Happy Birthday John Allen

I don't usually remember John Allen's birthday - July 2 - until after the day has passed.  This year I happened to notice the announcement in the G&D group (former Yahoo group) and decided I'd celebrate with a special train.  I assembled a short consist of cars from John's friends who had contributed rolling stock from their railroads to run on the Gorre & Daphetid.  These cars are actual equipment from those roads, not reproductions or tribute cars, though they may not match the car types seen on the G&D.

I shot a short video of a run-by, but here are photos of each car as they appear in the train:

Bud Sima's PURR, from the Milt Moore collection.

Frank Murray's Seaford & Oyster Bay.

Malcolm Vordenbaum's Caruth and Central

Bill McClanahan's T&RGW

Ken Vere's Caribou Southern

Hey, how'd that get in there?!?

And here's the video:

Happy Birthday, John.

Station Walls

Windows blanked, end wall cornice added, gaps puttied, corner bevels adjusted.  Ready for stucco.  The arcade is coming along, but that'll get its own post.

Stepping Back to the Station

I realized I'd need to take a few steps back before I could go forward with the sidewalks.  I determined I'd need to put in the grade crossings first, and before that I really should have the streetcar track laid, and for that I'd want solid dimensions on the terminal building with its arcade over the track.  First steps on that structure are tests, in a way.  I'm breaking new ground with this building, trying new techniques.

Firstly, I used my scroll saw to cut away the interiors of the arcade arches.  The starting point for this is the classic Revell Engine House.  This worked very well.  My old saw doesn't have a variable speed control so I was concerned it might melt the plastic but thankfully that wasn't an issue.

Up next was modifying the station building walls and plastering them to resemble stucco.  I hacked out a section of wall and discovered just how brittle this plastic is.  Nothing a file can't fix, but worth noting.  The good news is that Tamiya Extra Thin cement bonds it together.  I used the cutoff bit as a test section for the plastering.  For the stucco I used joint compound mixed with white glue, applied with a metal dental spatula.

I tried using a silicone tipped tool to apply the mix but it seemed to want to remove it more easily than the metal tool.  Funny, I had expected just the opposite to be the case.  While the putty dried I poked at it to see how it would react and it broke away in chunks but not in such a way that it completely fell away from the wall.  It was fixed easily with more compound.  The next morning I could sand it and found it to be well bonded to the brick.  I'm really pleased with how this is going to look, and excited because it will enable me to "blank" several windows and plaster over them.

With these tests completed I can proceed with the next step, building the basic shell of the structure.

Sidewalks Part 1

Posts may be lighter on the text for a while until there's ample justification for a lengthy explanation.

These sidewalk segments are marketed as a station platform.   They're still available from Frenchman River Model Works here.  While they're beautiful on top, the undersides are inconsistent and cupped.  This is not a problem if you're using a gooey adhesive that can take the imperfection.  Still, to be safe, I sanded mine to as close as possible to 1/8" thick for consistency's sake.

Also, as cast, they include a stone edge strip on two sides.  Mating two end-to-end makes one "platform" with a stone border on three sides.  I decided which segments would be my street corners then sanded away the end edges from the rest so I could create longer runs of brick.

Originally I had planned to make some of the sidewalk narrower by half but changed my mind.  That meant I had to shorten the spur at the Chero Cola bottling plant by about an inch.  I soaked the ballast, nipped the rail and chiseled out the offending segment.  I actually have a use in mind for that chunk.

There's still more prep work to do before I can lay the sidewalk.  I've got curb gutter castings to install and of course I want to prime and paint it first.  I also want to do something fancy on the corner at the drug store.  That structure is probably the next on the workbench...once I give the bench a good cleaning.

Inspiring Elements

 

“The Bell Hotel,” RICHES, accessed June 6, 2026, https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/items/show/4230.

With the Shifter done enough for now, it's time to begin the Summer Challenge 2026: Orange Avenue! in earnest.  Let's start this journey with a close examination of the photo above; the Bell Hotel in Sanford, Florida.  It includes several elements that are typical of the 1920s that I want to include in my street scene.  It also includes some humorous history, but we'll come to that later.

