But first before beginning any project, it's important to have the right tools. And in this case, it was an inspiring Dream Diner mug and some caffeine. As Chef Chuck Wagon demonstrates, the added benefit to having one's caffeine served via hot chocolate, is that once you clean off the extra powder from the packet, there's a nice dull silver grey lining on the inside. Imagine the possibilities!
Now about that chrome backbar, I found some interior photos of the actual diner on the web and started to sketch plans for setting up a kitchen in the rear of the building. Previously, I had been collecting silver or chrome-like materials with the idea of trying some of them as car mirrors. I had previously painted some mirrors with silver paint, which don't look so great.
Brewer's Yeast cans have a quilted-pattern on their foil liner. It reminds me of canteen trucks, which are a modern equivalent of the original wagon-based diners of the turn-of-the-last-century. Had I owned an appropriate O scale truck body, I wanted to try and create a canteen truck out of these tops.
But, now I'll be using a section of the quilted foil as the chrome back bar behind the stove. I just ordered a "Viking" stove and a 50s-era refrigerator from youngatheartminiatures.com/shop/, along with some other accessories. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a couple of weeks to get them to learn their measurements. Those will dictate how elaborate the back bar will be. Meanwhile, I experimented with ideas to cover the windows shown on the right in the photo above. The backbar will cover them on the inside, but I want something visually interesting to cover the windows when seen from the outside. Ideas so far include a boarded up left window, some dirty chrome for the middle window, and a clear window on the right which would look in on the interior and the back of the refrigerator (depending, of course, on its size).
Given the restaurant application, it was funny how many silver materials came from food items. The foil example on the left, which Chef is standing in front of, is from a Brewer's Yeast can. The one in the middle is a nice dull grey that came from a Jiff Peanut Butter lid liner. The smaller one on the right has a bit more shine to it (more obvious in the photo below). It was the safety liner for grapefruit juice.
Here you can get a better sense of the contrasting silver/chrome examples. I may use the middle one to cover the windows in the diner end piece shown above. The quilted section will cover the windows on the inside and I am planning on having a range hood that will follow the curve of the roof. Stay tuned ... as I said, it will take a while for this project to unfold ...
Tomlinson Run Railroad
