Well, it was a lovely long Memorial Day weekend here in the States. On Saturday, I made preparations so that I could devote all of Monday to working on the diner model and/or its accessories. First up was a trip to Ace Hardware to buy a Dremel grinding stone #997 -- a small, thin pointy tip. I had filed down the mold seams on the pewter diner stool castings by hand for two of the four diner stools. It was tedious and, given my limited time, I figured there was a more efficient way to remove the seams -- like (doh! forehead slap emoji) with my Dremel tool. In reality, the Dremel tip worked OK on the low speed, but I realized that I had the best control with my jeweler's files. When I have time, I'll hand file the remaining two stools and then paint them.
While at the hardware store I picked up a twenty compartment box with movable partitions. I can't resist a partitioned plastic box. Until I can set up a work space, I'm sure I'll find some use for it. If not, it can store all the Arttista figures that I have on order for a Team Track Tuesday post extravaganza that I'm planning for July 4th. (I like the idea of a "paintbox" where the 'paints' are the right figures, cars, or accessories to complete a scene ... yeah, right ...)
I also discovered that Ace sells bass wood. Because I purchased a resin scale gas stove for my diner's kitchen, I'll have some leftover wood from the kit because it includes a section to make a stove. However, there won't be enough left over wood to craft tables and booths, and maybe some window trim. So I picked up a sheet of bass wood. I spent considerable time looking for the cleanest most delicate grain so that it will match the quality of the wood in the kit. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the board had a little warp to it until I got to the car. Hopefully, it won't matter:
As I said, this was a day for preparations. When I got home, I dug into a storage closet that was buried behind four mandolins (count 'em) and a couple of guitars. Well, technically, three mandolins, a mandola, a bass, and a guitar, but who's counting? What a bonanza lay in store for me afterward: I located my calligraphy pens (which I want to try to use to simulate tile patterns and trim), and also a ton of ex-art major goodies like jewelry tweezers, a paint color mixing map, my technical drafting pens, colored India inks, some circle and curve templates, a huge collection of pastels for weathering touches, and a paint box of 40-45 year old acrylic paints and brushes -- some of which are still usable. More about those paints later ...
Here is an X-Acto Jr. in the shape of an airplane that I uncovered; it looks like a Beechcraft to me. This was my father's modeling knife when he was a boy. The tail is hinged. It opens to reveal a compartment where you can store double-ended blades:
To wrap up this "preparations" post, I also experimented with some furniture touch-up markers that I have. It's hard to find liquid nick/touch-up stain these days. I was forced to try these markers to fix some of the damage my (ex-)cleaning lady, Shiva the Destroyer, caused. They are OK for touch-ups on chair and table legs but they did not work well on Fudgcicle sticks -- my go-to-standard for excellence. In the photo below, look at how spotty the application is:
Update: What I had in mind here was the mahogany and oak interiors of some diners. See my prior post of interior photos. Stains or paint would be better.
The orange sample is a Berol Prismacolor Marker that I was inspired to try to see whether the problem was with the marker's delivery system. Amazingly, the color matches my orange acrylic paint perfectly but the coverage on wood is spotty, just like the wood touch-up markers. But, because the Berol Prisma colors are "true" colors and so match my paints, using a marker like this one may be a way to pre-weather a detail such as trim found on the outside of the diner. Who knows? It's worth a try.
Tomlinson Running at the Mouth Railroad
Up Next: Getting down to business ...