So what do I want to include that is visible in this photo?  The building itself bears a strong resemblance to my Rosenbaum building, which is actually based on the Carmichael building in Ocala in the image below.  The commonality is the canopy above the sidewalk mounted below the transom windows.  Of course many similar buildings existed in the 1920s which is why I'm including one in the scene.

However, the Bell Hotel also utilizes window awnings, something the Carmichael building does not.  I've got some Woodland Scenics vacuum-formed plastic awnings but I plan to use them on the tobacco shop next to the Rosenbaum building.  I want to leave the second floor windows on the Rosenbaum open for viewing inside as I plan to add an interior there and the canopy will obstruct the view through the first floor display windows.

Sharp-eyed viewers may have already noticed a familiar structure to the right of the Bell Hotel.  Stripped of its veranda, now with the second floor door bricked up, stands the Ensminger building.  Having studied the brickwork of that cornice I can say without a doubt it is the same structure, decades later.  And that brings us to the next important aspect of this photo: the date.

The RICHES site dates it at 1917.  Nope.  No way.  The Central Florida Memory site offers the same date, but more importantly offers a transcription of the information on the sign board in the street.  "YMCA diamond ball tonight 7:30 by the Zoo free E. Side Farmers vs. Piggly Wiggly"  That's more than enough to give a more accurate date to this image, or at least a good date range.

Piggly Wiggly was the first grocer to offer self-service and was established in 1916 but didn't spread far beyond Tennessee until the 1920s.  "Diamond Ball" was the name given in 1922 to an indoor ball game which, in 1926, would be renamed to its more common and current name, Softball.  It was heavily promoted by the YMCA as an alternative to baseball which was, at the time, associated with drinking and gambling, even during prohibition.  Okay, now we're getting closer.

What about that Zoo?  Here's where things get strange.  I'll link to the source here if you want more details, but this is what happened.  In 1923 a travelling carnival went bankrupt while stopped at Sanford.  As the troupe broke up, their Rhesus monkey was given to a custodian at the Elks club.  After mistreating the female guests there, it was given to the fire chief who brought it to live at the firehouse.  A man gave the firefighters a dog, which the monkey befriended and learned to ride bareback.  Oh but wait there's more.

One of the firefighters found a female monkey.  The local ice man began collecting animals and bringing them to the firehouse for their growing collection, including racoons, squirrels, even an alligator.  The city tried to put an end to it but due to public outcry the collection was relocated behind the firehouse to the site of the former city jail and given official status as a zoo.  Though the location has changed a couple times it remains a zoo to this day.

Speaking of animals, there's an elephant in this image that hasn't been mentioned yet; the popcorn wagon.  That's really what caught my eye when scanning through these old images.  It's the prototype for Jordan's HO scale Popcorn Wagon, a Cretor Model C.  Dates for the Model C vary online, wildly, but Jordan pegs it at 1912, so let's just go with that.  I grabbed one for the streetcar station, a likely location for such a vendor.

That brings us to the last clues to date the photo; the vehicles and the stoplight.  I'm no expert, but I suspect those aren't 1917 vintage cars.  The stoplight isn't much more of a help, except that the standard three-light unit was patented in 1923 and spread throughout the county by the 1930s.  This at least puts the kibosh on the 1917 date.  I'm going to guess and say....sometime after 1925.

In the end the exact date isn't really important.  As with so many things from years long gone, our understanding of them is more than simply a fixed point in time.  A popcorn wagon from the teens would still likely be in use in the twenties and beyond.  A popular regional sport might still be known by an outdated name long after it was officially changed in some far away city.  

Even if they're not exactly right, those cars have the right look.  Sure, awnings and canopies are still used today but not to the same extent as back then.  Giving a historic scene the right flavor comes down to a careful selection of the elements that characterized the era.  I haven't mentioned the brick street or the broad sidewalks or the ornate multi-bulb sign on the corner of the hotel, all of which contribute to the feeling I'm after.

Up next, I prepare to install some sidewalks.  Thanks for reading.

Done Enough

Back in December of 2025 I committed myself to complete the Shifter before tackling any other projects.  I was mostly successful at keeping to that condition, though while the primer was curing and the paint after that, I did begin the Ensminger Building construction.  Happily, this is a hobby, and the only restraints, deadlines, goals, etc. I place upon myself are purely of my own making and can be adhered to or ignored as the need arises.

