Showcase Miniatures Fred's One Stop Gas

[nycjeff]

Here is the kit. I liked the old time look of this structure. It reminded me of places that my Dad used to stop at on our family road trips in Central Ohio.



The instructions are not your typical step-by-step style. They give you exploded drawings with part numbers.



Here is a typical sprue- this one is for exterior walls. It's not the wood sheets that come with most craftsman kits- it's a fiber-board material. This is before painting with rattle can grey primer.



Here are the parts for the house base. The kit uses slot-tab type assembly. This type of assembly was new to me but I have to say that even though the parts seemed wobbly when putting them together, they came out as a very sturdy unit.



Here is the assembled house base before painting with a rattle can grey primer.

I've only seen one other build thread for Showcase Miniatures- it was a Valu Fuel kit put together by Steve Custer and he did his usual fine job. The methods that he used will be very helpful to me as I go along on this kit. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

That's it for now, more later

[ReadingBob]

I'm following Jeff! Looks like an interesting kit. Thanks for sharing. 

[Janbouli]

Oh , with all those corners, nooks and crannies this looks like a very nice structure.

[jerryrbeach]

Jeff,

I'll be following along, too.

[PRR Modeler]

Great job so far Jeff.

[Zephyrus52246]

What an interesting looking structure.  So many angles.  

Jeff

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

I'm on the bandwagon as well. Looks like a neat one to build. The stock photo has Jason Jenson weathering and look all over it.

Tom

[nycjeff]

Hello to everyone looking in. All the angles and different building faces are what interested me in this kit. Jason Jenson built the initial kit for Showcase Miniatures and he did a great job. I think that I am going to use close to the same paint scheme that he did. It just looks right for this type of structure.

[GPdemayo]

I'll be looking in also Jeff.....

[Mark Dalrymple]

Neat looking kit, Jeff.

Great to see a foundation.

Cheers, Mark.

[nycjeff]

Hello Greg and Mark, I appreciate the interest in my little build. Mark, I agree with you, a foundation on a building always gives it an added dimension.

[deemery]

This is a new kit maker for me, so I'll be interested to see how you build it, as well as your comments on the design and manufacturing.

dave

[nycjeff]

Hello Dave, this is a new kit manufacturer to me as well. The only build thread I could find was one that Steve Custer did on this forum for a kit called Valu Fuel. So far all I can tell you is that the customer service is very good. I ordered the kit online thru an easy to follow process and they shipped it to me within 3 days. I also got several emails regarding the status of my order.

As for building the kit, it is different from most others that I have done. I will try to detail the process in this thread. So far I have found that there are many small delicate pieces, but they cut off the fiber board sheet without to much trouble and they are fitting together very well. The manufacturer recommends that you paint the parts while still on the sheet and I have done this so far except for the larger exterior wall sheets.

Follow along with me, I always appreciate your comments and ideas.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



Here is one of the exterior wall fiberboard sheets. I don't know if that's what the material actually is, but I've seen it called this before.



Here are some of the walls cut out from the sheet with the back side showing.



Here are the wall pieces with what they call the window backers attached. This is a peel and stick process and you have to be careful when positioning them.



Here is a wall piece with the window backer installed. when placing them on the back of the wall you have to make sure that some of the window backer material shows on all four sides of the window opening. The window backer material prevents any window pieces from passing thru the wall piece. I will detail this further on.



After using my ponce wheel for nail marks and prying up some of the individual clapboards with my #11 blade, I painted the wall pieces with rattle can grey primer. I was going to paint both sides of the walls, but after the paint on the front dried I didn't notice any wall warping so I did not paint the back sides of the wall pieces. I guess I'll find out if this was a mistake as I go along.

That's it for now, more later.

[PRR Modeler]

Great looking progress Jeff.