Pier Deck Rebuild

I've spent most of the last 3 years building scenery on other peoples modules. I don't post anything on those projects here, or anywhere else either. Last week I unloaded the Waterfront modules from the trailer and assembled them in the living room. Time for some maintenance and the continuation of some projects. For maintenance, one rail in the turnout to the float apron lifted off the PC ties it was soldered to. Rather than re-solder it I hand spiked the rail as recommended by Joe Balint who built all the track for me.

Now for completing a project. There are 2 piers on this module, the large generic factory (which has existed as a paper mock-up) is on pier #12 to the North. The tail track for the large run-around is on a narrow pier (#11) to the south with the car float slip between. When I originally built the deck on pier 11, I used sheets of Bass wood and drew and painted the the planks. Afterword I allowed the sheets to dry a couple of weeks so that they wouldn't shrink after installation and leave gaps between them.
Didn't work, After about a year the sheets shrank. It looked bad enough that I removed the sheets, leaving the bare plywood deck.

The Car float office has been removed and resting on the tracks on the other side of the slip. I don't want any paint or weathering color to get on the office building, so removal is necessary. I also had to remove the guardrail in front of the office because the guardrail posts were set into the last piece of the original wood pier deck. For the new pier deck I'm using Evergreen Polystyrene sheet "Car Siding" part # 2067. The label says it's O scale 3-1/4" spacing, but it gives me something close to 7" wide planks in HO scale. I was looking to get 8"-10" planks on the deck but this will have to do.

The new styrene deck has been glued down, all the weights I used are sitting in the float slip. The styrene sheets were painted with grey automotive primer before installation. Then a wash of acrylic Raw Umber was applied, followed by a heaver wash or Burnt Umber. This gives the planks some color variation which I will add to in the next step. 

For the next step I added the last color called "Linen" (Folk Art brand) to some individual planks. The color is a dark almond. For applying the color I placed a couple of drops in an artist paint dish then added 1 drop of diluted ammonia but didn't mix it into the paint, I only used the thinner to dilute the paint already on the brush. This produces a wash of varied opacity when I applied it to the individual planks. Not all planks receive the wash, only about 30%. Also, I mostly applied the wash to only parts of a plank; for example the ends or only the middle, blending the wash into the previous color. And I would often vary the opacity of the wash on an individual plank.

So now a sheet looks more like individual planks.

I'm NOT adding nails.

The last step took me 3 hours.

Next, adding 10' long 8"x 8"s to the edge of the pier just behind the piles.

Dollar Drugs on Sullivan Ave Part II

I've been working on the foundation of the adjacent Western Auto Parts store. The materials and technique are the same as what I used on the drug store.

 The combined building foundation/sidewalk is different from what I did for the drug store because I didn't have enough material for a solid block. However I didn't need a solid block anyway, the slope of the road combined with the shorter frontage did not require the deeper sidewalk.

Here is the foundation during the test fitting. The smoothing and painting of the concrete surface is next.

The two foundations fit well. Finishing and weathering will blend them together even more.

The business signs have been temporarily removed so that I can install additional details on the structures. The window awnings on both buildings can be seen in this view.

Before I installed the awnings on the corner building, I created two roof drains from styrene.

In addition to the window awnings (2 of which are on the back side), I added a door awning, three electric meters with conduit and a AT&T connection.

The Western Auto building received some additional detail also. I blanked out three windows, added an awning (opposite side), and electric meter with AT&T connection and a basketball backboard. The round object to the left of the backboard is an old security bell from a previous tenant.

The roads still have to be brought up to the final elevation among other things. I also need to install a storm grate uphill and left of the curve in the sidewalk. Then install a railing on the sidewalk to keep pedestrians from falling into the street. Oh and re-install the business signs.

Dollar Drugs on Sullivan Ave

It has been way to long since I have posted anything. But I have been working on modules belonging to other people and I don't post that stuff here. Maybe someday I'll make another blog for when I work on peoples models.

This is an old image but it gets us back to where I am currently working. I have the Dollar Drug store on the street corner with a Western Auto Parts store to it's left. I am going to have to come up with a name for the connecting street...

