Willoughby Junction | "A peaceful, restful place, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure."

Brief Hiatus

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Conductor

For those of you who have been wondering why there hasn’t been a post in a while, I haven’t forgotten about this site or my passion for trains.

Plain and simple, I’ve had a recent run of personal issues that have ‘derailed’ me, but I plan to be on ‘track’ soon enough (see what I did there…haha).

I’ve been battling some minor health issues, my day job has picked up, and I’m also dealing with some legal matters that should be resolved soon enough. That being said, I hope to work on the next part of Saulenas’ Tavern this weekend. It seems it has been almost a month since I last touched that structure, and it stares at me every day on my work bench as I leave for work, constantly mocking me. So I’m going to try my hardest to devote some time to it tomorrow and Sunday.

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Structures: N – Saulenas Tavern (Part V)

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Conductor

With Easter weekend having just came, I didn’t get to work as much as I would have liked to on this build, but there was a few new defining moments here and the taverns is actually and finally taking shape.

Store front pieces, assembled.

In my first picture today (above) you can see I have assembled the three individual panels that make up the storefront. Why are there three? Because the door, or middle piece, sits at roughly a 45 degrre angle between the two other pieces. These panels are actually made up of two seperate laser cut wood sheets with a printed acetate ‘glass’ (with signage) sandwiched in between. The ‘back’ sheet was painted with aeresol Roof Brown, the same as the building trim and the top sheet was painted with the lighter color and sponge technique I demonstrated in earlier posts for this build.

Even though this is a close-up picture, take in mind that there was a flash involved, so the gray primer shows up a bit more distinctly. I think this is a good example of how well this weathering technique actually works out and really lends to the illusion that Saulenas’ has been around for a while.

Squaring up walls.

Sorry that this second picture isn’t as in focus as I would have liked it to be (I’m using my Droid phone camera), but here you get an idea of my squaring rig process. I bought these ‘cheap’ (and I mean cheap) clamps via MircoMark, and while they do indeed get the job done, they can be a little tricky to work with at times. So patience is really the key here.

Even though this picture shows all four walls up, I really assembled them one at a time, allowing the white glue (applied with a toothpick) to dry thouroughly before I went on to the next one. Yeah, it took some extra time, but here is where a slow pace really works out. When it was all said and done, all my walls matched up very well and ended up both square and straight. I scheduled this assembly around day to day chores, meaning after I put up the second wall, I went to the gym for an hour, came home, unloaded the dishwasher. When the third wall went up, I took my dog out for a walk and started a load of laundry. The worst thing in my opinion (and experience) is trying to assemble all four walls in one sitting….the glue isn’t set up enough, corners get offset, fingerprints show up, etc. Since the walls are the largest piece of most structures, and are the basis for all other details and fits, it’s really important to get it right the first time. So what if it takes a few hours, or even two days? It’s worth it.

My third picture (below), is just another viewing perspective on how the walls are assembled. Not much to make note here, other than you can make out the large cut-out out on the first floor where my store front (picture 1) will reside, and a keen eye might let you see the curtains (an old cut up shirt) placed on the interior.

3/4 angle view.

My final picture today shows off the inserted store front and the start of the second story stand-out.

Store front applied.

While this step wasn’t necessarily hard, it did take a few test fittings and subtle modifications. The panels were just a hair too snug to fit in place on the first go, so a little filing with fine sandpaper helped me to shave off less than 1mm. I did both end pieces first, with the angled door panel last. Again, the camera flash makes for a slightly exaggerated gap between the short store front panel and the door, but once more details and weathering is added, you won’t notice this as much.

I also have a clamp holding on 1 small panel that extends out to form one half of the second floor room. Next, I’ll be adding the second part of this and the roof base. Because the stairs are delicate, I will wait to assemble those last.

To be continued…..

Categories: Saulenas Tavern | Tags: N-scale, structures | Leave a comment

Structures: N – Saulenas’ Tavern (Part IV)

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Conductor

Had a great Saturday this past weekend and was able to make a nice dent in the Tavern build. I was able to finish installing all the window glazing, windows, and window frames on the main walls that make up the tavern, plus I began work on the outside staircase to the second floor, and finally both begin to paint and assemble the store front large windows reserved for the first floor.

I was even able to start assembling the walls to the foundation in my magnetic jib and happy to report that it looks like my 90 degree angles are squaring up quite nicely with some additional patience and test fittings.