That said, I really have wanted to get this little gem finished and on the rails sooner than later, and now more than ever in light of my Summer Challenge 2026: Orange Avenue! (the exclamation point makes it more exciting) beginning now.  So while there are a few steps remaining to complete the Shifter such as adding bell and whistle cords, a coal load and some weathering, I'm calling it done enough.

Here's a video:

This has been a long journey - over twenty years in fact - to reach this point.  I'm very happy with how this little locomotive has turned out so far and I look forward to many years enjoyment running it.

Down in the Valley

While delivering my son to his summer internship down in Mountain View I got to do a little railfanning. Nothing says "Silicon Valley" quite like sitting behind a Tesla watching CalTrain blast through a crossing on our way to the SETI Institute.  Good times.

Meat Market Mock-Up

Okay, just one more and I promise I'll be done with mock-ups for a long while.  I've completed the mock-up for the branch house and meat market structure that's replacing the ice factory at Ocala Springs.  

This one is different in a few significant ways.  Firstly, it's bigger; it needs to be large enough to seemingly justify handling even a small carload of meat and yet small enough to not overpower this end of the layout.  Branch houses received carcasses from a larger slaughter house and processed them into smaller cuts for distribution to grocers or even home use.  They're an ideal way to get the meat industry onto a model railroad without the brutal compression or massive real estate required for a large slaughterhouse.

I've imagined this branch house would also sell meat in a storefront as well as operate a small abattoir for butchering local animals.  The combination of functions gave me a good general guideline for laying out the structure.

R to L; storefront, processing building, shipping/receiving, abattoir and not pictured, the stock pens.

The photo above illustrates the second major difference; it's only one story tall.  This fits the overall progression of heights from the low branch house to the two story pool hall, the peaked roof and ornate brick cornice of the soda bottling plant and the three story drug store beyond that.  This is another reason why the ice factory simply didn't work here.

I had always envisioned Orange Avenue with its storefronts to be the highest point on the layout with the structures along this as-yet-unnamed street descending from it.  There are indeed hills in central Florida, elevation changes your car notices when driving.  However, on a flat layout surface I'd need to indicate an elevation change by visual trickery and this, to my eye, accomplishes that effect.

Finally let's talk about the source material.  I've got three AHM kits and one RDA kit in this kitbash.  The storefront itself is from the Ramsey Journal building with parts of the processing room and abattoir using more of its walls in addition to two sets of walls from AHM's Fire House.  The shipping/receiving section is from RDA's Delaney Iron Works, now offered by Rail Scale Models.  (Note: they also sell RDA parts as "kitbasher parts", something I've wished other manufacturers would do!)

Ramsey Journal (pink), Fire House (dark red and brown) and Western Union (yellow)

Texturally this building will be stucco, cinderblock (or maybe "hollow bricks"...I haven't decided) and concrete.  In the 1920s many slaughter houses were constructed to project a clean and sanitary look, setting them apart from the heavily ornamented structures of the 19th century.  The AHM "brick" is really large enough to be hollow brick or cinderblock so that's what it'll be. 

To disguise the structure's origins I'm keeping the quoins on the storefront walls but eliminating them from the rest.  I'm aligning the corners to "interlace" the quoins as they would be seen in real life - another reason I've chopped them off the majority of the corners.  These walls also provide ample room for painted-on signs, a feature I'm looking forward to modeling.

Operationally I can spot meat reefers of any brand at this location though in reality it would have likely only ever seen one brand; Swift, Armour, etc., as branch houses were tied to their parent company.  I'm imagineering and probably bending reality to do this but I like rolling stock variety more than prototype fidelity, in this case.  I can also spot a carload of animals at the stock pen; again stretching reality a bit but again, affording me the chance to run the occasional stock car.

Alright.  Enough mocking about.  June 1 is coming and the Summer Challenge 2026 will be upon us.  This structure stand-in was one of a handful of tasks I wanted to complete before the challenge begins and I'm chuffed with how it turned out.  Thanks for reading.

