a large roof like this one it's just as easy to flip it over and use the X-Acto knife to trim it to fit.

More in a moment...

ReadingBob · May 31, 2020, 12:46:14 PM

When I was ready to apply the roofing material I peeled off the backing material for the transfer tape which left me with a sticky surface.

Skipping ahead, because I apparently forgot to take some pictures, I applied the roofing material which I had sprayed with a rattle can spray paint call Black Chalkboard. I laid the strips out in the direction shown in one of the templates. Then I hit them with some Pan Pastels. Grays and Browns. I'm not even sure which I used. The chalkboard paint really grabs the Pan Pastels. You'll note I had some strips that were painted with Gray Primer to represent some repair work. Well.....let's see what happens with those after a minor faux pas on my part.

More Pan Pastels, gray this time.

This is the first time I tried using a fine tip Sharpie to seal the seams of the roofing material. It looked pretty good. Until later on.

I took the roof out in the garage and sprayed it with Dullcoat to seal it While I was waiting for that to set I started on the large billboard that's one of the neat features of this kit. As I was gluing it together I noticed that the one upright doesn't line up with the extension at the top to support the cigarettes sticking out of the pack. Hmm....

Here's where it doesn't line up. Move the support to line up with it didn't look right. I had a couple of thoughts on how to deal with this. Trim the extension of the top of the support off so it looks like the other, shorter pieces or cut the billboard out to cover it up which meant don't cut it where I would normally cut it. I'll show that next time I do an update. The pictures didn't come up too well so I need to retake them.

More in a moment...

ReadingBob · May 31, 2020, 12:54:58 PM

Back to the roof. I got a bit heavy handed with the Dullcoat and it really changed things. The lighter gray strips I had added before are now darker than the black strips of roofing material. The effect was interesting however. Totally accidental. But the Sharpie pitch turned a little purplish/washed out so I decide to apply my Elmers White Glue/PollyScale Grimy Black tar along the seams to hide it.

Something was bugging me for a while now. When I glued the walls together I tried my darndest to keep everything square but this section never seemed to sit correctly. When I did a test fit of the lower roof it was obviously not square. But the walls here are mostly tab in slot so I don't think it was something I did wrong.

I removed the short wall on the left hand side after measuring things and determining I needed to trim 1/16" off of it. It was either that or remove the corner trim piece and glue it flush with the adjoining wall but that wouldn't look right either.

I glued the trimmed wall back into place and the lower roof, albeit still a bit short, fits and thing look square now. The gap will be covered up by extending the roofing material bit off the back edge.

Back to the billboard. I scraped the sign, gently from top to bottom, with some fine steel wool to tone it down just a little bit.

The kit does not include cardboard to mount the billboard on. The instructions say to use a piece of cardboard from a cereal box. I have some sheets of cardboard used for roofs that I bought at one of the EXPO's several years ago. Amazingly I was able to find them.

I applied 3M Transfer Tape to them and then laid the billboard over the transfer tape.

More in a moment...

ReadingBob · May 31, 2020, 12:58:20 PM

I cut around the sign very carefully using an X-Acto knife with a fresh blade and small steel ruler. I left a little 'extra' on the left hand side of the part that extends above the top of the billboard to cover up the problem with the frame.

Next I painted the back of the billboard with some craft store acrylic by sponging the paint on lightly. I didn't want to soak the cardboard and have it warp.

That's it for today. Back to the workbench!

Thanks for following along!

ACL1504 · May 31, 2020, 01:53:50 PM

Bob,

Fantastic build and great fix on the "non-fitting" doors. The apartments are looking wonderfully nasty.

Tom

Mark Dalrymple · May 31, 2020, 03:32:19 PM

Looking great, Bob.

Cheers, Mark.

PRR Modeler · May 31, 2020, 04:40:54 PM

Beautiful modeling. The billboard framework looks awesome.

GPdemayo · May 31, 2020, 06:30:24 PM

Looking great Bob.....thanks for the tip on the glue bottles, they work perfectly.

ReadingBob · June 01, 2020, 07:50:47 AM

Quote from: ACL1504 on May 31, 2020, 01:53:50 PM
Bob,

Fantastic build and great fix on the "non-fitting" doors. The apartments are looking wonderfully nasty.

Tom

Thanks Tom. They're a little bit nastier than I had originally set out to make them.

But now I'm thinking they might go quite well on the end of the block next to the Red Light District (left hand side) if I ever find the real estate to plant both of them.

somewhere.

ReadingBob · June 01, 2020, 07:51:11 AM

Quote from: mark dalrymple on May 31, 2020, 03:32:19 PM
Looking great, Bob.

Cheers, Mark.

Thank you Mark! Much appreciated.

ReadingBob · June 01, 2020, 07:51:57 AM

Quote from: PRR Modeler on May 31, 2020, 04:40:54 PM
Beautiful modeling. The billboard framework looks awesome.

Thanks Curt! This one has a lot of great signs and the billboard really adds a lot to it.

ReadingBob · June 01, 2020, 07:53:07 AM

Quote from: GPdemayo on May 31, 2020, 06:30:24 PM
Looking great Bob.....thanks for the tip on the glue bottles, they work perfectly.

Thanks Greg. Good to hear. I think I told you I was use Titebond III. I looked at the bottle and it's Titebond II.

Opa George · June 05, 2020, 08:22:51 AM

Looking very cool, Bob. That billboard support structure is the most elaborate I have seen in a kit. Your results with it are really nice. Quite an impressive piece.

I also enjoy seeing the tv antennas . Gonna pull in a little Sid Caesar or Soupy Sales maybe?
--Opa George

ReadingBob · June 05, 2020, 09:56:01 AM

Quote from: Opa George on June 05, 2020, 08:22:51 AM
Looking very cool, Bob. That billboard support structure is the most elaborate I have seen in a kit. Your results with it are really nice. Quite an impressive piece.

I also enjoy seeing the tv antennas . Gonna pull in a little Sid Caesar or Soupy Sales maybe?
--Opa George

Thanks Opa! Maybe they're tuning in Kukla, Fran & Ollie or Howdy Doody.