So lets get on with the first series of photos:

1) This first photo shows the primed and braced backside of the main front wall. Here I am about to fit and attach the second story landing from the inside to the outside after I stained this piece of wood with a Minwax stain pen. But note – I ran into a small problem! Remember in my previous post where I was adamant about extra bracing? Well, here’s an issue it caused…the larger part of this ‘T’ shaped landing piece will not fit square to the door opening because of my bracing…it’s in the way.

Landing ‘T’ too large to fit with bracing in the way.

2) So after I measured the length of the piece that is in the way, using a straight edge, I marked it up with a pencil and trimmed it away using my swing arm chopper. I test fitted again and noticed it was close, but still a hair to large, so using a woman’s emery board (to file nails), I was able to sand down the edge a bit more until it did fit.

Landing now fits through opening.

3) Finally, I take it upon myself to add even more bracing. This time a small piece of excess bass wood that would normally be used in the building trim is cut down and fixed in place with carpenters wood glue. This not only gives the landing some strength, but in fact helps me make sure the landing itself is perpendicular to the front facing wall and parallel to the foundation ensuring a good fit for the yet built stairs.

Bracing applied under the inside landing piece.

Now let’s move onto assembling the first wall. As a rule of thumb to myself, I always like to start with the back wall because if I make a mistake here, it is easier to ‘hide’ a flaw on a back of a building, than those on the front. If the back wall isn’t convenient to start with, then I go for a secondary wall with the same idea in mind. I try to avoid starting any assembly that may begin with the wall that will attract the most attention.

4) Using my magnetic jib I bought from MicroMark, I secured the foundation snugly in a corner using my magnets. This will help keep my walls both square and straight up and down. Using two of my plastic clamps, I secure the wall to the jib itself while my glue dries. This helps keep my walls vertical. Finally, note that once again I add some bracing (optional and not in the directions) to the foot of the wall and the interior foundation.

Rear wall installed and secured using magnetic jib,

I will allow the glue to dry thoroughly before I add the next wall. It’s at this time I start thinking about adding additional details such as curtains or using one of my razors to ‘lift’ some random clapboard siding before I complete all four walls.

5) Finally today, I add the outside staircase stringer (once stained with the same MinWax pen discussed earlier) to the front wall. Here you can see how it lines up to the landing from the first pictures.

Stained staircase stringer secured in place with white glue.

In the next entry, I’ll be adding some curtains, assemble some more walls, and show assembly of the store front windows.

Categories: Saulenas Tavern | Tags: Bar Mills, MinWax, N-scale, structures | Leave a comment

Structures: N – Saulenas’ Tavern (Part III)

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Conductor

In Part II of the Saulenas’ Tavern I discussed how I assembled the three piece foundation and painted it with Aged Concrete. I didn’t have a picture at the time of that posting, so since no walls have been added to it as of yet, I went back to take a picture to share with you:

Assembled Foundation.

Note the small cracks in the sidewalk. Obviously there is no weathering applied at this point, but as I finish the structure I will use some powdered chalks to simulate foot traffic.

This next picture is somewhat important to me. I am a very strong advocate of additional bracing, and for good reason. Many times the ‘included’ bracing that comes with the model is both small and sparse. It’s probably a cost saving feature for model manufacturers, but since most wood models are subject to glue, paint, humidity and more, they are more susceptible to warpage. Also, N-scale parts can be very fragile and can easily break with even the littlest amount of hand pressure.

As you look at the second picture, note the difference in bracing size from those included with the model (upper-left wall piece with three vertical pieces of bracing), compared to the thicker bracing I added (upper-right wall segment). The bracing I purchased came from a local hobby store, and a two foot long piece cost me $.79. So for under a buck, I feel much more confident that I will add wall strength and minimize warping. I applied pieces with yellow wood glue, and laid my flat iron weight to the pieces while drying. Afterwards, as part of the priming process, I obviously painted the back of the walls as well. You can follow this up by painting the back black as well if you choose to add internal lighting and want to make sure light doesn’t escape the thinner parts (if any).

Additional bracing added.

Of course this additional bracing is optional, but make sure to test fit pieces before you apply the glue as these additions are not apart of the original instructions. Be mindful of future steps so this extra bracing does not get in the way of walls fitting together.

Note the lower left hand wall piece with the small piece of vertical ‘naked’ wood bracing attached. This is actually a flat toothpick I had whittled down to fix a broken flange that occurred when clamping on the brown painted trim (to the immediate right of the wall). Remember when I said these pieces are fragile? Well, basically, my finger pressure broke the flange, so I fashioned the toothpick to repair it and applied it with wood glue.

