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DRIVE-IN Movie Theater

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  • Member since
    June 2008
  • 734 posts
Posted by Blazzin on Monday, December 17, 2012 9:57 AM

Medina1128 wrote;  "Have you considered gluing some small dowels in place, then covering them with plaster cloth?"

  Marlon,  I thank you for your input.  Great idea and I followed up on it using scrap pieces of wood mounting them on some Foam board.  I felt like I was building some Basal wood Airplane kit.

  I had to measure it all out,  actually place cars and take measurements.  Took into consideration, the 'entrance' and exists',  'walk throughs' for people to get to the Refreshment Stand,  Ticket booth,   Projection Shack and even did drainage.  Swales,  as they are called.   A depressed area used for drainage / routing water.  By using a table spoon I ironed in a depressed area into the Foam board, following the isles and exists.  Worked great.

  After that I did place 'party foam' (1/8th inch thickness) over the wooden risers, in which that shall be the pavement.   I have since painted the party foam one coat of a mixture of WS Slate gray and WS Earth undercoat.

  So far everything is working out and Thanks to your idea. 

Thank you very much. 

  Keith

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Posted by Blazzin on Monday, December 17, 2012 1:15 PM

joe323

It is Ironic the way we use high tech to reoresent technology in the past.  I mean how many of us really get to go to a drive in or ride steam trains on a regular basis.  Yet we reproduce the effect on our layouts with DCC sound and baby monitors etc.  You have inspired me to look into building a drive in when I redo my layout next year.

  Joe,  quote;  "You have inspired me to look into building a Drive-In when i redo my layout next year"

  Well I am pleased to read that.  No greater compliment than that.  But right now I feel more like a Crash Test Dummy.  You can learn from my mistakes and my triumphs.  Here is where I am at and wait till ya get a look at these pics.  I'm fairly pleased with the results so far.

  I used the Party foam to cover the wood risers glued onto the foam board.  In which you can also see the undulated rows for cars.  Well I hope you can see them.

  I also painted a base coat to the foam.  In which you can also see the 'seams' of the party foam as well,  also see the imperfections.

  I applied some putty to cover the seams, and here is where I am at this moment,  in between drying times.  (pics later on)

  The putty is drying as I type.  It was first applied with a Putty knife.  Oh that Putty knife filled in the cracks real nice,  but left a rised seam.  So I went back and  started using a cut down piece of Party foam to act as putty knife.  That seemed to be a better way of applying the putty to conform to all the imperfections.

  After that I came back afterwards .. no not with sand paper .. that might lead to scratching the Party foam.  But with a wet paper towel to wipe the edges of the putty and used my finger to blend the edges of applied putty into the Party foam.

  Game Plan?

  I plan on coming back and hitting the applied putty.  There are imperfections even in the putty.  But at least that first application gave it a good start of covering the seams.  Now to cover the imperfections of the first application shall be a 2nd round of putty.

  When that dries,  I plan on giving those white areas a coat of WS Slate gray / earth undercoat.  I do this because for two reasons.  One, to see areas needed to be patched a 3rd time.  My eyes can't see white that easy.  Second,  it will match the base coat i've applied in the early stages.

  Now here is where I start stepping into un-chated territory.

  I do not know if the putty / painted patch will be sufficient, or will I apply a light coat of putty OR plaster to the entire area.

  And if I do,  will it be what I need to go on to a further totally different application of creating a gnarly asphalt / blacktop that I saw in our Drive-Ins.  That asphalt was so old with gravel all over the play,  well it looked like it should have been re-paved 15 years before that.

  OK,  second Game Plan concerning the above paragraph.  I know,  when using Party foam,  if you apply a thin coat of plaster, let that dry and then apply pressure to various parts of the thin coat of plaster .. well you create cracks in the road / asphalt.   That's where I am... whether putty or a thin coat of plaster,  I plan on creating a gnarly asphalt that should have been repaved 15 years ago.

  • Member since
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  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
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Posted by MisterBeasley on Monday, December 17, 2012 4:38 PM

Take one of your cars and mask of everything except the windows with blue painters' tape.  Spray the car with Dull Coat, and when you pull the tape off you'll have a car with the windows all fogged up.

