DD Luci's Tattoo

[Zephyrus52246]

This is a build thread for Downtown Deco's Luci's Tattoo Emporium.  Mark Dalrymple's help on my layout dilemma showed that this building would fit perfectly in the town scene.  The building I used there is a Hardware store which doesn't fit the "theme" of the bad side of town.  But this tattoo parlor will.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

First up is clearing the flash from the sides of the hydrocal walls.  I do this with a coarse sandpaper laid on the desktop and sand until the flash is gone.  More on this in the future. 

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The windows have some flash that is easily removed with a number 11 blade, I use the dull side more than the sharp side to gently scrap it out.  There are some "blobs" in some of the crevices as well which are picked out or gently sanded flat with a fine sandpaper or file.  Here the walls are ready for gluing together. 

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I usually glue the walls with five minute epoxy doing one at a time.  Leave the back wall for last, hopefully it will line up square, because if you try to move the walls even slightly by forcing a wall, the hydrocal will crack/break (don't ask how I know this).    I got the walls together okay, but I also wanted to do some reinforcing with some scrap wood in the corners.  I then noticed that the epoxy had gone bad in the container.  It went from clear to granular.  No wonder it was so hard to squeeze out.  Will need to get some more.     I used Elmer's to attach the wood reinforcers.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The structure is square and sits flat.  But there are some pretty bad gaps at the corners.  I should have used the coarse sand paper in my Tru Sander to make sure these were all perfectly flat.  the lower right on the back is curved due to overly vigorous sanding to get this wall to fit.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I fill the gaps with lightweight spackle.  The container I had was all dried out when I opened it.     It's four years old, but an older container was fine.  Why I had three (yes there was yet another one) containers of this stuff is a mystery.  Probably forgot I had the other two.  Anyway, line up painters tape on both sides of the gap and fill it in.  Remove the tape when dry.  Sand or scrape the spackle if it's not even.  but don't scrape off the brick detail.  The wide gaps look OK, they will be covered with downspouts so they won't show.  I did carve in some detail on the right back wall gap just for fun.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I noticed a piece broken off of the front right pillar next to the door.  Looking back at the early pics I did this, it didn't arrive this way.  Randy at DD will replace this if I ask, but I can't remove the wall now, so I did a not so good repair of this.  I will cover it with a sign.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

Here's the Hardware store so I can use it as a reference for building the new kit.  I will probably keep the same or similar color scheme.  It will go in a different town so it doesn't matter if the buildings match.  You can see I've started painting the new one.

Jeff

[PRR Modeler]

Great start Jeff. I'll be following along.

[Janbouli]

Love Randy's kits , will be following .

[GPdemayo]

That structure has a bunch of character Jeff.....it will look grand on the layout. 

[Zephyrus52246]

Thanks for looking in Curt, Jan and Greg.  Jan, I admire your ability to work with these kits in N scale.  

The plastic parts were removed from their sprues, filed to remove remaining "nubs" and washed to remove mold release and my finger prints before painting.  I should have waited on this step, as I test fitted the windows and they don't fit.  It's not the "hole" opening, but the top and bottom of the actual plastic window is too big.  Rather than try to carve out the hydrocal, I filed down the windows.  Looking back at the other build, I don't think this was an issue, but they are the same kit.     I rewashed them and proceeded to paint them. 

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I assembled the fire escape and painted it afterwards.  I used the airbrush on the plastic parts.  I had started brush painting the building and then thought, "Duh, you're going to use the airbrush for the same color, doofus!".  Masked the front off and finished it as well.  There's a double width window for the front, which doesn't fit and looks odd, so I'm not going to use it.  Rather than "open up" the window like on the hardware store, I'm going to paint it black and put a piece of glass over it.  And, yes, I did change up the color from green to the blue.  I may paint the building terra cotta instead of red as well.  Need to decide...

Jeff

[ReadingBob]

I'm enjoying the adventure, Jeff!  Love Downtown Deco kits.  They have so much character.  

[PRR Modeler]

Looks great Jeff. Did you use blue painters' tape or something else?