New Munoz Update: Alan Graziano Builds Bryn Mawr Substation (Updated photos)

Hi Eliot , 

Beautiful structure, Alan is a true craftsman. 

Alex 

It will be great on your layout. Beautiful structure.

The GG1 did make it to the New Haven yards on a few occasions if I recall.

Eliot, that dill be a great structure on your layout!  Alan, very nice work.

Wow, this is going to be an awesome build, Eliot!  I know first hand the quality of Alan's work.  Looking forward to seeing the progress...please keep posting.

More photos. As you can see in the photos, one of the issues in getting the color correct is dealing with the color temperature when doing photography both indoors and outdoors. I was comparing what Alan was doing to the photo of the Bryn Mawr station shots. Eventually, we got the color very close. The rest is weathering. Little by little, Alan got all of the building details right. In the last photos, the foam core factory fronts are mock ups to test space. The final factories will be well detailed. You will see some test catenary for height. The towers and catenary will be installed last after all the scenery is completed.

Scrappy, nice choice of building and builder.  Alan's work on the sub-station is top notch as usual and it looks great on the layout.  those foam core factory front place holders don't look too bad either.  I know you're going for way more detail but they would definitely work for added depth in background for me.  Where did you get them?

It's a master piece! this sub station looks real!

Bravo!

jpv in France

Wow.....quite a work of art.....beautiful!

coach joe posted:

Scrappy, nice choice of building and builder.  Alan's work on the sub-station is top notch as usual and it looks great on the layout.  those foam core factory front place holders don't look too bad either.  I know you're going for way more detail but they would definitely work for added depth in background for me.  Where did you get them?

Excellent craftsmanship. Looks great.

I too am interested in those industrial backgrounds.....please share.

Thanks.

Donald

Donald . . . .  Many thanks !!

For all of you who are interested in the industrial backgrounds I can help you make them or explain how to find a way to do that. I make all of them myself. I begin with a basic template for a structure and by copying, altering, pasting, and rearranging, I can make an infinite variety of structures. I will post photos of the backgrounds/fronts as well as how I use that same process to create any type of background image. In the latest issue of OGR, I have an article which explains how I did a 12 foot by three foot backdrop for a city scene. There are various ways to do these things.

The industrial backgrounds are saved as a file and opened in Photoshop. I then print them and mount them on foam core to the size, shape and color I select for a particular scene. If you have a specific need, hit me with an e-mail and I can converse more directly. I would like the posts to focus on Alan's work rather than mine.

Thank you all for the nice comments for this project.This was a very challenging project for me and I had a great time constructing the sub station. Eliot, your foam core background buildings really look great and I think they would make a nice addition to any layout.

Alan Graziano

I've just arrived at this thread - late, as usual. 

Fantastic!  It's like trying to drink from a fire hydrant, there's so much going on.

Superb workmanship all round. 

We are very fortunate to have this man in our hobby. I personally have gotten many "staring" ours at my layout because of his work. Thanks Alan!

Eliot, It is a gorgeous structure, I think Alan nailed it! He does beautiful work. I like the flat behind it too.

Malcolm

Unbelievable!! What a cool building and of course amazing execution from one of the masters of modeling!!! 

Alan does great work. I truly admire Alan, and others that take styrene and turn it into a work of art. After several years of not finding a brass Weaver water tower, he built one for me. Glad now that I never found the Weaver tower. His work is outstanding. 

I have two works from Brother Love, they also fall into my category of true art.

As for me, bench work, wiring, and track work, no problem. We all have our own gifts and talents. Mine is making big pieces of wood into little pieces of wood (and saw dust).

I am gratified Alan is getting the recognition he deserves. There are stories behind the stories, all of you should know. At various points in the project when I thought Alan would have difficulty creating some of the finer detail, I suggested some commercial parts available as substitutes of one order or another. Alan's response was classic:

"I am putting my heart and soul into this project because I know you'll appreciate it when I'm finished. I will build everything myself."

And he did !!

Scrappy

Excellent build now dirty it up to give it the gritty urban feel .

First class build.

You can tell by looking at what he builds that there is a piece of Alan in every project he undertakes.

coach joe posted:

You can tell by looking at what he builds that there is a piece of Alan in every project he undertakes.

Yeah, you can see that in my projects, too.  Usually bloody fingerprints. 

[Just kidding--I totally agree with your statement].

Thank you all for such nice comments. I really like the challenge of trying to create a match to a picture of a real structure. It is great to watch the person that I construct something like this for pick out the small details. I drive myself crazy when I leave out something here and there.

alan graziano

Of course it's gorgeous! Al never makes anything that's not spectacular. Al...what did you use for insulators?

He's the Michelangelo of Styrene without a doubt.

Myles,

Eliot supplied most of the insulators. Someone is making them out of urethane. I had some that I bought from the House of Duddy. I do not know where Ed Duddy got them. He is now out of business. I think the ones I had were made of nylon. They were very clean with no flashing and had a hole in the bottom to allow them to be easily stacked on each other. I used over three hundred of them on this model.

Alan Graziano

Alan, took a while to get back to your reply. We were on an 11 day motor trip back East starting with York.

Years ago I had purchased plans, sample poles and insulators from House of Duddy with the (crazy) thought of making a scale Pennsy catenary system. After reviewing the whole deal, and not having a layout yet on which to build it, I never acted on that thought. I had the soldering skills, but lacked the initiative. I was also worried about constantly worrying about running my hand through the wiring as I would reach for a derailed car or such. The Duddy insulators were very nice.