The Main Street Hotel #206 - in O Scale. Karl.A

Mountaingoat

Looks fantastic Karl.....Rick

TomMich

Love the placement of your details and the scenery! The gas pump island is a neat scene!

kebmo

karl,
[insert superlatives]

MuddyCreekRR

One thing I was always afraid to do was to finish off a kit....on a base....then hope the ground cover matched the remainder of the layout once it got installed on the layout. On the layout I am now planning and slowly....ever so slowly working on...I am following your lead of using the grout as a soil base. I feel it's easier than trying to use another product that may be hard to find (it's always in stock at Home Depot) and I've never been a fan of real soil. I live in NJ at the Shore area....sand is obviously plentiful....but the other "soil" is usually reddish clay (old sea bed). I do have a lot of New England Brownstone product...the larger talus and such...and I chose a group of grout colors that match it well. And since I model no exact prototype area....the soil is the color I want it to be. I Thank you for all this inspiration....it has helped to get me back in the shop.....along with now being quarantined with the Rona. I hope to post some pictures soon...........once I get the shop reorganized I very much like what you are doing with this....

Karl.A

Thanks so much Art, Rick, Tom and (lol)Kevin.

Art, do you want me to 'clean up' your posts? I'm guessing you just want to leave the last one visible ?
Glad your feeling inspired, can't wait to enjoy more of your great modeling.

I made the caps for the chimneys, they still need paint and weathering. I'm happy with the caps but so pissed about the chimneys, I shouldn't have glued them on until I was sure, I had a 'feeling' at the time but I ignored it. They're fixable, but not easy, damnit.

not really much else left to do on day 4 of this build so I think I'm going to get some things together and try to get the brick street done tonight,
progress pics as/when/if it happens...

Karl.A

Theres a few flaws in the foam base but hopefully they wont show up too much in the finished street, this piece obviously fits perfectly because I cut it off the base, it would be hard to cut another to match so hopefully it works out OK the first time.

Time to get it done...

Karl.A

Step 1 done, time for a beer.

MuddyCreekRR

Not sure how I did that Karl...yes....you can fix them...I' seemingly can't....

Karl.A

MuddyCreekRR said:

Not sure how I did that Karl...yes....you can fix them...I' seemingly can't....

I deleted your first two posts Art, and edited your third for you, I hope I got it right for you,
if not just let me know.



Thanks for your comments and support.

The grout is great and readily available, I'm still on my first bag of each shade from 10 years ago, so everything I've built is going to blend together, built today or built back then, that is, if my dioramas ever all come together, maybe one day.
Just make sure to keep the bags away from moisture/humidity, thats hard here for me in MS.
I/we look forward to seeing some of your 'finished' work now that you have no excuses...

Karl.A

I got bored halfway through, I'll finish tomorrow, I need a change of pace right now...

Karl.A

Went to bed, watchin TV, trying to relax, an this little voice kept saying...
"Dont quit, dont quit, just get it done.....so, I got up, and I did...

Karl.A

Figured once I was done carving I might as well give it a wash of black paint to highlight the carving and see where the mistakes were that I would need to hide later.

First black wash to show up what I had to work with...

Karl.A

Not happy with it so far but, I've got to let it dry otherwise I'm going to make it worse, I already made a couple of light spots because the paint wasn't dry enough, dang it, patience isn't a virtue I have...

kebmo

street is looking real good so far.

KCSTrains

Dang Karl. I travel for a few days and you’ve provided three pages of updates!!! Unbelievable progress and great looking scenes. I’m enjoying the show. Phil

ALCO

A newspaper on the floor next to the bench. A blanket over the back of the bench for those days where the wind’s off the water.

ALCO

A standing ashtray with someone’s pipe still there...anything that indirectly suggests that people sit here and look out over the water?

brownbr

Brick street makes for a nice texture variance.

kebmo

karl,
i have to say this. please don't take it wrong, cuz dude, you're one of the best. i just don't think the cobblestone street juxtaposed with the dirt works.
i should just stfu cuz you probably already worked it all out....
never mind.

Karl.A

No problem Kevin, gotta say what you feel and I'm always open to valid input.
First stage progress pics remember, give me a little time.

We'll see how it works out later when I get to modeling,
if it doesnt work out we can do something else.

Thanks as always for your comment.

Some of my guys are having a meeting about it, I'm sure they'll come up with something, they usually do...

Karl.A

Thanks Kevin, Phil, Alan and Bryan
Some great ideas Alan, I already have the ashtray there but its sitting up on a couple of small boxes, no pipe though, we obviously think alike... I'll try the newspaper in a few places and see how it looks.
btw, no water on this one, this is 'in town', the tracks are on the other side of the road.

Some progress...
How are we looking Kev?

Joel

Looks great so far. So did you make a thin plaster/hydrocal slab and cut it the shape of the road and then scratch in every line? That's incredible. Have Looking forward to how you will blend the cobbles into the diorama. I don't think anything is "needed" next to the bench but I do get a little feeling of empty space. I do like clutter but have you thought of a small sign? Maybe for Nehi or "No spitting" or something like that. Your pace is incredible but what's more impressive is the quality.

Karl.A

No plaster this time Joel I just carved it directly into the foam base. Yes, every line and then every brick.

Good thinking on the sign Joel, I had pretty much decided on just a broom leaning on the wall to the left of the bench to give me the height and 'eye leading' that I wanted, I had contemplated a sign there too but couldnt come up with anything appropriate to go there, I like your idea of no spitting, maybe no loitering also... hmm
That should take away the emptiness without changing the 'look/feel'
Thanks.

Karl.A

That'll work, thanks Joel and Alan.

Karl.A

Well, I think I've done everything I wanted to do on this one, pretty much finished off.

Except for those danged chimneys, can't believe I glued and stuck those suckers on there before I was truly happy with them... another lesson learned, again.
The problem is that they are about an inch too tall, it really looks bad in person, especially with the caps on.

I keep putting it off but I know I've got to do it, I even cleared off the desk ready for the next build and put 'most' things away to delay doing it, but, now's the time to bite the bullet, there's nothing else to do.

I'm not really worried about knocking a chimney off, (even though I got them perfectly straight, square and true) or damaging anything on the diorama, anything can always be fixed or glued back on, my problem and hesitance is...

The chimneys are made out of plaster, a half inch square stick that I cast and then carved the bricks into and then cut to size, obviously now, the wrong size... the problem is that when I cut them (hopefully square/level) there is going to be a bunch of white plaster dust, and that could be a problem for the scenery, weathering, etc.

Enough typing, time to start doing...

Mountaingoat

There is always something that we are not happy with when we think we are done. We do hesitate to correct them because we thought we were finished......Rick

Karl.A

Indeed Rick, I'm much happier with it now.

Mountaingoat

That's the perfect height. Just above the roof peak. Great weathering around the caps too.

Karl.A

Thanks Rick, the whole structure just looks so much better now to me, those two too tall chimney's were distracting the hell out of me every time I went to do something.

Karl.A

Not quite finished pics, but, it's my last set of 'working' pics, going around the diorama so that I can look for things that stand out, or something I missed, or needs fixing, or something needs adding, etc.
The camera never lies and I find it useful for picking up any flaws.