Sightline Switching Short

Recent renovations have brought the layout out from the wall so I've used that opportunity to dust it, clear away the clutter and run trains again.  I also set up my tripod so I can grab a quick video if the mood strikes.  I'd like to make longer videos featuring the trains going about their business but for now the occasional short is all I can manage.  Here's a quick test shot I made to check this sight line between the two structures along this spur.  Where the paper is lying on the surface may or may not be a pipe dealer.  Open space is important to me, but so is a flat car or gondola with a cool pipe load.

Summer Challenge 2026

Not the most exciting title, I know, but I'm working on it.  

The most recent Walthers Flyer included this year's National Model Railroad Build Off contest details.  As usual, there's a freelance diorama category.  In this category the modeler builds a large diorama that can feature any subject, in any scale, as long as it isn't part of an existing layout and fits the 2'x4' size limit.

I have no intention of entering this year and yet, the idea still appeals to me.  When I entered in 2022 and 2023 I really enjoyed the four months of focused work that resulted in a finished scene, from soup to nuts.  It puts pay to the tired trope that a layout is never finished!  When I entered in 2022 I knew we'd be moving soon and the layout work would be put on hold indefinitely.  Before then I had been building real momentum working on the layout which I have yet to recapture since.  It is time to get that back and make significant layout progress again.

So here's the plan.  

I'm going to complete approximately 8 contiguous square feet of my layout instead of creating a diorama for the NMRBO.  From June 1st to the October 1st deadline I'm going to build all the scenery, structures, trackwork and details in that area.  This is the same time period entrants in the contest will be following.  Here's the area outlined in red with salient features added:

The red zone includes structures, sidewalks, street track and an orange grove

If you've been following the blog recently you may notice that the Ensminger Building is already (nearly) complete - this would disqualify me from the Walthers contest were I using it on a standalone diorama.  Note also that the area isn't a rectangle.  This delineation makes the most sense for the content of the space while loosely keeping to the 8 square foot area.

I'm going to start with the street and sidewalks, including the streetcar track since it is part and parcel of the roadway.  The sidewalks need to go in before the structures, though I can work on the buildings at any time and probably will.  In previous challenges I've kept two or three work stations full, shifting from one to the other as necessary.

Here's the caveat: if I don't complete the area fully, that's fine.  I'd rather err on the side of quality and produce a result I'm pleased with than rush something just for the sake of an arbitrary timeline.  However, I accept that "letting the perfect stand in the way of the good" doesn't help and is a trap I've fallen into before.  An imperfect model completed will always bring more satisfaction than a perfect model delayed indefinitely.  That's a significant aspect of this challenge I take to heart.

If you can think up a better name for what I'm doing than "Summer Challenge 2026" please comment below.  Also, if you've got 8 square feet of layout that needs completing and would like to join in, let me know.  I'll be sharing my progress here on the blog and on Instagram.  Before that, however, I've got to complete a couple overdue projects and clear off the workbench.  Thanks for reading.

Her Shrink Ray Eye

This one's a little different, but boy howdy does it align with the philosophical side of this blog.  

Every now and then I wander down a back alley into the thought processes behind the hobby of model railroading.  Take these posts, for example:

https://ocalicreek.blogspot.com/2025/03/geissel-got-it.html 

https://ocalicreek.blogspot.com/2024/03/tired-tropes-or-tried-and-true.html

https://ocalicreek.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-post-project-blahs.html

There are more, but these should suffice to make the point; I consider thinking (and writing) about the hobby an important part of the hobby itself, and something I enjoy doing.  I don't recall when I started reading Koester's "Trains of Thought" column in Model Railroader magazine, but once I did it became my regular source of thought-provoking hobby concepts.  I didn't always agree with Tony's ideas but I have to give the column some credit for opening my mind in novel ways.  Ditto the editorials, occasionally.  Of course these days many blogs scratch the itch, with 30 Squares topping the list.

So when I discovered the "Her Shrink Ray Eye" podcast I was delighted to have found a thinker who could offer some well-composed commentary on miniature hobbies.  Joan Biediger is an artist, cartographer and writer living in Salt Lake City.  She created the podcast as a place to discuss "ideas about scale, perception, and what small, constructed worlds can reveal about how we see."  

As of this writing I'm still working my way back through the catalogue of episodes, but let me suggest one of the first ones I listened to as a starting place, "Storytelling Isn't One Thing".