Yeah, I grew up with Drive-Ins.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by Blazzin on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 1:19 AM

  Fogged up windows?  Yeah~  Things did get a little steamy back then. If only I was that far along to do windows.

  Today I just finished up on the pavement.  What a mess.  lol .. Me AND my BiG Mouth~  Whew,  glad that was over with, but wait there's more. 

  Not only did I finish up on the pavement,  which has a gnarly look.  But I also did Speaker Poles.  Straight pins cut in half.  One half to represents an empty space and one to look like both speakers are in the cars.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  Although,  cutting,   mounting them onto the foam board, spray painting them white and topped them off with a touch of green,  well,  made me wish I was back doing pavement.

  Not only that,  my wife and I laid out the buildings to see how everything looks in relation to the Drive-In. 

  Take a look.  I can't tell you how many times these buildings were moved.  Women really love that sort of thing.  This is one of the first times we've seen something like this  We're both pretty Jazzed right now.

 

 

Tomorrow I shall be mounting Speaker Poles.  Wanna help?  lol  Makes me wish I was fogging up windows.

  Actually in a couple of days from now I'll be doing sidewalks,  roads,  and foundations   Should be fun right up until Christmas.

  TC all Keith

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 4:03 AM

Keith,

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  • From: Staten Island NY
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Posted by joe323 on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:15 AM

Going a bit Off topic Is that Old Fashione dMcDonalds in the background a kit.

 

 

Joe Staten Island West 

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    June 2008
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Posted by Blazzin on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 11:35 AM

joe323

Going a bit Off topic Is that Old Fashioned Mcdonalds in the background a kit.

 

 

  Nah,  hardly going off topic and a good question.  I believe its a Christmas Ornament,  by Hallmark.  Found it on Ebay.  Seems to be perfect for N scale,  but hardly a kit.  Looks like a fun one for someone to put lights in.  The whole insides should light up real nice with the glass and colors.

   I do plan popping off those plastic bushes and adding my own.  

As for topic,  Mc Donalds was a thing for SoCal.  The very first started in a small town called San Bernandino, CA  in the early 40's.  The second one, built in 1953 was about 5 miles from my home in  Downey, CA. 

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Posted by joe323 on Thursday, December 20, 2012 8:24 AM

I found one of those for sale on Ebay.  It is indeed a Christmas Ornament .  Since I Model in HO I decided that the $50 minimum bid was too much Still I like the idea I think Vollmer sells an HO kit but I probably wont have room for it on my main layout but perhaps in my secondary display yard.

Joe Staten Island West 

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  • From: Charlotte, NC
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Posted by Phoebe Vet on Thursday, December 20, 2012 9:00 AM

I found one of those kits at the Great American Train Show in Timmonium.  It was a cheap kit with a few plastic parts.  Since I used to work in one of those buildings back when hamburgers were 15 cents, I would like to have had it even though it was Plasticville quality.  Unfortunately, the guy who had it thought it was extremely valuable so I had to pass on it.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

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Posted by Blazzin on Friday, December 28, 2012 6:55 AM

  Just some follow up pics.

  I had to make a template to actually place the positions of the Speaker poles.  One reason was to follow the curvature of the wooden ribs in the initial construction.  Another reason was to be exact as possible in their placement.  Special consideration at the end of the isles were important,  thus another reason for the template.

  The two white lines represent the 'walk thru' to various rows.  Sewing thread strung with to hat pins were used for a temp marking of the lane.

  The Speaker poles are made from 'straight pins' cut in half and painted white with a green top.

I am far from being finished,  but if I didn't stop and take a pic or two,  there wouldn't be much to talk about.

Keith

  • Member since
    April 2003
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, December 28, 2012 6:59 AM

Keith,

your pictures take me right back into the 1960´s!

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  • From: Big Blackfoot River
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Posted by Geared Steam on Friday, December 28, 2012 1:25 PM

Looks good!!

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein

http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/

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