Thanks, guys!
I made the crown molding from strips of quarter-round, L-angle and .020" thick styrene. These were cut and mitered to fit each wall, then painted, prior to being glued in place:
Originally I had planned to just have a simple ticket counter. But after I built the counter, I found some photos of depots with ticket windows built into a kind of room divider with door, separating the customer area from the station agent area. I liked the way these looked and decided it might be a good choice for my depot. So I whipped up a crude mockup made from scrap matt board:
The divider/ticket window assembly was built up from various strips of styrene. Here's a test-fitting:
The rear of the ticket window will be partially visible through the bay window on the south side of the depot, so I built up both sides of the door, plus a separate piece to fit around the windows:
The security bars for the ticket window were made from .020" and .030" styrene rod. It might have been better to use brass but this was easier to work with and a lot less sloppy than my rudimentary soldering skills would have done. The bars were painted to look like polished brass"
Here's a close up of the finished ticket window. The rippled privacy glass was made from .015" slide cover glass, with clear gloss medium dabbed on the the back to create the rippled look:
And here are couple shots of the room with the divider/ticket window installed:
Here's the back of the ticket counter. This will only barely been seen so I didn't put too much effort into it, however I do plan to add a few items setting on the counter:
The interior still needs a safe, stove, signs, lighting and other details, which will be added later. For now I'm going to go back to work on the roof so I can get that finished and start painting the exterior of the building.
I had hoped to be a lot farther along on this by now, but some major family issues have kept hobby time to a minimum. Anyway, I did manage to paint the floor of the waiting area. I used custom mixed, flat, indoor/outdoor house paints to make it look like terra cotta "Saltillo" tiles:
Looks incredibly real!
Ray, you should use this project towards an NMRA Master Models designation.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
There are times with a project this big, that it really starts to feel like it's sitting on my head and crushing it. This is one of those times. :) I had hoped to be nearly finished with the depot by now, but there's been too many other things going on and even when I do get to work on it, it just seems to take forever.
But anyway, I finally started making some progress on painting the "stone" walls of the depot. I began by giving all the walls a coat of thinned, sandstone-colored house paint:
Next I brushed on a dark concrete color. Before it dried I wiped it off with a paper towel, being careful to leave as much paint as possible in the mortar lines. This has to be done one small area at a time, or else the paint will dry before you can wipe it off:
The walls are supposed to look like a very light sandstone, similar to this:
So I had to go over each stone with another coat of sandstone paint, using a fine brush. I mixed in a small amount of white to lighten it slightly, and varied the mix so that the stones aren't all exactly the same shade:
Next I applied thin washes of various shades of rust and brown. To finish it off, I lightly dry-brushed the whole face of the wall with a mix of white and sandstone. I still need to go in with an extra fine brush to touch up some of the mortar lines, but I'll do that later:
That's one wall done, and only about 37 quintillion more stones to paint. Or so it seems. :)
Did get started on the next portion:
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Nice work. I should be at the SDGRS meeting tomorrow to see this up close.
- Erik
Ray:
Me thinks you might benefit from setting the project aside for a little while. It sounds to me like you have put a lot of pressure on yourself to meet an arbitrary completion date. Give yourself a break! Modeling is supposed to be fun.
Regards
On Saturday we had an open house for our club, the San Diego Garden Railroad Society. Although the depot wasn't finished, I put it out anyway and got a few photos of it on the layout:
Then back to work… I needed to find a way to paint the stone walls faster. I decided to try dry brushing the base color to get most of the stones covered, then just touch up by hand as needed. I tested this out on a wall inside the covered waiting area, where it wouldn't show too badly if it didn't work out. Fortunately it worked pretty well and did speed things up a little. Here's the wall after two coats of paint dry-brushed on, followed by touching up individual stones:
Next I added various shade of color to a few random stones, then finished it off by lightly dry-brushing the highlight color. It ended up a good match for the one wall I had previously painted the slower way:
With that settled, I continued on to the more prominent walls, taking up where I had left off. In this photo, on the left are the stones that were hand painted. On the right is an area where I've applied one coat of dry-brushed color:
Here's the same wall after a second dry-brushed coat and touch up:
And here it is finished:
Another area done the same way:
And here are a couple shots of how it looks so far. Still have a lot to do but at least it's progressing at a somewhat more tolerable rate:
That's all for now. Enjoy!
Just b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, Ray!
