That looks great Gary! I imagine the President's Office must rumble something fierce whenever a loco passes underneath it!

I would also second the microscope slide cover glass, except that your window does look rather large for what I've seen available. With the microscope glass you also need to purchase a diamond tipped cutter. It looks like a pen except that the tip has a very small diamond tip. I have tried it, and found that a light gentle pressure with several passes will cut the glass nicely. Press too hard or use a regular glass cutter tool and it just breaks.

I ordered my glass and diamond cutter from here.

http://www.escience.ca/

Its a science supply store and has pretty quick service.

That's just my 2 cents on that little matter of discussion.

Thank you Russ. HO King and Tetters, thanks for the kind words and the tips on sources for glass. Nice to hear from you again Val, glad you were able to drop by. I assume you've been very busy?

Today I glued the walls to the base, and while the glue dried, took the platforms into teh shop for painting. Once the walls were sturdy I measured for roof supports. The roof is so large, and part is to be removable, so I need supports. Seems odd to be building an HO model and so far have used 3/4 ply and now 2x3's! None of the 2x3 supports are permanent yet, but I placed the second story rear wall on one of them so as to see how it will look. Here are a couple views of it, there are no stiffening strips on the rear of the wall yet, so it bends a lot but you can get the idea.

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3\4 ply and 2X3's sounds more like bench work than an HO building We can always use real hot tar on the roof when your dun.

e-paw Wrote:3\4 ply and 2X3's sounds more like bench work than an HO building

Heh. Strange choice of materials to be sure. Pics of the 3/4 ply are on page 10, here are some to show what I'm doing with the 2x3. No, I did not plan the wall height to be a match for the 2x3's! But when I laid in the cut to length 2x3, their tops matched the top of the styrene strips perfectly! The roof is large enough to require two pieces and one needs to be removable anyway, so the one 2x3 supports where these two pcs meet. The other 2x3 supports the end of the roof where the second floor starts, and was the easiest, cheapest way to install said support. The 2x3 just sits on top of the plywood backed foundation walls. Here are three pics, one shows the 2x3, the next has the removable roof section in place, the last has both roof sections in place.

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I have turned my attention to the front wall. I thought I would try one of the "stone" paints available at the home improvement stores. These are spray cans of paint with multiple colors and a rough texture. I wasn't sure how it would work, and frankly wasn't expecting any suitable results. But I think it is doable now! Here are a couple pics on scrap material. My first try on unpainted white styrene showed me that the finish texture would be acceptable, but with the light coat desirable, the white shows through. For teh attempt pictured here, I first sprayed the white styrene with grey primer. As it turns out, the grey primer is a great choice for an underlayment color, matching the tones in the stone paint well, I think. I ran an errand while the paint dried. I'm not sure how long I was, maybe 20 minutes. I wish I had paid attention! When I checked for dryness, I could feel it was tacky, but did not mar from my finger. I wasn't happy about the mortar lines being filled up. I ran the back edge of an Exacto blade along the lines, and the paint came off nicely! That is the grey primer you see in the mortar lines. At this point I'm thinking not bad. Instead of the primer grey, I could use another color for the mortar.

I would appreciate it very much if as many folk as possible make suggestions for colors to be used for both the mortar and window and door trim, based on the color of the stone paint. I'm looking for a classy look. Thanks

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Here is a shot of the scene featuring the office front, to give an idea of the context.

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That "stone" looks good, Gary, and I think that your choice of "mortar" colour is appropriate, too. If the mortar were darker, it would look cheesy and it's unlikely that a lighter mortar colour would have remained so in such an environment.
For window frames, you could use the same colour as on the rest of the building, but black, red, or silver would also look good.

If it's not too late, another suggestion: if you were to cut the wall horizontally at the mortar joint at the bottom of the panel below the upper windows, then add a plain strip of styrene of a suitable width, the second-storey window sills would better align with those on the side of the building. Personally, I'd do the strip "in relief" from the plane of the wall, too, for a bit of added interest. Scribe mortar joints along its length, if you wish. You could then either leave or trim-off the added height at the top of the wall, but either way, I'd add another strip of styrene at the top of the wall, again in-relief, as a cornice.

