that is no excuse for poor workmanship. This part of the project took about 14 hours but there was no simple way to do it. Half-inch wooden balls were mounted atop the columns and the front was al- most done. The “Santa Barbara” lettering fol- lowing the curve of the main entryway arch was ordered. (It had yet to arrive when the photos were taken.) After all was cleaned up and any gaps filled, a coat of stippled gesso was applied over- all followed by two thin coats of color. I was very happy to have this portion of both the projects behind me. It was now time to glue the main structure to the base, which previously was detailed with pencil lines to indi- cate the joints of the concrete and the red paving tile under the arched walk- way. I happened to have some ¹/₄″ ure- thane foam sheet long enough for the arches without having to make splices. I laid up two thicknesses for this. (This is where measuring was very impor- tant.) The columns were already as- sembled, and I wanted to cut a slot in the back of the archway pieces so the roof would slip in. Measure twice and cut once! I carefully ran the archway assemblies, less columns, through my table saw. I painted the archway with gesso, textured the surfaces, and ap- plied the finish color.
The flat portico roof came next. This
was a piece of ¹/₁₆″ cardstock stiffened on the underside with ¹/₈″ square strip- wood. Before the stripwood was added, I test fitted the roof to be sure all was the way it was intended to be. There was a somewhat complicated structur- al system under this roof; however, there was no way that any of this would show, so a simple system of cross bracing was employed. The entire un-
derside was given a coat of Burnt Um- ber acrylic paint. I used a coat of clear shellac to seal the top of the roof, then glued it into its pre-cut slots. After this was set up, I started plac- ing the portico sides, starting with the small one at the right rear. As I pro- gressed around each side, I needed to fine-tune the fit at the corners. I used the pre-made columns as spacers to keep the roof level as I went. A few were glued in place and others were left for later. When all was finished, I added the remaining columns,
filled
the corners with spackling paste and sanded them when dry. Touch-up tex- turing was applied to these areas and any others that needed it. When this entire assembly was dry, I applied another coat of shellac and rap- idly dusted fine sand atop the flat roof and let that dry. After gently tapping the tilted model to remove any loose sand, I brush painted this surface with a coat of acrylic Antique White to further help it adhere. It is important to not scrub this coat on. Just lay it down with smooth strokes and do not go over wet areas again. The roofing should not look per- fect, as the real one didn’t. At last it was time for all of the rest of the tiny details and touch ups. The client has the fun of adding all of the figures and luggage to make the scene come alive.
The Glendale depot
This depot will be discussed briefly, as the Santa Barbara one covers most of the steps. Balsa Foam II was also used here for the major part of the structure. The difference on this one, however, was the much more textured surface. After cutting out the wall sec- tions and windows, I used the back of a
regular teaspoon to slightly rough up the surface of the foam. Small gouges were made all over the surface. When I finished with the spoon, I used my fin- ger and lightly scrubbed over the sur- face to smooth things out a little. A coat of gesso was applied overall to seal and slightly harden the surface. How- ever, the 10 pound foam that I used is quite strong.
I actually made this building first. The assembly techniques for Santa Barbara were developed on this one and a half-inch scale model I had pre- viously made. The window openings were cut completely through on this building, and its arched entryway was a real adventure. The one I did later for Santa Barbara benefited heavily from doing this one. Live and learn. Pretty much everything else was very similar to the Santa Barbara model. The little black sculpture above the entry door was drawn in ink first, then photocopied on clear film to the properly reduced size and glued in place. It hardly shows unless you look for it. I made a mold from the original pattern of the arched entryway be- cause I needed two and there was no way on earth that I was going to scratchbuild another, especially since the rear of this model will never show. I just needed the shape of it there. As with Santa Barbara, all of the doors and windows were specially made from my own patterns and cast in resin. I was lucky to find that Grandt Line made a small grille that worked below the windows. As I have said earlier, these models were somewhat simplified, but I think they are still very impressive indeed. They were very satisfying projects to build, as well.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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