Horwood Brothers Gas, Oil and Service - Rail Scale Miniatures.

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After two hours I removed the weights and carefully peeled off the painter's tape.

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I then very carefully removed the letter carrier sheet from the billboard frame and letters.

Thankfully, my patience and care proved to be a blessing. No letters were broken in the process.



Back in a few, Diet Pepsi time.

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Gluing the billboard brackets to the frame was a bit "tricksie".

I didn't want to chance gluing them on crooked so here is what I did to get them all aligned and square to the frame.

I pulled out my desk drawer and placed an aluminum plate over the drawer sides. This gave me a flat surface and an edge to allow the brackets to be glued on at 90 degrees to the frame.



Here is the result, all are glued in place and square as well.

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I then glued on horizontal braces to the rear of the brackets. These 2X4s were unpainted when I glued them in place.

I didn't want to waste the blue spray paint by spraying each 2X4. And, once glued to the rear, it obviously wasn't going to work by spray painting them on the rear. I didn't want to get blue spray paint on the yellow letters.

I've shown this method in the past, but I'll go over it again here. I sprayed the blue on a piece of cardboard.



I then used a soft brush and hand painted the horizontal braces.

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A test fit and look see on the showroom roof.

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I added the front horizontal braces and the billboard walkway. I painted them in the same manner and used the same method as described above.





The billboard is now complete with the exception of light weathering.

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One thing I'd like to mention here on an observation of the spray painting vs brushing on the spray paint.

When I sprayed the Tamiya Blue on the brackets and frame, the finish was a matte of satin finish look.

When I sprayed the blue on the cardboard and used a brush to apply the blue, it dried in a gloss finish.

The sign was a combination of matte and gloss and was most definitely noticeable.

To show you the difference, I taped half of the dry paint spot with painter's tape. I then sprayed on the flat finish and let it dry.

The tape was removed and you can see the difference.





I sprayed the entire Good Year sign with the flat.

Done for today.

[deemery]

Great results!  On assembling the sign to the brackets, I wonder if it would have been better to glue the brackets, rear horizontal braces, and walkway together first, and then mounting the sign to the bracket assembly.

But hey, your way worked just fine!

About 15 years ago, I said "One thing that distinguishes well designed kits is the best include assembly jigs."  I bet they could have cut a jig to assemble the brackets in alignment (horizontally) out of some scrap wood.  2 of those would have substantially simplified assembly, I think. 

dave

[Jerry]

Tom a terrific job on that sign.
And a great how to do it the right way.

Jerry

[PRR Modeler]

Outstanding job on the sign Tom.

[ReadingBob]

I like the sign!  Knowing where this is going it's going it'll be a real eye catcher. 

[Rick]

Bravo!

[Larry C]

Tom just a well thought out and fantastic job on the sign!!!