I listen on YouTube, and you can find that episode here:

I have found these podcasts to be well written and delivered, offering a solid foundation for the topics covered as well as thought-provoking questions to take the listener in new directions beyond the basic ideas.  While not specific to model railroading they're easily adjacent to this community with relevant themes.  I recommend them to anyone who enjoys thinking about the art of making miniature things.

In the Mood for More

While the kitmingling mock-up iron was hot I decided to strike it once more.  This is a combination of two buildings - Carol's Corner Cafe' from DPM and the Corner Pharmacy from Woodland Scenics; in reality, the same structure, just under different names.  My corner cafe has been serving as a stand-in for the pool hall.  Now that I have a second kit I can create a larger structure more suited to the location.  The photos below illustrate the process.

Walls photocopied then cut apart.

Walls rearranged and glued to cardstock.

The finished mock-up in place.  Box car to prove clearance.

The structures bounded by the tracks, clockwise from top: former blacksmith and livery stable now turned garage (red building), Chero-Cola bottling plant, pool hall, pipe supplier (tan sheet) and freight house.

I selected this structure because of the large windows which will give a nice view of the pool tables inside.  There's enough room on the ground floor for three pool tables, a bar - for root beer, of course - and a staircase leading upstairs.  I'm tempted to use the remaining space between the structure and the tracks to include a little add-on, perhaps a storage room, but that's a decision for later, after I've had time to stare at the mock-up in place.

To my eye the building fills the space well and has enough mass to sit opposite the large bottling plant without seeming dwarfed.  I like including non-rail-served structures in areas adjacent to the tracks.  This, to me, seems more realistic and less "model-railroady".  On a layout this size with curves this tight and a looping track plan I've got to employ every trick in the book to add that true-to-life feeling.

Finally, here are a couple bird's eye views of the structures along Orange Avenue, per Jim's request in the previous post's comments.

Note: I took this shot before I decided to create the mock-up in this post.  Carol's Corner Cafe' can be seen in the upper right corner.

Oh, one last note, if you've made it this far.  S ince both predecessor kits include the word "corner" in their names, I think it's only fitting to call this billiards parlor "The Corner Pocket".  Thanks for reading.

Orange Avenue Mock-ups Round Two

Today I placed the Ensminger Building on the layout to get a better feel for how it will look at the end of the block, so to speak.  Seeing it there made me realize what had been bothering me about the previous arrangement of structures; in short, some didn't quite fit as I'd hoped.  So, my attention turned from the Ensminger Building to its neighbors, and I found two alternatives to the problematic structures.

Let's start at the other end of the block.  The Drug store on the corner was slated for that site long ago and despite its current unfinished status still serves to show its mass and silhouette.  Moving down the street is a new addition, DPM's First National Bank aka the Grand Hotel if you've got the kit in the structure pack for Woodland Scenics' Grand Valley layout.  I'll be using the structure as a hotel, built as it comes.

I've written before about other mock-ups I've made from paper and foam core board but these "new" mock-ups are made using the structure parts held together with hot glue.  The Rosenbaum building however is a paper and cardstock mock-up representing DPM modular wall panels which will be combined with parts from Rail Scale Models to make a large 5 and 10 cent store.  This structure will have a deep awning (not shown) across the entire facade positioned beneath the transom windows but above the large display windows, a common arrangement in the '20s and into the decades beyond.

Lastly, the tan building is a structure I had planned to kitbash and use on this street but in a different form.  "Granny's Cafe'", as it is called in the Grand Valley structure box, aka "The Other Corner Cafe'" normally, was always going to be a smoke shop with a residence above.  It will continue as such, but in a wider two-story form instead of three.  I'll be borrowing the side walls from another DPM kit but using the wide back wall from the original; a true two-kit-mingle.  Those arched windows will have awnings using the vacuum-molded parts provided in the Grand Valley box, a thoughtful inclusion.

Right away I feel MUCH better about this line-up of mock-ups.  The trolley station across the street also seems more at home opposite these facades.  Oh, and I didn't forget the back alley; I like how it looks as well.  There are several good surfaces for painted-on signs and a visually interesting variety of windows and wall depths.

