Showcase Miniatures Fred's One Stop Gas

[jerryrbeach]

Jeff,

Your build is progressing nicely.  While I'm not a fan of tab and slot construction, this kit seems to fit together precisely for the most part.  Your color choices and attention to detail are definitely on point.  Thanks for taking the time to share this build with us.

[nycjeff]

Great looking progress Jeff.

Hello Curt, thanks for looking in and for the kind words

Jeff,

Your build is progressing nicely.  While I'm not a fan of tab and slot construction, this kit seems to fit together precisely for the most part.  Your color choices and attention to detail are definitely on point.  Thanks for taking the time to share this build with us.

Hello Jerry, this is my first time with this type of kit construction. You are right, things are fitting together precisely. I've had to make only minor adjustments so far, but as we all know, that's where the fun is.

[deemery]

The problem I have with tab-and-slot (when it's done precisely) is it's really hard to bash the model.  When the tabs & slots aren't well aligned, they are really difficult to assemble.   So it's good to hear this one is on the 'precisely' side.

dave

[ReadingBob]

This is coming along really well, Jeff.  It's an impressive looking kit and you're doing an outstanding job with it!

[nycjeff]

The problem I have with tab-and-slot (when it's done precisely) is it's really hard to bash the model.  When the tabs & slots aren't well aligned, they are really difficult to assemble.   So it's good to hear this one is on the 'precisely' side.

dave

Hello Dave, you're right about the inability to kit bash this type of kit. It is engineered to be built just as it is, with little to no room for free lancing. Also, I think I mispoke when using the term precisely. Precise to me means darn near perfect and I have had to make some minor adjustments as I go along. I have to remember that the pieces are made to fit together as they are made. When the modeler adds paints, washes and other surface covering materials, the wall or piece surface is changed and that makes fitting the pieces together just a little more difficult.

This is coming along really well, Jeff.  It's an impressive looking kit and you're doing an outstanding job with it!

Hello Bob, thanks for looking in. I'm pleased with how the kit is turning out and thank you for the kind words.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



The next step was to work on the second story dormer that overhangs the left side porch. The side walls fit into the slots on the roof card with a little bit of adjustment with a small file. I glued them in place as shown. the front wall of the dormer is showm laying next to the side porch. At the bottom of the front wall and also on the face of the left side you can see green pieces with slots on the top. These are for the floor joists that will be installed next. In this picture you can also see the colored paper that I glued onto the back of the window openings for window shades.



The front wall fit well with the slots and tabs lining up nicely. After the glue dried I started to install the floor joists. I first glued the middle joist in. I had to flex the front wall slightly to get it to fit properly. The end of the joist fit nicely into the small slots on the green pieces.
The rest of the floor joists went in with only a little bit of trimming for length. These joists will be difficult to see once the model is completed, but they are still a nice touch to the overall appearance.



Next are the rafter tails. The rafter tails are laser cut with a little tail that is meant to go into the little slots visible in this picture. I had a difficult time fitting the small rafter tail tail into the small slots with my shaky hands, it's not easy getting old, so...



I then cut the little tail off of the piece. You can see the pieces with the little tail on top and the two below with the tail cut off. This made it much easier for me to get the rafter tail in place using the slot as a guide for positioning. As I said before, I think that the paint on the piece added enough thickness to make fitting it into the slot a little more difficult.



Here are some of the rafter tails after completion.

[nycjeff]

Next up is the roofing material. The kit provides a sheet of standing seam metal looking peel and stick paper. The sheet as it comes with the kit is white. I first sprayed it with a rattle can grey primer and when dry sprayed it again with a rattle can metallic looking color. I then brushed on a brown wash to take away the shine of the sprayed on paint.



I then sponged on several different rust colors to show some wear and tear to the roof. I guess I got to busy working to take any pictures, but the peel and stick roof pieces went on easily.



 I didn't have any problems until I put the peak cover piece in place- see here. This piece is only an 1/8 inch wide and it didn't cover the gap as well as I wanted it to. Maybe I didn't place the dormer roof piece up as high as I should, but the blue tape that I used to seal the sub-roof card gaps is visible. Also, the long ridge cover piece did not bend easily and the peel and stick adhesive did not let me lay the piece as flat on the roof as I wanted it to.



Here is the roof material sheet after all of the pieces have been cut out. I'm thinking of trying to form a new, slightly wider ridge cap with the border material from this sheet.



Looking ahead a little. Not all of the kit pieces are identified in the instructions. For example, this sheet is labeled building trim. It is left up to the modeler to figure out where all of the pieces must go. Not complaining, just letting you know what comes with the kit. It wouldn't be any fun without challenges, right.

That's it for now, more later.

[PRR Modeler]

Everything is coming together nicely. Great job on the kit.

[nycjeff]

Hello Curt, thanks for looking in, I appreciate the interest in my kit build.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



I removed the ridge caps that came with the kit. After looking at the top of the dormer roof, I began to think that I did not place it properly.



This is a view of the low edge of the dormer roof from below. I have a lot of overhang. Since the roof piece was peel and stick I thought I could remove it and re-position it a little higher up. Nope, The stick part of peel and stick, at least on big pieces like this roof piece means it is stuck on for good. I didn't want to destroy the roof so...



I painted the visible blue tape with some silver craft paint I had on hand.



Next, I turned to the remains of the roof sheet and cut up the edges to give me some pieces to work with.



Here is the kit ridge cap on the left and the piece I cut from the roof sheet on the right. It is almost twice as thick. I think I can work with this.

[nycjeff]

After gluing on my home made ridge cap pieces, this is what it looked like. Not perfect, but better than it was.



The top of the dormer roof looks better now.



Here is a view of the roof from above. I still need to work on the coloring of metal roofs, but I'm getting a little better.



Next I started the building trim installation. This picture shows the gable end area. There are three pieces of trim here. On the top of the gable wall are two pieces. One placed on top of the other and then stuck on the wall. The third piece is placed on the edge of the sub-roof cards. I think it looks good.



Next I started on the posts and handrails of the left side porch. They provide two additional pieces for each post called post thickeners. You place one on each side of the post to give it some added girth. They also give you some pieces to place on top of the handrails. This was not an easy task with my shaky hands.

That's it for now, more later.

[Jim Donovan]

Jeff;

I just had a chance to catch up on your project. Very interesting and educational. You explain things well and I learned a lot. The project is really coming along and looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Jim

[Zephyrus52246]

Looking good.  You're making great progress on this interesting kit. 

Jeff

[deemery]

There was a period where EVERY lasercut kit maker did a building with an overhanging 2nd story.  They always rubbed me the wrong way, because structurally those aren't very common.  

But you're certainly getting good results as you work through the kit.

dave

[GPdemayo]

Looking real find Jeff.....