Nachoman's 2014 kitbuild challenge.

[nachoman]

I had one vacant parcel of land in my town that I hadn't decided what to do with. I decided it would be for either a small house or a water tank. Last night I tried to see what kind of house would fit, so I moved one of my other houses to the vacant parcel, and decided I liked the looks of that better. So, now I have a vacant plot where the house was moved from, and I think commercial structure would look better there next to my other commercial structures. So, I'm thinking of building a structure that I have always wanted to build, Rocky's Tavern from Woodland Scenics. Since my roughly 1920 era layout coincides with the Volstead Act, probably would be more realistic to build it as a café rather than a tavern. So, other than changing signage, I will build it per the instructions. I haven't bought the kit yet, but maybe I can find one next time I am at the LHS.

[nachoman]

Just an update - I've ordered the above-mentioned structure kit, and I still plan on completing it by the contest deadline

[nachoman]

Well, the kit came in the mail. I laid out the metal wall pieces to make sure I had everything:

   

I then bathed the parts in 100% vinegar in hopes it would etch the surface of the metal allowing the paint to stick better. I glued the wall pieces together with 5 minute epoxy. Since this building has 5 walls, it makes it much trickier to get everything all lined up and fitting correctly. Also, the metal wall sections were a little warped, so they had to be bent to fit, and have casting burrs filed off. I could have probably done a better job here, as some of the gaps had to be filled with epoxy.

   

I placed the glued up building on the layout to see how it fit:

   

[nachoman]

After all was glued together, I noticed I had glued the rear wall on incorrectly According to the instructions, I was supposed to line up the bottoms of the walls, but that didn't seem to look right to me. The illustration showed the walls lining up near the top. I noticed this error when gluing on the rear loading dock/steps. It was much too late to break the joint at the rear wall and re-set, so I made the platform a bit higher using some scrap styrene so that everything lined up. I hope this doesn't constitute a "kitbash" and disqualify me . Anyhoo, the roof is made from the cardboard supplied.

   

And here after some paper strips were applied to the roof (per instructions) to simulate tar paper, and a coat of gray primer. Can't hardly notice the extra step I made from styrene.

   

And here after some painting with craft paints. Some people like to paint the parts and glue together, I prefer to glue the structure together first and then paint.

   

Still much more painting to do here.

[ezdays]

Looking nicely there. Like the color choices.

[Steamtrains]

As they say..."Good things come in small packages"...

[Ralph]

That's a great little kit and you're doing a great job on it. Nice choice for the space!

[nachoman]

Adding more details and paint. I decided to not use the beer-related dry transfers that came with the kit because my layout era is 1915-1925, and I try to avoid things that easily date my layout to a particular time. Thus, if I had beer slogans and made the building a tavern, that would easily place my layout before 1920 (prohibition). So that is one other deviation I made from the instructions (the other being the screw up on the back wall) I did use a few of the dry transfers that came with the kit, the rest are from my printer or my scrap box. So now this is the Emerald Cafe, a Chinese Restaurant.

[faraway]

That looks very good. The paint makes the difference and it looks different than styrene structures

[nachoman]

I added one the last sign and the exterior lights. The sign is a custom decal I made and printed out on a laser printer, then colored the green in the letters with a permanent marked. All the details are now on the building, but there are a few more included with the kit that will be placed next to the building once it is on my layout. Time to weather a bit more, add window glass, set in place, and call it done.

[ezdays]

Cute, cozy, and as they'd say in the restaurant reviews in the newspapers, "intimate with character"....

Nice job....

[e-paw]

Looks good,, The only thing that I would add is some elbow room.... That's one small store.

[nachoman]

Added windows, trash cans, and assorted details. The window curtain is an image i downloaded from the internet, printed, and colored using a colored pencil. There's one LPB (actually a LMB) that came with the kit and he will be glued in place when I place the building on the layout.

[faraway]

That is a great structure full of details. It reminds me on the models sold by Downtown Deco (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.downtowndeco.com/site/?cat=4">http://www.downtowndeco.com/site/?cat=4</a><!-- m -->). In both cases is the kit 10%, the assembly 10% but painting and finishing is 80%. You did a great job!

[Steamtrains]

That is a great structure full of details. It reminds me on the models sold by Downtown Deco (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.downtowndeco.com/site/?cat=4">http://www.downtowndeco.com/site/?cat=4</a><!-- m -->). In both cases is the kit 10%, the assembly 10% but painting and finishing is 80%. You did a great job!

I agree..!! That's beautiful..!!A strong contender for 1st. place..!!