Building a hardware store

[nycjeff]

Since I'm running out of places for new builds on my layout I've been replacing existing plastic kits built in the early days with new wood structures.

Looking for inspiration for a new scratchbuild I was going through the Sierra West website and came upon The Shipyard. The main building in this kit has some really interesting features so I decided to use this as a basis for my new hardware store.



This is the space available for my build. I cut a thin piece of styrene to use as a base for the build to fit the space. The pencil outline is the building footprint that I will use.



The inner shape will be the structure's perimeter walls and the areas around the structure will be a loading dock/ porch area.



Here are the four sides of the building. I used three different types of material for these walls. I used 1/16 inch thick plywood for the bottom of the walls. This will be covered by the loading dock/ porch assemblies. The first floor is 1/8 clapboard material and the second floor is 1/16 clapboard. The penciled shapes are the second floor addition pop-outs and two roof dormers.



Here the walls have beeen braced with 1/8 square stripwood. I used 1/8 x 1/4 wood for the splice joints between the different wall materials. This gave me more gluing surface for the joints.

[nycjeff]

Here are the walls for the two pop-out additions and the roof dormers. I used 1/16 clapboard for the visible walls and 1/16 plywood for the back walls, which will not be visible.



All of the small wall pieces have been braced with 1/8 square stripwood.



Here are the wall colors that I used for this build. The dark grey will be for the lower plywood wall areas. The light grey will be used for the first floor walls. The Fawn color is the base color for the second floor walls. I then drybrushed the second floor walls with the Antique Gold and the Whitewash colors.



The walls have been painted, windows and doors installed and signs glued on the walls. The second floor pop-out additions have been glued to the walls and the roof dormers are ready to be placed when needed.

The three single story wall pieces are for an addition that will be placed at one end of the main structure.

I like the look of the ends of the floor joists at the bottom of the pop-outs.

Also visible on the lower left wall piece is a landing for a stairway.

That's it for now, more later.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looks great, Jeff.

Really good progress.

Cheers, Mark.

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

I'll be along on this adventure. Excellent start.

Tom 

[GPdemayo]

Count me in also.....

[nycjeff]

Looks great, Jeff.

Really good progress.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, thank you

Jeff,

I'll be along on this adventure. Excellent start.

Tom

Count me in also.....

Hello Tom and Greg, thanks for looking in, this was a fun scratchbuild for me. The Sierra West building that I'm using for inspiration is a very interesting one, as all of the Sierra West structures are.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

The loading dock/ porch wraps all the way around my building. As always on my scratchbuilds I started with a scale drawing. I always build my docks upside down. First I tape the deck boards to the drawing. I cut them long so that I have a place for the tape to hold them down on the drawing. I then glue the floor joists to the boards. After the floor joists are in place, I glue the support posts in place. Finally I glue the cross braces where they need to go. I then cut the deck boards to the proper length and remove the dock from the drawing.











The structure fits inside the wrap around dock/ porch. Docks like this require a lot of small wood pieces and work, but the end result is always worth it.

[nycjeff]

I dry-brushed the sheet of roof shingles with some of the same wall colors to give them some semblance of age and weathering and to tie them into the structure.





The hardest part of the roof was shingling around the roof dormers. I laid the first three rows of shingles, then glued the dormers in place. After that I glued the dormer roof cards on, holding them in place with rubber bands. I then used some of the edge pieces of the shingle sheet for the valley flashings. The flashing pieces cover any gaps between the roof cards and also prevent the roof card color from showing where the shingles meet in the valley.

You can see in the pictures the lines I drew on the roof card to help keep the rows of shingles straight.



Here is a picture of the stairway assembly process. I taped the jig in place to restrict any movement, placed the stringers in the jig and then glued on the stair treads. Using precut stair stringers and a jig like this makes short work of the sometimes daunting task of making stairs. Several companies sell these stairway kits and they are all reasonably priced. Since stairways are such an integral part of many of our structures, nice looking stairs are a big plus, especially when scratch-building.



Making roof-top signs fit on a sloped roof is made much easier if you have a scale drawing of the roof angle and the sign supports. This picture shows a completed support and one in progress.

That's it for now, more later.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



I don't have any more in progress pictures, so here are some of the completed structure. I named this hardware store after my son-in-law and my grandkids and I'm very happy withy how it came out.
The contrast of the shingle roof with the roll-roofing on the additions gives the building a nice look.



The single story addition to the building on the end, the second story pop-outs and the two roof dormers all give this building some very interesting looks. The stairs coming up from the ground to the porch came out well.



I added three roof-top signs using the method detailed above. If you have a scale drawing of the roof angle, it's easy to make sure that the sign supports will fit properly.



I really like how the side stairway and landing look, as well as the loading dock/ porch areas. I added railings using 4x4 and 2x4 stripwood pieces stained with my AI solution.



This picture gives a good view of the stairs and railings as well as the two second story pop-outs. The Sierra West design team did really well with this building. I added casting details from my stash on the dock/porch areas

[nycjeff]

More pictures showing different angles of the structure



Here's a drone view of the roof. I really like how there is something added to each of the four sides of the main rectangular building.

That's it for now, more later.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Really nice looking structure there, Jeff.

I like the change of medium from first to second story.  The roof came out extremely well and all the timberwork really makes the whole thing pop.  For my scratchbuilt doors I've started using 6x1 and 2x1.  This gives you doors of a scale thickness.  The thin stripwood is a little harder to work with, but not much.

Cheers, Mark.

[nycjeff]

Hello Mark, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. I think I'll try your suggestion about the doors, I appreciate the input.

[nycjeff]

A few pictures of the build on my layout...









Thanks to everyone who looked in, I had a lot of fun with this scratch-build.

[GPdemayo]

Well done Jeff.....the scene looks great. 

[jerryrbeach]

Jeff,

That structure has a lot going for it with all the additions, fitting so well into an odd shaped lot, etc.  I like the way the stairs, the covered access to the stairs and the fence all add interest to the rear of the structure.  I also like how the back of both this structure as well as the garage are adjacent to the tracks.  Any time I ride a train I notice how many structures have the rear toward the tracks, and how seldom I see it modeled.  Kudos to you for developing a very realistic scene.