Painting window and door trim.

Using the same technique I discussed for painting the walls in Part II, I did the same for the door and window trim as shown above. This laser cut sheet has self-adhesive backing as well. I primed the front of the sheet with the same gray auto primer previously discussed, and dabbed on my brown paint with the pictured sponge.

The result is my final picture today. This is an extreme closeup showing the finished effect of dabbing on the paint, and then assembling some windows on one of the walls and adding the framing. Notice that I custom cut the lower window to show it half open. As I assemble the structure I will be adding some curtains, some signage, and additional weathering.

Closeup wall section.

Categories: Saulenas Tavern, Structures | Tags: Bar Mills, bracing, N-scale, structures, tips | Leave a comment

Structures: N – Saulenas’ Tavern (Part II)

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Conductor

Well, I’m back with a brief update today on my Saulenas’ build.

The first thing I did was assemble the buildings’ foundation, which is actually made of three distinct pieces that stack up one on top of each other that provides the footprint. The largest piece of course is the bottom -most piece and includes the laser etched sidewalk along with a few detailed cracks. The two smaller pieces each have a self-stick adhesive on their backs so you can just press in place. While I like the adhesive backing, I always err on the side of reinforcement so I placed a few drops of professional wood glue on the backs as well, and once lined up, pressed into place.

With an iron weight with a large flat bottom, I then rested the weight on the three sandwiched pieces while drying and to maintain shape. Once I was confident the glue was dry, a quick blast of gray automotive primer, followed by Floquill’s “Aged Concrete” from a spray can, I set that aside to begin work on the walls.

I honestly agonized a bit over the the color scheme for this structure. In the past, I’ve used various combinations of greens, reds, and blues, but I wanted to go in a different direction this time. Of course the box itself has it’s own color picture of a completed build, and the Bar Mills website offers various pictures of what other modelers have done. But noting this was going to be at least a 2 color (possibly 3 color) scheme….taking into account the building trim, cornice, and windows I really had to think about it.

For some reason, I tended to gravitate towards a ‘yellow’ of some sort for the main walls, and a sharp, but natural looking trim for contrast. This was only going to be settled by going to my local hobby store and looking at the acrylic paints in person. I didn’t want it ‘too’ yellow like a race car of bumble bee, and I didn’t want it ‘too’ pale so it looked washed out and white. I finally settled on Americana brand “Buttermilk” which you can see in the picture below, and I’m pretty happy with it. For the trim and accents, I thought a nice dark brown might work out. The wall trim was first sprayed with Floquill’s “Roof Brown”, and then touched up with a sponge with a slightly lighter “Mississippi Mud”.

Picture 1

There’s a lot going on here so let me talk about this picture (above) a bit.

As mentioned you can see the “Buttermilk” paint in the lower left corner, and in the right corner is my requisite Popsicle stick that has been painted with Buttermilk and the tip has a 5% India Ink wash applied. Why do I do this? It’s so I can build a reference library for the future of what the paint looks like on naked wood and with a wash applied to it. On the back of the stick I write down the color and manufacturer and I do this with all my new paints now so I have a growing collection of what I have in my arsenal of paint.

Next to the paint bottle, I have a piece of pink sponge (not the kitchen sink sort) you can pick up at a home improvement store. The holes are small and a bit more regular in shape than those of a dish sponge would be. I used the tip of the sponge to ‘dab’ on my color paint to pre-primed walls. I don’t use a lot of paint, and actually dab some onto my paper towel first so it isn’t too thick.

As you can see on the walls to the left, this allows for a textured look onto the clapboard siding. This dabbing technique allows some of the gray primer to show through giving an ‘aged’ or ‘peeling’ appearance to the walls. I did not use an actual brush here to avoid any paint pooling that would mask the clapboard detailing.

As an experiment, I tested some 5% A/I wash on one small piece of siding that would be part of the bay window which can easily be hidden. When the ink dried I wasn’t sure I liked the uniform effect of the weathering evenly spaced among the clapboards. At this point, I don’t think I will add any more wash to my walls, but instead do weathering strictly with powders towards the end. The random effect of the paint dabbing already has a built in weathering effect and I the wash, even at 5%, may be overkill for this color.

To be continued….

Categories: Saulenas Tavern | Tags: Bar Mills, India ink, N-scale, paint, techniques, weathering | Leave a comment

Structures: N – Saulenas Tavern (Part I)

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Conductor

It’s been a while, but I’m back to building structures. This time I selected “Saulenas’ Tavern” by Bar Mills, and truth be told, I purchased this kit about two years ago at the Anaheim Great Train Expo from Wig-Wag Trains and it’s been sitting on a shelf in my train room since.