The sidewalk base for the drug store is a thick piece of basswood seen here set into the foam landscape. I had to cut all the way down to the wood deck of the module to get a flat surface for the base. The roads are in the foreground and you can see how Sullivan Ave drops down grade after crossing the railroad as it approaches the front edge of the module. I will use some strip basswood to create a foundation for the building on this sidewalk base.

After constructing and test fitting the foundation, I used Elmers wood filler as a skim coat in the sidewalk base and building foundation.

The wood filler is applied very thin. I like to use a wet finger to spread it around. The wood filler literally fills in the wood grain.

Once I have sanded the base I painted it using Testors Light Aircraft Gray out of a rattle can. The expansion joints and cracks are drawn with a 3mm pencil. Then it is sealed so the pencil work isn't smudged during weathering.

Next will be the sidewalk base and foundation for the Western Auto Parts store.

502 Sullivan Ave. Part III

House construction is complete. Now I'm adding some details with more to come.

I need to find a good place to attach a TV antenna. The rear foundation work in also complete. I will blend the drive into the garage slab with gravel.

The front foundation still need to be worked out as does the walkway to the road.

502 Sullivan Ave. Part II

I am way behind on posting updates so I'm going to just get to it.
I've been constructing a concrete walk/stairway along the back of the house. This allows the residents to go from the deck to the back yard and garage area. For material I used Basswood strip narrowed to 3' wide. The first image shows the stairway in place.

With the stairway removed and resting on the building foundation you can see how I carved away the foam scenery to fit the stairway. The Basswood has yet to be finished or painted.

Here I'm test fitting the stairs to the deck and you can see the overall arrangement with the house in place.

And now the concrete has been finished and painted but not yet weathered.

My next post will have the completed house with some detailing.

Sullivan Ave. part III

A detail that I like adding to urban roads is the sewer manhole cover. We have two types in the image below; the Sanitary Sewer manhole (MH) cover and the Storm Drainage MH cover. The larger of the painted ones is for Storm Drainage. These are made by Vector Cut, and if you are wondering, yes they are a little large for HO scale. But the detail on these is SO GOOD, that I will forgive the maker for the size issue. The one piece of Laser Board has 6 manhole covers and 3 storm grates.

My challenge is to create a shallow hole in the road surface that is just large enough to fit the MH cover. I used the hole left in the Laser board as a carving stencil on the road.

Here is the tool I used for the carving. If you look closely you will see that the curved blade has a slightly angled tip. There is blade on the other end with a blade angled in the opposite direction.

And the finished product. If you remember a couple of posts back where I mentioned a pavement patch where I had to blend where the road was made of Wood Filler on one part and Styrene on another part. This is that patch, I deliberately painted it a different shade from the remainder of the road. I just looks like the Sewer Maintenance crew tore up the road and patched it when they were done. I have also begun adding cracks in the asphalt surface. Here I am drawing the cracks with a

.3 mm drafting pencil.

This last image shows how nicely  the MH cover fits into the hole I created.

502 Sullivan Avenue

502 is the address of the white house on this module. The kit is RIX #203 with a scratch built basement added. The house is set a little higher than the road which is very common in the prototype but seldom modeled. When I'm finished shaping the yard, it will have a short steep slope down to the sidewalk in the area near the driveway. I haven't yet decided if the driveway will be paved or gravel.

The window shutters are from Tichy # 8040. I thought I had a problem when I discovered that I didn't have enough space to add shutters to all the windows until I took a walk in the neighborhood where I realized that many houses have shutters on only a few windows. Nowadays shutters are only decorative anyway.

The side deck was made of Evergreen strip styrene 8410 (4"x 10") and 8606 (6"x 6") for the framing plus some scrap sheet for the decking. Tichy make some wonderful turned spindle porch rail, part # 8093 with matching stair rail #8213. The stairway will go down to the left and connect to the deck to the left of the single rear window. At this stage I have just completed the installation of the brick wall along the driveway. I still need to bring the ground back up to the edge of the concrete slab beneath the back deck. I also need a foam filler piece to complete the ground slope along the back of the house. Once the slope is complete I'll then cut the stairway to proper length and install it. 

To make the brick wall I cut pieces of scrap DPM wall sections, beveled the ends and notched the tops as needed.