DPM Wall Sections: Big Walls

[doctorwayne]

BiL and Reinhard have pretty-well covered the procedure for assembly, although I prefer to use all-styrene construction rather than a combination of styrene and wood - the joint between styrene parts is generally much stronger than when using dissimilar materials, especially if you're using ca. If you must use wood with styrene, contact cement is a much better choice.

For large structures, I like to use interior walls and floors to add strength. If you buy a 4'x8' sheet of .060" styrene, it's much cheaper than using pre-formed strips, such as those from Evergreen. The strips are useful in some applications, though.






An easy way to do painted wall banners is similar to the method which you used, but with one twist. After the brick has been painted and the mortar treatment done, mask the wall and paint the area for the sign white (you can use other colours, too, or reverse the colours to get dark lettering on a light background). The next step is the key to accomplishing a sign that can be lettered in any colour and is more permanent than decals or dry transfers.

Apply the lettering using dry transfers, but don't burnish them in place. The colour of the transfers is not important, as they're used only as a masking device. For borders, etc. use masking tape cut to suit. Next, mask of the areas not part of the sign, and spray with your colour of choice - I like black and white, as this was a very common choice in my mid-'30s modelling era. As soon as the paint has dried to the touch, remove the masking tape, then use bits of masking tape to dab at the lettering - the dry transfers should lift easily, revealing the colour below.






This one was done in the same manner, but the large letters were cut from masking tape. Simply apply the tape to a sheet of glass, lay out the letters using a pencil and straightedge, then cut them out using a fresh blade in your X-Acto.


This one, on the end of an adjoining structure, used dry transfers for all but the large "GERN", which was drawn mostly free-hand, then cut from masking tape. To apply it over the pilasters without distorting the shape, the "E" and "R" were cut along the edge of the pilasters, then smaller strips of masking were used to cover the exposed edge of the pilaster. For some reason, the sign painters forgot to include the apostrophes.


Wayne