Showcase Miniatures Fred's One Stop Gas

[nycjeff]

The canopy that attaches to the front of the gas station has beeen assembled and the signs have been glued on. The trusses fit well, but were a little finicky to get into the slots on the two sides of the canopy square.



The roof card for the top of the canopy has been added. It fit well, but there were some small open spaces around the edges, so...



I added some pieces of stripwood from my stash to dress out the roof edges.



Next were some more gas price signs that go on top of the canopy roof. after gluing the pieces together, I wanted them to have a little more stability so I added a cross brace near the bottom of the back braces. I used some of the material from the sheet edges for the small horizontal cross braces.



After adding the gas price signs, using the same techniques that I used for the signs on the house roof, I found that the signs were front heavy and would not stand on their own. I then added a couple of pieces of stripwood between the signs to allow them to stand up on their own.

That's it for now, more later.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



My next step was to create the base for the structure. As is my usual, I cut a piece of thin styrene to the shape of the space available on my layout. I placed the structure on the styrene and outlined it's perimeter and then covered the building's footprint with blue painters tape. I then painted the whole piece with rattle can grey primer. For the grass area, I painted it with a craft brown color and while still wet I sprinkled on a sifted base ground cover which is dirt from my yard. I then mixed in some green  and then black colors as well. I then drizzled on some water and matte medium mix to hold everything in place. The concrete area was first marked out in about 9 scale foot blocks, or the width of my steel 12 inch rule. I then painted the area with a light grey colored chalk paint. This area will be weathered with chalk colors later.



When I bought this kit from Showcase miniatures, I also bought this nifty little automotive service rack. I thought that the mechanics needed a little tool and shade shed, so I decided to scratch build one. I placed a paper outline of the shape on the base to get the right size.



I then made an outline drawing on a piece of paper to work with.



I made stripwood framed walls using 2x6 scale wood dipped in my A&I solution. The wall cladding will be 2x8 wood boards seen on the right.



Here is the finished mechanic's shed in position next to the gas station and the service rack. I made a simple roof card from cardboard and used some colored paper cut into 3/8 inch wide strips for the roof covering. I didn't put many detail parts here because this little scene is on the backside of the structure and mostly out of view when it will be placed on my layout.

[nycjeff]

A couple of quick pictures of the automotive service rack. As you can see the parts come laser cut on a sheet of fiberboard. I sponged on a red color and when dry, followed it up with a little black. I painted both sides of the sheet. The small parts fit together well, as all the parts in the gas station kit did. I used white wood glue for this.

[nycjeff]

The house has been glued to the base and the basic scenery ground cover has been added. Here, you can see the back door stairs, handrails and small roof. These small details wre kind of finicky to work with, but with a little patience they came out well. At least I think they did.



The newspaper machine, the ice machine and the soda machine all came with the kit. The gas pumps that came with the kit were a little too modern for my time period. Luckily, Showcase Miniatures has a gas station accesories detail pack which had the gas pumps appropriate for my era. After painting the pumps, the signs were very small to add on, but again I think, worth the effort. I only did one side of the pumps- my shaky hands balked at doing both sides. It was a little difficult to get the canopy, the canopy support poles and the gas pump island all glued together, but it came out well.



Here's a picture of the side porch steps and handrails. The little bench came with the kit- there are two of them. The guys playing checkers also came from Showcase Miniatures along with the dog taking a nap in the previous picture.



Here's a view of the mechanics shed glued onto the side of the gas station.



Here is a drone view of the many roofs. I plan on adding a few more roof details.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

I decided to add some fencing and a wood slat fence to the border of my little scene. Fencing was not included with the kit, so I had to scratch build them.



As always when I scratch build, the first step is to make a scale drawing. The bottom diagram is for a two rail wood fence and the top one is for the wood slat fence. The two rail fence is four HO scale feet high and the posts are 8 scale feet apart. The wood slat fence is 6 scale feet high and again the posts are 8 scale feet apart.



Again as always especally when making fencing, I used my trusty chopper to make a lot of similiar pieces. I got this from Micro Mark at a relatively cheap price.