Wayne

Thanks Wayne, you are right about a darker mortar looking cheesy. Prior to reading your post, I had gone downstairs and using a paint pen I had, knowing its tip was too large but just wanting to check the color, I added black. It was awful! I don't know why I hadn't known it would look bad as you apparently knew. I guess I thought that sice I was considering black for the window and door trim, that I could use it for grout as well. So I will stick with the grey, it is easier anyway! Still thinking of black for the trim tho.

Regarding the wall height, it was not in position correctly, here is a pic of it positioned more nearly correctly. The windows will match. The front wall was intended to be a bit higher. However, I like the idea of the strip you mentioned, it adds ornamentation. To be certain I understand which course you are refering to, is it the one I've stuck a bit of masking tape to? I intend to add molding strips to the top, in fact we had spoken about it a couple pages back. I am thinking of some flat strip and some quarter round, if it is available. Would these properly be painted as concrete?

Another pic here shows the entire front wall, I have to select doors for that recessed enclosure. There will be steps up to a flat deck in that enclosure. The bottom of the door will be about 1 square below the bottom of the first floor windows. (About 3 1/2")

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Sorry, Gary, my mistake on the window alignment. Your bit of masking tape is on the correct mortar line, and since there's no longer any need to cut the wall at that point, I'd align either the top (my choice) or the bottom of the trim strip with that mortar line. For colour, concrete would probably work, but I was actually thinking of the same colour as the stone. Often, such decorative banding was done in order to allow light to create the effects, casting shadows as the light fell upon it. I think that concrete would be more suitable on the brick areas, although it could just as easily be omitted there, too.

By the way, that concrete curb/retaining wall around the parking lot really caught my eye - the colouring is perfect.

Wayne

Thanks again Wayne. Here is a pic with the moldings in place. The recessed area pieces are just taped in place. I have installed but not yet painted doors. I'm still up in the air about the color of the moldings. I can't decide between concrete and the same color. I may make mockups and wait a few days to se how they strike me.

On another topic, I had a great job interview today, I hope to get an offer next week!

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Hi Gary---I've been following this thread from the beginning,it's really coming together beautifully---hope you can finish before you go back to work---best of luck---Nutbar

Thank you Ed, I'm surprised the photo I posted was accepted, I forgot to resize it. Here it is resized. I hope to finish the office before I start work, but I also hope to start work asap!

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You have an inspirational thread going here Gary.
I look foreward to each update, and am impressed with your progress, you seem to continue to build and add to your layout with a regularity I can only dream of.
I think the new structure you are building is going to be a winner and shows the amount of thought that you put into the construction of your layout.
Great stuff, and best of luck with the job hunting.


Jack

Gary, I kind of forget what year your layout is set in, and that will make a difference as to colour of the window trim. I think black was either used a long time ago (in the 1800s), or used nowadays when "retro-fitting" and refurbishing old Victorian buildings. If modern, you could use a dark brownish grey, with very thin or no trim to look like those extruded aluminum frames. If it's not so modern then I'd probably choose an off-white. Definitely not green, red, tuscan though - those colours seem to me to be more work-a-day than classy.

The texture looks great by the way. I've got a spray tin of textured paint as well that I've been thinking of trying.

cheers
Val

Thank you Jack, I appreciate your thoughts. Val, I am modeling early 1950's, and am supposing the office would have been built around 1915-1925. I like your suggestion of white for the trim. I had decided to paint the moldings the same color as the wall, rather than concrete. To make them pop out a bit, I used a variation of the standard drybrushing of white on raised details. Instead of attempting drybrushing on the textured paint, I simply masked the moldings when I sprayed the grey primer on the walls. Then I removed the masking and applied the stone paint. Because the moldings were still white, they look lighter than the rest of the wall. Here are a couple pics. Now I need to make some stairs and a sidewalk, and think of how to turn that black foamcore into a macadam parking lot!

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That last photo is a real money shot. Very nice indeed!