Sunday Scenic Showcase May 28,2023

This week, I weathered the roof of the icing platform, attached it and placed it on a tentative spot on the layout.

Then, I painted the lower cinder blocks gray (driftwood) and chose a window/door color for a small Korber factory I was working on……

Then, l weathered the brick (Rustoleum rust primer) with Holiday Red and Terra Cotta dry brushing…….and a light gray dry brushing to the cinder blocks.

Then assembly…..

This week will be assembly of the loading dock and awning……and, final weathering with some off while and black.

Have a great and safe Memorial Day, everyone.

Peter

I had the pleasure of seeing Alan's In-laws model home in person!! Great work as usual.

Peter, your layout is looking fantastic!!!

Thanks for posting guys always look forward to Sunday mornings pics!

One of my local train guy buddies, when I complimented him on his structures and scenery on his layout, said he was a "plopper," not a modeler. LOL

So am I.

Most of the time, with a few exceptions, all I do is find something I like and plop it on my layout.

Here is one of many examples:

Peter - this may be obvious but I'll ask anyway - the tan masking tape is simulating window shades ? - I've seen this before and my question is just how effective is this and would several layers of tape work better ? - Layout looks great

Thank you

Joe S

@dorfj2 posted:

Peter - this may be obvious but I'll ask anyway - the tan masking tape is simulating window shades ? - I've seen this before and my question is just how effective is this and would several layers of tape work better ? - Layout looks great

Thank you

Joe S

I think they work fine.
The shades in the apartment building were put on maybe 7 years ago.

I have building fronts (somewhere) that were done in the late 90s and have held up. You can also simulate curtains. Remember, patterns  are not usually seen. What is seen is the “room darkening” fabric. A thin piece at the top and thin pieces on the sides does the trick.

Peter

If you've spent time in Pennsylvania, you've probably noticed the blue Keystone Markers ( http://keystonemarkertrust.org/.) They're an interesting part of state history and seemed like something fun to model. I decided to make a few that I could customize with any text.

                   Working on some city streets this week. Moving along slowly...

Knickerbocker Transfer:

Sorry I missed last week's thread. Let's finish up this build on the REA warehouse.

The brick inserts were sprayed with a brick red rattle can by Gliden. I usually use Rustoleum oxide red primer but the big box store was out of stock. The mortar was done using Robert's Mortar Formula which was quick and easy. I've also had good results using the spackel method in the past. Everything was airbrushed with a thin coat of diluted India ink to tone down and blend the colors and a final coat of Dullcoat was applied.

The window frames were sprayed a dark grey color. Window glazing is .015 Evergreen clear styrene. Since this is a background building no effort will be made to detail the interior so my first thought was to paint the back of the windows black. However when I tried this on a test window the dark frames got lost in the sea of black. Plan "B" worked out better. The front of the windows were sprayed with Dullcoat to kill the shine. This left them somewhat transparent with enough distortion to obscure the interior. Green tinted clear styrene was glued to the back of the windows at random locations to represent panes of glass that had been replaced by the maintenance department.

Rather then use the three piece roof that comes with the kit I cut my own out of a single piece of 1/8 Masonite. In its final location on the layout the roof will be well above eye level so no detailing of the roof was done.

My modeling slows down during the summer months so I won't be starting on the annex until this fall.

Enjoy your Memorial Day and to all who served "Thank You".

Great showcase this week and last week everyone. There is some real great stuff here you are all creating.

Thank you.

I certainly agree! As a proper plopper and a builder, I enjoy this thread. The PA signs are memorable from the mid-'seventies. And the in-laws' house looks like it's perfect for suburbia. That house would make a simple and adaptable kit.

@Alan Graziano the parents in law house is wonderful.  I believe you shared with me the roofing you used when we were deciding what roofing to use on the Big House you designed for me.
@Alex W  I find the keystone Trust signs very interesting. Glad you shared with us.  Something that obviously didn’t stick with me very long from my visits there.

@Putnam Division the ice station is very interesting. I must study those buildings and structures to learn more. Your Korber building style is similar to mine but different.  My Korber will be used as the office building for the Harbison Walker firebrick plant.  

Everyone photos and information are great and thanks for sharing

John d.

@Seth Thomas posted:

@Putnam Division the ice station is very interesting. I must study those buildings and structures to learn more. Your Korber building style is similar to mine but different.  My Korber will be used as the office building for the Harbison Walker firebrick plant.  

Seth

My Korber building are varied and from all over the places in the many eras of Korber...many of them where bought before Rich and Steve upgraded the materials and documentation.

The Icing Station, my most recent"completion", and the small warehouse/factory under construction are old kits (from the early 90s latest) that I've worked on.

Going back to the late 90s, here are some from the old layout (1993-2003).....

The polyurethane of these three buildings did not hold up (likely from the heat of the uninsulated attic) and are now history.

When Korber went to a more plastic-like, I combined two factory kits and made this factory for the modular layouts......I wanted to duplicated something I had seen in the Bronx as a kid.....a building over the right of way.

These office buildings/apartment houses are from the new Korber (the Rich Redmond/Steve Nelson era)

My only wish is that I paid more attention to the many eras of Korber over the year. Since I am OCD, I may go through all the issues of OGR Magazine and try an construct of history from the ads (the get some fill in from Rich and Steve).

Peter

Nice models all!

Great looking REA building but REA never had one like that. A bit modern for REA. Perhaps another name choice would be considered. Looks great anyway. I was thinking of doing a corner / over the curve building like that style similar to 3rd Ave. BKLYN.

Peter,  I've got 6 Korber from the early to mid 90s.  For a couple of years, either the Greenberg show or The Great American train show, I do believe it was the former made stops at Stony Brook University on Long Island.  At one of these shows I met Ernie Korber himself.  He had lots of parts and some of his more popular kits.  I was interested in the small 3 stall roundhouse, which he didn't have with him so I placed an order for the roundhouse, his arch bridge, Quincy Mining and the sand house.  I took home many windows, smoke stacks, a water tower or two and a couple of small shanties.  I've used some of the parts and a water tower but I've never built any of the kits and don't know if I'll ever have the room for them so or now they are in the potential sale pile.  Thinking the arch bridge would be a simple casting I opened it a few months ago figuring it would take up less space on a shelf than it did in the box but it is  kit does need assembly so it too sits in the potential sale pile.  If I do decide to keep and build any of them I do hope the polyurethane material dosen't give me any trouble.

Having also grown up in the Bronx I remember numerous buildings like this along the Deegan and the old West Side Highway before years of neglect by numerous administrations allowed the latter to crumble into history.

SIRT:

Your absolutely right. REA buildings were more of a terminal type structure. Rail freight in, truck freight out, and quickly. There was no room for storage or warehousing. The future annex build that I mentioned in the thred is more along those lines. The warehouse was hypothetically providing a service to REA by storing freight that could not immediately be "turned". Rebranding the building is not out of the question as I have several other Miller Engineering signs that I could use. Swingline Staples in Long Island City is a possibility but I could not confirm that they had any kind of rail service. I'll have to see how the entire scene develops before deciding.

The corner building at 3rd Ave. Is definitely at the top of my list also. Looking foward to see how you approach it.

@Putnam Division posted:

This week, I weathered the roof of the icing platform, attached it and placed it on a tentative spot on the layout.

Do they still make that ice house? I'm not a fan of the Walthers one. I like the look of the brick better.

I bought the kit around 2005 at York……..it is definitely old Korber, the 90s most likely.

This is before the line was modernized by Rich Redmond and Steve Nelson. I cannot remember seeing a kit for sale since.

Peter