Reply to "Twin Whistle Whistlestop and Bachmann Plasticville: Diner Build-a-thon(s)"

As I wrote, it was now after 1:00 and I was frustrated because I still didn't know how many diner booths that I would be able to fit into the remainder of my floor plan. I sketched out where the windows would be but I wasn't sure whether diners typically lined booths up with windows. Plus, I have no idea what the booth measurements would be. For this age diner, we're talking wooden booths that have back-to-back seats that are grouped around a table. There was only one way to solve this problem! Road trip!

Today it poured rain, so there was no way I could prime the wood and various resin parts. Besides it made for a perfect excuse to go to a nearby Worcester Lunch Car diner from the same era as the Whistlestop model and do some real world research. The heavy rain, I reasoned, pretty much ensured that I'd get a booth, too.

Here is the Airport Diner, Shirley, MA. It is the same diner whose stained glass windows I posted photos of previously. Sadly, they are gone. The stainless steel siding isn't original; that siding would have been enamel:

One can't do true field research on an empty stomach, so ...

Now, that's what I'm talking about. They didn't have any decaf, so painting my new appliances would be out of the question for today. My hands would be too shaky after a bottomless cup for such fine detail! In addition to my meal (a work in progress), notice that the table is actually beautiful striated pink marble! It rather reminded me of bacon ... umm, bacon (the bacon was really good.):

Although I packed my tape measure to measure the table and benches, I left it in the car. The waitress was very nice but seemed to have a cold. I didn't feel quite right adding to the hassle of her day by having some rail-diner fan asking permission to measure the table, booth, and windows. So, I took the width of the marble table in "notebook length" units. Distracted by food, I forgot to measure the table's length. No matter. I've decided to eye-ball measurements for my model because my head would probably explode if I tried to do math.

I love this diner because it has its original "Greek Key" tile flooring. I don't know if this pattern can be reproduced and successfully reduced or somehow "hinted at" to make a convincing tile floor in my diner model, but it's worth a try:

There are so many wonderful things going on in the photo above. Notice the large tile on the side of the counter -- somewhat akin to the counter provided in the kit. Next, there's the fabulous Greek Key tile border, and lastly, one of my favorite diner tile patterns. I call it the "basket weave". I will not be trying that. The border and basic floor pattern shown here is used around the entire circumference of the diner's interior. That should be easy to try, right? Also, there is a runner down the middle of the aisle. Next up is the original ice box (next to the TV), and some more marble:

The corner tile work on the floor and the diner and counter sides, and the runner:

Here are some ideas for things to put on the walls of my model and how to paint the miniature coffee maker that I bought:

I had been struggling with what colors to paint the inside and outside of the diner. The prototype is currently red and white, which isn't era appropriate and is frankly kind of boring. Going back to the "source" provided the perfect solutions. My interior will be a light tan with pink? granite (if I can pull it off), and small touches of black and white for the window trim. See below.

Past this fellow's head is one of the remaining stained glass windows. Funny, this one is purple, but the ones that used to be on the outside windows were orange. This color is close to the purple-bluish plastic sushi container that I've set aside to experiment with.

UPDATE: I must have conflated two different diners. The windows have always been purple.

This outside shot shows the funky large lights on the ceiling. Look closely at the upper-left corner. There are three of these lights in a line down the center:

Is that a bullet hole in the window?!? I will not be modelling that!

Here are the windows with the storm windows removed. The storm windows were shown in my earlier post from years' ago. It looks like an easier window project now without that added layer (taken through my windshield):

Lastly, here are some sketches -- I don't know whether they will make any sense to any of you or if they will be readable. I tried to capture the profile of the carving in the double booths. There's only a suggestion of an ogee (?) shape to their profile and feet, so I'll have to ponder if I will try and recreate that or do something really basic: