Building Frank's bar

[nycjeff]

The October, 2023 issue of Model Railroader magazine had a wonderful article by Frank (Erieman) Baker called Scratchbuilding Elwell's Bar. In the article Frank explains how, using photographs of a discontinued FOS kit called Harrington's Bar from Dick Elwell's layout he built his version for Lou Sassi's layout. Confused ? Suffice to say, Frank did his usual wonderful job building the bar.

Well, I liked the look of the building so I decided to build one for my layout. Using the photos from Frank's article and also some helpful scale drawings I forged ahead.



As my usual scratchbuilding process I first made paper templates of the walls and positioned the doors and windows to make sure they looked alright. Sorry about the picture, I'm not sure what caused the line across the middle.



Next I cut the walls to size using my clapboard wall material and cut out the openings. The windows and doors are not glued in yet, just placed to insure that they fit. The pencil lines are for an addition on one side and an enclosed staircase on the other.



Jumping way ahead, I guess I forgot to take pictures during the rest of the build process. Here is a look at the left side with the small addition. One of the things that I liked about this structure was how the main building with its narrow front and wide back fit with the addition with its wide front and narrow back. I thought that looked cool. I also liked the clapboard on the main building and the board and batten material on the addition.



Here is a view of the front. The enclosed staircase on the right with its sloped roof gives the structure its unique FOS look. There's a lot happening in such a small structure.



Here's a view of the right side. If you've seen the article you will notice that I used pretty much the same color scheme as Frank did with his beautiful model.

That's it for now, more later.

[Erieman]

Jeff,

Thank you for following my article on Elwell's Bar. You did a fine job. Lots of angular shapes to cut and glue which made it an interesting challenge. Thank you for following along. Glad you enjoyed the build.

Frank / Erieman  

[Zephyrus52246]

Nice structure.  I do like all the angles. 

Jeff

[GPdemayo]

Great addition to your empire Jeff.....well done.

[nycjeff]

Jeff,

Thank you for following my article on Elwell's Bar. You did a fine job. Lots of angular shapes to cut and glue which made it an interesting challenge. Thank you for following along. Glad you enjoyed the build.

Frank / Erieman 

Hello Frank, I did enjoy your build and how to article.  The original FOS kit has a lot of character. I had a lot of fun building my version.

Nice structure.  I do like all the angles.

Jeff

Great addition to your empire Jeff.....well done.

Hello Jeff and Greg, thanks for looking in and for the kind words.

[nycjeff]

Here's a look at the back side of the structure. I had a lot of fun with the rear upper deck and the handrails. I used some tissue paper wetted down with a mod podge and water solution for the sheets hanging over the rails and for the drapes coming out of the window.



Here's a roof top view. You can see the odd shape of the main building here more clearly. You can also see that there is an overall square shape to the structure when you look at the main building and the addition from this angle.



Another roof top view shows the top of the enclosed stairway. I like the look of this feature on a building and they are fun to build.



A lower angle view of the back. I'm pleased with how the wood framing looks. All I did was dip the strip wood into my AI solution. It gives the wood a nice aged look. I glued the structure on a thin piece of styrene and glued some ground cover scenery on it. This makes it easier to get the scenery close to the building on my workbench. When I place the build on the layout all I have to do is put scenic material up to the edge of the styrene base.



I found the large roof top beer mug sign on the internet and the bar and apartment for rent signs are from FOS.

That's it for now, next time I'll have some pics of the build on my layout. Thanks for looking in.

[nycjeff]

Here are a few pictures of Frank's Bar after it was placed on my layout











This was a fun build and I want to thank Frank (Erieman) Baker for the inspiration from his wonderful article in Model Railroader. Also to FOS kits for the original design. Thanks to those who looked in.

[deemery]

That looks really nice on location.

dave

[nycjeff]

Hello Dave, I'm glad that you liked my bar build in it's layout location. I had fun with this build and I agree with you- I like the way it looks on my layout

[Jerry]

Nice job on that scratch build.

Jerry

[nycjeff]

Hello Jerry, thank you for the kind words, sorry for the late reply.

[tom.boyd.125]

Jeff,
 Great looking structure !
Tommy

[nycjeff]

Hello Tommy, I agree with you on it being a great looking structure. It has a great pedigree- it is based on a dis-continued FOS kit and I based my scratch-build on the wonderful article Frank baker, aka Erieman, did in Model railroader magazine.