Here is the first section of two rail wood fence. I usually dip the stripwood into my A&I solution before building fencing. I used 2x6 wood for the rails and I think I used 8x8 wood for the posts.



Here is a section of the wood slat fence. I used the same 8x8 for the posts, 2x6 for the horizontal runners and 2x8 for the wood slats. After cutting the 2x8 pieces I use my #11 blade to weather them a little. I cut corners off the top and bottom of some and cut slivers off of the sides of some others. This is a small thing, but it makes a big difference in the finished product.



Here is a finished section of the wood slat fence. As you can see I drybrushed some color on the fence and then added some signs. Building fencing requires some time, but the end resuly is always worth it- at least it is for me.

That's it for now, more later.

[MartyO]

This build makes me re-think my skillset. Doing what it takes must be your mantra.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking great, Jeff.

Scuppers and downpipes for the flat roofs with parapet walls might be a nice detail to add.  All the different roofs look awesome.  Variety is the spice of life, as they say.  Fences came out nice and rustic.  The posts look the same thickness as the palings to me - which might make them 6x6's?  Anyway - no matter.  Enjoying your updates.

Cheers, Mark.

[Janbouli]

Doing a great job Jeff , and thanks for sharing all the steps of the build.

[Zephyrus52246]

 You've done a great job with this kit.  So many angles, different materials and finishes.  Wonderful.

[ReadingBob]

Wonderful!  The dog taking a nap is the perfect touch for this scene. 

[nycjeff]

This build makes me re-think my skillset. Doing what it takes must be your mantra.

Hello Marty, your skillset is on fine display with your wonderful waterfront diorama. I think that we all do what it takes to build our little worlds. It's fun.

Looking great, Jeff.

Scuppers and downpipes for the flat roofs with parapet walls might be a nice detail to add.  All the different roofs look awesome.  Variety is the spice of life, as they say.  Fences came out nice and rustic.  The posts look the same thickness as the palings to me - which might make them 6x6's?  Anyway - no matter.  Enjoying your updates.

Cheers, Mark.

Hello Mark, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. You're right about the scuppers and downspouts- I have to look into that.

Doing a great job Jeff , and thanks for sharing all the steps of the build.

Hello Jan, thank you. I'm just trying to do what I have learned from a lot of fine build threads on this forum in the past.

You've done a great job with this kit.  So many angles, different materials and finishes.  Wonderful.

Hello Jeff, this has been an interesting kit to build. I've had a lot of fun with it. This was my first all fiberboard material kit and I have had to learn a few new things while going through the process, but it's all been a good time.

Wonderful!  The dog taking a nap is the perfect touch for this scene. 

Hello Bob, you're right, a sleeping dog is a can't miss item.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...



I have an empty corner of concrete here and I wanted to put up a pole sign.



I thought that a round area enclosed with concrete curbs would look right for the corner.



I decided to use some 8x8 left over from my fence building for the curb material. I painted the stripwood with my go to concrete color which is a chalk paint called Parisan Grey that I picked up at a Michaels store.



Using my scale drawing, I measured the length of each curb piece.



And using my trusty chopper I cut 8 pieces to the same length.

[nycjeff]

The pole sign that came with the kit is on the left. After assembling this "guy pointing" sign, I decided that I wasn't happy with the way it looked.



The gas station accessories detail kit that I got from Showcase Miniatures had a pole sign included. Here you see the instruction sheet, the printed graphics and the fiberboard sheet which I sponged with my red trim paint. The previous picture shows the round gas signs cut out from the graphic sheet.



Here is the pole sign installed at the corner of the gas station. I glued the concrete curb pieces in place first, then glued in the pole sign. The pole sign came with two flat pieces for the pole base, but you can't see them here because I covered them with some of my ballast material. I then added a little dirt area with some ground cover. It's time to add some more detail castings and then place the station in it's place on my layout.

In my next post I'll show some pictures of the mostly finished kit before planting it on the layout.

[GPdemayo]

Very nice.....

[nycjeff]

Thank you Greg