PROJECT DONE: Removing the signs from the Menard's Moe's Garage

Very nice work!!! 

We work with a lot of resin in the model car field......none of them are GOOD for you.....smart move! 

If its a paper sign wouldn't it be easier to just wet it with soapy water, wait a bit, wet again and in 15 minutes it should come off in one piece. Where am I going wrong here?

I just ordered Moe's garage and will make it into Steier's Woodcraft (my son-in-law's business), but I'm thinking ... a dangerous thing in and of itself... that I can make a new sign to put right over the Hudson sign.

 

Am I right or do I need to do what you've done and risk bollixing it up?

Excellent, and thanks for sharing. Its how I'll be doing it now, never thought of that. Looks easier.

As to first "selfie", for a moment thought you had just come from a Bank and made a large withdrawal.

That would work, certainly assuming the glue would dissolve (I don't know).

 

But I guess deep down I'm incredibly lazy and in a hurry. I'd have to do that soaking, wait for it to soften, then work it so it comes off, then let it dry (wet, the blade4 would be more prone to slip, although it would keep the dust down.  

 

But the paper signs just disintegrate as you cut the groves and file: I kill two birds with one stone while doing.  

 

Yeah, you can make a new sign, it just has to be exactly the shape of the old, or as I said on another thread, you would need to use filler to fill the ribs in around the existing flat area to make it into the shape of your sign, or make the sign onf heavy enough paper . . . 

Excellent project and demo photos.

• Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway

I'm incredibly lazy and in a hurry...

That just sounds weird when you say that out loud.  Perhaps impatient is better word than lazy.

 

I think you have a great new avatar.

 First, I do not know if resin dust is bad for you.  I don't plan to find out.  

 

I removed all the signs, cut out for the window, and the door areas. I discovered that I need to paint the area where the signs are removed to see if I have grooved/removed enough: when it is bare white resin it is too hard to see if it is done well.  You can see above the side doorway below that I have a bit more work to do on the top of the Hudson sign: the profile of the top of that sign is still visible even though I have mostly matched the groove.  Elsewhere I got it right, including removing the entire Studebaker from the extreme far side. 

 

There will be two doors but only with a thin "steel" column between them.  

 

I'll work on a couple of even places here just a bit before I do the final paint, but the Studebaker sign flat area on the far right side is gone.  Took almost an hour to do this . . . 

Lee, thanks for the detailed information and photos on this project; it's cool that you have a 1:1 example to model to which you have a very personal connection.

Here is recent progress, including a a lighting trick, or "thing" I was not sure would work.

 

I determined that Loctite repair putty holds, fair well, to the resin - not great, but about like it does to diecast metal, meaning if you spread it out and particularly give it a rough surface to attached to, it does alright.  I used it to attach the side door framework I made 

 

I removed the stock wiring and switches.  I then used contact cement to attached aluminum foil, shiny side out, to the underside of both quonset hut roofs.

 

Making this pallet for it, so it would fit just right, to go on the layout (at the end of my large lake - inside of a RR track curve) took a surprisingly long time.  Its about 17 by 18 inches and has "feet" under it because it has to fit on uneven "ground."

 

Here is the one side positioned on the pallet.  I printed out a picture if found by googling "small boat factory" and cut and glued it as you can see here . . . 

 

It is on a small wall for the back.  Behind it, pointing up, I mounted one of those three-LED, 12V light units.  I am doing it this way: relfector on the roof, light on the floor, because I expected a single light of even two or three, on the roof, would be too intense and not distributed enough evenly throughout.  I was not certain at this point this would work . . . 

 

Here it is with the other side positioned, with the light operating at 10.5 volts.  This is exactly the type of soft glow evenly distributed throughout the inside that I wanted . . . Frankly i was not sure the "reflector-roof/single light source idea would work,  although I thought if it ever would, these roofs were perfectly shaped to make it work.

 

If you look closely above, you can see a small copper "pipe" exiting the foundation of the building just under the cut out window.  I decided not to glue the building to the pallet (I would have used Liquid Nail proiject cement or silicon chalking) I strapped it: drilled small holes through the building near the ground, and also drilled two at of those places into the pallet, and ran a thin copper wire through, then twisted it tight underneath.  Holds it well and is removable if need be . . . I made these each in a position where something (a trash can in this case) will hide them from view. 

Boy you've done a lot of work on these. I can't wit to see them on the layout.

DONE.

 

 

This sign says:

 

 

ANDREA DORIA BOAT COMPANY

Sigersen Andrea and Guido Doria, Owners

"It will always float if its an Andrea Doria boat."

Looks great on the layout!

Very nice Lee

 

Ken M

Lee, I hope you got as much pleasure posting the "done" photos as I did viewing them--and thanks for the "how to's" along the way.

