Vintage Gas Station

[David King]

Okay, my first project thread here, this one will most likely be in progress for a very long time.  Originally I was going to wait a little longer to start this thread, wait until I had a little more done, but I decided I should probably get feedback as early as possible since I'm still a greenie with this genre of modeling.

This project is 1/16 scale and will basically be a display base/backdrop for another project that will be announced later. I will only be modeling the facade plus a piece of ground in front of it.

This is my inspiration/reference for this project;



I won't be modeling the structure exactly as shown in that photo.  My version will represent this gas station as it might have appeared in the late 1920's, worn but not dilapidated.

I'll be starting with the doors, here's a closer up shot of the doors;



And here's the basic frame of one of the doors as modeled by me;



It's made out of the usual suspect, distressed basswood. I've mounted the pieces to mattboard for ease of handling. Here's a close up of the bottom section;



I'm not super happy with it, but I think I can live with it, but I'd really like to hear what you guys have to say.  Here's an even closerup shot;



Here the knot I made using the shaped-piece-stuck-in-the-hole-and-sawed-off method.  Turns out I made the hole a little too small and the shaped piece split the board.  I liked the effect though so I left it, call it a "happy little accident".

I still haven't added nail detail obviously, let alone the rest of the boards or window or hinges or handle, a long way to go for this door, and then I only have to do it all 5 more times.

I really appreciate constructive criticism, fire away, I can take it.

David

[finescalerr]

You never mentioned the degree of weathering you hope to achieve, Dave. If you want it to be anywhere close to the wood in the photo of the full size structure, you need to start over. You would need to stain and distress the wood to replicate unpainted, weathered wood, then apply paint over that. Chuck Doan has mastered that technique and has described it in detail both online and in my first Modelers' Annual. More recently Marc Reusser and a couple of others have shown and described variations of that technique on this forum.

As you have modeled the trim, it looks as though somebody put a heavy coat of paint over wood that had suffered years of exposure to the elements. If your intent is to model a recently repainted structure, you are on the right track.

Also, you may deliberately have varied from the prototype's trim dimensions. Notice the door trim at the very top and very bottom is wider than what you used for your model. I prefer the full size proportions but that is personal taste.

Some of the other guys will notice different things and will give you a lot of outstanding help, more than I could. But at least this will get the ball rolling.

Russ

[mobilgas]

David,   maybe this picture of these doors might help you a little.  Craig

[David King]

You never mentioned the degree of weathering you hope to achieve,

Not specifically but I did say that I'm going for a worn but not dilapidated look.  I think I'm okay with the level of weathering I have on it, just wondering how realistic it is.  The exposed wood came out darker than I think it should have though.  I did follow Master Doan's technique more or less as described in his Fotki album, but I wasn't going for nearly as heavy a weathered appearance as he did with the Fordson Farm.  Even with such great, detailed instruction as Chuck gives I'm sure it will take much practice to even approach his level of his artistic mastery if that's even possible.

If your intent is to model a recently repainted structure, you are on the right track.

I didn't think of it that way, but you're right.  We'll go with that explanation since I like the look. 

Also, you may deliberately have varied from the prototype's trim dimensions.

Oh crap!  This is precisely the reason I need extra eyes on what I do.  I don't know how I didn't notice that. I didn't mean to vary so much from the prototype dimensions.  I did take actual dimensions from the structure but apparently I misunderstood my poor sketch.  It looks like I may had made the door too tall overall as well.  I'll have to dig in through my notes, sketches and photos and come up with a new to-scale drawing that looks right.

maybe this picture of these doors might help you a little

Nice doors!  What scale are they?

David

[mobilgas]

 My service station  Doors are 1/2 inch scale.

[David King]

I re-made my scale drawing and discovered several places where I went wrong.  I think the biggest problem is I was scaling off a photo that had a lot of lense distortion (the second photo in my first post), so I scaled off a different photo this time that had little or no lense distortion at the doors, (the first photo in the first post.).  My on-site sketch was poor and incomplete, but I figured as long as I had photos I could scale the rest off them, I was only half right.  I think I have a good drawing now though I did tweak some of the dimensions slightly just to make things simpler, but the overall proportions look good. I think I can salvage the pieces I already made with a little trimming and sanding.  However, I'm willing to start over if any of you think I should do my painting/weathering differently.

David

[marc_reusser]

David,

I think Russ has covered most of the points already, but one I would like to add for your consideration is the joinery, especially at this scale, and if you are not wanting to do a fully decaying structure .

Note the arrows in the image below; note how at these and other sim locations, your wood peices raduis into the joint. This is odd, as this is not a place where a board would get the kind of wear that would cause this...these horizontal boards should still be pretty tight and square to the the outer vertical boards (note your reference image)...now yes, you could get some wear and rot on the horizontal boards that would cause this, but that would likely be limited primarily to the top edge of the top board, and the bottom edge of the bottom board.

