Winter Challenge 2024- Truck Service kit- Jeff Firestone

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Jeff.....

[nycjeff]

Post-it notes makes a nice yellow window shade color, and I've found it will fade prototypically over time :-)

dave

Hello Dave, you're right, I've used yellow post-it notes for window shades in the past.

Looks like a good start on the structure.  I like the color scheme.

Jeff

Hello Jeff, thanks for looking in. I'm having fun with this build, Jason has done a great job with the design.

Looking good Jeff.....

Hello Greg, appreciate the kind words.

[Jerry]

Great start Jeff.  The shed really came out nice.

Jerry

[nycjeff]

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

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

The large entry door to the stucco building comes in two parts- four if you count the man door that inserts into the door opening in the large door. The parts were first sprayed with a flat red primer and then sponged with a light grey and a bittersweet chocolate for a rust effect. I then added a few small signs.



I also added a few signs to the front of the wood building



Next I started to glue the walls together using the lines on my cutting mat to keep things square.







The walls fit together well. I thought that I might have problems fitting everything together with the odd shape of the walls, but things went together easily.

[nycjeff]

A look at the rear wall of the wood building. More detail will be added later in the build.



The last wood wall is the short one with three windows that fits between the front and rear walls at the second story level. Again, everything fit together easily.



The two buildings have been glued together. All fit well except for the left side wall overhang on the foundation. I'm not sure if this was my error or not.The tabs on the top of the wood walls fit into the slots on the stucco walls as they should have and the foundation is square under the wood walls. It's not a problem because my plan for the loading dock will cover this area.



Two of the roof cards with rolled roofing material added are shown here and the large sliding door has been glued in place. I wanted to leave this door open to show an interior space. I used a piece of 1/16 plywood for the floor and painted it with a grey chalk paint. I then added some weathering chalks for oil spills and tire marks. I also added a couple of interior details just to give the appearance of a busy interior.



Here's a look at the rear walls after the buildings were glued together.



That's it for now, more later.

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

The truck service is looking good.

Tom

[nycjeff]

Hello Tom, I appreciate you looking in, also I'm really enjoying your build thread.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

The three main roof cards have been glued on. The holes in the right hand side roof are for a skylight which will be added later. I used some different colored paper for some of the roofing to give the large roof area  a little variety. It is meant to show that the roof was patched in some areas.



Here's a closer look at the front wall. The small holes in the wood wall are for some roof support brackets for a small roof over the front loading dock. The corner trim pieces have been added as well as some 2x4 stripwood at the top of the walls at the roof line.



The kit is coming along nicely. The juxtaposition of the two buildings is what drew me to this kit in the first place. In this picture you can really see the overhang of the left side wall on the foundation. I'm still not sure what caused this, but as you will see shortly I plan on extending the loading dock area to cover this area.



The kit comes with a loading dock that fits along the front of the wood building wall. I decided to make my loading dock a bit larger, so that means a scratchbuilt one. As with all of my scratchbuilds, the first step is a scale drawing. You can see the outlines of my new, larger loading dock in the picture.

[nycjeff]

I started my loading dock build with some 3/32 square stripwood as a frame. I built right on top of my drawing to insure that the dock would fit properly against the building.



Next I used some 2x8 stripwood for the loading dock floor. I distressed each board slightly to show normal wear and tear of a used daily work space. The metal square was used to make sure that the boards lined up evenly where they will abut the building.



The boards have all been glued on the frame. I built the larger loading dock for several reasons. First, because I have a lot of space for this build I had the room for a larger dock and it covers the wall overhang on the foundation. Secondly, it gives me more room for detail castings, which is always a good thing.



Next it was time to flip the dock over and begin the underside portion of the scratchbuild. I used the same 3/32 square stripwood for the dock's legs as I used for the frame.



Thtat's it for now, more later.

[nycjeff]

Continuing on...

The next step in the construction of the loading dock was to add bracing between the legs. I used 2x4 stripwood for this. It's a lot of measuring and cutting of small pieces, but I think that it's worth it.



A little closer look at the bottom of the loading dock.



Getting back to the main building, it was time to place the skylight in place. The skylight, as it comes in the kit, is a three piece part.
First a bottom frame, then the acetate and finally the top frame. All the parts were first sprayed with flat grey primer. I then sponged on the red trim color that I have used throughout the build. I again used a piece of the kit container top for the "glass".
After everything was glued in place, I felt that a wood frame around the skylight would improve the overall look of the part. I used some of the trim stripwood that came with the kit for this.



On the right side of the main building is an open work bay. The four metal roof trusses were sprayed with the red primer and then sponged with some bittersweet chocolate for a rust look.
You can see the mounting holes in the side of the main building wall and also the concrete strip for the bottom of the truss legs.
I decided not to assemble this part of the kit until I have mounted it on the diorama base. I figured that I would just break it if I did it now.
You can also see in this picture a row of vertical pipes mounted in a concrete base whose purpose is to protect the large sliding metal door. This is a nicely designed detail that comes with the kit.



The last part of the open work bay is the roof. The roof card comes scribed with some lines on which to glue some thin fiberboard strips meant to mimic a standing seam metal roof. In his video, Jason made this a copper roof and I decided to do the same thing. I had some copper paint that I brushed on the roof card. I then drybrushed on some light green craft paint for the copper weathering look and some more of the bittersweet chocolate for a rust effect.

[nycjeff]

Because I liked the look of the open work bay that came with the kit, I decided that a similiar looking stand alone structure would fit right into my diorama. I used some styrene roof trusses from another kit and some styrene shape pieces for the wall framing.
As with all my scratchbuilds, I first drew a scale plan for the structure.



While building the open work bay, I made it a little shorter than the drawing and also changed the wall bracing.
The piece in front of the assembled work bay is the framework for an overhead crane.



The work bay framework has been assembled and the overhead crane has been glued in place. I sprayed the whole thing with a flat red primer, then sponged on some rust and finally drybrushed the whole thing with a silver craft paint to highlight the edges of the pieces.



A couple more pictures of the metal framed work bay.





I plan on adding a few more deatils to this little structure, such as some chain hanging down from the overhead crane and some detail castings when it is glued onto the diorama base.

 That's it for now, more later.

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

You are moving right along on this one. The small extra shed you built looks great. Well done.

Tom

[tom.boyd.125]

 Jeff, had to check jasonjensentrains.com to see a photo of your kit that you are working on. Did not know that he had a large selection available. Like it because it has different lines....Tommy

[nycjeff]

Jeff,

You are moving right along on this one. The small extra shed you built looks great. Well done.

Tom

Hello Tom, thanks for looking in and for the nice words about my little shed. I'm having a lot of fun with this diorama build. I wanted the outbuildings to have some relation to the main kit building and I think that this open bay structure fits in well with the open bay work area on the end of the main building.

Jeff, had to check jasonjensentrains.com to see a photo of your kit that you are working on. Did not know that he had a large selection available. Like it because it has different lines....Tommy

Hello Tommy, I agree with you, the different lines of the structure and the way the two main components of the kit fit together is the main reason I was drawn to the kit. Jason has done a great job with the design of this one.