Lee

better safe than sorry nice work

Steve

Great sales line..... 

 

 "It will always float if its an Andrea Doria boat."

 

 

 

Looks Very Nice!  Well Worth The Effort Indeed!

 

Chief Bob (Retired)

It looks amazing. Thanks for sharing!

The finished product looks great, and makes a wonderful scene on your layout.

My Menard's Moe's garage quonset showed up today.  Bigger than I anticipated and one heavy SOB.

 

Looking at an easy (lazy guy's) way to modify it so I don't have to cut it up.

 

Recommendations for an adhesive to attach foam core, paper, or styrene to the existing structure?

I missed all the fun?

 

Some guy in a mask scared the heck out of me, & I split. It was horrible.

 

Oh..um, It looks good on you though

 

Hey, You scratched my anchor!

 

Lee, Don't forget a boat owner normally names the boat. And displays it on the transom. (I'd hate to think you'd missed the opportunity)

Doubling the fun, the dinghy will often carry a punch line.

Like a dinghy named High & a ship named Mighty, Rockin' and Rollin' ect.

Registration numbers on the bow could be dates?

And please add a couple more cleat's & poles if you can. I had trouble finding somewhere to tie off my transom. Tires/bumpers/carpet wrap to protect from slams against poles. When I see a dock, my eyes search for those first. Even at scale They are normally everywhere about 4-10 ft apart (around here at least)

Rope too, more rope, coiled ropes everywhere,

And throw me a "life saver"...Ow! No the "big powdered doughnut"...No really throw me the "Canadian Frisbee", .......Glub glub  

 

 

Adriatic, see the thread i posted yesterday about the new boat, MY PI, now on the layout rather than the one in these photos.  The cleats, tires, etc are coming in a add-on pier that cannot be installed until I get some work done around the brewery, but they are actually already in a "kit" of parts I've assembled on my workbench.  

Lee, great work on the boat shed. I would say you DO have patience. btw, in that photo of the LED strip that you put on the building floor, I assume you just cut that strip off the larger multi-strips that it was attached to? I see two wires sticking out from the strip that don't seem to be stripped or attached to anything yet the LEDs are lit. is that how it works and you just leave those wires as is? thanks.

jerrman

I should have known better!

 

 

( thank you )

Yes, they come in strips of twenty or more and have two-sided tape on the back already.  I have two of three strips, and have never used more than two in any building. 

Lee,

 

Yet another great project.  I like all the details but especially the lighting effect.

 

Thanks for the photos and how-to's.  I think I need to get a notebook.  I see so many good tips on the forum, a prime example is this thread by Lee.  Trouble is I tend to forget them by the next day.

 

 

I made some improvements.  This was always planned, but I thought it best to make the boat first and then make the pier it would be alongside.

 

Here it is on the work bench.  Simple but the dimensions and all have to be just right . . . In my posting on making the boat, MY PI, I said I used the interiors of two diecast model cars for the seats and such of the boat.  Here are the tires from the car . . . 

 

Its made from a wood yardstick - I buy them at Lowe's by the dozen when on sale: nothing like them for small projects and you don't even have to measure!  Already marked.

 

The biggest reason I felt I needed to make this is not, frankly, that I needed a pier there a "boat level" , but rather I needed to "insert" posts holding up the end of the wooden pier at building level.  Here is the boatyard with the boat and all pulled away.  You can see why . . . 

 

This pier was made so its longer, thicker posts in back slip right under the lip of the upper, and if sits at the right height, with the right length, below.

 

The boat looks good right alongside . . . 

Wow, Lee, that looks great!!

Now that's a dock.

 

First mate to the bow, we're docking for fuel. Guests have 15 minutes for going ashore.

 

 A lamp pointed down at the pump? Easy to be seen from the water. It is great for navigating to in the dark. And gives the bugs something to do while they wait for you.

How much is the price of fuel? I'm not paying more than 25¢ a gallon

 Never too low in a big boat!

 Short versions of some pretty old, gas station signs, were once along the Detroit river. It was the last place I saw a lit Pegasus I think! And Standard! 

 Remember the metal frame-swinging baked enamel signs? Actually, most of the old signs I know were there on the river "forever".  

 

Thanks Adriatic.  Speaking of details that no one will ever see, that gas pump is one I got from diecastdirect and it actually has readable (a jeweler's loop helps) price and gallon's dispensed numbers, etc., on it.  Price is nineteen cents per gallon! 

 

I would love to get a couple of those old hanging signs.  I know exactly what you are talking about. 

I added a 6¢ premium to 1950 street price, the extra for marina fuel

Fabulous work on the garage, Lee. 

 

Do you have a layout thread showing your layout? I'd love to see more of it.

I hadn't thought of that!  Well, like I said, no one can read the numbers from five feet away, so I'll probably get by without anyone noticing.