The Ensminger Building still needs signs and some weathering.  I will add some interior details to the photo studio and front display windows, but likely not for some time.  I'm itching to get this structure done enough to move on to other projects.  I've also got one more mock-up to make while the Grand Valley kit collection is out, but that's a topic for another post.  Thanks for reading.

A Conversation on the Veranda

As the major construction on the Ensminger Building draws to a close the focus shifts to the details.  The structure will have only the barest hint of an interior in the storefront but there are still two major areas to include details; the photo studio and the veranda.  The photo studio windows allow a viewer to peer down into the room so I think that's a prime location for a mini scene.  However, I'm going to hold off on that scene for now and address the veranda first.  

Before I can attach the veranda to the front of the structure I needed to add any details that will live there, as getting them in place once it is attached would be akin to building a ship in a bottle.  After looking through my figures and details I found a set of chairs along with a round table, three figures and a spittoon.  I also found an oil lamp sconce to mount on the wall.

The chairs were missing their legs so I robbed Peter to pay Paul and borrowed some legs from another, simpler set of chairs.  Here they are after being repaired, waiting on the glue to cure fully before painting.  Not sure why the one fellow is face down.  Maybe he didn't want to feel left out.  The men in the chair were glued in when I got the details, years ago.

After painting the legs a close-enough color I carefully glued the details onto the veranda.  I also drilled a hole in the wall and mounted the lamp sconce.  As neat as it would be to make this a working light, I'm not convinced it would be worth the effort so for now - and likely for all time - it remains as is.  The folks on the porch will be somewhat illuminated by the interior light shining through the windows.

The figures around the table and the leaning man were all part of a detailed pool hall structure I purchased years ago.  I still have plans for a billiards parlor on this layout but these fellows won't be in it.  They are now having a conversation on the veranda of the Ensminger Building.  I wonder what they're discussing...

Next, window treatments, a base and roof details.  Not sure how much of that will make it to a blog post, as I'm getting new windows next week in the real world and that process might just turn the house upside down for a while.  Happy modeling, and thanks for reading.

 

Stained Glass

The ornate glass decoration above the storefront windows of the Ensminger Building offered me an opportunity to include a similar detail on my version of the structure.  As I noted in the post "A Fancy Facade..." I don't have the space to recreate the same pattern as the prototype.  However, I can create something that echoes the look of the real thing and for me that's part of the joy of kitbashing.  Sometimes the compromises we're forced to make due to the available materials and their limitations can lead to unique and wonderful results.

I used "Testors Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker" combined with Daler Rowney inks to make my stained glass.  The inks are really strongly pigmented and somewhat translucent, though not entirely.  You can hopefully see the effect in the second image below.  I had painted the window "lead" using charcoal colored paint before applying the colored glass.  However I had to go back and touch up the lead after the glass had dried because it is quite runny and tricky to apply cleanly in such a small opening.

Blue and Yellow make many shades of Green

Still need to add the large plate glass panes

In truth this is one of those details I did just because I wanted to and "I'll know its there".  It will be mostly hidden beneath the large veranda directly above it.  While not perfect I'm pleased with the result.  If this structure weren't along the edge of the layout I might not have done this but I'm glad I did.  

The veranda and its occupants will be the topic of the next post.

Photo Finish

The photo studio section of the Ensminger Brothers building is mostly complete, lacking only window glass, final weathering, and perhaps some signage.  A fence running between the brick building and wood entry will be added when the structure is installed on the layout, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here are some progress images showing how I built the roof, added shingles and painted the structure.

I used dense file folder material for the roof panels.

Normally I don't like Campbell shingles but they work well here.

I chose an aged white and slate blue for the walls and trim, with a dark mudstone for the stairs and a lighter mudstone for the shingles.  The shingles and stairs received a dark brown wash while the walls received a mudstone wash.  I used charcoal black for the roofing paper, then lightened and streaked for an aged appearance.  

In the third image you can also see the brick walls have received a mortar treatment.  I sealed the paint then applied joint compound, pressing it into the mortar lines.  This can be removed carefully from the surface of the bricks using a damp sponge.  In this case I wanted a sloppy application as seen on the prototype so I was careful to not wipe away too much.  This stands in contrast to the clean look of the facing brick, though most of that brick is hidden by the veranda.

