In-ko-pah RR -- Designing the Hotel Torgo

[Seattle Dave]

Where might one find that "black, 1/2" thick PVC foam board" you reference?  I'd love to get some!

Thanks.

[Ray Dunakin]

Dave, the 1/2" stuff was something I picked up cheap from the cutoff bin at the local plastics dealer. But you can get PVC foam board online too, in a variety of thicknesses. It is often sold under the brand name, "Sintra". Here's where I got the 6mm thick material for the walls of my hotel:

http://www.foamboardsource.com/sintra-pvc-foam--sintra-pvc-board.html

[finescalerr]

That's just too nice to leave outside. -- Russ

[artizen]

I use a similar material called 3mm rigid PVC foamboard. I get the offcuts from a signwriter using it for outdoor real estate signage (the ones they stick in your lawn). It is rated for seven years outdoors. Glues with superglue or cheap sticky craft glue. Never used it for outdoors though.

[Ray Dunakin]

Here's my latest progress report...

First, I applied a thin coat of Bondo to the surface and roughed it up a little:




Later I sanded it down, leaving just a bit of uneven texture on the surface. Next, I built ledges to go under the two large windows in the middle of the front wall. These were built up from various strips of rectangular styrene and styrene quarter-rounds:






I attached the sidewalk to the building. Then I decided that it would be best to paint the lower half of the front wall before adding the arches over the sidewalk. First I gave it a coat of "concrete gray" color. I wanted to give this structure a a little Mexican flavor, so I painted a strip of blue along the bottom of the wall:




My first choice of color for the rest of the wall was a pale yellow, but that was much too bright. So I mixed in some terra cotta and came up with this sort of pinkish tan:




That color looked pretty good with the blue, but I felt it was still too bright, especially for such a large building. So I tried using some paint that I had mixed to match some of the rocks on the layout. Here's how that turned out:




I'm still not sure how I feel about these colors, but for now I'm pressing ahead. I painted the arches to match, and installed them on the building:







I also added the rear wall to the building, and have started cutting out pieces for the roof.


That's it for now, more later!

[Ray Dunakin]

Here's my latest progress report...

I built the removable roof for the hotel. I began by building a channel out of rectangular styrene strips and installed it on the inside of the front wall. This will be used to support the roof, and also to catch any rainwater that seeps in between the wall and the roof. A styrene "lip" on the underside of the roof will fit into this channel:




I drilled a hole through the side walls at each end of the channel, to allow the water to drain out:




I glued a short piece of styrene tube into each of the drainage holes. These will be painted to represent terra cotta pipes:




The roof is made from a sheet of PVC and slopes down toward the rear of the building. Short walls were added on each side, along with some brackets, to support the angled "false roof" above the sides of the hotel:






I also built some small structures such as this, to detail the roof:




Here's how the roof turned out. I still have to add the Spanish tiles on the angled structures on each sides:




Here's the underside of the roof. You can see the styrene strips at the front and rear -- one fits into the channel on the front wall, the other fits over the top of the rear wall:




A closer view of the underside of the eaves on one side of the roof:




Here's a close up of the roof installed on the building. Under the eaves there is a trim board that fits over the top of the side wall:




I also built the doors for the main entrance. I started with two doors from Grandt Line. Since they were not intended for use as double doors, I had to remove the molded doorknob hardware by carving and sanding. I glued the two doors together and built up a new door frame around them, using various sizes of rectangular styrene strip. The arched window had to be cut from sheets of styrene:






Here the doors are test fitted into the door opening. I still have to make custom door handles:



 
I made a louvered vent for this arch at the top of the hotel, using Evergreen styrene clapboard and styrene strips:



 
And here's how the whole thing looks so far:



 
That's all for now, more to come!

[artizen]

It's too good to leave outside now!

[Ray Dunakin]

I started work on the Spanish tile roofing...

I decided to make individual tiles by splitting 3/8" styrene tubing lengthwise. To do this, I first built a simple jig out of various sizes of styrene strip. It has a narrow slit across the top. When the tube is inserted, I can run the blade of a hobby knife through the slit to score the tube, then turn the tube over and score the other side:




I don't cut the tube all the way through, just most of the way. Then I slice the tube into 3/4" segments. Each segment is then split into two halves, each one representing a tile. I can get 36 tiles from a single 14" tube. Each tile is then sanded to reduce it to a shallower arc, and also to taper it slightly at one end. Here's one of the completed tiles, next to a penny for scale:

 

 
I started on the left side of the roof covering the sidewalk in front of the hotel. Originally I was not sanding the tiles down as much, and as I worked on this side of the roof I realized they needed to have a shallower profile. So the left side tiles look slightly different than the ones on the right side, but it's not really noticeable. Anyway, here's a photo of the right side, as I was gluing down the first layer of tiles:

 

 
I glued the tiles down with copious amounts of Liquid Nails, to simulate the mortar that was typically used to fill the gaps. Here's another shot of the right side roof, with most of the second layer of tiles added:

 

 
Here's a shot of the completed left side of the roof, which was made using mostly the earlier tiles that had a more semi-circular profile:

 


And here's how it all looks so far. I still have to add the last three rows of tiles to the right side, and then I can paint them:

 


That's all for now, more to come as time allows... Cris just started chemo yesterday.

[artizen]

Big thumbs up from me!

[finescalerr]

You actually sanded every tile to a thinner cross section? Insane. But the results are swell. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Yeah, sanding them down was a pain but it needed to be done.

[fspg2]

Your hard work has paid off! The tile dance very nicely!
Is this a balcony over the front door? He has no door for access.

[Ray Dunakin]

Time for another update...

After I got all the styrene "Spanish tiles" glued to the arcade along the front of the hotel, I was ready to paint them. I masked off the rest of the structure so I could spray the tiles with a light coat of white primer:




I painted the tiles using "Craft Smart" brand acrylic paints, which is the house brand at Michael's. They hold up well outdoors, and they have some colors that Apple Barrel doesn't. I brushed on two coats of "terra cotta", letting each coat dry thoroughly and making sure to get paint into all the little nooks and crannies.

Then I used a mix of gray shades to paint any exposed "mortar". After this dried, I touched up the tiles with some more "terra cotta" color, then went over some of the tiles with a mix of terra cotta and "red brick" color. For even more subtle variation, I also mixed up a lighter, slightly yellower shade of terra cotta and applied it to a few tiles. Then I weathered them a little with a thin wash of dark brown. Here's how they turned out:




There is a sort of fake roof over the parapet on each side of the building. I added tiles to these. The tiles nearest the front of the building had to be shaped to fit against the upright part of the wall. I still need to add tiles across the ridge of each parapet:




I also painted the rest of the front wall, and both sides, and painted the trim in a contrasting color. There's still some touching up to do, and weathering, and I haven't painted the rear wall yet. But here's how it all looks so far:






And here's a shot of the unfinished building temporarily in place on the layout:




Enjoy!

(Frithjof -- No, it's not an actual balcony, just a decorative part of the structure.)

[Design-HSB]

Hi Ray,

I follow your construction reports again and again with enthusiasm.
But what I now compared to the previous Gebäden notice from you, yet so different is the architectural style of the hotel.

Say what you have demolished the old building for the hotel. 

The architectural style of the hotel has for me so Mexican influences.
Also in southern Europe (Spain) one finds with us ever like that.
This includes the apparent balcony.
The roof tiles and the nature of the cover of the roof, helps us with the name of monk and nun, and is common, especially in southern Europe.

[Chuck Doan]

Nice progress. Those tiles look good.