Ray.
That looks great. It is going to really 'pop' when the roof is painted. I assume it will be the same colour as the roof drains.
Well, after a lengthy hiatus due to family issues, I'm finally starting to get back into modeling and have made some more progress on the depot...
First off, I finished painting all of the tan-colored, random sandstone. I also painted the balconies to look like concrete, and painted the wooden beams, rafters, and eaves a dark brown. I painted the roofs too, and also put on a coat of base color on the large quarry stone blocks. Here are some pics of how it looks so far:
The sunlight really brings out the texture of the faux stone:
The structural frame of the bay window has been painted white, then slightly weathered:
The flat roof over the waiting area was given a "tar and gravel" treatment. I painted on a couple coats of flat black house paint. While the final coat was still wet, I sprinkled on some white, decorative stone grit from the craft store:
The Spanish tiles were painted a terra cotta color, with subtle variations on several random tiles:
I'm planning to give the quarry stone blocks a colorful, banded sandstone look, similar to the blocks on the Nevada Northern's depot in Ely, NV:
However, I want to change the color a bit. I'd like to match the colors in this sandstone fragment I brought home from one of my Nevada trips a few years ago. Below is a test piece. The color is very close but not quite there yet:
Ray,
Great progress. Everything looks really good. In fact, it is a work of art!
I have to ask a question about the prototype Nevada Northern's Ivy depot. Are those hideous black bars with what looks like shark's teeth designed to stop loitering? I'd hate to brush up against one!
Regards,
Good to see you back at it Ray, and very, very cool as usual.
Thanks, Peter
Awesome work, Ray! I was just at Ely a couple moinths back, and can see the influence on your model. The stonework really looks great.
Rob Spangler
Ray, I like it!
Thanks and regards, Peter
Looks very realistic Ray!
Ray Dunakin but closed be easier
Excuse me Ray!?! Since when have you ever taken the 'easier' route????
The phone booth begs to be open, that is unless you plan on putting someone in it. Then you could also model a customer impatiently waiting for the phone to be free. Otherwise, I think the depth that an 'open' phone would add to the scene would be good.
As far as attaching it, how about putting a small dowel into the bottom of the phone booth in order to 'peg' it into place?
I do have to ask you about the phone dial. Only six numbers? Must be a pretty small exchange! Seriously, the phone is really well done! So is the writing on the inside of the booth!
hon30critterAs far as attaching it, how about putting a small dowel into the bottom of the phone booth in order to 'peg' it into place?
That's a thought. I could even use a small bolt, then secured it with a nut under the floor.
hon30critterI do have to ask you about the phone dial. Only six numbers?
Yeah, that's the result of me screwing up the paint job, then trying to fix it and making it worse. :(
Great work.
It seems to me that when the door was open, the light was off and only came on when you got inside and closed the door. I could be wrong, it's been a long time since I been in one.
The phone looks perfect. Very realistic! I hope you realize that I has just poking a bit of fun at you when I mentioned the six number dial.
Stove looks good too.
I just went thru all 4 pages of your posts and what you have done is amazing. The buildings and detail is second to none. Keep up the great work, I look forward to it.
hon30critterThe phone looks perfect. Very realistic! I hope you realize that I has just poking a bit of fun at you when I mentioned the six number dial.
Yeah, I know. Thanks! :)
Oh man Ray! Your phone booth is absolute gold! Oh how I recall feeding the dimes and nickels into those machines while reading the graffiti.
Thanks for sharing your work and the memories, Regards, Peter
Very realistic, right down to the missing directory that somebody already stole.
I too seem to remember the light only coming on when the door was closed.
Beautiful work.
CG
Standing ovation here! Absolutely incredible stonework. Masterful detail through out the thread.
Amazing stuff, Ray. My other scale (from HO) is 1/24-1/25, so I really enjoy seeing this. I don't model RR in this scale, but have a diorama. You get more done in a day than I seem to in a year. That Depot is startling real. You have the advantage of natural light. Although I know, it is unforgiving as well.
Ever thought about using rare earth magnets hidden in structures and other items for mounting? They can hold pretty solidly, yet be instantly removable. You can put the magnets in the base, and a chunk of flat steel under the floor. The cabs are mounted to the 1/25 crane in my avitar that way. They can break away without damage, especially on the carrier, if some clutz (invariably me) rotates with the boom too low and isn't watching. Dan