I hope I am clear with what I am getting at.


MR

[David King]

Thanks Marc, I do understand what you are getting at.  I did notice that my joints could be tighter, I have a tru sander, guess I should use it.  To fix the proportion issues that Russ mentioned I'll have to narrow those horizontal pieces if I want to save them so I'll try to true them up better while I'm at it.

David

[Mr Potato Head]

Congratulations for jumping into the fire! Be careful what you wish for, you have Mr. "Nasty Pants" on your tail, he'll tell it like it is, and you won't like it, but in the end he's got a big heart and you'll be better off, but sometimes you'll feel like Dennis Weaver in the movie "Duel" and wonder what you did to piss this guy off? Just keep your foot on the accelerator and don't look into his eyes, scary, been there done that,..............

Gil
love ya Marc

[marc_reusser]

but sometimes you'll feel like Dennis Weaver in the movie "Duel" and wonder what you did to piss this guy off?

Gil
love ya Marc

And just think.....I have mellowed so much in my old age!

MR

[David King]

Gil,

I've been lurking long enough to become very familiar with "Mr Nasty Pants" personality.    Seriously though, that's why I joined this forum, to get honest, useful feedback.  I'm tired of the "Great Job!" forums.

I guess I need practice in basic measurements as well.  I ruined several of the pieces trying to correct their lengths so I have to re-make them.  I hope the other 5 doors will go smoother than this!

I also figured out part of the problem with the excessive joint gaps.  Part of it is more illusion because the edges of the vertical pieces became slightly rounded from the distressing process.  So, should I distress the pieces slightly oversized first, then sand the edges to square them back up?

David

[mobilgas]

David,   On my doors i just built the door except ...the windows..and then did my wood grain ,and knot holes and weathering...which i did useing a x-acto blade only...not a wire brush. I didnt use Jigs just eye balled and sanded to fit as i went along. Then i put together the window frames and added my wood grain.  I see no need to weather and then sand down the edges to square them up but thats the way i did it back then. David ... The project your starting is not your typical gas station ..looks like a small town work shed with just a SINCLAIR logo painted above the doors... all im saying if its a gas station you want to model check the web for ideas tons of info.   Craig

[JohnP]

David, in my field work to study bridges there is always something I failed to measure. For your next trip make a measuring stick. Paint a yardstick alternating black and white every foot for two feet and every three inches for the last, with the final three inches alternately painted every inch. Put it in every photo. Using your camera on a telephoto setting will reduce the distortion if you can get back far enough. Also, Some Photoshop type software will allow you to pull the edges of your image to straighten it out.

Also, I recently signed on here too. Many modelers on this forum have made conscious decisions to improve certain aspects of their modeling, and perhaps add to the state-of-the-art in modeling for everyone interested. I have been working on certain areas and hope to get to others as time permits, such as weathering. I think it is pretty helpful when someone points out your joinery need to be looked at and the board ends squared where they should be per the original assembly. A second pair of eyes can be useful in pointing out the obvious. Heck, my early railroad photos never looked that good until someone pointed out I might try standing on the sunny side of the tracks!

Have fun! John

John

[David King]

didnt use Jigs just eye balled and sanded to fit as i went along

Well, then you must be more talented than I, it's obvious I need to use a jig. 

The project your starting is not your typical gas station ..looks like a small town work shed with just a SINCLAIR logo painted above the doors

I can't say when the Sinclair logo first appeared, but I can say that this structure was used as a gas station at one time, wether it started as such I'm not sure.  I'm not looking to model a typical gas station anyway, it's the uniqueness of this prototype that drew me to it.

For your next trip make a measuring stick.

I'll have to keep that in mind.  I've actually done that on a smaller scale for cars, so I am aware of the concept.

David

[marc_reusser]

David,

On my current 5x5x7 project, for some bizarre reason ended up with 3 different lengths of wood for some of the same framing pieces and boards (even though I jigged them on the disk sander first go around)....I ended up having to sand those to a matching length after coloring and painting...in the past with my staining approach I was loathe to do this because the coloring can never be matched again...but I found it to actually be no problem with the acrylic method I am currently trying out....as a matter of fact it worked quite well (though I did wherever possible still try to sand only ends that were not going to be in exposed locations/seen visually, in the and anyway.  Instead of setting up another jig, I just put a piece of Tamiya masking tape down on the disk sander talbe, and drew a line on it at the exact length I needed the boards....then just sanded them to that length, feeding them straight into the disk along my 90-degree guide. Upon removal I used a new sharp xacto blade and carefully trimmed off all the peel-back or burr...or whatever that is called...the lightly touched up with the acrylics or Silverwood. (in this image of the project you can see the top of the stud at left, and the second floor board end from the left, have not ben touched up yet.)

MR