For those wondering what happened to the Woodland Scenics Mtn. Diorama Kit and it’s current state…well, it’s not done. It currently sits at about 85% completion with me needing to go back and finishing adding the various realistic trees and additional landscaping. I’ll get back to it soon enough, I just needed a creative break on it before I get back to filming the next video installment as well.

So back to Saulenas’ Tavern. I chose this structure on some of its aesthectic elements. I liked the fact that it was a two story structure with an outdoor staircase heading to what could either be a small apartment for the tavern, (presumably Saulena and family), or a boarding house for another denizen of Willoughby Junction. (**The BarMills website indicates that the structure is named after the late Paul Saulenas, a name known in the craftsman kit model community.) I also like the fact that the protruding bay window upfront was in stark contrast to the recessed forty-five degree angled entry to the tavern itself downstairs. The awnings, rooftop cornice, and signage were all nice details as well.

For those wondering, the kit comes in the following scales: N, HO, O & S. The N-scale version which I will be building retails for $49.99, but I think I bought it for about $43.

In addition to some of the details I already mentioned above, this building looks very familiar to me (in shape and form) and can be placed in an era of the late 40′s thru the 50′s. My parents grew up in Wakefield, MI and many of the stores that line the one or two streets that make up the “downtown” of Wakefield have various buildings based on a similar template. There’s the old hardware store, bakery, and a few bars scattered about the town and neighboring cities that all mimic this architecture to some degree or another, and I’m sure there are thousands of like structures throughout the east and Midwest, an even some north pacific townships of years ago.

Saulena Unboxed 1

In pic 1 (above) I have removed all the contents of the kit on my kitchen table. Apologies for the two large horizontal shadows….those are from my backyard patio cover as I took this picture in the morning and the eastern sun cast these from my glass sliding door. As you can see, there’s quite a bit here actually. There are 6 large laser cut wood sheets that make up the majority of the walls and foundation of the structure itself. Another. darker wooden sheet has the myriad of windows, doors, signage, window framing and more with self-adhesive backing. To the lower right, a sheet of clear acetate with tissue backing is for cutting out our window glass, and next to that is a bag of cast metal accessories. There is an instruction book (more on that later), and the requisite Bar Mills ‘tips and painting’ guide for additional decoration instructions (optional). On the bottom row, just left of center is a sheet of ‘white’ roofing strips that I’ll color later that will act as part of the roofing tar paper.

Unboxed – Closeup

The final picture here is a closeup (i.e. not modified to fit the webpage) of all the parts again. Note the details of the cornice (Left center), and both bracing and trim bass wood strips just left of one of the clapboard walls. Bar Mills does a nice job of identifiying all the pieces on the sheets (*note the small letter etching on some of the parts) themselves and cross referencing them in the included instruction manual. And you’ll also note at least three, possibly four, different types of wood used in this build.

Next Up: Priming and bracing.

Categories: Saulenas Tavern, Structures | Tags: Bar Mills, N-scale, structures | Leave a comment

EXPO: World’s Greatest Hobby – Del Mar, CA 2-9-2013 (Part III)

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Conductor

Okay, here’s the last installment of my latest jaunt to a train expo containing 16 photos.

By the way, apologies for Part II, as the link to the gallery was originally broken and I was not aware it was not showing up until earlier. I went ahead and fixed it, so in case you were looking for the 13 photos I mentioned earlier, they are now showing up properly so go back and revisit my second installment.

There isn’t much more I can say, but take your time viewing these ones. There’s a lot of detail here. Some of my favorites are those of the waterfront pier…the way the waves and whitecaps are painted, the individual boards on the pier as numerous people stroll on by.

There’s also the soccer field with a midday game going on and many of the cars have working LED lights. That town is pretty busy overall with many buildings and street scenes going on without the feeling of it being too crowded.

I also like the ‘Flamingo Bar’, an old style wooden structure that looked like a reconstituted mining structure nestled in the copper-colored canyon of what may be part of Arizona or Utah. But the colors and geography are such that with the stretch of your imagination, you might picture this as a science fiction backdrop with the Flamingo Bar on a Martian landscape.

And for a little levity, look for the epic monster battle as a T-Rex like creature is whipping up a frenzy as local law enforcement and the military step in to fight. A lot of fun in these pictures.

[Show as slideshow]