Speaking of the veranda, it received some paint as well.  Moss green for the base coat (applied with a spray can) and cactus green craft paint.  In this image the parts need a second coat of the cactus green.

 Up next, masking and painting the remaining windows and doors!  Entering the home stretch...

Fancy Facade Revisited

Something was bothering me about the storefront on my model of the Ensminger Building.  After staring at it on the workbench over a few days I realized it was the doors and windows.  I was really happy with how the small-pane inserts looked but not happy at all with the kit supplied doors and the precast two-in-one clear plastic nonsense.  The solution was to utilize parts from another kit then add more small pane muntins.  This not only more closely matches the prototype but unifies the storefront windows visually.

What follows is a sequence of images showing the step-by-step process of how I modified some N scale windows to fit the tall narrow entry windows, the new doors modified, and the assembly as a whole.

3x4 window cut down to 2x3

Side frame trimmed

Side frame reapplied

Original mullion removed, cut down window installed from behind,
 and a new mullion installed using styrene strip

Same process applied to central double door transom

Doors and side panels installed with kit-supplied entry ceiling

 

Ensminger Veranda Part 2

 ...in which our blogger attempts to bend styrene sheet and glue dissimilar materials together.

Having successfully beveled the posts of the ornate arched trellis castings from Scale Structures Limited, and finished the fancy brickwork on the facade, it was time to assemble this veranda.  First, I needed to determine exactly how and where this veranda would fit on the structure.  I had a pretty good idea that the whole thing would fit between the brick pillars on the wall.  After gluing the castings together and offering them up to the wall, this proved to be the case - exactly so.  

The castings assembled, using a straight edge and spacer for alignment.

Next it was on to the deck.  Rather conveniently the kit has a line of brick protruding from the base of the upper wall that would act as a good ledger.  A quick measurement of the available vertical space between this brick and the storefront below gave me what I needed to begin constructing the deck.  

In true kitmingling fashion I used material from one of donor kits; in this case, the scribed wood floor from the SS Ltd Gazebo.  I measured the assembled castings and cut the sheet to fit.  I pulled some scale lumber from my supplies and created a framework on approximately two foot centers, attaching it to the scribed sheet with wood glue.

Once the glue had set, I attached the deck to the lattice using gel superglue.  I find this works best when gluing wood to metal, especially when there may be a gap to fill.  The gel doesn't absorb into the wood as quickly as a lower viscosity glue, allowing it time to bond to both surfaces despite their different porosity.

Next, the roof.  The prototype is standing seam metal, and I happen to have some styrene "metal" roofing.  But the prototype is also gracefully curved and my styrene is thick.  After a little research I decided to try the hot water method for softening the styrene.  This worked well enough after some grunting and coaxing.  

The other challenge I faced with this roof was creating the ornate rafter tails.  Yes, Tichy makes some, but I don't have them and didn't want to order any and potentially stall the project while I wait for them to arrive.  I decided to try "rolling my own" so to speak by taping scale 2x4s together and gently shaping a profile on one end using files and sanding sticks.  I'm pleased with the results though I'm not sure how visible this will be once the veranda is painted.  It may just be one small detail that adds to the overall ornate feel. 

I measured and marked the underside of the roof and glued the styrene rafters to it using Tamiya extra thin styrene cement.  I love this stuff for bonding styrene to itself.  It goes tacky almost immediately on application and bonds quickly.  This let me apply each rafter at the front edge the go back and gently bend the rafters to the curve of the roof.  The fast acting glue made this a quick and painless process.

To finish the roof I cut and wedges to fit in each end between the curved roof and the top of the arched lattice parts.  On the prototype this is lattice, however, since my ornate posts include lattice already, I decided to use the same v-groove siding as the wooden extension, but running vertically.  I glue the standing seams into the provided grooves on the styrene roof panel and after some trimming and sanding the roof was complete.

I used the same gel superglue to attach the roof to the posts, double checking the alignment to the wall.  Once the veranda is attached I'll add a strip of material as flashing, though I'm pleased to say there's no real gap to hide in this case.  I'll be repeating the same steps on the side porch roof, but first, I need to do something about the storefront doors.  That'll be the subject of the next post.

The completed veranda set in place (image rotated).